Deuteronomy 7:9

Deuteronomy GOD’S FAITHFULNESSDeuteronomy 7:9 . ‘Faithful,’ like most Hebrew words, has a picture in it. It means something that can be {1} leant on, or {2} builded on. This leads to a double signification-{1} trustworthy, and that because {2} rigidly observant of obligations. So the word applies to a steward, a friend, or a witness. Its most wonderful and sublime application is to God. It presents to our adoring love- I. God as coming under obligations to us. A marvellous and blessed idea. He limits His action, regards Himself as bound to a certain line of conduct. 1. Obligations from His act of creation. ‘A faithful Creator,’ bound to take care of those whom He has made. To supply their necessities. To satisfy their desires. To give to each the possibility of discharging its ideal. 2. Obligations from His past self. ‘God is faithful by whom ye were called,’ therefore He will do all that is imposed on Him by His act of calling. He cannot begin without completing. There are no abandoned mines. There are no half-hewn stones in His quarries, like the block at Baalbec. And this because the divine nature is inexhaustible in power and unchangeable in purpose. 3. Obligations from His own word. A revelation is presupposed by the notion of faithfulness. It is not possible in heathenism. ‘Dumb idols,’ which have given their worshippers no promises, cannot be thought of as faithful.

By its grand conception of Jehovah as entering into a covenant with Israel, the Old Testament presents Him to our trust as having bound Himself to a known line of action. Thereby He becomes, if we may so phrase it, a constitutional monarch. That conception of a Covenant is the negation of caprice, of arbitrary sovereignty, of mystery. We know the principles of His government. His majestic ‘I wills’ cover the whole ground of human life and needs for the present and the future. We can go into no region of life but we find that God has defined His conduct to us there by some word spoken to our heart and binding Him. 4. Obligations from His new Covenant and highest word in Jesus Christ. ‘He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.’ II. God as recognising and discharging these obligations. That He will do so comes from His very nature. With Him there is no change of disposition, no emergence of unseen circumstances, no failure or exhaustion of power. That He does so is matter of fact. Moses in the preceding context had pointed to facts of history, on which he built the ‘know therefore’ of the text. On the broad scale the whole world’s history is full of illustrations of God’s faithfulness to His promises and His threats. The history of Judaism, the sorrows of nations, and the complications of national events, all illustrate this fact. The personal history of each of us. The experience of all Christian souls. No man ever trusted in Him and was ashamed.

Verse 9. - To a thousand generations ; rather, to the thousandth generation . As God is faithful to his covenant, and will show mercy and do good to those that love him, whilst on those who hate him he will bring terrible retribution, the people are warned by this to take heed against rebellion and apostasy from him (comp. Exodus 20:5 ). Deuteronomy 7:9

The fewest of all people - God chose for Himself Israel, when as yet but a single family, or rather a single person, Abraham; though there were already numerous nations and powerful kingdoms in the earth. Increase Deuteronomy 1:10 ; Deuteronomy 10:22 had taken place because of the very blessing of God spoken of in Deuteronomy 7:8 .

6-10. For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God—that is, set apart to the service of God, or chosen to execute the important purposes of His providence. Their selection to this high destiny was neither on account of their numerical amount (for, till after the death of Joseph, they were but a handful of people); nor because of their extraordinary merits (for they had often pursued a most perverse and unworthy conduct); but it was in consequence of the covenant or promise made with their pious forefathers; and the motives that led to that special act were such as tended not only to vindicate God's wisdom, but to illustrate His glory in diffusing the best and most precious blessings to all mankind.

9 . Know therefore ] A frequent formula in D in Sg. and Pl. Deuteronomy 4:39 (+ and lay it to thine heart ), Deuteronomy 8:5 (A.V. and thou shalt consider in thine heart ), Deuteronomy 9:3 ; Deuteronomy 9:6 (A.V. understand therefore ), Deuteronomy 11:2 ( and know ye ); cp. Deuteronomy 29:4 Pl. ( a heart to know ); the passages where the object is other gods and the meaning therefore is to have experience of them, Deuteronomy 13:6 ; Deuteronomy 13:13 , Deuteronomy 28:64 (Sg.), and Deuteronomy 11:28 (Pl.), also Deuteronomy 29:26 ; Deuteronomy 32:17 ; and in a similar sense, of other nations Deuteronomy 28:33 ; Deuteronomy 28:36 (Sg.), and of the diseases of Egypt Deuteronomy 7:15 (Sg.); and of manna Deuteronomy 8:3 ; Deuteronomy 8:16 (Sg.); also of God proving His people in order to know, i.e. find out, what was in their heart, Deuteronomy 8:2 (Sg.), Deuteronomy 13:3 (Pl.). These passages and their contexts show that D uses the verb to know with the same practical force, especially in religious matters, with which Hosea uses it. ‘It is not to know so as to see the fact of, but to know so as to feel the force of; knowledge not as acquisition and mastery, but as impression, passion. To quote Paul’s distinction, it is not so much the apprehending as the being apprehended.

It leads to a vivid result—either warm appreciation, or change of mind or practical effort.… It is knowledge that is followed by shame, or by love, or by reverence, or by the sense of a duty … it closely approaches the meaning of our conscience.’ ( The Twelve Prophets , i. 322: see the whole chapter there on the subject.) he is God ] the God , or God indeed , Deuteronomy 4:35 ; Deuteronomy 4:39 , Deuteronomy 10:17 ; affirming not the soleness (Dillm.) so much as the reality of Jehovah’s deity, as shown (the vv . go on) in His working in history. faithful ] A participle with gerundive force, who shows Himself One to be trusted, i.e. by His deeds. keepeth covenant and mercy ] The conjunction shows that the Heb. word trans, mercy, ḥesed , is, as especially in Hosea, more than an affection; it is a relation and duty better rendered by loyal love . But see Driver’s note in loco . that love him ] See on Deuteronomy 6:5 . a thousand generations ] ‘a rhetorical amplification, rather than an exact interpretation, of the thousands of Exodus 20:6 ’ [ Deuteronomy 5:10 ] (Driver). 9, 10 . A free paraphrase of the Second Commandment.