For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
– Deuteronomy 7:6
What a verse. God’s speaking to his people in the Old Testament and basically describing how much he loves them. And he makes clear to them in this whole chapter that he does not love them because of some level of merit in them that they’ve done to earn his love. He loves them, not because of merit in them, but because of mercy in him. He says, “It’s not that you are a morally exemplary people. It’s not like you went through tryouts among all the peoples of the earth, and I chose you because you were this or you were that.”
Deuteronomy 7:6 teaches us that God’s love is based on His mercy, not on our merit.
God says, “I simply chose you because I love you. I’ve chosen you to be a people for my treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” And this is a consistent theme we see throughout Scripture, God calling, choosing people who are not worthy of being chosen or called because of merit in them, but solely because of mercy in God. And this is a theme that transfers over right into the New Testament, when Jesus says to his disciples, “You did not choose me. I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that lasts.” And Paul writes in Ephesians 1, “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be predestined for adoption as his children.” What a thought.
Just let this soak in. Follower of Jesus, you are loved by God, not because of merit in you, but solely because of mercy in him. And I just want to encourage you to receive that in a fresh way today. That God himself, the sovereign God, Creator, Sustainer, Ruler of the universe chose to pour out his affection on you, chose to bring you into his family, chose to send his son, Jesus, to die on the cross for your sins, to forgive you of your sins, to open your eyes to faith in him that you might be restored to him, adopted by him to enjoy him forever. God loves you so much. You are chosen to be a people for his treasured possession.
Deuteronomy 7:6 reminds us that we are chosen to share His mercy.
And to be sure there’s a lot of mystery that goes with this, and a lot of questions might even come from this. But this is where I want to encourage you to look at the people around you and to realize God has not just chosen you to be his child, but he’s chosen to use your life to spread his love, his grace, that same mercy to people all around you today and all around the world. So live in this experience, the purpose for which you have been chosen. Just like Jesus said, “I chose you. I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.” So spend your life today spreading the mercy of God to the people around you so that many, many, many more people might experience the mercy you and I know.
Oh God, we praise you for your love for us. We praise you for calling our names. God, thank you for calling my name. For choosing to send your Son to die on a cross, rise from the dead. So that I might be saved, so that I might be adopted by you. God, I’m so overwhelmed right now.
This verse challenges us to embrace our role in God’s mission.
And I pray for all of my brothers and sisters in Christ. That we would all be just daily overwhelmed by this reality. And God, that we would live in the fullness of your purpose for us. The purpose for which you chose us, to go and to bear fruit.
God, we pray you help us to bear fruit today. By the power of your Holy Spirit in us and the overflow of your holy love for us. Lord, we pray that you help us to lead other people to adoption into your family. To faith in you, to experience your love. God, we pray for people around us and for people around the world. God, as we pray for unreached people, we know you’ve chosen to redeem, to ransom people from every nation, tribe, and tongue. So God, we pray that you would do it.
Prayer for the Arakh People
We pray for the Arakh people of India, for 677,000 men, women, children. God, we know you have chosen to redeem and ransom Arakh men, women, and children. So do it, we pray. Help us to live our lives, to give our resources toward that end. I pray that you would use your church. Raise up laborers to go and make the gospel known. That the Arakh people might be brought in to your family. Along with thousands of other people groups who are in need of the gospel today.
Oh God, we pray all of this according to your Word, which we love in Deuteronomy 7:6. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
