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Deuteronomy 10 · a question people ask

If God "doesn’t respect persons", why did he choose Israel?

In the text

Both are said in this chapter, two verses apart. "Only the LORD had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their offspring after them, even you above all peoples, as it is today" (10:15). "For the LORD your God, he is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn’t respect persons or take bribes" (10:17). Moses has already said what the choosing did not rest on: not their number, "for you were the fewest of all peoples" (7:7), and the land was not given them for their righteousness, "for you are a stiff-necked people" (9:6). What 7:8 gives instead is "because the LORD loves you, and because he desires to keep the oath which he swore to your fathers" (7:8). The law for Israel's judges puts the two things of 10:17 together again: "You shall not show partiality. You shall not take a bribe" (16:19). And the God who chose Israel "loves the foreigner" (10:18). The chapter puts the choosing and "doesn’t respect persons" side by side without setting them against each other, and doesn't say more about how they fit.

The verses

“Only the LORD had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their offspring after them, even you above all peoples, as it is today.”
Deuteronomy 10:15 · World English Bible
“For the LORD your God, he is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn’t respect persons or take bribes. He executes justice for the fatherless and widow and loves the foreigner in giving him food and clothing.”
Deuteronomy 10:17-18 · World English Bible
“The LORD didn’t set his love on you nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because he desires to keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
Deuteronomy 7:7-8 · World English Bible
“Know therefore that the LORD your God doesn’t give you this good land to possess for your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.”
Deuteronomy 9:6 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Deuteronomy 10

Deuteronomy 10: What does the LORD require of you

The God who owns "heaven, the heaven of heavens" (10:14) is the God who "loves the foreigner in giving him food and clothing" (10:18). Israel's love for the foreigner starts with his: "Therefore love the foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt" (10:19).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions