What Does Deuteronomy 7:7 Mean?

The clarification that the Lord did not set His love upon Israel nor choose them because they were more in number than other nations establishes the radical grace of the divine election. Moses identifies the insignificance of the people—being the fewest of all—as the context for the divine favor, showing that the initiative of the King is not constrained by the metrics of the human power. By stripping away the possibility of the national boasting, the text emphasizes that the residency in the land is a participation in a love that is entirely unmerited.

The rejection of the numerical merit reveals that the Lord provides the assurance of the favor necessary for the assembly to maintain the confidence without the anxiety of the performance. It teaches that the true stability is found in the recognition of the divine will as the unique cause of the blessing, showing that the "many" or the "few" are irrelevant to the fidelity of the Creator. This humbling of the stature proves that the Lord is the true architect of the election, requiring His people to demonstrate a persistent trust in the One who has already looked upon the lowliness. The smallness of the nation is the magnifying of the Grace.

The unmerited election of the small people points toward the work of Christ who is the one who has already revealed the heart of the Father toward the weak and the lowly of the world. He is the one who has already chosen the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are, ensuring that the redeemed find their residency in an inheritance that is granted according to the good pleasure of the divine will rather than the strength of the flesh. Through the Savior, the rejection of the human strength leads to the crowning of the Meek, where the heart finds its rest in the victory of the One who has already chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4).