“For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.” – Deuteronomy 7:6 (KJV)

Reading this passage initially one may consider it encouraging in a variety of ways. One way in particular strikes a familiar chord in our culture. In our tendency to focus on the humans – What is happening for or to the humans in scripture? What does the future look like for these people given what is happening to them at this point in scripture? How does this apply to me? In scripture then think what does this mean for me, we lean toward adoption of the culture’s self-centered perspective. If we take this verse out of Deuteronomy seven and look at it without any of its other parts it gives me PBS Kids “you are special just the way you are”vibes. Is this really what God intends to communicate to Israel — to us? I don’t think so. Here’s why.

In chapter 7 Moses is mid speech. God has specific instructions for the Israelites as they prepare to go into the promised land and what they need to do when they get there. In this passage, I see God has a good Father, setting up his chosen children for success – keeping them out of bondage and out of compromise, which leads to a broken relationship with Him. God did not choose Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendents because they were special. God chose Israel because he wanted to, and he is making them (and those of us who have been engrafted)  special.

God speaks a similar sentiment in Jeremiah 13. Here he scolds the Israelites for their unfaithfulness and reminds them of the relationship that he desired to have with their forefathers, the same type of relationship he desires to have with them now. Jeremiah 13:11 (KJV), “For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith the Lord; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.” Becoming is a consequence of being with and clinging to the Father. We only become because He makes us.

The Bible is not really about us. It is about God, and because God desires to be in relationship with us, there is opportunity by scripture to see who we are, who we are intended to be, how we are intended to exist. Unfortunately we will miss the main attraction , God, plus miss all of this if we do not come to scripture looking for the Divine first.