May 16, the freest love, behold, to the Lord your God

belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth,

with all that is in it, yet the Lord set his heart in love

on your fathers and chose their offspring after them,

you, above all peoples, as you are this day,

Deuteronomy 10, 14 and 15. God's electing love,

the love by which he chooses a people for himself,

is absolutely free. It is the gracious overflow of his boundless happiness

guided by his infinite wisdom. Deuteronomy 10, 14 and 15 describes the

delight God had in choosing Israel from all the

peoples of the earth. Notice two things. First,

notice the contrast between verses 14 and 15. Why does Moses

describe the election of Israel against the backdrop

of God's ownership of the whole universe? Why does he say in verse 14,

to God belongs everything in heaven and on earth,

and then say in verse 15, yet he chose you

for his people? The reason seems to be to get rid of any notion

that God was somehow boxed in to choose this people,

that there were some limits to his choosing and he was somehow forced to choose

them. The point is to explode the pagan idea.

A God may have the right and authority to have his own people,

but no more. The truth is that Yahweh is the only true God.

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