Deu. 10:12, 13
And now, Israel, what does YHWH your Mighty One require of you, but to fear YHWH your Mighty One, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve YHWH your Mighty One with all your heart and with all your soul.
And to keep these commandments of YHWH your Mighty One which I am commanding you today, for your own good.”
As we can recall, by the time Moses is speaking here, Aaron and all the men of military age from among those who had come out of Egypt had perished in the desert, except Caleb and Joshua. After the incident that took place at Kadesh Barnea, the Israelites under twenty years of age were to be the generation that enters the Land promised to the patriarchs.
This new generation is still eyewitnesses to both the exodus and the forty years in the desert. Deu. 7:18-19; 8:2-5, 14-16; 11:2-7. Moses reminded this generation that the reason YHWH purchased them from slavery to Pharoah and Egypt was because of His love and faithfulness to Abraham and his faithful descendants:
Deu. 7:7-9
YHWH did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were a numerous people…but because YHWH loved you and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your forefathers, YHWH redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Know therefore that YHWH your Mighty One, He is the Almighty, the faithful One, who keeps covenant and loving-kindness with those who love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations.”
He wanted them to know that the consequences of His love and faithfulness are our love and faithfulness.
Because YHWH loved you and because He would keep the oath, He has redeemed you…” (7:7)
As Moses had previously explained, YHWH gave them His instruction because of this love.
Deu. 6:20-24
When your son asks you in time to come saying, “What is the meaning of the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments…?”
Then you will tell him: “We were Pharoah’s slaves in Egypt and YHWH brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand…And YHWH commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear YHWH our Mighty One, for our own good always, that He might preserve our lives, as it is this day.”
Because He loved them, He redeemed them. And because He redeemed them, He gave them His instructions.
He is faithful to keep the oath—the covenant He made with Abraham and with his descendants. All He asks of His redeemed people is that they love Him in return. Because they love Him in return, they are faithful in return. They are faithful to His Words.
He wants us to keep His Words in our hearts. We are to remember that we are not just kept alive by food. “But by every word that proceeds from the mouth of YHWH does man live.”
Deuteronomy 7:7-9 shows us the proper order of the love of YHWH.
He first loved us, as the first two verses show. He told them that the reason He redeemed them from the house of bondage was because He loved them.
[The above verses also show that the secondary reason He redeemed them was that He was faithful to keep the promise that He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.]
The next verse then shows what our response to His love should be.
Because He first loved us, we love Him in return. Because He was faithful to keep the Covenant and because He was merciful with the patriarchs, we follow their example and love Him and keep the Covenant by applying His commandments to our lives.
This makes the love of YHWH mutual.
This also makes the faith of YHWH and the mercy of YHWH mutual. It is not that we are merciful to YHWH directly. Rather, in keeping his commandments that stress love and mercy toward others, we are indirectly showing Him mercy. By forgiving others, we are reciprocating YHWH’s mercy toward us.
Perhaps the most famous example of this would be the commandment found in Leviticus 19:17 and 18.
If someone wrongs us (they hurt us in word or deed), the commandments teach us to forgive them. We must not harbor bitterness or resentment in our hearts towards them. We must not retaliate or try to take justice into our own hands. Instead, we are taught to forgive them. We must love them the same way we want to be loved. In other words, we should treat other people how we would like them to treat us.
Is this not what the apostles also taught? “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 Jo. 4:19). This was the whole point of the apostle Paul’s teachings concerning grace and works. We do not merit YHWH’s love by keeping the Torah. We do not earn His mercy and forgiveness by our achievements.
Rather, because He first loved us and was faithful in His promises, He gave us His teaching and instruction (Deu. 7:7-8; 6:20-24). Our obedience is the result of His grace and not vice versa.