Deuteronomy 7:17-24
Fear is answered by covenant memory: the Lord's past redemption from Egypt guarantees His future faithfulness in the land, so Israel must not dread stronger enemies but trust the great and awesome God among them.
17 If you shall say in your heart, “These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?”
18 you shall not be afraid of them. You shall remember well what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:
19 the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which Yahweh your God brought you out. So shall Yahweh your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.
20 Moreover Yahweh your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left, and hide themselves, perish from before you.
21 You shall not be scared of them; for Yahweh your God is among you, a great and awesome God.
22 Yahweh your God will cast out those nations before you little by little. You may not consume them at once, lest the animals of the field increase on you.
23 But Yahweh your God will deliver them up before you, and will confuse them with a great confusion, until they are destroyed.
24 He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name perish from under the sky. No one will be able to stand before you until you have destroyed them.
Fear is answered by covenant memory: the LORD's past redemption from Egypt guarantees His future faithfulness in the land, so Israel must not dread stronger enemies but trust the great and awesome God among them.
Moses anticipates Israel's fear before nations that appear stronger than they are and commands them to replace dread with deliberate remembrance of the LORD's mighty deliverance from Egypt, trusting that the same covenant God will drive out the nations according to His wise timing and sovereign power.
Moses speaks to the second generation on the plains of Moab before entry into Canaan. The first generation's fear at Kadesh had led to rebellion and wilderness judgment; now Moses prepares the new generation to face the same land with remembered confidence in the LORD.
A Holy People Set Apart: Election, Separation, and the Logic of Covenant Love
The LORD's command to destroy the Canaanite nations and refuse all covenant with them is grounded not in Israel's superiority but in the logic of holy love: because the LORD set his affection on the fathers and chose their offspring out of all peoples, Israel must be what it has been declared — a holy people wholly separated from every rival claim on their devotion, trusting the faithful God who will drive out opponents greater than themselves.