A Look At Deut. 7:7 vs. Acts 7:7 vs. Song of Solomon 7:7

  Sometimes in the Bible there is the unique characteristic of finding some subject in the Old Testament (Book number, Chapter, Verse) being repeated in the New Testament using the same Book Number, Chapter, and Verse.

  In my opinion this occurs with Book 5 of the Old Testament (Deuteronomy) Chapter 7, verse 7 and Acts (Book 5 of the New Testament) Chapter 7, Verse 7.  And Song of Songs!

  The Deuteronomy 7:7 occurs in a very fundamental and definitional series of verses, because in that spot of scripture Yahweh is telling His newly formed Jewish nation why He chose them to be His holy people from among all of the possible peoples that He could have chosen from.  After all, they were no more than a group of slaves from Egypt in some respects.  And even today, in the year 2016 A.D., it is important for people from every placed on earth to understand that Yahweh does have a chosen people, the Israelites, yet they were chosen not because they were innately superior, but because Yahweh had made promises to their ancestors Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.  And also, they were the weakest of peoples back when He chose them, so the whole world would see that their preservation and indeed amazing success in the following generations could be attributed directly to the mighty God they worshiped and followed.  When and where else had so lowly and downtrodden a group risen so far so fast, and kept doing it no matter how many times other jealous peoples oppressed them?  God keeps raising them back up!  That way, seeing the power of their God, other peoples, still lost to God, may become convinced of His power and turn, and embrace the God of the Jews also (because He is actually the maker of all children, found and still lost alike!) And in that way, many can seek His goodness and mercy and be saved from the fate of those who reject God and die still rejecting Him.  And the scriptures tell us that those who never had a chance to learn the truths of God will be preached to in their dead state, having apparently the chance to be convinced or reject the truth even there, as it suggests here in the writings of the Apostle Peter:

¹⁸ For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. ¹⁹ After being made alive,^[d] he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— ²⁰ to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, ²¹ and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God.^[e] It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²² who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. (1 Peter 3:18-20)    

  It can be very helpful when trying to explain Jesus to people from certain nations to be able to tell them why the Christians acknowledge and feel special deference towards the Jews.  In showing deference to the Jews, we are showing deference to our common maker who chose the Jews as His signature people.  It is not that they are categorically superior to all other of Earth's peoples (which if said and maintained as truth would arouse jealousies among their brother peoples of the Earth.)  But in treating them well because God called them His own we acknowledge that whatever God chooses as special to Him shall be special to us as well, for that very reason.  And without jealousy.

  And so, Deuteronomy 7:7 is speaking of this special relationship and how God has special plans for them, His chosen people, and Acts 7:7 has Stephen, who will soon become the first Christian martyr, telling a crowd about this same special relationship between God and His people Israel.  And to take it even further, if we go to the 5th 'Wisdom Book' of the Bible, Solomon's 'Song of Songs', and go to the 7th chapter and 7th verse, the 'King' is in the middle of describing to his Bride the things that he finds lovely and attractive about her, and why he desires her for his self. 

  The Bible is truly a beautifully crafted book, the literal Word of God I believe...we Christians believe.....with depths that we humans will never fully search out I am convinced.  So read these three referenced passages below, and see what you think!  Do they say much the same thing?:

First, Deuteronomy Chap 7, including verse 7: 

7 When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— ² and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally.^[a] Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. ³ Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, ⁴ for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. ⁵ This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles^[b] and burn their idols in the fire. ⁶ For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

⁷ The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. ⁸ But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. ⁹ Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments. ¹⁰ But

¹¹ Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.

  End Quote

   Next, from Acts 7, Stephen describes how God fulfilled His promises of love to them, but they have been ungrateful and rebellious to Him despite that, like a selfish and headstrong bride, I suppose.

  From Acts 7, including verse 7:

7 Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?”

² To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran. ³ ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’^[a]

⁴ “So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. ⁵ He gave him no inheritance here, not even enough ground to set his foot on. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child. ⁶ God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated. ⁷ But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’^{[b] 8} Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

⁹ “Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him ¹⁰ and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.

¹¹ “Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors could not find food. ¹² When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers on their first visit. ¹³ On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family. ¹⁴ After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all. ¹⁵ Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died. ¹⁶ Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.

¹⁷ “As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased. ¹⁸ Then ‘a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.’^{[c] 19} He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.

²⁰ “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child.^[d] For three months he was cared for by his family. ²¹ When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. ²² Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.

²³ “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. ²⁴ He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. ²⁵ Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. ²⁶ The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’

²⁷ “But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? ²⁸ Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’^{[e] 29} When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.

³⁰ “After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. ³¹ When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say: ³² ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’^[f] Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.

³³ “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. ³⁴ I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’^[g]

³⁵ “This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. ³⁶ He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.

³⁷ “This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’^{[h] 38} He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.

³⁹ “But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. ⁴⁰ They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’^{[i] 41} That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made. ⁴² But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:

⁴⁴ “Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. ⁴⁵ After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, ⁴⁶ who enjoyed God’s favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.^{[k] 47} But it was Solomon who built a house for him.

⁴⁸ “However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:

⁵¹ “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! ⁵² Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— ⁵³ you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”

End Quote  The listening Jews angrily stoned Stephen moments after he finished this speech!

  And now read Song of Solomon 7:7 where this wonderful love for the chosen bride is discussed by a 'king', who is then answered by the object of his love:

7 ^[a]How beautiful your sandaled feet,
    O prince’s daughter!
Your graceful legs are like jewels,
    the work of an artist’s hands.
² Your navel is a rounded goblet
    that never lacks blended wine.
Your waist is a mound of wheat
    encircled by lilies.
³ Your breasts are like two fawns,
    like twin fawns of a gazelle.
⁴ Your neck is like an ivory tower.
Your eyes are the pools of Heshbon
    by the gate of Bath Rabbim.
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon
    looking toward Damascus.
⁵ Your head crowns you like Mount Carmel.
    Your hair is like royal tapestry;
    the king is held captive by its tresses.
⁶ How beautiful you are and how pleasing,
    my love, with your delights!
⁷ Your stature is like that of the palm,
    and your breasts like clusters of fruit.
⁸ I said, “I will climb the palm tree;
    I will take hold of its fruit.”
May your breasts be like clusters of grapes on the vine,
    the fragrance of your breath like apples,
⁹     and your mouth like the best wine.

She