Moses continues to stress that Israel is to be set apart for the Lord. They are not to be or do as the nations. They are to be different. He instructs, “If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to dwell there, that certain worthless fellows [say], ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which you have not known, then . . . if it be true and certain that such an abomination has been done among you, you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, devoting it to destruction, all who are in it and its cattle, with the edge of the sword” (13:12-15). A number of years ago, Daniel Strange wrote the book Their Rock Is Not Like Our Rock. The title was taken from Deuteronomy 32:31 in which Moses makes a sharp distinction between Yahweh, the God of Israel, and all other gods: “For their rock is not like our Rock, as even our enemies concede.”
Furthermore, Moses distinguishes between Israel herself and other nations: “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth” (14:2). Our God is different than all others. We his people are different from all others. This is not to elevate ourselves undeservedly; it is to acknowledge God’s grace that he, the one true God, would call us his own!
With our lips, let us sing one confession
With our hearts, hold to one truth alone
For He has erased our transgression
Claimed us and called us His own, His very own
People of God, called by His name
Called from the dark and delivered from shame
One Holy race, Saints every one
Because of the blood of Christ Jesus the Son. –Wayne Watson (1969)