What was God doing with the covenant nation of Israel?
God was dealing strictly with the covenant nation of Israel, setting them aside and making them different from the pagan peoples around them. They were His separated people, forbidden to intermarry or have social contact with Gentiles, and they were not instructed to proselyte or evangelize the Gentiles.
Les explains that Israel was God’s covenant people, never to intermarry with anyone but those of the nation of Israel. They were to have no real social contact with the pagan people around them; though they had to do business with them, socially they were to remain a separated people. Les emphasizes that God never instructed the Jew to go out and proselyte the Gentiles, nor to win the Gentiles even to their religion. God wanted the Gentiles, but not by Jewish proselyting or evangelizing, because He was dealing strictly with the covenant nation He was going to set aside and make different. This prepares for the New Testament, when Paul begins going to the Gentiles and the Jews become upset. For almost two thousand years God had been telling and proving to Israel that they were different and His separated people, so it took them a long time to get that out of their system. This explains the Galatians chapter 2 confrontation between Paul and Peter, because Peter could not get it out of his system that he could sit down with Gentile believers at Antioch; when his fellow Jews came from Jerusalem, he withdrew.