What did God instruct Israel to do about the pagans around them after the Exodus?
After the Exodus, God set Israel apart as different and instructed them to have nothing to do with the surrounding pagans. They were not to intermarry with those nations and were to keep no association with them, because God was making Israel distinct.
Les teaches that as soon as God pulled Israel out of Egypt, He told them, "You're different. I'm going to make you different. I'm going to set you apart." He then began the instruction that they were not to have anything to do with the pagans around them. They were not to intermarry with them; they were to have nothing to do with them. This set-apartness explains why it was so hard for the Jews of Paul's day to come out of that tradition and accept the message that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile.