What did God mandate for Israel when He made covenants with Abraham and Moses?
When God made covenant with Abraham and then Moses and Israel, the first mandate was that Israel be different—a set-apart, sanctified people. They were not to be like the rest of the nations. This set-apartness is what sanctification means.
Les explains that in Samuel chapter 8, the elders of Israel gathered to Samuel at Ramah and said he was old and his sons did not walk in his ways, unlike him in relationship with Jehovah. They asked for a king to judge or rule them like all the other nations around them. Les points out that when God made that covenant first with Abraham and then with Moses and the nation of Israel, the first thing He mandated Israel was to be different—a set-apart nation of people, a sanctified people. They were not supposed to be like the rest of the nations. But now they wanted to be like everybody else; since all the nations had a king, they wanted a king. Samuel was heartbroken and prayed to Jehovah, and Jehovah told him to hearken to the voice of the people and let them have their way, because they had not rejected Samuel but had rejected God; they had turned on Jehovah. Israel knew the surrounding nations with kings were pagan idolaters, and no one but Israel had a knowledge of the one true God.