What did God require Israel to be in the covenants with Abraham and Moses?
In His covenants with Abraham and then Moses and Israel, God mandated that Israel be different: a set-apart, sanctified nation of people. They were not to pattern themselves after the surrounding nations, but were to remain distinct as the people who knew the one true God.
Les explains that when God made the covenant first with Abraham and then with Moses and the nation of Israel, the first thing He mandated was that Israel be different. They were to be a set-apart nation, a sanctified people, not like the rest of the nations. In 1 Samuel 8, however, Israel asks for a king like all the other nations, rejecting Jehovah's unique call. Les notes that the surrounding nations were pagan idolaters, and no one but Israel had knowledge of the one true God.