origin.  Their first father, Abraham, a Gentile, came from Ur of the

Chaldees, and to him the promise was made that God would, for His own wise

purposes, make of him a nation.  This nation thus strangely produced is

marked with the distinctive sign of circumcision and given laws that separate

them from all the rest of the earth.  They 'dwell alone', they are not

'reckoned', it is one of their distinctive characteristics.  Consequently

when we read of 'all nations' doing this or that, Israel is not reckoned

among them.  Instead of being reckoned among the nations, the nations take

their reckoning from Israel:

'When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance,

When He separated the sons of Adam,

He set the bounds of the people

According to the number of the children of Israel' (Deut. 32:8).

This dividing of the earth among the nations was done, according to

Genesis 10:32, two hundred years before Abraham, yet Israel, then unknown

except to God, was the standard by which all the nations were to be measured.

It will be so in the time of the end, 'inasmuch as ye have done it unto one

of the least of these My brethren' will be the standard whereby 'all the

nations' in view shall be judged, and enter into their 'inheritance' (Matt.

25:40).  It is the purpose of God that this people shall occupy the central

place in the earth, that all nations shall learn from them and their city

Jerusalem.  As a kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation they must of necessity

'dwell alone' or 'separated' and be not 'reckoned' among the nations, even as

the house of Aaron lived and functioned alone and unreckoned in the midst of

the chosen people themselves.

In the last book of Moses, Deuteronomy, there are a series of

statements that break into the narrative, in order to emphasize the peculiar

character of 'this people'.

First of all Israel are reminded that they were a people by redemption

and for an inheritance:

'The Lord hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron

furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto Him a people of inheritance, as

ye are this day' (Deut. 4:20).

'Yet they are Thy people and Thine inheritance, which Thou broughtest

out by Thy mighty power and by Thy stretched out arm' (Deut. 9:29).

'For the Lord's portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His

inheritance' (Deut. 32:9).

Then the distinctive nature of this people is indicated in several

By the fact that to them was given the Law:

'Ask now of the days that are past, which were before thee, since the

day that God created man upon the earth, and ask from the one side of

heaven unto the other, whether there hath been any such thing as this

great thing is, or hath been heard like it? Did ever people hear the

Voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard,

and live?' (Deut. 4:32,33).