Peculiar People

Have you ever felt like you didn’t fit in? Maybe it was with a particular crowd or a particular culture at work or at school, but for whatever reason, you weren’t like everyone else. Instead of blending in, you stood out–perhaps awkwardly!–because you were different. Peculiar, by comparison.

By giving the Israelites the Ten Commandments, God was creating a community unlike any other in the Ancient Near East. God didn’t want the Israelites to fit in; he wanted them to stand out. To be a living picture of what life with him is truly like, so that others would see and believe.