“The central blessing of the Lord to the children of Israel was not a superior biological inheritance, nor a better national home, nor any material blessing at all; it was a unique knowledge of God Himself. This knowledge rested upon the self-disclosure of God to Israel. . . . All of Israel’s differences from her national neighbors were, therefore, the results of, or symbols of, her spiritual separation unto the Lord; the fact that Israel alone was God’s peculiar and special treasure, His covenant people” (John C. Wenger, Separated unto God, 7 & 9).