favors through which he had bound the people to himself forever. Second, he shows the dreadful response the people made to the many blessings they had received. In saying that Israel was “holy,” he does not intend to praise them. It was in itself an eminent testimony of how God had consecrated them to himself that he designated them “the firstfruits of his harvest.” Under the law, God had commanded that the firstfruits should be offered to him and then given to the priests. Here he says that in accordance