“You have declared today that the Lord is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice.” Just like the Israelites, we’ve agreed to do the same at our baptism, to serve God, to walk in His ways, to listen to His voice and obey it.
Just like the Israelites, we are part of God’s “treasured possession.” God has offered deliverance from the slavery of sin, and “made us alive together with Christ…so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus“. The greatest gift one could ever receive, even while knowing exactly what sort of people we are, that we would often stumble and fall.
Yet we “are being built together into a dwelling place for God”. This is the hope we have to cling to, that despite any present pain or suffering, we will be part of God’s dwelling place.