and in a religious sense a holy people to himself, to fear, serve, worship, and glorify him, by walking according to laws and rules given them by him; and this he did by setting up and establishing a civil and ecclesiastical polity among them: and I will be to you a God; their King and their God to rule over them, protect and defend them, they being a theocracy; and their covenant God and Father, giving them various spiritual privileges, the adoption, the glory, the covenant, the law, service, and promises: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God; by the promises fulfilled, the favours granted, and the deliverances wrought for them: which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians; see the preceding verse Exo 6:6 .