Treasured possessions ...

Treasured possessions....

There is a time when we have to whittle down our treasures...things we have collected over our lives, trinkets, baseball cards, special occasion cards from parents or children or spouses, antiques handed down over time...it may have no value to anyone but us...or much money for rarity...

In the Old Testament, God speaks to the Israelites as his “treasured possessions”...they were not “stuff “ but a people group especially chosen to be His people..loved, holy to Him...treasured...

Can you imagine? Treasured above anyone else...when my husband was alive, I felt treasured...he chose me as his life long partner...my parents birthed me, but I felt treasured by them as well as my grandparents and relatives...I feel treasured by my children and friends...but treasured by the creator of the universe...wow, beyond words...

Now, I move onto the New Testament, and find in

Ephesians, that as a believer I was chosen before the foundation of the earth...that’s a long time ago...He knew me, planned for me...or anyone believing in His Son, Jesus.....what a promise...chosen...by the Most High...thank YOU...it can’t get any better than that...those earthly trinkets do not compare...

Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

Exodus 19:5-6 

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. 

The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 

But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.

Deuteronomy 7:6-9 

And the Lord has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.

Deuteronomy 26:18-19 

Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name. “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.

Malachi 3:16-18 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Ephesians 1:3-10 

21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:21