Treasured Possession סְגֻלָּה

We are in chapter nineteen of Exodus with our word for today, used for the first time in the Bible. סְגֻלָּה personal property, possession, wealth, treasure, accumulated wealth in the form of money, jewels, or other valuables. It is used 8 times in the Old Testament. Our word is the first part of the many benefits God’s lists from obeying his voice and keeping his covenant that we have looked at over the last couple of days. If we remember agreements are entered into because it benefits both groups. This first benefit listed sounds like it is just for God. The reality is the best thing that can happen to any one of us is that we belong to God. Exodus 19:5-6 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, וִהְיִ֨יתֶם לִ֤י סְגֻלָּה֙ you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. God gets us. He thinks we have value like treasure. Let’s look at other uses to help this sink in. 1 Chronicles 29:3-4 Besides, in my devotion to the temple of my God I now give לִ֥י סְגֻלָּ֖ה my personal treasures of gold and silver for the temple of my God, over and above everything I have provided for this holy temple: three thousand talents of gold (gold of Ophir) and seven thousand talents of refined silver. Did you catch that? This same word used to describe all of this vast amounts of gold and silver is the same word God uses in valuing us. We also see this same word used to describe Solomon’s wealth. Ecclesiastes 2:8 I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the וּסְגֻלַּ֥ת treasure of kings and provinces. So watch how this same word used to describe a treasure of kings applied to God’s people again. Psalm 135:3-4 Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant. For the Lord has chosen Jacob to be his own, Israel לִסְגֻלָּתֽוֹ to be his treasured possession. In this fallen messed up world or my favorite description the corrupted place this is hard to believe. We just don’t always feel loved and valued. But the truth is we are. God knows this so he repeats it three more times in Deuteronomy 7:6; 14:2; 26:18. Then in the last book of the Old Testament he says it again. Malachi 3:17 On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be סְגֻלָּ֑ה my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him.Then he sends his own son into the world to prove to us he loves us and wants us back close to him. I’ll close with these great passages Romans 8:31-32, 35 If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?…Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.