Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine. – Exodus 19:5
When I was eleven years old, World War II had just started, and it seemed that everyone was planting “victory gardens.” Some of the produce was going to our military forces, so people dug up their backyards and planted gardens. They even took the roses out of the parking strips to plant crops.
There was a little store a couple blocks from our house, and when the owners there started digging up their backyard, they found a buried chest. Being a young boy, I was excited to hear about it—I had dreams of all kinds of treasures hidden in that chest! When they opened it, they found old guns inside, which they sold for big money. Before then, I hated digging our garden at home, but from then on I dug with enthusiasm! I had grand hopes that I would dig up a chest and be rich too.
Man’s idea of treasure is things like gold, diamonds, collector items, and antiques. But there is a big difference between man’s treasures and God’s treasures. In our focus verse, God said that He owns the whole world. That means that He made all the gold and diamonds, and we read in His Word that He uses gold—something we think is so precious—for pavement in Heaven.
Our focus verse is a statement about what God considers to be real treasures. He made it plain that we are a peculiar treasure to Him. How can that be? He said that if we obey Him and keep His covenant, we are His treasures.
Being one of God’s treasures is not always easy. God views us favorably for following Him, but the world may not. The Bible gives numerous examples of how God’s people faced persecution when they obeyed His commandments, and the same trials face Christians today. Noah was mocked as He prepared for the Flood that God warned of, and today Christians are mocked as we prepare for Christ’s Second Coming. Gideon went to war with only three hundred men, no doubt with some saying he was totally foolish. But God got all the glory for the victory in that battle, and He still gets the glory when we choose to obey His instructions despite what others say about us. As God’s treasure, we bring honor to His name.
The meaning of the Hebrew phrase peculiar treasure is “jewel; special.” We are very special to God when we choose to live for Him, and that is the best thing we can be.