… for you are a people holy to the Lord your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured possession.        Deuteronomy 14:2 NIV

There was something God always wanted to make clear; He created us for a great and wonderful purpose. He breathed the air into our lungs and gave us life. Precious and valuable, each person is made in the image of God. It is too amazing to comprehend.

As I study the life of Jesus, I am reminded that the world Jesus entered into was very different from our world today. He was born into a very Jewish world. Yeah, the enemy walked their streets dressed in the power and might of Rome, but the dirt they stood on was a promised land filled with the Jewish people and their Jewish customs and their Jewish law, and their Temple and their God. There was no forgetting that. 

Their God had called them, taught them, protected them, led them, rescued them, and separated them from all other tribes and people. With a beautiful promise from the very beginning: “…all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:3

The words of God filled their thoughts and flowed in their blood. Their identity was in Him. As he led them through the voice of Moses, they were reminded,

“…you are a people holy to the Lord your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured possession.”

These words define two truths that are essential to godly identity: to be ‘chosen’ and to be ‘a treasured possession’.

I think this is the great loss of people now in these troubled days – we are caught up in fighting to form our own identity. We are busy choosing what we want and need, clueless that it is so much better to stop our endless striving and rest in the truth that the Creator of the World, the One and Only true God Almighty chose us. 

You may think – He didn’t choose us; He chose the descendants of Abraham; the Hebrews. And yes, you are so right. He chose them to cradle the Savior-Son who would come to bless all the tribes of the world. Remember the angel song at his birth? It went like this:

“I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people…” 

With the birth of Jesus, an invitation was given; “Come. Believe. The Kingdom of God has arrived.” All that is required of us – is to say “Yes.” All we have to do is rest in His choosing. 

When we say yes - when we trust in Him, we gain a powerful identity that satisfies all our longings; we become His treasured possession. To be treasured! Isn’t that a wonderful thing?

My three-year-old grandson Barrett was digging in the resurrected sandbox which was originally built for his mother and her brother. He paused, his plastic shovel in mid-air, and shouted with great joy, "Look!" His little hand reached down into the sand and pulled out a triangle of royal blue tile veined with gold. It was the perfect size to fit in the palm of his hand, as his fingers closed protectively around it. "A treasure!" he proclaimed.

He carefully found a home for it in the pocket of his shorts where it would remain safe from becoming lost. That long ago discarded piece of tile became his treasured possession.

That is what God told the people who would follow Him out of captivity and journey toward a promised land; “You are a holy people, set apart for a special purpose. You have been chosen to be God’s treasured possession.”

In those days of Moses, God provided protection. His manna fell from Heaven. He guided His people to a land they called home. His law protected them from a difficult world and dangerous people. He established a faithful history and a covenant declaring He would be their God and they would be His people. They could rest assured, knowing in their very souls that He had chosen them to be His treasured possession. Chosen.

This was the world Jesus was born into. A world where you knew who you were because you knew your God. You belonged to a holy people. You were greatly treasured. Greatly loved, chosen by God. 

This is a good reminder to me. God’s promises do not change. Do I rest in God’s love for me or am I seeking to create my own separate identity? Am I trying to look and act like the people around me or am I leaning into the protected pocket of my Lord? Because really, what could be better than to be the Lord’s treasured possession?

Listen: We don't feel like God's treasured possession because we know our brokenness. How could God not only love us but treasure us? I like the truth of this song's lyric; "There's no failure, no fault, no sin You don't already know…"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC2wk1w09U8

Matthew West, Carly Pearce - Truth Be Told