More precious than gold . . .

Throughout the first part of the OT, almost all talk of anything being PRECIOUS involves jewels and the lives of people. The turning point is in Psalm 36:7 where the song writer uses the same Hebrew word to say: “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.”  

Yesterday we were introduced to a neighbor’s new baby. The tiny fellow is only two months old and obviously precious to mom and dad, a valuable new life, a delightful little boy who is already cooing and smiling at mom and looking intently at this stranger who wears glasses. My heart melted.

Do I feel that way about God and His steadfast love as the psalmist did? Do I know what God finds precious? Right away, I found one thing He values that I did not expect. While the Bible says in Psalm 72:13–14 that God “has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy. From oppression and violence he redeems their life, and precious is their blood in his sight,” it also says in Psalm 116:15, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”

This seems harsh, yet it is through death that those who love God enter His presence and are with Him forever. We look forward to heaven as our precious destination (or we ought to) and God looks at our death as the precious event that brings us to Him.

The next mention of what God considers precious refers to a person:

Isaiah 28:15–16. “Because you have said, ‘We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter’; therefore thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation . . .’”

Because of sin and God’s people putting their confidence in lies, He promised them a sure foundation and refuge for them — a precious Cornerstone who would come — and we know Jesus is that precious One.

At that, all talk of precious refers to gold and silver until the NT where Peter picks up the word and applies it to faith, to the blood of Christ, and to how Jesus is chosen and valued by the Father:

1 Peter 1:6–7. “In (the promise of heaven) you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

1 Peter 1:18–21.  “. . . knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

1 Peter 2:4–6. “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY: Peter goes back to the promise in Isaiah to make his point — Jesus Christ is that precious Cornerstone. Then he declares something else that is precious in the sight of God, this time for women who believe in Jesus:

1 Peter 3:3–4. “Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.”

My older brother teases me about my goal of being a ‘sweet little old lady’ but it is a good goal. As impossible as it seems to me (and to him), I am relying on something else God considers precious — and it’s my hope of reaching that goal:   

2 Peter 1:3–4. “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” Amen!