My Precious!
(People)
Exodus 19:2-8

† I.H.S. †

May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ convince you how passionately God desires you to be part of His life!

•  Gollum’s Passion

In the books and movies based on J.R.R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings, there is an odd character named Gollum. Some people find him disgusting and pathetic, and others pity him.

All of his life has been spent guarding or chasing after a ring, a treasure he calls his “precious” When it is lost and found by others, he will do anything to get back this ring, this treasure whose value is beyond the value he places on his own life.

As Frodo the Hobbit tosses the ring into the volcano, Gollum is so intent on getting his precious back, he dives after it…. His passion so strong that even death can’t stop it.

Now Gollum’s obsession with the ring was not healthy, it was about gaining power. God the Father’s obsession is healthy; it is the passion which He chases His people with is just as strong…

Even to the point of His Son’s embracing death, if it means His precious will be His, again.

One perverted passion, one Holy passion, both seeking to make a treasure their own….

• The Set up – look at these two

In the Old Testament reading from Exodus this morning, Moses climbs Mount Sinai to talk with God…. And is given a message to share with the sin-plagued people of God who await him at the base of the mountain.

They are a people in the midst of change, having left the burden and slavery of Egypt, dwelling in the presence of God, but not yet in a place they could call home. They haven’t even been given what we call the 10 commandments yet, nor have they sinned in a way that resulted in a generation of wandering in the wilderness…

Yet they are God’s people… trying to learn what that means…. Just as we are this morning. We need to hear the message that He gave them for ourselves, and come to embrace Him as He embraces us…or….

• Response #1 The Egyptian Route

God plays it pretty hard to start the message,

 ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians.”

Not long before, the Egyptians had suffered through the ten plagues because their King was stubborn. They chased after the Israeli’s, unable to learn to listen to God.

And like Gollum, they perished, drowned not in a volcano, but in the Red Sea. Neither way sounds all that fun, but sin eats us up that way. It creates a hunger, and obsession that is not quenchable until it destroys us.

God has to let us know the consequences of our actions, and even more, the cost of walking away from Him. It is what the Egyptians did… and were drowned because of it.

That is the power of sin, but the option is incredible…

• Response 2 – your flight is boarding

The second group God describes – is the people of God…

You know how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.

God promised Abraham that he would save his descendants in Egypt, and He did, carrying them away to Sinai where He met with them. That is where they are at, well aware of the miracles, for they witnessed the Sea dividing, they saw these miracles happen before them, much as we see it when someone is saved as God baptizes them, or strengthens them as He gives them the body and blood of Christ at the altar.

He has saved us from so much – as he did the people of Israel. But He brought us into His presence, revealing that we dwell in His presence.

Everything we are, and everything we do has to be based on this incredible truth. We are His, that we dwell in His presence.

We need to be reminded of this, at least I do, for life. That is the point of the rest of the message

⁵ Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me. ⁶ And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation

That phrase, “my own special treasure” is also translated as my peculiar possession. Peculiar in the sense of very different, very special. Or as I simply prefer it—precious.

Both peculiar and precious seem like olde words. Words that aren’t used all that much anymore…. And since the Lord of the Rings, people look at you a little strange when you call something “precious!”

But that is the relationship we have with God, this idea that out of all creation, God treasures us more than anything.

And He proved it by heading to the cross in the same way Gollum dove off the precipice after the ring.

Setting aside the shame – but for the joy set before Him, Hebrews tells us – Jesus endured the cross.

But there is a difference…

Alleluia! Jesus is risen!

And therefore, we are risen indeed.

• Give this message to the people!

We are God the Father’s peculiar, precious treasure.

This is what Israel struggled to understand in the desert. They couldn’t understand a God who desired to be their God, to be present and active in their lives.

They couldn’t see a God who would embrace agony because He treasured us. Who would do everything in His power to rescue us, and bring us out of where we were… to be with Him.

God told Moses, “this is the message you must give to the people of Israel”

Moses told them it all about God making them His people–then…and they responded with great joy…and the promise to live in this relationship.

We have an advantage over them. We have the cross and knowing what happened there. Our relationship is based on so much more!

It is based on the Jesus who died, and rose… and having risen, walks with us today. AMEN!

So now I’ve told you—what are you going to do?