The Sixth Sunday of Easter (OT)

Deuteronomy 7:1-11

1 “When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, 2 and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. 3 You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, 4 for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. 5 But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.

6 “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, 10 and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. 11 You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (Dt 7:1–11). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

I love hearing people talk about their favorite toy or possession.  People talk about a blanket that was given to them in which the treasure because it came from their grandmother.  Other people talk about a statue or award given to them for some great occasion.  In other cases people talking about the joy they receive from an activity or playing an instrument.

But here in this text, God is telling us about the thing he treasures most of all.  God has found his pearl that may be worthless to others but he is willing to pay a great price.  God is talking about a treasure that is found in slavery.  A treasure that is found in one man buried in the corner of the field.  This is God's treasured possession.

I don't know where he found you but he did.  He saw you and he went and paid the price for you.  He purchased you from the Kingdom of Satan.  Just as God sent Moses to pay the price for the freedom of his people, he has paid the price for you.  Just as a man bought a small part of land in the corner of the field in order to bury his wife, so Joseph found a small tomb in order to bury our Lord.  These tombs were only meant for a temporary stay.

One day God will raise Abraham and Sarah from Death.  But it was on the Third Day Jesus Christ was raised from the Dead.  He Lives as the propitiation for our sins.  He Lives as the price which God paid for you.  All this he did so that you could be his own treasured possession.