I Will Make Them My Jewels and I will Spare Them!

 

"They shall be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, On the day that I make them My jewels., and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.” Malachi 3:17

When we think of jewels, what do we think of? Something beautiful, shiny, glittering, rare, expensive, and precious, right? Have you ever thought of yourself as a jewel?  Not me! But as I was reading through Malachi, these verses shot out at me. As we dig a little deeper, I think you'll be amazed. 

 

Jewels is the Hebrew word, sᵊḡullâ, which comes from a root word that means "To shut up".  It also means "peculiar treasure". But I found it very telling that the root is "to shut up" as in to take wealth and shut it up, lock it up somewhere safe. Can you see where I'm going with this? 

 

Let's read this verse in context. The verse immediately after gives us more insight into who these jewels are and when God will spare them and "shut" them up in safety

 

Then you shall again discern
Between the righteous and the wicked,
Between one who serves God
And one who does not serve Him. v 18

When does God tell us that He will separate the righteous from the wicked? Isn't it at the harvest (rapture)? Until then, both grow together in the field. 

 

But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’  He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”  Matthew 13:26-30

 

 Wasn't God the one who shut the door of the Ark, separating Noah and his family from the wicked? 

 

But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Matthew 24:37

The next verses in Chapter 4 of Malachi give us no doubt as to what time these verses are talking about, the day of the Lord, the Tribulation.

“For behold, the day is coming,
Burning like an oven,
And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble.
And the day which is coming shall burn them up,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“That will leave them neither root nor branch.
But to you who fear My name
The Sun of Righteousness shall arise
With healing in His wings;
And you shall go out
And grow fat like stall-fed calves.

Malachi 4:1-2

 

So, a day is coming when the righteous who fear the Lord will be spared and He will make us His Jewels...His peculiar treasure to be shut up for safety!  Just another pre-tribulation rapture passage to me, one of many. Yet, the main point I want to make here is 

 

How to become one of the Lords Precious Jewels?  

This passage in Malachi not only tells us we must be righteous (covered by the blood of Jesus) and fear Him, but the verse that comes before all the others above is the most important in my opinion.

 

Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another,
And the Lord listened and heard them;
So a book of remembrance was written before Him
For those who fear the Lord
And who meditate on His name. Malachi 3:16

 

Have you every met a lukewarm Christian? Have you ever spent a lot of time with them? One of the most telling characteristics is that they rarely talk about Jesus. They may mention God in passing or that they prayed for some particular thing, but they don't want to talk about the Lord. They don't want to discuss the Bible either or what God is doing in their life. If you try to bring up those topics, they usually change the subject or look uncomfortable. 

 

But those who truly love Jesus and who have a relationship with Him are always bursting at the seams to talk about Him, how wonderful He is, what He's taught us lately, how excited we are to meet Him one day, how much He has forgiven us, healed us, etc.. We can't help it. It's like a young man or woman when they first fall in love. They never stop talking about their love interest, often to the point where you get sick of hearing it! That's how we should be. And the very cool thing is, that every time we talk about the Lord Jesus with other like-minded Christians, He hears us and He writes our names down in a "Book of Remembrance" for those of us who Fear (as in reverence) Him and meditate on Him or think about Him all the time. 

 

So, you want to be a Jewel? A Peculiar treasure? You want to be spared the horrors coming on the Earth during the Tribulation? You want to have your name written in the Book of Remembrance? Then fall madly in love with Jesus, fear Him, and make Him first in your life.