In the Word of God, we find two expressions that refer to God’s people as treasures. In the Old Testament, we find the phrase “peculiar treasure” mentioned twice, in reference to Israel (Ex. 19:5; Psa. 135:4). There can be no doubt that Israel is the treasure to which Scripture refers, for the expression in Psalm 135 says, “The Lord hath chosen Jacob unto Himself, and Israel for His peculiar treasure.” Israel is also called “a peculiar people” (Deut. 14:2; 26:18). In both cases, the word “peculiar” has the sense of that which is of special value to the one who possesses it. In the New Testament, we find the expression “treasure hid in a field” (Matt. 13:44), and it is clear from the context that the Lord Jesus is referring to the church. The word “peculiar” is also applied to the church in Titus 2:14, again indicating that which is of special value. It is important to understand the difference between these two treasures, for they are not the same, but nor are they in competition with one another.
In the case of Israel, it is clear that they were chosen to be God’s peculiar treasure, but in the language of Exodus 19:5 we find these added words: “All the earth is Mine.” Israel was chosen as God’s treasure on the earth, and it was through them that God laid claim to the earth. When the nations were formed in the beginning, it is recorded that “when the most High divided to the nations their inheritance ... He set the bound of the people according to the number of the children of Israel” (Deut.32:8). In a coming day, when Israel is restored in millennial blessing, God will once again lay claim to this world through them.
“I Will Give”
And under what conditions were they His treasure? Another has put it very well:
As to His “covenant,” it was one of unmingled grace. It proposed no condition — it made no demands. His word to Abraham was, “I WILL GIVE.” The land of Canaan was not to be purchased by man’s doings, but to be given by God’s grace. He evidently had not promised the land of Canaan to Abraham’s seed on the ground of anything that He foresaw in them, for this would have totally destroyed the real nature of a promise. It would have made it a compact and not a promise, “but God gave it to Abraham by promise,” and not by compact — see Galatians 3.
Hence, in the opening of Exodus 19, the people are reminded of the grace in which Jehovah had hitherto dealt with them, and they are also assured of what they should yet be, provided they continued to abide in the “covenant” of free and absolute grace. “Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people.” How could they be this? Would they be “a peculiar treasure” when blasted by the curses of a broken law — a law which they had broken before ever they received it? Surely not. How then were they to be this “peculiar treasure”? By standing in that position in which Jehovah surveyed them when He compelled the covetous prophet [Balaam] to exclaim, “How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel. As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river’s side, as the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters. He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn” (Num. 24:5-8).
Why Was the Law Proposed?
But why, it may be asked, was the law proposed to Israel, when they had no strength to keep it? God saw that it would be good and wholesome for man to know the truth about himself and the nature and extent of God’s claims upon him, and for this end He gave the law. It was the perfect standard of what God required of man, of what man ought to be, and the prohibition of that to which he was strongly inclined. The ten commandments, for the most part, are like an interdict on the human will. “Thou shalt not” ... “thou shalt not” is the stern, prohibitory voice of the moral law.
The office of the law was to detect and register man’s deeds and put in evidence his character as a transgressor. “Wherefore then serveth the law?” says the Apostle Paul. “It was added because of transgression.” From the fall down to the giving of the law at Sinai, man had been left to prove what his fallen nature is without the restraints of law: after that period we see what he becomes when subjected to an authority which forbids and opposes the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Without law men were lawless, under law they are law-breakers, and when Christ came, full of grace and truth, Him they rejected and crucified.
C. H. Mackintosh (adapted)
God’s Peculiar Treasure
Israel was God’s peculiar treasure on the earth, chosen in sovereign grace. It is true that when they voluntarily put themselves under law, they forfeited the blessing on that ground. But God will not be frustrated in His purposes, nor will He fail to keep His promise to Abraham. In a coming day, foretold in the language of Psalm 135, God will bring His peculiar treasure Israel into blessing, but on the same ground as that on which He made the promise to Abraham — His sovereign grace. The finished work of Christ on the cross has already provided the means by which God can do this, and in the millennial day He will have His peculiar treasure displayed on this earth.
The Treasure Hid in the Field
But where does all this leave the “treasure hid in a field”? It is beautiful to see how that God, while not forgetting His earthly treasure, could also find a heavenly treasure hidden in that same world as His earthly treasure. Only His eye could see it, but in order to have it, He purchased the whole field. In that sense, the treasure in the field is still hidden, for although it is in the world, it is not of the world. It will not be seen in its true glory and beauty until it is displayed in heavenly splendor, when the holy city descends out of heaven from God (Rev. 21:9-27). Only then will that treasure be fully displayed, but that display will not be on the earth. Today, while Christ is rejected, it is still hidden in the field and not recognized by the world. But in that day it will be displayed above the earth and for all the earth to view. It is heavenly in character, not earthly, and thus its place is in the heavens, and all its blessings are in heavenly places.
But because of that treasure, God has purchased the whole field — the world — through the work of Christ on the cross. The world was His in right of creation, but Satan usurped that right, and because of the rejection of Christ, Scripture now calls him both the god and the prince of this world. But the day is coming when Christ will take His rightful place and lay claim to that inheritance which is His in a double way — by right of creation and by right of redemption.
Thus, we see that God is not inconsistent in having two treasures, for one is earthly and the other heavenly. On the earth, the blessing was ordained “from the foundation of the world” (Matt. 25:34), while the heavenly company was chosen for blessing “before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4). Both are His treasures, but the church is His jewel — the bride of His beloved Son. She will have the first place and be closest to Christ’s heart, for she dwells with Him where He dwells. But God will not forget His earthly people; they will be His peculiar treasure in the millennial day.
W. J. Prost