“Because thou art precious in My sight, art honourable, and I love thee”--three co-ordinate clauses.
(Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Precious
I. PRECIOUS IN GOD’S SIGHT IS MAN. This is a new view of life--not man’s natural feeling. Precious as to the farmer land is which has the possibility of development with digging and draining, and so on,--precious as satisfying not the mere craving for usefulness, but the love of a great heart.
II. WHEN ABLE TO RECOGNISE THIS PRECIOUSNESS IN GOD’S SIGHT WE BECOME HONOURABLE. Before we could recognise it we must be grafted into Christ by a true and living faith. This faith, then, makes us honourable. The honour of a Christian is in--
1. Righteous living.
2. Zeal for the Christian cause. The honour of Christ was to have “the heathen for His heritage.” Entering into this, the honour of Christians is to win souls; and their “crown of joy” in seeing many turning from following idols to the living God.
3. Having a conscience void of offence towards God and man.
III. THE SEAL OF GOD’S LOVE IS THE GREATEST COMFORT TO THE CHRISTIAN HEART.
IV. “I WILL GIVE MEN FOR THEE,” etc. Nation after nation went down into the darkness before the conquering sword of Israel. God’s pity, great as it is, spared not! So we have seen men who have lived; and when that tender, all-forgiving time came--when death laid his icy fingers upon his prey, conscience would not allow us to settle with the thought that in the great future all was well with them. If we cannot enter into God’s inscrutable purposes in this respect we may at least feel that these pass into the arms of death “for us,”--i.e., in the sense of being warnings to us. (H. Rose Rae.)
Precious, honourable, beloved
I. Believer, the first wonderful adjective of the text is applicable to thee; thou art “PRECIOUS.” Notice how that preciousness is enhanced beyond the superlative degree by the next words, “precious in My sight.” There are mock jewels now made which are so exactly like rubies, emeralds, and diamonds that even those who are connoisseurs of precious stones are deceived, and yet these imitations are not precious. They are not precious in the sight of the lapidary, who is able to put them to severer tests, for with him these mimicries are soon proved to be of little value. The degree of preciousness depends much upon the person who forms the judgment; and what estimate can be so accurate as that of God the infallible? What judgment can be so severely exacting as that of God the infinitely holy? This preciousness cannot arise from anything essentially and intrinsically precious in us by nature, for we confess freely that we are even as others in our natural estate. The quarry out of which we were hewn was no quarry of precious things, and the pit out of which we have been digged was no pit in which rare stones were glittering: we were taken from common clay, and out of the ordinary ruin of mankind; yet God saith we are precious, and the fact of our former degradation and fallen estate cannot gainsay the Divine declaration. How is this? It springs out of four consideration--
1. We are precious in the sight of God because of the memories which duster round each one of us. You are to God most precious, as the token and memorial of the death of the Well-beloved.
2. Things become precious sometimes on account of the workmanship exercised upon them. Many an article has been in itself intrinsically of small account, but so much art has been exercised upon it, so much real work thrown into it, that the value has been increased indefinitely. Now, the Christian is precious to God on account of the workmanship that has been spent upon him. In divers ways the Great Worker has wrought mightily in us, and continued perseveringly to pursue His purpose.
3. Certain articles are precious because of their peculiar fashion. This was the case with the Portland vase, which to any common observer seemed to be of very small value, but because of the extreme beauty of the design, the greatest potter of the age was ready to pay his thousands to possess it. We are precious in God’s sight, too, because of our fashion and form. We are to be made like unto Christ.
4. Things are precious often because of their relationship. The most precious thing a mother hath is her dear babe. Precious, therefore, in the sight of the Lord are His saints, because they are born in His household, by regeneration made to be His sons and daughters.
II. Every child of God is “HONOURABLE.” Every Christian is, in God’s sight, right honourable and excellent because the Lord in His discriminating grace has made him precious.
1. Every Christian is honourably born.
2. The Christian, moreover, is honourable in rank. God has been pleased to take us from the dunghill to set us among princes.
3. Right honourable in their service are the saints. I know of no service that can be more distinguished than the doing of good. Methinks the very angels before the throne might envy us poor men who are permitted to talk of Christ, even though it be to little children.
4. Christians are honourable also in privilege. It was accounted an eminent honour when a nobleman had the right to go in to his king whenever he willed to proffer a request. Approach to the royal throne was always, among Orientals, considered to be the highest token of regard. You are especially honoured, O ye saints, for ye are “a people near unto Him.”
5. And every child of God who is what he should be becomes through grace honour-able by his achievements, and this is in some respects the highest form of honour, to be honoured for what you have been enabled to do, to wear a coat of arms which you have fairly won in battle, and hatchments that are not merely attributed to you by the heraldic pencil, but which are due to you because of your victorious feats of arms. To conquer sin, this is no small achievement; to keep down through a long life the corruptions of the flesh, to contend against the world and the devil, these are no deeds of carpet knights. And what an achievement it will be when Satan shall be bruised beneath our feet, as he shall be shortly.
III. The last of these notable words is “BELOVED.” “I have loved thee.” God hath loved thee eternally. He has loved thee actively and effectually, given His Only-Begotten for thee--an unspeakable gift; given thee everything in Him--a boundless dower of love. He has loved thee pre-eminently, better than the angels, for unto which of them has He ever said, “Thou wast honourable, and I have loved thee”? He has loved thee unchangeably. He has loved thee immeasurably. These three things being put together, I want you, practically, as they are your own by faith, to make use of them in other senses. “Since thou wast precious in My sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee.”
1. My Saviour, dost thou say that? Why, those words Thou dost put into my mouth to give back to Thee. Thou also art precious in my sight. Is He not so--precious beyond compare? Therefore is He honourable in our esteem. Will you not honour Him? Shall it not be the continual strife of your soul to get Him renown? “Thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee.” You have loved Him, but, oh, how little! Look not back, then, except with Penitence, but henceforth say: “Lord, Thou hast been honourable, I will love Thee. Forgive the past, kindle in my soul a fresh flame of grace.”
2. When you have so used those words turn them in another direction. Apply them next to every child of God. Let us never think of the children of God in any other way than as honouring them. Some of them are very poor, many of them illiterate, some of them not altogether in temper, action, or creed what we might desire them to be; but if they be bought with the blood of Christ they are honourable. The Lord declares them so, and let us not treat them dishonourably.
3. You might use these words in reference to unconverted men and women. There is a certain sense in which they are applicable to all of woman born, for they possess immortal souls. If that be the case, how honourable all men become as objects of our zeal! “Honour all men.” (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The value and rank of the believer
One of the worst mistakes we could make would be to judge our condition before God by our outward circumstances. Know ye not that the ungodly have their portion in this life? As for the people of God, they are often in great trials.
I. THE LORD COUNTS HIS PEOPLE TO BE PRECIOUS. A child of God is often far other than precious in the sight of others. “The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!” Child of God! thou art precious in God’s sight, and that is infinitely more than being precious to princes. You live in a little room alone, and few know you, and those who do know you do not think much of you; but the Lord says, “Thou art precious in My sight.” How can this be? Read the first verse. “But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel.”
1. It is clear that we are precious to God because we are His creation. The first creation was marred upon the wheel by sin; it became a thing without honour, and came under the curse. But he that believes in Jesus has been created anew by the work of the Holy Ghost. God has in a very special sense created him.
2. He has gone beyond mere creation: having first created the clay, He has formed it. We are not half made or ill made in regeneration; we are formed as well as created. The Lord who has given us spiritual existence is daily giving us fashion and completeness.
3. But what next does He say? “I have redeemed thee.” We have been bought with precious blood.
4. Another blessing of grace is mentioned in the chapter, and that is that God has called us. “I have called thee by thy name; thou art Mine.” He called us, and we answered the call.
5. We have been ever since kept by His rich grace and preserved, and this also has endeared us to the Lord. Do you not think that if you are precious in Christ s sight, then everything that has to do with Him ought to be precious to you? Remember what Augustine said: he declared that he loved every man that had “aliquid Christi”--any thing of Christ--about him. Think once more. If you are precious in God’s sight, do not despise yourself so as to fall into the follies and vanities which please other men. Nobility has its obligations.
II. Being precious, He adds another epithet. “Since thou wast precious in My sight, THOU HAST BEEN HONOURABLE.” How many of God’s people were the reverse of honourable before they knew the Lord! Many a dishonourable thing they thought, and said, and did, and it is the dishonourable life that makes the dis-honourable man. Let a poor child of God tell out how he believes that he is honourable.
1. We are honourable by birth. Some are proud because they have been born of fathers who have been made baronets, or elevated to the peerage in years gone by; thus by birth they are honourable. Descended from the King of kings, each saint has a lineage before which the pedigrees of princes grow stale and mean.
2. Next, we become honourable by our possessions. Men pay honour to those who are immensely rich. “All things are yours.” What an estate is that which belongs to every heir of heaven, for we are “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ”; and thus we become indeed honourable.
3. And the child of God becomes honourable in rank. A child of God is a prince of the Divine line.
4. We then become ennobled by our relationship. Jesus is “the first-born among many brethren”; and we as the younger brethren are all honourable.
5. We are honourable by calling, for He “hath made us kings and priests unto our God”; and these among men are the most noteworthy of all callings.
6. By Divine grace we have become honourable by character, for the Lord has sanctified His people.
7. Theirs is an honour-able life; they live for an honourable purpose; they are quickened by an honourable spirit; they are wending their way through an honourable destiny on earth to glory and honour and immortality and life eternal. The lesson to be learned from it is, do not let any child of God be bashful, shamefaced, and cowardly in the presence of men of the world.
III. “Since thou wast precious in My sight, thou hast been honourable, AND I HAVE LOVED THEE.” The Lord has not only told you of His love in the secret of your soul, but He has publicly acted love to you. If God loves us so, shall we not love Him? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The child of God should live a dignified life
Lions will not be found stealing little bits of meat like cats, or feeding on carrion like dogs. It is not for eagles to hawk for flies; and it is not for children of God to stoop below the glorious level of their new birth. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A great date
Date your birthdays from your regeneration; bury the old nature, and live in the new. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Therefore will I give men for thee
Peoples sacrificed for the Jews
“Mankind for thee, and peoples for thy life.” An the world for this little people? It is intelligible only because this little people are to be for all the world. “Ye are My witnesses that I am God. I will also give thee for a light to nations, to be My salvation to the ends of the earth.” (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
