Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Malachi 3:17

And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

17. in that day when I make up my jewels ] This rendering is supported by the Hebrew accents, and is adopted substantially in R.V. margin, wherein I do make a peculiar treasure. The phrase, however, to make a treasure, is awkward and unusual, and it seems every way better to take the word (for it is really one word) a-peculiar-treasure as exegetical of the former part of the verse: They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts ( as) a peculiar treasure. This accords with the early use of the same word by Almighty God with reference to Israel (Exo 19:5; Deu 7:6; Deu 14:2; Deu 26:18). And it leaves us free to give the same meaning to the intermediate clause, in the day that I do, or make, here and in ch. Mal 4:3. That clause is rendered by many commentators, and in R.V. text, in the day that I do make. (Comp. Psa 118:24). But the frequent use in the O.T. of the verb here employed, absolutely and without any subject expressed, to denote the doing or working of the Almighty, the nature of that doing or working being undefined, or easily deducible from the context, support the rendering of R.V. margin, in the day that I do this. Perhaps, however, it would be better to leave the subject, as it is, unsupplied, and render, in that day when I do, (or act) i.e. when observation and purpose and promise pass into action. Comp. Psa 22:31 [Heb. 32]; Isa 44:23; Isa 48:11; Jer 14:7; Dan 8:24. This view is confirmed by the emphatic personal pronoun, when I act, both here and in Mal 4:3. The LXX. render in this verse, ; but in Mal 4:3, .

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels – ^o the recurrence of the words, , Mal. 3:21. Hebrew (Mal 4:3 in English), and the Exo. 19:5; so that we have both phrases elsewhere. In Deu 7:6, there is the equivalent , and the like, Deu 14:2; Psa 135:4.) or perhaps better, And they shall be to Me, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day which I make (or, in which I do this) a special treasure. In the day of judgment, those who fear Me and believe and maintain My providence shall be to Me a special treasure, i. e., a people uniquely belonging and precious to Me, blessed in the vision and fruition of Me. For as in the old law, Israel was a special treasure a special people and inheritance of God, chosen out of all nations, so in the new law, Christians, and those who are righteous through grace, are the special treasure of God, and in heaven shall be His special treasure in glory, possessed by God and possessing God. The special treasure, is something, much prized, made great store of, and guarded. Such are Christians, bought at a great price, even by the precious Blood of Christ; but much more evidently such shall they be, Malachi says, in all eternity, which that day of final retribution shall decide , joying in the participation of their Creator, by Whose eternity they are fixed, by Whose truth they are assured, by Whose gift they are holy.

And I will spare them – It is a remarkable word, as used of those who should be to Him a special treasure, teaching that, not of their own merits, they shall be such, but by His great mercy. It stands in contrast with the doom of the wicked, whom that day shall sentence to everlasting less of God. Still, the saved also shall have needed the tender mercy of God, whereby He pardoned their misdeeds and had compassion upon them Psa 130:3, If Thou, Lord, shalt lay up iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Among those whom God will spare on that day, will be countless, whom the self-righteous despised as sinners. I will spare them, although formerly sinners; I will spare them, repenting, and serving Me with the service of a pious confession, as a man spareth his own son which served him. For our Lord saith of the son, who refused to go work in his Fathers vineyard, and afterward repented and went, that he Mat 21:31, did the will of his Father.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Mal 3:17

In that day when I make up My Jewel.

The Lords jewels

How much people think of their jewels. Eastern people are even more fond of jewels than we are, and Eastern ladies are even more lavishly decked with them. How people value their jewels! They count them as their chiefest treasure, so God uses the figure to make us feel how highly He thinks of us, His redeemed ones, who are more and better to Him than mens jewels can be to them. I once knew a lady who was so passionately fond of her jewels that, when the rest of the house hold went to church, and the house was quiet, she would go up to her bedroom, lock the door, spread out all her pearls and diamonds upon the bed, and spend her time in admiring them, one after another. Poor, foolish woman! She could not take them with her through the grave. Our children are our jewels; the friends we love are our jewels; those whom we try to bless and save become precious to us as jewels. Then whom does God count among His jewels?

I. The penitent. Who is humble before God. The publican in the temple was one of the Lords jewels.

II. The returning. Who is a seeker after God. The prodigal was one of the Lords jewels.

III. The consecrated. Who is wholly Gods. The apostle Paul was one of the Lords jewels. God will take care of his jewels now, and in the great day. See Christs prayer, None of them is lost. (Robert Tuck, B. A.)

Jewels

1. Gods jewels–His people.

(1) For their rarity.

(2) Their beauty.

(3) Their value.

(4) Their preservation.

2. The means by which He collects them.

(1) His word and ordinances.

(2) The dispensations of His providence.

(3) The influence of His Holy Spirit.

3. The period when He shall make them up.

(1) At the hour of death.

(2) On the day of judgment. (A. Brooks.)

The fear of God rewarded

The expression used by the prophet conveys to us a strong idea of the pleasure which our Lord will Himself experience in executing this office of making up His jewels. He will then see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. We trace the idea of pleasure in the term jewels. And they are His jewels, for He has bought them with a price, and no less a price than that of His own most precious blood. The idea of pleasure on His part in the performance of this work is completed in the expression, make up My jewels. We see Him rejoicing that the time is come, when to the gift of grace He may add that of glory; and finally exulting that not one of all that the Father hath given Him is wanting to His crown. As if we might want something more closely and readily applicable than this figurative language, He adds, And I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. In what manner are they described, who are to be the passive subjects of His mercy in that day? The first characteristic is that they feared the Lord. This fundamental grace of godly fear is the sure and safe road to the higher attainments of love. All who will be His jewels there, must fear Him in some degree here, that they may love Him in perfection hereafter. To know whether you fear Him, ask yourselves, and that with searching honesty, whether you shrink from an evil thought; whether you strive manfully against your imaginations when they set in the direction of lust, malice, or covetousness; or willingly float down the current to certain distance, only taking pains to avoid the last precipice towards which it leads. If you face Him with that holy fear, which is the result of a living faith, you will prove it, not by your thoughts and actions only, but by your words. Then they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another. To such God says, They shall be Mine. Is your conversation such as to warrant your entertaining a hope that you have an interest in this gracious promise? (J. Marriot, A. M.)

Believers are the jewels of Christ

I. Gods regard for his people. They are described as Gods jewels, therefore dear and valuable to Him; those on whom He looks with complacency; they were dearly purchased, bought with a price, infinitely above all earthly treasures. He speaks of them in an endearing manner as My jewels. The text also gives another token of Divine regard–His sparing mercy. Every parent will fully enter into the figure here used

II. The time appointed for the manifestation of this regard. In that day. It betokens either temporal visitation, the day of death, or the clay of judgment. Probably the final clay is meant, when He will vouchsafe a peculiar manifestation of His favour.

III. The security by which this promise is confirmed. This security is not of man, but of God. They shall be Mine. (W. Mayers, A. M.)

Jehovahs jewels

I. The precious in principle. Regard for the greatness of God. Obedience to the commands of God. Dread of the punishment of God. Trust in the mercy of God. Fear of God is the foundation of piety; it casts out all other fear.

II. The precious in practice.

1. Frequent religious association. They often met together apart from the world. An expression of spiritual separation from evil society. An index of devotedness to a common purpose.

2. Concentrated mental action. Thought upon His name. Mind the greatest thing in man. The believer sees God in all things, and his meditation of Him is sweet. Constant mutual edification–Speak often, etc. Information, counsel, warning, encouragement.

III. The precious in privilege.

1. Divine attention. God hearkened and heard it.

2. Divine remembrance. And a book, etc. All the services of the good registered for compensation.

3. Divine promise. Tender treatment. I will spare. Great honour. They shall be Mine. Great destructiveness. Then shall ye return. (B. D. Johns.)

The dignity of the people of God

1. The people of God are dignified with the Divine approbation.

2. By the Divine solicitude.

3. By the Divine security.

4. By the Divine regard. They are to Him as jewels.

5. By a Divine promise.

I will spare them. Learn from this subject full confidence in God. He has made full provision for you in the obedience and death of Jesus. He will take care of you here, and glorify you with dignity hereafter. Also learn humility; for what maketh you to differ from others but the grace of God alone? (Hugh Allen, M. A.)

The making up of Gods jewels

The Lord makes up His jewels–

1. By the word and ordinances of His grace. The word of inspiration is the grand instrument which the Lord uses for hewing His jewels out of the rock of corrupt nature, and bringing them from the dark mine of misery to the light of everlasting felicity. It is an instrument of great power. It commands holiness, supplies motives, and presents encouragements to the mind. The exercises of praise and prayer are admirably adapted to refine and polish the soul in the beauties of holiness,

2. By the operations and dispensations of His providence. Looking at providence on a comprehensive scale, redemption is its most striking and grand display. The darkest as well as the brightest aspects of providence are necessary to the making up of Gods jewels. Gods own saints are often the better for being afflicted. Trials are necessary to purify the Church from corruptions, to cleanse the heart, and rectify the life of individuals, and to beautify them both severally and collectively in time, and make their character shine in the light of eternity.

3. By the work and influences of His Spirit. The word and ordinances of grace, aided by the operation and dispensations of providence, can do nothing to convert or sanctify a single soul, unless the Spirit accompany them with His blessing. Just as the hammer, or the chisel, or the saw, or the file, without the hand of the mechanic, cannot hew a single jewel out of the quarry of nature, or polish it into beauty, so without the agency of the Holy Spirit, ordinances and providences, powerful instruments though they are, cannot convince a sinner of sin, or lead him from the paths of error into the way of God. The Holy Spirit dwells in the heart s of believers to polish and fit them for shining as jewels in the mediatorial crown of glory. Let all Christians then, make a right improvement, both for their own and their brethrens sake, of Gods dealings. The more faith Christians exercise, the more godly will they become; and the more godly they are here, the brighter shall they shine hereafter in that world where everlasting peace reigns, and grace never declines, where the sun of glory never sets, and where the sky of blessedness is never overcast with clouds. (John Shoolbraid.)

The Lords jewel

s:–

I. How may the saints be compared to jewels? The word translated jewels (segullah) signifies a treasure, a peculiar treasure, as the Church of the Jews compared to all the nations of the earth. The saints of God are more excellent in the sight of God than all other men. They may be compared to jewels–

1. Because of their rarity. Jewels are only found in certain places, and only worn by certain persons. So the saints are said to be a very little flock.

2. Because they cost the Lord Jesus very dear. Jewels are costly things. Being rare, they are enhanced in price. The Son of God redeemed these jewels by His own blood. This is a price of incalculable value.

3. Because He has an infinite esteem of them. They are His treasure, and His affections are where they are. Since they were purchased by the blood of His Son, they are precious in His sight and honourable. He thinks on them with approbation, He speaks of them, and to them, with delight.

4. Because He keeps them in safety. They are set on His heart and cannot be taken away.

II. How shall the lord make up his jewels? This refers either to His work in His jewels in time, or to His procedure at the day of judgment. It may refer to His work of grace in taking them all from the corrupted mass of human nature. He begins the work of sanctification in them, and brings it to a glorious issue. God refines His people by His Spirit, by His word, and by His providences, till they become without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. In the last sense of the declaration, they shall be made up, when their number is completed in the day of the Lord. And they shall all be presented perfect in holiness.

III. What is the day on which the Lord shall make up his jewels? The great and notable day of the Lord. A day which shall be the end of time, the end of the world, and of the present system of things. A day for which saints are constantly preparing, for which they wait, which they love, and to which they are hastening. (Leumas.)

My jewels

Here is an inspired truth, setting forth the relation subsisting between God and His people, and illustrating His love for, and joy in, them.

I. Gods own estimation of the real value of a sincere Christian. He calls them His jewels or His peculiar treasure. All rare and beautiful and precious things in earth and heaven are employed as metaphorical of the value God puts upon His people and the affection He bears them. A Christian man is more than a spirit, he is a redeemed and regenerated spirit. The value of a gem is not in its composition, but in its crystallisation. Even a diamond is composed mostly of carbon, but differs from the black coal of our furnaces only in this mysterious transfiguration. And a change analogous to this has every saved soul undergone. The spiritual man has, through gracious crystallisation, become a gem, reflecting Divine light, and thus fitted for a diadem. What marvel then that God counts His people more precious than the stars, and calls them His peculiar treasure.

II. An explanation of Gods strange treatment of his children. The true believer may say, If I am thus valued, why does He so afflict me? The text suggests the answer. After finding or purchasing a gem, the next thing is to polish it. And this is always a gentle work. Of the rarer gems the ancients supposed the cutting and polishing impossible. The large diamonds which ornamented the imperial mantle of Charlemagne are yet preserved as uncut crystals. It was only later that men learned how the diamond might be cut, by attrition with another diamond, and polished on a wheel charged with diamond dust. And herein is found the only criterion of the true gem. The service of the Christians afflictions is twofold. They prove and they polish the spiritual gem.

1. They are necessary to prove it. There are many counterfeits in religion. Any reliable test of godliness must have power to go beneath the outward show into the real essence.

2. Even when the piety is sincere, such afflictions are useful to develop and discipline it. Before the diamond is set in a kingly crown it must be roughly pressed on the diamond wheel. All afflictions are Gods means of polishing. Here we are instructed as to the seeming partiality of Gods treatment of different Christians, for men may be equally pious, and alike dear to our Heavenly Father, and yet their mortal experiences be widely dissimilar. Gems are of different degrees of hardness, and are to be set in different conditions. They require very variant cutting, and unequal polishing. So with the true people of God; one is only smoothed with a file, while another must be pressed on the grinding wheel. He will not grind His jewels more than they need.

III. A prediction of the future dignity and glory of the children of God. In the day when I make up My jewels. The reference is to the great day of Christs coming. The metaphor is of a mighty conqueror, who, having overthrown all enemies, appears laden with spoil, leading captive his foes, marching in triumph, magnificent in regalia, over the royal highway. Then Gods saints will be gathered to Christ, and Gods jewels be made up as precious stones into a crown, or as stars into a constellation. In that great day of manifestation the moral rather than the natural attributes of God are to be especially glorified. It is only in the economy of grace that what we may term the Divine affections are perfectly displayed. Let this fair picture be hung in our chambers of imagery. This material universe is only a great platform, erected temporarily for the coronation of Immanuel, and the redeemed spirits of the just made perfect. Gods jewels,–or as Isaiah has it, Gods crown of glory, Gods royal diadem. The richest gems blazing in the many crowns of Immanuel will be the souls of Christs redeemed ones–these diamonds, dug from the black caverns of death–these pearls, brought up from the stormy depths of hell–these blood-bought, grace-preserved, grief-polished jewels of God. (Charles Wadsworth, D. D.)

The jewels of the King

1. Jewels represent superlative value. Natures jewels differ from Gods, which are conscious and immortal. And yet by valuable things God illustrates His appreciation of His children.

2. They represent surpassing beauty. Gems are natures loveliest gifts. In Gods sight natural pales before spiritual beauty. We are only beautiful when the beauty of the Lord our God is upon us. Gods brightest earthly jewels are yet incomplete. When the cutting and burnishing are finished, they are to shine as the stars forever.

3. They represent costly and self-sacrificing toil in their discovery and ownership. When a Brazilian slave finds a gem of seventeen carats, he wins his freedom. At what enormous cost God secures a soul!

4. Their worth and beauty represent the triumphs of science and art. Diamonds are never worn in the rough. God develops the worth and spiritual beauty of His children by the ministry of suffering. No lapidary ever knew so well when and where to cut a crown jewel as does our Heavenly Father.

5. The King will gather His gems into His royal palace. God has long loaned His jewels to the communities of earth. When the sun darkens, His angels are to gather them from every land and sea. (S.V. Leech, D. D.)

The Lords jewels

1. This title shows the estimation in which God holds His people. In the Bible, God avails Himself of one good or beautiful thing to describe another. The Christian is like a cedar in Lebanon, the most majestic and beautiful tree in the forest. Heaven is a city of golden walls and gates of pearl. So here, in like manner, He calls His people jewels. The emerald, the ruby, and the diamond, are the most precious and costly things in nature. These are the things which God takes to illustrate the estimation in which He holds the good. He knows the Capabilities of these immortal souls, that they can be equal to the angels, through the redemption of His Son Jesus Christ.

2. This title, jewels, suggests a reason why Gods people are sometimes so exercised by the providences of God. When diamonds and other gems are first found, they are usually covered with a dark, rusty coating, every particle of which must be removed. This process is long and expensive. Their brilliancy cannot be fairly seen without it. The famous Koh-i-noor diamond was subjected to repolishing with the help of a steam-engine for twenty-three days and twelve hours each day. So it was with Job, and Joseph, and Jacob, and many others whom God chose as His jewels. This disciplinary process is still going on in the present age, in innumerable ways, by disease, loss of property, family afflictions, etc. Ill-treatment at the hand of one we have been accustomed to esteem is especially hard to endure. But it is needed. There is nothing that can polish the diamond like the diamond itself. Two diamonds are rubbed, the one upon the other, and the dust thus obtained is used for polishing. So, by the natural constitution of the soul, and the providence of God, there may be nothing so good for polishing as afflictions sent upon us by others. They may seem to have an opposite effect for a time; may seem to ruffle our temper, and make us rebellious and antagonistic; but, by and by, through the influence of the Holy Spirit, like the vegetable oil that is mixed with the diamond dust to polish the diamond,–the Holy Spirit working with these afflictions,–our tempers will be subdued, and the peaceable fruits of righteousness will be worked out thereby.

3. This name which the Lord applies to His people warrants us in the belief that God will never lose sight of any one of them. To say that God would surrender one of His people, permit him to fall away and be lost, is to declare a thing which is inconsistent for God to do. But does any one say, Good! that just suits me; I am going to live just as I please, for I shall get home to heaven at last anyhow. Then be sure that you are one of His jewels. If you are not, the result may be terribly and eternally disastrous. The truth is, that no true child of God will make any such resolution, or entertain such a thought. There are some who do wander away from God; not, however, with a deliberate purpose so to do, but because they have been led captive by the enemy. But God will never lose sight of His jewel, but will follow him by His Spirit and His providences, making use of those things that are best calculated to bring a rational soul back again to the fold from whence it had wandered away. (Homer MVay.)

Gods crown jewels

I. The name by which God calls his people. My jewels. The comparison suggests–

1. The preciousness of good people. Jewels are, on account of their intrinsic worth, or historic interest, the most valuable and highly prized things on earth. God alone can comprehend the value of a soul. He knows the price which was paid for his ransom.

2. Good people are compared to jewels on account of their beauty. How the diamond sparkles and flashes! But its beauty is eclipsed when compared with the beauty of holiness which God puts upon all His saints. That beauty is not fully disclosed on earth.

3. Gods people are like jewels because they need so much polishing. While a single stain of sin remains upon our souls we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. Every trial the Spirit of God employs as a means of sanctifying us, and polishing us, to shine among the crown jewels of heaven.

II. God claims a special property in good men. They shall be Mine. All souls belong to Him by creation and preser ration: but true believers are His by redemption.

III. God watches over his people, so that not one of them is lost, When I make up My jewels. They are widely scattered now, but He will bring them together by and by. On the day when He shall crown Immanuel Lord of all not one of them shall he missing. (David Winters.)

Crown jewels

The Lord Jesus has been gathering up His treasures for a good while, and on the great coronation day of the judgment He will, in the presence of the assembled universe, show that the good of all ages are His crown jewels. I speak to you of the jewel-finding, the jewel-grinding, the jewel-setting. You have noticed the great difference between jewels. Let not a Christian man envy another Christian mans experience. You open the kings casket, and you see jewels of all sizes, shapes, and colours. Do not worry because you dont have the faith of that man, or the praying qualities of this, or the singing qualities of another. The trouble is that you are not willing to be ordinary gold, you want to be gold of twenty-four carats. Notice jewel-grinding. Christian character, like black spots in an amethyst, must sometimes be cleared out by the flame; it must go through the furnace. Nearly all Gods jewels are crystallised tears. You can tell Gods jewel, as the lapidary tells the diamond. If the breath of temptation comes on it, and soon vanishes, it is a real diamond. Note the jewel-setting. The lapidary gets the gems in the right shape, gathers them on his table, and then puts them into head-bands, or hilts of swords, or into crowns. The Lord Jesus will gather up His people, and before the assembled universe their splendour shall shine forth. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)

Gem formation

In nature there is hardly a stone that is not capable of crystallising into something purer and brighter than its normal state. Coal, by a slightly different arrangement of its particles, is capable of becoming the radiant diamond. The slag cast out from the furnace as useless waste, forms into globular masses of radiating crystals. The very mud on the road, trampled under foot as the type of all impurity, can be changed by chemical art into metals and gems of surpassing beauty. God can make jewels out of the most worthless rubbish. Let the cases of John Newton, of the woman that was a sinner, of the thief upon the cross, of Augustine, of John Bunyan, of Colonel Gardiner, and of thousands more, bear witness to the almighty power of the alchemy of Divine grace. It only requires a supreme surrender of ourselves into the hands of the Holy Spirit to ensure the Scripture assurance, They shall be Mine in that day when I make up My jewels. (Cyclopaedia of Nature Teachings.)

A name for Gods people

The impiety and irreligion which so strongly marked the character, both of priests and people, in the days of this prophet, are concentrated, as it were, in Mal 3:13-15. Amidst this general departure from God, others existed of a different description. Note–

1. The endearing name here given to the people of God. Jewels. His jewels, or special treasure. Jewels are often purchased at an immense price. The people of God are bought with a price. They may be called jewels from the comparative fewness of their number. And also from their glory and beauty. It is customary for the great and noble of the earth to adorn themselves with their jewels on particular occasions, and so the Lord glories in His people, and sets them as a seal upon His heart, and has them graven on the palms of His hands.

2. The expression, When I make up My jewels. These figurative words refer to the care and attention of the jeweller in polishing and arranging his jewels, so as to make them appear to the best advantage. So shall it be with the redeemed–Gods jewels.

3. The time for making up the jewels is that day. Either the day of the Christians death, or the day of final judgment.

4. God says of His people, They shall be Mine. Not that the people of God were ever, at any time, not His. The expression indicates some special sign of favour. (D. Adams.)

God and good men

I. Good men are precious to God. They are here spoken of as jewels. They are precious as loving children are precious to their parents. Can a woman forget her suckling child? etc. Precious. He knows–

1. The worth of their existence.

2. The cost of their restoration.

3. The greatness of their capabilities.

Great as God is, a really true man is precious in His sight.

II. Good men are collected by God. In that day when I make up My jewels. He will gather them together one day: they are now scattered abroad. By death He brings them together into a glorious social state, the Heavenly Jerusalem.

III. Good men are claimed by God. They shall be Mine. They shall be sure to love Me and to serve the interests of My creation–My friends, My children, etc. (Homilist.)

My jewels

This is what God calls His people.

I. Some reasons why Christians are like jewels.

1. Because jewels are very beautiful. God never made anything that looks more lovely than some jewels do. Christians are beautiful, but their beauty is not their own. When they learn to know Jesus, and to love and serve Him, they become like Him, and this is what makes them beautiful.

2. Jewels are very valuable. Therefore we call them precious stones.

3. Jewels are hard to polish. The men who polish are called lapidaries, from the Latin lapis, a stone. There are specks on us which must be removed by polishing, and this is always hard and trying work. Church and Sunday school may be regarded as Gods polishing shop. (R. Newton, D. D.)

Divine jewels

I. The dignity of the truly good. If we are His people, we are very dear to God. None of us can rightly estimate His wondrous love. God loves us so much that He cannot do without us. As a true-hearted man cares for his bride, so the Lord likens Himself to a lover who graves the name of his bride upon the palm of his hand. Some people are afraid this wonderful love will change as we change. No, Gods love to us is the same to-day as when first we prayed. The Lords forbearance and forgiveness is the most wonderful of His attributes. And God is very earnest in seeking His jewels.

II. The certainty of the future glory of the lords people. People are apt to imagine that because time moves slowly on, as if with leaden feet, that the great day here spoken of will not come. But it is sure to come to every one. We shall surely see the King of kings coming to judge men on the earth. (W. Birch.)

Gods people regarded as His jewels

I. The people of God, such as fear Him, are His jewels. The fear of God is often put for all religion. They that fear Him are such as have not only the form, but the power of godliness. Such may be styled jewels as rare, and comparatively few: on account of their excellency; by reason of the place they have in Gods value and esteem; and in His care: as He esteems Himself honoured by them, and greatly delights in them. God calls them My jewels, as He is the efficient or maker of them: the owner and disposer of them; and as they are set apart for Himself.

II. What is implied in making them up? This may be considered with reference either to their being at present dispersed and mixed with others, or imperfect as to themselves. It may mean His taking them out from the company of all others. God will collect all His people into one body. Or Gods making them up may imply, finishing what concerns either soul or body, and making them completely happy, as to both, to all eternity He will free them from all the imperfections of their present state.

III. There is a day coming wherein God will thus make up his jewels.

1. The day of the saints dissolution.

2. The day of the general resurrection.

IV. How they shall be the Lords in that day. Then they shall be proclaimed to be jewels–

1. To testify His knowledge and approbation of them.

2. To shame and silence the hard censures to which they were liable from a malignant world.

3. This will tend to the greater confusion of the prince of darkness.

4. Such a declaration will invite an universal regard to the faithfulness of God, in what He promised to them, and engaged to do for them.

V. The title under which God is represented as resolving upon the happiness of his people. Saith the Lord of hosts. A foundation of hope and comfort. As He has power enough to engage for them. As He hath an absolute sway over all their enemies. It shows that the number of the finally saved will be great, not small. (D. Wilcox.)

The Lords jewels

The verse before the text contains the praise of a little company of Israelites who, in the midst of abounding iniquity, feared the Lord, and thought upon His name. A day comes when all such shall be known, and when the Lord shall make up His jewels. Are jewels with toil and danger and cost torn from earths safe keeping? So are the Lords chosen ones redeemed from the earth by the precious blood of Gods dear Son. Are they procured by persevering search? So the Lord left heaven and came to earth to seek that which was lost. Are jewels gathered from all lands and from the isles of the sea? So are the Lords chosen people. Do jewels of earth vary in their colour, their splendour, their worth? So are there among the Lords people diversities of gifts, to each his proper place, to each his proper talent, to each at last a place in the Saviours diadem, some to shine with meek and placid light, some with stronger and deeper brilliancy; but the brightest and best of all the fair jewels of the eternal world will be those who have most of the Saviours image in them. Jewels are safely treasured, carefully deposited in the secret casket of their possessor, to be brought forth on the festive or the bridal day, and gill Chat day arrives are little known to anyone but their owner. So are the Lords chosen ones in the secret place of the Most High. But in the day when the Lord makes up His jewels each shall be found in its proper setting, each shall shine with its proper lustre. (W. H. Perkins.)

Gods jewels

More closely rendered, the passage is They shall be My peculiar treasure in the day I am preparing. For one, I like the familiar phraseology in our common version. Christians are Christs jewels. They are purchased by atoning blood; at an infinite price was this Divine ownership secured. As the pearls are only won from the depths of the sea by the dangerous dive of the fishers, so were the pearls for Messiahs crown brought up from the miry depths of depravity by the descent of that Divine Sufferer who came to seek and to save the lost. The most brilliant and precious gem known to us is of the same chemical substance as the black and opaque coal of the mine. Crystallisation turns the carbon into the diamond. The grace of the Lord Jesus transforms an opaque soul, as black by nature as the jet, into a jewel which reflects the glory of Christs countenance. All the lustre that the ripest Christian character possesses is but the reflection of the Sun of Righteousness. He who lives nearest to Jesus shines the brightest. The tarnish which makes some Christians no more slightly than a common pebble of the mire, comes from contact with an evil world. A pearl cast before swine is not more out of place than is a professed follower of Jesus in the society of scoffers, or in the haunts of revelry. Not all precious jewels glitter in conspicuous positions. The Master has His hidden ones; there are costly sapphires beneath coarse raiment, and up in the dingy attic of poverty. That self-denying daughter who wears out her youthful years in nursing a poor infirm mother, is a ruby of whom the Master saith, Thou art Mine in the day when I gather My jewels. (T. C. Cuyler.)

Gods estimate of Christian character

I. The Christian character as illustrated by the simile of the text–Jewels. This is suggestive–

1. Of the beauty of that character. God delights in all beauty, but most of all in that moral excellence which adorns His people. Let us seek to realise this perfection. Flaws in jewels greatly depreciate their value and mar their beauty; so do faults in Christians.

2. Of the strength of that character. Jewels are not easily broken, do not wear, do not fade. The religion of true Christians is not a fancy or a fashion, but principle, habit, power. Tried by sorrow, sickness, temptation, persecution, it yields not.

3. Of the preciousness of that character. Jewels are of exceeding value, so are Gods people. They are precious in their influence upon society, and society sometimes knows it. The saints are ever precious to God. Who shall tell how much He loves His people?

II. Let us observe in what sense the saints are called the Lords jewels. My jewels.

1. Because by Him they were rescued from a condition of impurity and darkness. A jewel may well be called his who risked his life to secure it.

2. Because to Him they owe their purity and glory. True saints feel that Christ has washed and perfected them, and they rejoice to give Him all the glory.

3. Because to Him they owe their protection and security. God takes care of His jewels (Job 1:10). I give unto them eternal life, and none shall pluck them out of My hands.

III. The future glory and distinction of the righteous. They shall be Mine.

1. They shall be His confessedly. Now we return, and cannot discern between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not, but God shall then acknowledge us openly. He shall take the gem that may have been counted a mere offscouring, and set it in His crown.

2. They shall be His unitedly. Make up. Gods people are scattered now, but then they shall be gathered together.

3. They shall be His everlastingly. Made up. All trial over, and their state for ever settled in heaven. (W. L. Watkinson.)

The Redeemers jewels

Little or nothing is known historically of the prophet Malachi. The time, the place, the circumstances of his birth are all unknown. We know nothing of his ancestors and nothing of his descendants, if he had any. Like a meteor he starts up suddenly in the horizon of the Church, and after running a brief career of exceeding brightness he disappears as suddenly, leaving no trace behind except the few pages of thrilling prophecy with which the Old Testament closes. His name signifies the messenger of Jehovah. It was a period of fearful religious degeneracy. But not all of the captives who returned from Babylon had corrupted themselves; there were some noble exceptions; a remnant was preserved, a few remained faithful to their covenant with Jehovah. To this faithful remnant our text refers.

I. The jewels. Where shall we search for them? Not above in the garnished heaven of sparkling worlds; not below in the mines of hidden wealth of gold and silver, where men toil hard and long to gain what they deem precious; not where the topaz, the coral, and the diamond sparkle; not in our national galleries thronged with rare products of nature and art; not in the museums, with their vast collection of valuable antiquities; not in the wardrobes and chests where the rich and noble lock up their lustrous gems and jewels, to be seen and worn only on high festivals. Not there must we look for Jehovahs precious treasures. We must look for them in souls that have put on Christ, men who have become partakers of the Divine nature, who have been created anew after the image of His Son. God estimates men not by their physical structure, not by their mental qualities, not by their learning or wealth, but by their harmony or disharmony with His will, by their sympathy or want of sympathy with His character and authority, by their dominant thoughts and feelings concerning Himself. They feared the Lord–not that guilty tormenting fear which drives man away from God, that shudders with remorse in His presence, that trembles beneath His frown, but that holy fear which reverently approaches God, that devoutly yearns for His fellowship, and yet is awed by a sense of His nearness, that fear which covets His favour, and whose highest heaven is to live in the light of His approval, that fear which remembers His covenant and submits to His kingly authority. They thought upon His Name. Twice He had revealed that Name to their fathers; once to Moses as the I Am, and once to Abraham as I am God All-sufficient. To Moses He proclaimed what He is in Himself, the I Am, the Self-contained, the Self-Existent, the Absolute, the Source of life and being. To Abraham He proclaimed what He is to His people, God All-sufficient. The All-satisfying portion, the All in All. This Great Name was ever in the thought of the faithful remnant; they pondered over it as revealed to their fathers; they gloried in its infinite superiority to the gods of the heathen. They spake often one to another. They not only thought about God in solitude and silence, but they cheered and strengthened one another in evil times by rehearsing together the wonderful things which God had done for them and for their fathers. It was no empty idle talk; it was so good that Jehovah hearkened and heard.

II. The counting up of His jewels. The text implies that a period is coming when the Lord of hosts will make up or count up His jewels. But why number them?

1. That the Redeemer may have the satisfaction of knowing how many. Of all the works of God, the great redemption by Christ is the greatest and costliest. He upholds all things by the word of His power. But He cannot redeem a lost race by a word of command or a fiat of His will. To redeem will cost Him an effort, a sacrifice, even the greatest sacrifice that God can make. On earth, under the pressure of an infinite sorrow, He was cheered by a glimpse of His future reward. For the joy set before Him He endured the Cross, despising the shame. He shall see His seed, a holy multitude which no man can number, and as He surveys them He will rejoice in them as witnesses that He has not laboured in vain.

2. He will count His jewels, that the intelligent universe may know how many, that Jesus Christ may give to hell as well as heaven, to demons as well as holy angels, to the lost as well as to the saved, evidence that redemption has not been a failure, but a complete success, a splendid triumph. When He makes up His jewels it will be found that there are more men in heaven than in hell. Jesus will have the majority. The minority would scarcely satisfy the great heart of Him who endured the Gethsemane agony and the shameful death of the Cross.

3. That Jesus Christ may be assured that all the faithful are there, and that not one is wanting. The King whom the saints serve has His book of chronicles where the name of every faithful one and all his noble deeds are minutely recorded (Est 6:1-3). We find frequent allusions to this book of records in the Scriptures (Psa 56:8; Heb 6:10; Rev 3:5; Luk 10:20). When the Lord of hosts makes up His jewels there will be something analogous to the calling of the roll. Jesus Christ has covenanted with the Father that He will keep all those committed to Him. There must be no ground for the Father in that day to charge the Son with unfaithfulness, with having lost one through inability or neglect. Jesus Christ has also covenanted with us that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. There must be no room in that day for a single soul to say, I believed in His Name, and yet He has not saved me.

III. The exhibition of His jewels. Having called the roll and ascertained that all the faithful ones are there, He will exhibit them, hold them up as His most magnificent trophies, His greatest, noblest work. Some of us are old enough to remember the first Great Exhibition of the Industries of all Nations in 1851. On the first entering that Palace of all Nations how impressive, how overwhelming the scene! We have had similar exhibitions since in Paris, Chicago, and elsewhere. Jesus Christ is going to have the greatest exhibition the universe has ever known. Throughout the centuries He has been preparing for it. In China, India, and Japan, on the continents of Europe, Africa, America, and Australia, in the islands of the sea, in northern latitudes among the Esquimaux and Laplanders, Gods agents are building up characters and beautifying souls for the great exhibit. All nations will be represented in that vast gathering. On the Cross He made a public exhibition of the enemies He conquered Having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly. But when He comes on His throne of judgment He will exhibit His friends, make a show of them openly, that the intelligent universe may behold and admire His workmanship in the innumerable multitude He has saved and sanctified, the jewels He has burnished and made to flash with the beauty of God. There are the children of sorrow and afflictions on whom God has employed the chisel, the hammer, and the file to beautify and glorify them. Millions more of all climates and countries, of all nations and ages, will be there. Their names may not be registered in the chronicles of earth, or carved in enduring marble, but they are written in the chronicles of the King of saints, and He will publish them in high places in the hearing of the principalities and powers in,, that day when He makes up His jewels.

IV. The appropriating of them. They are Mine. Under Roman law when a man received into his family a stranger and adopted him as a son two ceremonies were necessary; the one domestic the other legal, the one private the other public. The ceremony of adoption was first observed in the family, where the stranger was formally received and acknowledged as son in the presence of the entire household. But in order to make the new relation between the adopting father and the adopted son legal, the ceremony must also be observed publicly in the presence of civil authorities and witnesses. The saints here on earth are brought into the family of God, become members of the household of faith, receive the Spirit of adoption whereby they cry Abba, Father. This adoption is private; the knowledge of it is limited at first to God and the adopted believer. Afterwards it becomes known only to a limited circle of kindred spirits, to whom the adopted may communicate the joyful fact. It is not an event that the world cares to hear, or that awakens interest in any beyond the select few. But our text points to a period when there will be a public recognition of them as the sons of God. In that day. This will not take place in this life, not at death, and not on the entrance of each soul into the heavenly world, but at the general resurrection. Until then only a fragment of the saintly nature will be glorified. The Old Testament saints are not to be perfected without us or before us; the New Testament saints are not to be perfected before the saints of the Old Covenant: we are to be perfected together. Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Noah, Moses, etc., will not be made perfect without us. See how changed, how transfigured they all are, how old things have passed away and all things have become new; they owe it all to Me and to My dying love, therefore they are all Mine. To-day they are to be crowned kings for ever. (Richard Roberts.)

Touchstones of character

Cornelias noble answer to the haughty princess who, on one occasion, visited her, is worthy of remembrance. Proudly displaying her own flashing jewels, her royal guest said, And where are yours? upon which the mother of the Gracchi, as proudly calling her children, said, These are my jewels. And He who sits upon the sapphire throne, and has round about Him a rainbow like unto an emerald, and who created all earths riches for His own pleasure, yet places the highest value on the humble man, who, by faith in Christ Jesus, becomes a son of God.

1. Jewels are rare. In comparison with common stones there are very few of them. De la Bruyere says, Next to sound judgment, diamonds and pearls are the rarest things to be met with. But rarer still are the true children of God. Not one man in fifty the world over is a true Christian. As, after all the search of the ages, there are not now more than one hundred great diamonds–a very small number when we think of the efforts put forth to discover them–so those who live the life more abundant are still in a very meagre minority.

2. For jewels are precious. The richest merchandise of all, says Pliny, and the most sovereign commodity throughout the world, are these pearls. In recent days, for the Arabian Pearl, 1,10,000 was offered and refused: and almost fabulous sums have been paid even for one precious stone. After the pearl, the ruby is far and away the most valuable, in proportion to its size; but never being found except in comparatively small fragments, has not had that halo of romance associated with it which has surrounded some diamonds. For instance, the Great Mogul Diamond, that meteor amongst gems, which was lost in the Tartar invasion, was valued at 600,000; the Regent of Portugal is worth 400,000; the Orloff, 370,000; the Matan of Borneo, 269,000; the Koh-i-Noor, 140,000; while from Africa alone there come diamonds to the value of 5,000,000 each year. In the light of these things let us ponder the value God sets upon His chosen. Nothing is so excellent in the eyes of men but God compares His people to it. As precious stones are the aristocracy of minerals, Christians are the aristocracy of men.

2. Jewels, moreover, are pure. This, indeed, is the chief part of their value; for the degree of impurity in any stone is just the measure of its depreciation. The initial act of their formation is separation. Keep thyself pure, thou child of God.

4. And jewels are brilliant. The only difference between a black object and a brilliant one, say between a coal and a diamond, is in their disposal of light. The one receives the light, sucks it up, and selfishly keeps it. It thus becomes black. The other receives the light, but to reflect it back again from a hundred facets. This is the brilliant. And the worldly man, receiving the blessing of God, which He sends upon the just and the unjust, seeks not the glory of the Great Giver; while the true child of God, getting greater grace, finds his chief end in glorifying God and enjoying Him for ever. This people, saith the Lord, I have formed for Myself; they shall shew forth My praise. Sometimes we hear of a diamond shining in its own lustre, which is very considerable nonsense, for a diamond has no lustre of its own in which to shine. It is undoubtedly true that there are a few–a very few–diamonds which are phosphorescent for a little while in the dark; but even this cannot be called the inherent quality of the diamond; while the vast proportion of both diamonds and other jewels only flash forth in the infallible lustre of crystalline beauty when the light shines upon them. And though for many years it was thought that iridescence resided in the pearl, Sir David Brewster has clearly shown that the delicate striations on the pearls surface are the sole cause of its radiance. Here the analogy lies close at hand. No light have we, and no brilliance, no lustre and no grace, until we come into the light of the Lord.

5. And with brilliance there is beauty. That is to say, in addition to the beauty of brilliance, there is the beauty of colour and form. Let the beauty of our God be upon us, O Lord, let the beauty of our God be upon us!

6. Jewels are durable. In a standard work this definition is given: A gem is a real possession capable of affording pleasure to the wearer and spectator, and retaining an intrinsic and marketable value, undiminished by the lapse of time. Diamonds outlast dynasties, and seem as if nothing will impair their lustre. So gems, and not dewdrops, are chosen to represent the righteous who still hold on their way.

7. The seventh quality of perfection in jewels is that they are useful. They are used for boring through the rock; for cutting glass; for setting pivots; for pointing watches. But when thus working their beauty is hidden, while it is the triumph of a Christian to be most beautiful when most useful. (W. Y. Fullerton.)

Christians rarely combine all excellencies

It is a rare thing for a Christian, as it is for a gem, to combine all excellent qualities. Few jewels have more than two or three marks of distinction. If large they are lacking in lustre; if pure they are probably small; if well-coloured they may be of an awkward shape; if beautifully formed may not be very heavy. Perfection in precious atones is almost unknown, and there axe flaws even in the lives of the best Christians. (W. Y. Fullerton.)

Varieties of Christian character

And if there are different shapes in gems, there are various forms of Christian life and development. And if there are different colours in gems, there are also varieties in the attainments exhibited in personal conduct. Each Christian has his own place and power, and all exhibit the manifoldness of the grace of God. The gentle, tender believers having the graces of the Spirit most fully developed, are like the pearl; and you will remember that it is the pearls which get the place of honour at the entrance to the New Jerusalem; most valuable and most perfect, others enter by them. The enthusiastic disciples, full-blooded in their aggressive eagerness, are like the blushing ruby; while some live so far above earth and earthly things, and so near the sky that they resemble the deep velvety sapphire, that stone like solid heaven in its blueness. Others with spiritual insight, the seers of the Church, are akin to the most costly chrysoberyl or cats-eye, with its beautiful moving line of light; while the diamond, fair as the star which ushers in the morn, is the apt emblem of those who have clear and definite views of truth. Men with a fresh and constant Divine life are represented by the emerald, with its soft, clear green; and the royal magnificence of exalted Christian character by the purple amethyst. Where there is the rapture of intimate communion with God, we think of the golden jasper; and of the opal, which hath in it the bright, fiery flame of the carbuncle, the fine refulgent purple of the amethyst, and a whole sea of the emeralds green glory, and every one of them shining with an incredible mixture, and with much pleasure, where there is the fully developed manhood of faith. While for simplicity, the onyx; and for solidity, the agate is the natural symbol. And if deficient in all these characteristics, there is still the long list of unmentioned jewels, where, without doubt, every true heart may find a place. It may be the blue lapis-lazuli, so much used in Italian churches; or the green malachite, so often met with in Russia; or the turquoise, which finds its home in Persia; or the chrysolite, now called peridot; or the bloodstone, or jade, or tourmaline, or hyacinth, or cairngorm, or coral, or crystal, or any other of the score still unnamed. Natural temperament very often determines the line of Christian development. A man with a delicate constitution is most likely to display the gentle side of Christianity; while the strong and vigorous, other things being equal, should be most energetic and enthusiastic. (W. Y. Fullerton.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 17. They shall be mine] I will acknowledge them as my subjects and followers; in the day, especially, when I come to punish the wicked and reward the righteous.

When I make up my jewels] segullah, my peculium, my proper treasure; that which is a man’s own, and most prized by him. Not jewels; for in no part of the Bible does the word mean a gem or precious stone of any kind. The interpretations frequently given of the word in this verse, comparing saints to jewels, are forced and false.

I will spare them] When I come to visit the wicked, I will take care of them. I will act towards them as a tender father would act towards his most loving and obedient son.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

They shall be mine; though now they seem to lie unregarded, as if they were not worth the owning, they shall appear to be mine.

In that day; the day wherein God will sever between men and men, and between actions and actions, which day, though ye know it not, is well known to the Lord; and beside the great day of final discrimination, God hath several other days of visitation, which are times where. in he will own his, as the good figs, &c. Jer 24. The day that God hath appointed, and will and did bring upon this people in the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus Vespasianus.

When I make up my jewels, or peculiar treasure, that which I highly value and keep most safely; now they are packed up among things of no great value, but when the casket is opened these jewels shall be laid up among the richest treasures: as when they were all sent to Pella, not one Christian left in Jerusalem; and which shall be fully made good in the last great day of final judgment, and in heaven to eternal ages.

And I will spare them; in the mean time they shall be spared, pitied, preserved, and loved: now their weaknesses covered and pardoned, their good-will approved and accepted; then their worth owned, published, and rewarded.

As a man spareth his own son that serveth him; as a tender father doth with his son, his own son, that serveth him, so will God spare such as in an atheistical world do speak for God, do fear God, and highly value both his law and government, and so obey him.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

17. jewels (Isa62:3). Literally, “My peculiar treasure” (Exo 19:5;Deu 7:6; Deu 14:2;Deu 26:18; Psa 135:4;Tit 2:14; 1Pe 2:9;compare Ec 2:8). CALVINtranslates more in accordance with Hebrew idiom, “Theyshall be My peculiar treasure in the day in which I will do it“(that is, fulfil My promise of gathering My completed Church; or,”make” those things come to pass foretold in Mal3:5 above [GROTIUS]);so in Mal 4:3 “do” isused absolutely, “in the day that I shall do this.“MAURER, not so well,translates, “in the day which I shall make,” that is,appoint as in Ps 118:24.

as . . . man spareth . . .son (Ps 103:18).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts,…. That is, such as fear the Lord, and think of him, hereby they are known to be his; and hereafter, in the time referred to, it will be manifest that they are his: they are Christ’s already by his Father’s gift of them to him; by his own purchase; by the conquests of his grace; and by the voluntary surrender of themselves: but, in the last day, they will be claimed and owned by Christ before his Father and his holy angels; and they will be known to be his, by themselves and others; and there will be no doubt about it, or questioning of it:

in that day when I make up my jewels; Christ has some, who are his jewels, or peculiar treasure, as the word x here used signifies; who are loved with an everlasting love; chosen in him; redeemed by him; justified by his righteousness; have the graces of his Spirit in them: and will be glorified: they are a peculiar people, separate from all others, and preferred unto them; for whom Christ has the strongest affection, and takes special care of: and there is a time when he will make them up; the number of them is already complete in eternal election; and there was a gathering of them together in Christ at his death; at every conversion there is an addition to them, as his regenerated and sanctified ones; and at death they are received into heaven, into his presence and bosom; and at the last day there will be a collection of them all together. The words may be rendered, even “my jewels in the day that I shall make” y; or “the day I shall make peculiar”: distinct from all others; meaning either the famous Gospel day, made by him the sun of righteousness, in which so many of his jewels are picked up, and brought in; or the day of Jerusalem’s destruction, when Christ took care of his jewels, and by the preservation of them showed that they were his, even all that believed in him; so that not one perished that believed in him, when he took vengeance on his enemies, that disbelieved and rejected him. Kimchi refers this to the day of judgment.

And I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him; this is a favour not granted to the apostate angels; nor to the old world; nor to the Jewish nation; nor even to the Son of God; but is vouchsafed to his special people: the lives of these are spared, until they are called by grace; and though they are sometimes afflicted and chastised, it is very gently, and in love; their services are accepted, and the imperfections in them overlooked; their sins are pardoned, and they will find mercy at the great day of account; they are used in the most tender manner, not only as a son, an own son, but as an obedient one, for whom the greatest regard is had, and affection shown.

x “peculium”, Munster, Pagninus, Vatablus, Tigurine version, Calvin, Drusius, Junius Tremellius. y “illa die quam facio”, so some in Vatablus “in diem quem ego facio peculium”, Cocceius, Burkius.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

He shows by the issue itself why a book of remembrance was written — that God in due time would again undertake to defend and cherish his Church. Though then for a time many troubles were to be sustained by the godly, yet the Prophet shows that they did not in vain serve God; for facts would at length prove that their obedience has not been overlooked. But the two things which he mentions ought to be noticed; for a book of remembrance is first written before God, and then God executes what is written in the book. When therefore we seem to serve God in vain, let us know that the obedience we render to him will come to an account, and that he is a just Judge, though he may not immediately stretch forth his hand to us.

In the first place then the Prophet testifies that God knows what is done by every one; and in the second place he adds that he will in his own time perform what he has decreed. So also in judgements, he preserves the same order in knowing and in executing. For when he said to Abraham that the cry of Sodom came up to heaven, (Gen 18:20,) how great and how supine was the security of the city. How wantonly and how savagely they despised every authority to the very last moment! But God had long before ascended his tribunal, and had taken an account of their wickedness. So also in the case of the godly, though he seems to overlook their obedience, yet he has not his eyes closed, or his ears closed, for there is a book of memorial written before him.

Hence he says, They shall be in the day I make. The verb is put by itself, but we may easily learn from the context that it refers to the restoration of the Church. In the day then in which I shall make, that is, complete what I have already said; for he had before promised to restore the Church. As then he speaks of a known thing, he says shortly, In the day I shall make, or complete my work, they shall be to me a peculiar treasure (268) This phrase confirms what I have already stated — that God has his season and opportunity, in order that there may be no presumption in us to prescribe to him the time when he is to do this or that. In the day then when he shall gather his Church, it will then appear that we are his peculiar treasure.

Thus the Prophet in these words exhorts us to patience, lest it should be grievous to us to groan under our burden, and not to find God’s help according to our wishes, and lest also it should be grievous to us to bear troubles in common with the whole Church. Were one or two of us subject to the cross, and doomed to sorrow and grief in this world, our condition might seem hard; but since the godly, from the first to the last, are made to be our associates in bearing the cross of Christ, and to be conformed to his example, there is no reason for any one of us to shun his lot; for we are not better than the holy patriarchs, apostles, and so many of the faithful whom God has exercised with the cross. Since then the common restoration of the Church is here set before us, let us know that a reason is here given for constancy and fortitude; for it would be disgraceful for us to faint, when we have so many leaders in this warfare, who by their examples stretch forth as it were their hands to us; for as Abraham, David, and other Patriarchs and Prophets, as well as Apostles, have suffered so many and so grievous troubles, ought not this fact to raise up our spirits? and if at any time our feet and our legs tremble, ought it not to be sufficient to strengthen us, that so many excellent chiefs and leaders invite us to persevere by their example? We then see that this has not been laid down for nothing, when I shall make, or complete my work.

By the words peculiar treasure, God intimates that the lot of the godly will be different from that of the world; as though he had said, “Ye are now so mixed together, that they who serve me seem not to be peculiar any more than strangers; but they shall then be my peculiar treasure.” This is to be taken, as I have already mentioned, for the outward appearance; for we know that we have been chosen by God, before the foundation of the world, for this end — that we might be to him a peculiar treasure. But when we are afflicted in common with the wicked, or when we seem to be even rejected, and the ungodly, on the other hand, seem to have God propitious to them, then nothing seems less true than this promise. I therefore said that this ought to be referred to the outward appearance — that the faithful are God’s peculiar treasure, that they are valued by him, and that he shows to them peculiar love, as to his own inheritance.

And this mode of speaking occurs in many parts of scripture; for God is often said to repudiate his people; the word separation, or divorce, is often mentioned; he is said to have destroyed his inheritance. Grievous is the trial, when God cherishes as it were in his bosom the ungodly, and we at the same time are exposed to every kind of miser; but we see what happened to the ancient Church: let us then arm ourselves for this contest, and be satisfied with the inward testimony of the Spirit, though outward things do not prosper.

He adds, And I will spare them as a man spares, etc. He states here a promise which ought especially to be observed: it contains two clauses; the first is, that the Jews who remained alive would render obedience to God, by which they would prove themselves to be children indeed, and not in name only: and the second is, that God would forgive them, that is, that he would exercise pardon in receiving their services, which could not otherwise please him. And there is no doubt but that the Spirit of regeneration is included in the words, the son who serves him; not that the faithful addressed here were wholly destitute of the fear of God; but God promises an increase of grace, as though he had said, “I will gather to myself the people who faithfully and sincerely worship me.” Though then he speaks not here of the beginning of a religious and holy life, it is yet the same as though he had said, that the faithful would be under his government, that they might denote themselves to his service.

The second promise refers to another grace, — that God in his mercy would approve of the obedience of the godly, though in itself unworthy to come to his presence. How necessary this indulgence is to us, they who are really and truly acquainted with the fear of God, fully know. The sophists daringly prattle about merits, and fill themselves and others with empty pride; but they who understand that no man can stand before God’s tribunal, do not dream of any merits, nor do they believe that they can bring anything before God, by which they can conciliate his favor. Hence their only refuge is what the Prophet here teaches us, that God spares them.

And it must be observed, that the Prophet does not speak simply of the remission of sins: our salvation, we know, consists of two things — that God rules us by his Spirit, and forms us anew in his own image through the whole course of our life, — and also that he buries our sins. But the Prophet refers here to the remission of sins, of which we have need as to our good works; for it is certain, that even when we devote ourselves with all possible effort and zeal to God’s service there is yet something always wanting. Hence it is that no work, however right and perfect before men, deserves this distinction and honor before God. It is therefore necessary, even when we strive our utmost to serve God, to confess that without his forgiveness whatever we bring deserves rejection rather than his favor. Hence the Prophet says, that when God is reconciled to us, there is no reason to fear that he will reject us, because we are not perfect; for though our works be sprinkled with many spots, they will yet be acceptable to him, and though we labor under many defects, we shall yet be approved by him. How so? Because he will spare us: for a father is indulgent to his children, and though he may see a blemish in the body of his son, he will not yet cast him out of his house; nay, though he may have a son lame, or squint-eyed, or singular for any other defect, he will yet pity him, and will not cease to love him: so also is the case with respect to God, who, when he adopts us as his children, will forgive our sins. And as a father is pleased with every small attention when he sees his son submissive, and does not require from him what he requires from a servant; so God acts; he repudiates not our obedience, however defective it may be. (269)

We hence see the design and meaning of the Prophet, — that he promises pardon from God to the faithful, after having been reconciled to him, because they serve God as children willingly, — and that God also, though their works are unworthy of his favor, will yet count them as acceptable, even through pardon, and not on the ground of merit or worthiness.

(268) Such is the arrangement of the sentence as given in the Septuagint, the Targum, and by Jerome, and most interpreters. “The peculiar treasure” is connected with “they shall be to me,” and not with the verb “make,” as in our version, which is that of Jun. and Trem. The intervening clause, “In the day,” etc., may be rendered in a way different. The verb “to make” means something to appoint, to ordain, to constitute. The following version of Newcome is no doubt the correct one —

They shall be unto me, saith Jehovah of hosts, In the day which I shall appoint, a peculiar treasure.

The “day” is again mentioned in the next chapter, verse 3, and the same words come after it, which ought to be rendered in the same way. Henderson ’s version is materially the same.

The word rendered “jewels” in our version, is everywhere also rendered a peculiar treasure, or a special property. See Exo 19:5; Deu 7:6. The common rendering of the Septuagint is either περιποιησιν — a purchased acquisition, as here, or περιουσιον — peculiar, special, as in Exo 19:5. The latter is the word used here by Symmachus. — Ed.

(269) There is something more in the verb here used than the idea of “sparing.” When followed as here by על. it is commonly rendered by “having pity or compassion.” See Exo 2:6; 1Sa 15:3; 2Ch 36:17. It means a tender compassion or sympathy for another, such as felt towards a weak, helpless, or miserable object. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(17) And they shall be . . . my jewels.Better, And they shall be to me, saith the Lord of hosts, a special possession, on the day that I am about to make. Special possession (Exo. 19:5).

Day . . . make.The same expression occurs in Mal. 4:3. (Comp. Psa. 118:24.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

Mal 3:17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

Ver. 17. And they shall be mine ] By peculiar right: Et suum cuique pulchrum: we all affect and admire our own things most. God chooseth them for his love; and loves them for his choice. I will be a Father unto them; and they shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty, 2Co 6:18 , which is all one with that here, “They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts.” Concerning all which see my Righteous Man’s Recompence, Part II chap. i. iii.

In the day when I make up my jewels ] viz. From the world’s malignities and misusages. They shall not plunder him of his jewels, rob him of his chief treasure. None shall take or pluck them out of Christ’s hands, Joh 10:29 , they that attempt it shall find it a work not seizable. When one desired to see Great Alexander’s treasure, he bade one of his servants show him not his gold and silver, but his friends. “Henceforth I call you not servants but I have called you friends,” Joh 15:15 . And a friend is as a man’s own soul, Deu 13:6 . The Church is the dearly beloved of God’s soul, Jer 12:7 , yea, his dearly beloved soul, as the Septuagint and Vulgate render it, &c. See my Righteous Man’s Recompence, Part II chap. ii.

And I will spare them ] Or, indulge them, as David did Mephibosheth, 2Sa 21:7 . See my Righteous Man’s Recompence, Part II. chap. iv., v.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

I make up, &c = I am preparing.

My jewels = A peculiar treasure.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

A Peculiar Treasure

And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in the day that I do make, even a peculiar treasure [A.V. in that day when I make up my jewels]; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.Mal 3:17.

Little or nothing is known historically of the prophet Malachi. It is not even certain that a prophet of that name ever lived, as the name means simply my messenger. But if he lived, the time, the place, the circumstances of his birth are all unknown. We know nothing of his ancestors and nothing of his descendants if he had any. Like a meteor he starts up suddenly in the horizon of the Church, and, after running a brief career of exceeding brightness, he disappears as suddenly, leaving no trace behind except the few pages of thrilling prophecy with which the Old Testament closes.

If the Book of Malachi is the last prophetic book in the Old Testament, the Book of Nehemiah is the last historical book, and it would be an advantage to read these two books together, for they refer to the same period in the history of Israel. It was a period of fearful religious degeneracy. The long captivity of seventy years in a land full of idols, of a base degrading heathenism, far away from the Temple with its sacred ordinances, had exerted a most baneful influence on Israel and loosened the bonds which bound the nation to Jehovah. The abominations so sternly denounced by Nehemiah in his book are precisely the same as those denounced by Malachi in his book. Nehemiah as civil governor employs the rod of authority and punishes the evildoers, while Malachi as a prophet warns, admonishes, and threatens in the name of Jehovah.

Wide and deep, however, as the degeneracy was, there were still some who feared the Lord, and thought upon His name, and trusted in His faithfulness in spite of the disorder and confusion of which they were the daily witnesses. What they saw around them made them draw closer together; they would often meet in secret to commend themselves to God in prayer, as well as to cheer one another with words of hope and consolation; and they were so blessed from above in the use of such means of mutual encouragement, as to be able to hold fast their integrity. The interest with which God looked on these little onesthis handful of faithful souls in a dark timehow strikingly expressed! So touched was He with the thoughts and feelings and prayers that were breathed by them,sounds sweet in any circumstances, but still sweeter in this case in contrast with the strife and violence of the outside world,that He is represented as causing their names to be written in a book, as if to make sure of their being kept in remembrance. And of the interest He felt in them we have still stronger evidence in the words of the text, where He says that He would claim them as His own in that day when He should bring together in its most perfect state all that was most valuable, all that was most worthy of being owned by Him, all that He would deign to store up among His most precious possessions.

Let us try to place ourselves beside Malachi, that we may understand this gracious promise of God; and may we be encouraged to examine ourselves and see whether we belong to the peculiar treasure which is His and which He has promised to spare in the great Day.

I

The Judgment of God

The day.

The translation is a little difficult. Literally the words mean In the day that I do (or act). G. A. Smith translates, In the day that I rise to action.

It is the Day of the Lord, the Day of the appearing and Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Without entering upon disputed ground, it will suffice to say that we all look for some sort of termination to the present state of things, some period when the present strife between good and evil shall come to an end, and when the separation shall take place between those who serve the Lord and those who serve Him not. We may differ as to the manner how and the time when, but we are all agreed as to the fact. And it is an object of most pleasing contemplation to the Christian that, whether it come during his own stay upon the earth or not, still it will usher in a great and glorious time for him; it will bring with it the perfection of his nature, the completed likeness to the Lord Jesus Christ, the redemption of his body; and it will bring with it bright and glorious things for the world, indeed we may say (following the statement of St. Paul), for the universal creation of God; for he tells us that the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

1. First, there will be a judgment of sins on that day; and at that judgment many will accuse Christians. Many, at least, may be supposed to do so. Satan, for example, willthe accuser of the brethren, who accuses them before God day and night (Rev 12:10). And conscience will, which even now compels us to exclaim, Iniquities, I must confess, prevail against me (Psa 65:3). And may not fellow-sinners maintain that, as to this forbidden fruit, it was we that beguiled them, and made them eat? But, worst of all, when the books of God are opened they will show what Satan cannot, no, nor self either, even the every sin of every sinner.

This used to be a well-known fact; and daily still, in certain edifices, steeple-house, joss-houses, temples sacred or other, everywhere spread over the world, we hear some dim mumblement of an assertion that such is still, what it was always and will forever be, the fact: but meseems it has terribly fallen out of memory nevertheless; and, from Dan to Beersheba, one in vain looks out for a man that really in his heart believes it. In his heart he believes, as we perceive, that scrip will yield dividends: but that Heaven too has an office of account, and unerringly marks down, against us or for us, whatsoever thing we do or say or think, and treasures up the same in regard to every creature,this I do not so well perceive that he believes. Poor blockhead, no: he reckons that all payment is in money, or approximately representable by money; finds money go a strange course; disbelieves the parson and his Day of Judgment; discerns not that there is any judgment except in the small or big debt court; and lives (for the present) on that strange footing in this Universe. The unhappy mortal, what is the use of his civilizations and useful knowledges, if he have forgotten that beginning of human knowledge; the earliest perception of the awakened human soul in this world; the first dictate of Heavens inspiration to all men? I cannot account him a man any more; but only a kind of human beaver, who has acquired the art of ciphering.1 [Note: Carlyle, Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. v.]

2. But there will be a judgment of services as well as of sins; and at that judgment also many will accuse Christians. Satan will say, Lord, their brightest deeds were marred by sin, their best by shortcoming. I marked them well, and watched them often. They never once did good and sinned not. And, as he speaks, so likewise will a multitude of others also. But Gods book of remembrance will also accuse them; for He has a book for services as well as one for sins. We read about it here, where it is written, that they that feared the Lord spake one with another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name (Mal 3:16). This, some might say, is comforting. Ah! but that remembrance-book of services will, of course, just show them as they areall spotted, wrinkled, blemished, and defiled, mere rags of righteousness, and filthy rags. What, in these circumstances, will the Judge do?

Slowly and painlessly consciousness returned. He looked about him and remembered. It seemed but a moment, and yet the life he had lived on earth was as far from him as if he had died a century ago. In the stillness and the measureless quiet which enfolded him after those last agonizing hours he knew that he had already entered into rest. So deep was the peace which fell softly as if from the vast heights above him that he felt no curiosity and was without fear. He was in a new life and he must find his place in it, but he was content to wait; and while he waited his thought went swiftly back to the days when, a little child, he looked up at the sky and wondered if the stars were the lights in the streets of heaven. One by one the years rose out of the depths of his memory and he recalled, step by step, all the way he had come; childhood, youth, manhood, and age. He read with deepening interest the story of his lifeall his thoughts, his words, the things he had done and left undone. And as he read he knew what was good and what was ill; everything was clear, not only in the unbroken record of what he had been, but in a sudden perception of what he was. At last he knew himself. And while he pondered one stood beside him, grave and calm and sweet with the purity that is perfect strength. Into the face which turned toward him, touched with the light of immortal joy, he looked up and asked, When shall I be judged?

And the answer came: You have judged yourself. You may go where you will.1 [Note: H. W. Mabie, Parables of Life, 27.]

II

The Judgment that Spares

I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

The need of such a promise as this is very urgent, and never more so than at the present time. Saints might say, as they often do, Ah! but a judgment-day will be very awfulawful, whatever else. Think of its hopes as we may, we cannot forget its terrors; we cannot forget that the day when the Lord will make up His jewels will be one of scrutiny and testing trialsa day of fire that shall try every mans work of what sort it is (1Co 3:13), and burn up all that is not gold, silver, and precious stones. It must be a dreadful, unsparing day for sinners; and what else are we? Our own hearts condemn us, and God is greater than our hearts; He knoweth all things. Well, to hush these fears, we have this promise given us of God, And I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

The Judge of all the earth will surely do what is right. He will spare those only who can be spared in righteousness. He will not call evil good, and good evil, to arrive in this way at an unrighteous judgment. He will spare only those whose best the blood of Jesus clears, as well as those whose worst the blood of Jesus covers.

Being moved by His own free mercy and goodness, even in the same love in which He sent His Son, the beloved, into the world, to seek and save the lost; on the 1st day of the second month, in the evening, in the year, according to the common account, 1689, being alone in my chamber, the Lord brake in upon me unexpectedly, quick as lightning from the heavens, and as a righteous, all-powerful, all-knowing, and sin-condemning Judge; before whom my soul, as in the deepest agony, trembled, was confounded and amazed, and filled with such awful dread as no words can reach or declare.

My mind seemed plunged into utter darkness, and eternal condemnation appeared to enclose me on every side, as in the centre of the horrible pitnever to see redemption thence, or the face of Him in mercy, whom I had sought with all my soul. But in the midst of this confusion and amazement, where no thought could be formed or any idea retained, save eternal death possessing my whole man, a voice was formed and uttered in me:Thy will, O God, be done: if this be Thy act alone, and not my own, I yield my soul to Thee. In conceiving these words from the Word of Life I quickly found relief: there was all-healing virtue in them; and the effect was so swift and powerful that, even in a moment, all my fears vanished, as if they had never been, and my mind became calm and still, and simple as a little child; the day of the Lord dawned, and the Sun of Righteousness arose in me, with Divine healing and restoring virtue in His countenance, and He became the centre of my mind.

In this wonderful operation of the Lords power, denouncing judgment in tender mercy, and in the hour of my deepest concern and trial, I lost my old self, and came to the beginning of the knowledge of Him, the Just and Holy One, whom my soul had longed for.1 [Note: 1 A Journal of the Life of Thomas Story, 13.]

1. I will spare them, says God, as a man spareth his own son; in other words, I will spare them fondly, I will spare them affectionatelynot as a judge spares a stranger, whom he dismisses from his bar, but as a father spares a son, whom he takes to his bosom. This is a noteworthy fact or feature in the case. It would be a little thing comparatively to be merely sparedspared, with no feeling toward us in Him who sparesspared, as a stranger might be, who is nothing to Him. What would life eternal be? What would innocence itself be? What would both together be, without love to us in the heart of God? Just an eternity without a summer and without a sun. But it is no such cheerless prospect that awaits us. God will spare us as a man spareth his own son. On the great judgment day, every accuser that assails us will be answered by Himself and answered from His own remembrance-books; and when, at last, the trial through, the process ended, He can spare us righteously, He will gather us in His arms, and clasp us to His bosom, saying, These my sons were dead, and are alive again; they were lost, and are found.

In a letter to his youngest sister, announcing his intention to offer himself for foreign mission work, Henry Martyn wrote: I am thankful to God that you are so free from anxiety and care; we cannot but with praise acknowledge His goodness. What does it signify whether we be rich or poor, if we are sons of God? How unconscious are they of their real greatness, and they will be so till they find themselves in glory! When we contemplate our everlasting inheritance, it seems too good to be true; yet it is no more than is due to the kindred of God manifest in the flesh. 1 [Note: J. Sargent, Life and Letters of the Rev. Henry Martyn, 28.]

2. But the full promise of the text is greater still. I will spare them, says God, as a man spareth his own son that serveth himthat kind of son. In other words, I will spare him admiringly, I will spare him approvingly. A man usually would spare his own son in any circumstances. Though he were a son that served him not, he would labour to spare him till the going down of the sun. See, for instance, how David would have spared Absaloma wicked son that would never have spared his father. Davids charge to all his captains was Beware that none touch the young man Absalom. And when, notwithstanding, Absalom perished, and news reached his father that it was even so, his bitter cry was thisO my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son! Yes, a man would even spare his own son that served him not. Of course it would be only pityingly; still, pityingly, he would do it. But it is not thus that the Lord will spare His people, for He will spare them approvingly, as a man spareth his own son that serveth himnot as David would have spared Absalom, but as Abraham would have spared Isaac, that beloved son in whom he was at all times pleased.

God will spare us approvingly, as having much in us to approve, much in us to admire (mystery of mysteries!), much in us to reward and crown. In the day of Christ, remembrance will be made of every service that we ever did. Nothing will be forgottennot even the cup of cold water given by His poorest people. It will be remembered how, when Christ was hungry, we fed Him; when thirsty, we gave Him drink; when a stranger, we took Him in; because, doing so to the least, mayhap, of His many brethren, we did it unto Him. To ourselves our services may seem so few, and the few so feeble, that we conclude they must be nothing in the sight of God. Ah! but He treasures them to-day, that He may tell of them at last, and then say, Servant of God, well done.

Forres suggests the name of Martin, who was a short time in the ministry after Mr. Murkers ordination. He was a Haldane student, and of him the story is told that a military gentleman, who was one of his stated hearers, remarked one dayWhy, Mr. Martin, if I had power over the pension list, I would actually have you put upon half pay for your long and faithful services. Mr. Martin repliedAh, my friend, your master may put you off in your old age with half pay, but my Master will not serve me so meanly. He will give me full pay. Through grace I expect a full reward.1 [Note: J. Stark, John Murker of Banff, 175.]

Here [in a letter written by Oliphant to Alice LEstrange, who afterwards became his wife] is another fine apprehension of that more magnanimous view of Christian work and recompense which was dear to those visionary souls:

I was thinking to-day, darling, how it would help us, to realize that all pleasures, joy, and happiness must never be considered except as being the accident of service. The mistake of the popular theology is that it makes people desire their salvation for its own sake, instead of its being the accident of our working for other people. It seems very hard upon God that He cannot invest His service with delight without our having a tendency to drop the service and appropriate the delight. We have thus got into the habit of putting the cart before the horse. We are not forbidden to enjoy intensely the pleasure He attaches to the fulfilment of our highest duties; but the love of those highest duties must be greater than that of the delight which they impart.2 [Note: Mrs. Oliphant, Memoir of the Life of Laurence Oliphant, 246.]

III

A Peculiar Treasure

They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in the day that I do make, even a peculiar treasure.

The Lord Jesus when on earth was one of the poorest of men. He was born to poverty; He was cradled in a stable; He went through His brief life on foot; He had no home during His ministry in which to lay His weary head; and His crucified body was buried in a family tomb borrowed from one who was almost a stranger. Yet He was all the time laying the foundations for the most magnificent possessions in the universe of God. He was accumulating the only treasures that can outlast this fleeting globe. They are the innumerable human souls redeemed by Him unto everlasting glory. To them His prophetic eye looked forward when He said, They shall be mine in that day when I make up my jewels. More closely rendered, the passage is, They shall be my peculiar treasure in the day I act.

There are very few alterations in the Revised Version which give us a keener pang than this one. The time-worn phrase When I make up my jewels, has been so precious that it seems almost sacrilege to touch it. But, except for the hallowed associations of the Authorized Version, the Revised Version is equally precious. The word segullah is one of the most endearing terms in the Hebrew language. Its locus classicus is to be found in 1Ch 29:3, where we find that David had prepared for the temple 3000 talents of gold and 7000 talents of silver; but over and above this, David had a segullah, a private treasure of his own of gold and silver, and this he was willing to dedicate to the same purpose. That part of a mans possessions, then, which he values most of all is his segullah. The word occurs in Exo 19:5 : If ye will obey ye shall be to me a segullah above all peoples; Deu 7:6 : Jehovah has chosen thee to be a segullah to himself; and in the passage before us, the Lord says: In the day that I do makethat day, the day of the Lord, the unique day, so often mentioned in the prophetsthey shall be mine, a peculiar treasure.1 [Note: J. T. Marshall, in The Expository Times, vii. 18.]

Some people are afraid lest the thought of Gods people being His jewels should be lost by this rendering, but it is not. If you read it as it is in the Authorized, They shall be mine, saith the Lord, in that day when I make up my jewels, you have an idea conveyed to your mind that a day is coming when God will gather His jewels and make them up into one great whole; but this, while perfectly true, is nevertheless a very partial idea. The real idea is best expressed thus: They shall be mine, saith the Lord, in the day when I actmy jewels. The word jewels is in the nominative case in apposition to the pronoun they, at the beginning of the sentence, They shall be mine in the day when I act, my special treasure. So that you have not merely the assuring and blessed word that God will gather these people together, His own precious treasure; but there is another word, which goes deeper and is more full of blessed assurance still, that God is coming to doand to act, coming in upon all this indifference to set it right; and God says, In the day I act, these people who have been faithful, and have feared My name, and thought upon My name, shall be My special treasure. You see there is nothing lost. We still have the sweet assurance that He will gather His own people as His jewels; but we have also the great assertion that He is coming to act, that while the present is mans day, Gods day lies ahead. He will manifest Himself in greater power and glory than ever before. In that day they shall be Mine, My jewels, My special treasure.1 [Note: G. Campbell Morgan, Wherein? 85.]

1. It seems, then, that the Lord of Hosts has something, even in this evil world, on which He sets a high and peculiar value; notwithstanding there is so much that He condemns,sometimes as if all were evil. Indeed, it were very strange if He had not, when we consider what it is for Him to have formed, sustained, governed, a world. Think of this mighty globe of matter! Why, it requires an angels faculty to conceive any adequate notion of its very magnitude. There never was a man on earth who had space enough for it in his mind, if we may express it so. And then think of all its elementsits marvellous order, the laws of Nature (invented, established, maintained in perpetual force), its productions, and then, its relation to the heavens, as well as the mighty scheme of Providence, and the whole system of spiritual government. Now in so vast a system of existence, and so immense and various an economy of operation and regulation, there should be found something peculiarly precious, of which He may say, by eminenceIt is mine.

2. Who are Gods peculiar treasure? God estimates them not by their physical structure, not by their mental qualities, not by their learning or wealth, but by their harmony or disharmony with His will, by their sympathy or want of sympathy with His character and authority, by their dominant thoughts and feelings concerning Himself. You tell me what a man feels, thinks, and does in relation to God and I will tell you what Gods estimate is of that man. In Mal 3:16 we have a full description of the small remnant of faithful ones whom God designates His peculiar treasure.

(1) They feared the Lordnot that guilty tormenting fear which drives man away from God, which shudders with remorse in His presence, which trembles beneath His frown, which seeks, like Adam, guilty, a hiding-place where God is not; but that holy fear which reverently approaches God, which devoutly yearns for His fellowship, and yet is awed by a sense of His nearness, that fear which covets His favour, and whose highest heaven is to live in the light of His approval, that fear which remembers His covenant and submits to His kingly authority.

(2) They thought upon his name. Twice He had revealed that Name to their fathers; once to Moses as the I Am and once to Abraham as I am God All-sufficient. To Moses He proclaimed what He is in Himself, the I Am, the Self-Contained, the Self-Existent, the Absolute, the Source of life and being. To Abraham He proclaimed what He is to His people, God All-sufficient, the All-satisfying portion, the All in All. This Great Name was ever in the thought of the faithful Remnant; they pondered over it as revealed to their fathers; they gloried in its infinite superiority to the gods of the heathen from whose bondage Jehovah had delivered them; they remembered what that Name had done for them and for their fathers before them and were thankful; they thought of the infinite resources of that All-sufficient Name and were trustful.

(3) They spake one with another. They not only thought about God in solitude and silence, but they also cheered and strengthened one another in evil times by rehearsing together the wonderful things which God had done for them and for their fathers. It was no empty idle talk; it was so good that Jehovah hearkened and heard; so precious was it that God bent His ear, put Himself in a listening attitude to hear every word they said. God not only heard the talk, but it was so pleasing to Him that He wrote it in a book, which He calls the book of remembrance, kept before Him for them that fear the Lord. These are the men whom God calls a peculiar treasure.

Notice the gracious recognition of true piety. It is not lost, but is always recognized in its surrounding obscurity. Here in this chapter which contains the text we find a prophetic rebuke launched against the rebellious sacrilege and infidelity of the people. The general feeling and conduct of the time tended to obscure the grace of piety, to introduce an element of revolt which was antagonistic to it. Amidst this eclipse and conflict we find a Divine alacrity in noting, and a quick complacency in presenting, the main features of fidelity and truth. God had His hidden ones, and He knew and marked them, knew where to find them, to call up His reserves, even though they did not form any conspicuous band amidst the Babel of unbelief. Although the social aspect of the time showed the world at variance with Gods truth, there were still some who held it precious, and would not let it go. They failed to find sympathy from the world, but they kept together and they spake one with another. The great world took no notice of them, but the Lord heard their loyal interchange, and blessed them. They never gatheredthis people of the Lordthey never gathered in their little groups to think upon His name but He took mark of them. The spoken prayer and the silent prayer were registered by Him. The sympathetic link forged between the Lord and them that feared Him trembled with every mark of their fidelity and moved with no uncertain pulse within their heart. It is always so. The Christian can never be deserted or alone, but will always be Divinely supported. If the child has recognized the Fathers house as his home, and has gone back to it after never so ungrateful a departure, the welcome never falters, the rejoicing never flags, the fatted calf and the best robe are ever ready, because the dead is alive again and the lost is found. No matter what social humour, no matter what whims of fashion may obscure His meaning from the world, amidst all conflict the movement of the soul is recognized, the children of God who fear His name shall find a book of remembrance in which their names are written, they shall find the Divine Listener with them when they speak one with another, and they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels.

3. They are precious to Him. That is the idea especially involved here. God will delight in acknowledging them as His peculiar treasure, in whom His soul delights. As those rich in jewels have a peculiar pleasure in exposing them to the inspection of admiring friends, so God will delight in displaying His treasure before friends and foes. Before an assembled universe He will testify to His peculiar pleasure in those who were His faithful witnesses on earththose who professed Him in the face of all the opposition, obloquy, and shame they encountered from a godless world. God will now show His delight in them by planting them as stars for ever and ever in the firmament of glory, in holding them forth as a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty in His right hand, and in rejoicing over them with joy and singing.

What is it that makes a thing precious?

(1) The sense of ownership.God has formed and fashioned us for Himself. For Him we were created, and this frame in which our spirit is enshrined testifies in all its lines of adaptations and uses, in all its marvellous anatomy, to the God that created it. We have given ourselves to other lords that have had dominion over us. Every one has gone his own way, all astray from the protection and the control of Him whom we were formed to confess. God tells us that it shall not always be so; that there is coming a time when He will claim His own, and that edict which was sounded in the day of our birth shall be echoed in the day of our redemption. The purpose of our creation shall be vindicated. We were not formed simply to eat and drink and sleep. God never made these bodies for the mere uses of this world, or for the enjoyment of temporary and fleeting pleasures. He has put the signet of infinity upon them. They are fashioned and formed for immortal joys and immortal living. When in the resurrection they shall be refashioned according to His own body and His own will, it shall then be manifest to whom we belong. Now, sometimes, when we look in the mirror, it would seem an awful reflection upon God to call ourselves His. For there are lines of sin sculptured in our faces; there are shades of shame that creep over our features. It shall not be so, saith the Lord. They shall be Mine, and be known in their adaptation for the life to which they have been called.

(2) The fact of purchase.Is that thing ours which we have bought by current coin in the market, and for which we have paid its highest possible value? If so, how much more do these belong to God whom He hath purchased for Himself, not with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of His own beloved Son! Surely none will question Gods right to those He purchased at so great a price. Law and justice will not do so, for they have long ago proclaimedDeliver from going down to the pit for we have found a ransom. They are fully satisfied with the return made to their claims. Hence, they have surrendered every claim to those once lying under the curse and doom, Christ having been made a curse for them. Satan dare not do it. For though at one time he could claim sovereignty and dominion over themthough at one time he ruled in them as the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedienceyet his unjust usurpation has long been overturned, and he has now nothing in them. All his claim to them rested wholly upon their own sinful and willing submission to his yoke; but they have now cast it off, with as thorough a hatred as they once had delight in it. Hence, his they are no longer. The reigning power of sin, the blinding influence of spiritual death, by means of which they had been so long kept in his degrading servitude, are now removed, and they have escaped for ever out of the fowlers snare. Hence, this adversary can no longer lay claim to them. And no other creature can, for they are Gods, who loved them, and saved them, and washed them in the blood of the Lamb, and hence has secured an uncontroverted right to them.

Turn to Mat 13:45, and look at that sweet parable: The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls; who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. In reading that parable, I used to think that the Lord Jesus Christ was the pearl of great price, I was the merchant man, and the price which I paid was one sin and another which I gave up to accept Christ. Now, in reading this Blessed Word, I can find no place in which the sinner is said to purchase Christ, or eternal life, or anything else. Certainly in that beautiful chapter in Isaiah the sinner is invited to come, buy wine and milk; but it is without money and without priceif we are not to pay anything, then it is a gift which we receive, not a purchase which we make. Again it is said, Buy the truth and sell it not; but this is for the Christian, and not for the unsaved soul. The sinner cannot purchase salvation, Christ has purchased it. The Lord Jesus Christ has purchased His Church; He was the purchaser, not the Church. Remember it makes all the difference in the world to make sure of this, because the buyer has the right to sell. If I had purchased Christ, then I could part with Him; but if He has purchased me I cannot part with Him, I am His by right of purchase. Men do not buy with the intention of selling at a loss. So when the Lord Jesus Christ purchased the Church, He paid a very high price for it, and He can never part with it until He gets a higher price; that He can never get. He laid down His own life for the Church, and the Church is safe until a higher price be offered. Eighteen hundred years ago, Satan offered a priceAll these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. The price was too low. Christ was about to pay His life-blood for the Church, and He would not sell it for these earthly things. Turn to one or two passages to prove this point. In Act 20:28 we read: The church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. There you get the merchant man, the pearl of great price, and the price paid. Again in Gal 2:20 : Who loved me, and gave himself for me. Once more, in 1Co 6:19-20; 1Co 7:23 : Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price be not ye the servants of men.1 [Note: H. Moorhouse.]

(3) The pain of preparation.The diamond has to undergo a rough and rude process before it can glow and sparkle, burning with many-coloured fires, and flashing with matchless lustre. The lapidary must grind it on his flying wheel, and polish it with its own dust before it can pass into the hand of the jeweller to be set in a golden crown, and become a fitting ornament for a monarchs brow. So with the Christian. He must be sanctified and purified, and made meet for the Masters use. By the hammer of His Word, God breaks the heart of stone, and changes it into a heart of flesh. Often He casts the people whom He intends for great honour into the furnace of affliction, where He purifies them in seven-times-heated fires. It is thus that He takes away the dross and refines them; and through a painful process destroys the power of sin in their hearts, and prepares them for heaven.

Lately, I visited a famous pottery. In one room I found a young lady painting a beautiful flower on a vase. I said, You take a great deal of trouble with that. Yes, it takes me a long time to do it. But what is the use? With my finger I could in a moment spoil the flower. How do you manage to keep the painting on the vase? When I have finished the painting, a man comes and takes the vase to the fire, and after it has passed through the fire no power in the world can take it off. The Lord Jesus Christ would paint on us the likeness of the lovely Rose of Sharon, contact with the world takes it off; but He puts us in the fire and burns it in: then it will not rub off. The lessons learned in the fire of affliction are never forgotten. I suppose we all know that, and every Christian learns at length to thank God that he was afflicted and had passed through the fire.1 [Note: H. Moorhouse.]

4. What is the security? The word of the Lord of hosts. No further guarantee is needed. The name comprises all perfection. His throne is built upon the promise. Two immutable things make it impossible for God to lie. Our cause is His, and all His attributes are interested in our salvation, and all the infinite resources of His empire stand pledged for the future blessedness of every saint. The Lord of hostsno matter how the term is understood, it is fraught with ample assurance for the faithful, and its sound breaks upon the ear like the anthem of the resurrection and the choral greeting of the seraphim. Refer it to the angels, who bear His messages, and minister to the heirs of salvation; and with such a host on your side how can you fear the future? Refer it to the human race, whose hearts are all in His hand, whose plans are subject to His providence, whose very wrath and malice are made tributary to the interests of His redeemed people; and with such agencies in your favour how can you question the result? Refer it to the saints themselvesthe little flock becoming a great multitude that no man can number, marching up from every region of the earth, from every island of the sea, with the chant of joy that wakes the echoes of the morning stars, and makes eternal jubilee in heaven; and with such security for your hope, how can you doubt the consummation?

God hath so many ships upon the sea!

His are the merchant-men that carry treasure,

The men-of-war, all bannered gallantly,

The little fisher-boats and barks of pleasure.

On all this sea of time there is not one

That sailed without the glorious name thereon.

The winds go up and down upon the sea,

And some they lightly clasp, entreating kindly,

And waft them to the port where they would be;

And other ships they buffet long and blindly.

The cloud comes down on the great sinking deep,

And on the shore the watchers stand and weep.

And God hath many wrecks within the sea;

Oh, it is deep! I look in fear and wonder;

The wisdom throned above is dark to me,

Yet it is sweet to think His care is under;

That yet the sunken treasure may be drawn

Into His storehouse when the sea is gone.

So I, that sail in peril on the sea,

With my beloved, whom yet the waves may cover,

Say: God hath more than angels care of me,

And larger share than I in friend and lover!

Why weep ye so, ye watchers on the land?

This deep is but the hollow of His hand?1 [Note: Carl Spencer.]

A Peculiar Treasure

Literature

Bell (C. D.), The Name above Every Name, 85.

Comrie (A.), Memorial Sermons, 184.

Cross (J.), Knight-Banneret, 118.

Cuyler (T. L.), Wayside Springs, 47.

Foster (J.), Lectures, ii. 405.

Hutchison (G.), Sermons, 386.

Lee (W.), From Dust to Jewels, 1.

Macaskill (M.), A Highland Pulpit, 15.

Merson (D.), Words of Life, 289.

Moorhouse (H.), Ruth, the Moabitess, 153.

Parker (J.), Sermons (Cavendish Pulpit), No. 18.

Price (A. C.), Fifty Sermons, iv. 209.

Roberts (R.), My Jewels, 1.

Stalker (J.), The New Song, 131.

Talmage (T. de W.), Fifty Sermons, ii. 50.

Tuckwell (W.), Nuggets from the Bible Mine, 232.

Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), New Ser., xii. (1876), No. 960.

British Weekly Pulpit, i. 193 (A. Mursell).

Churchmans Pulpit: Sermons to the Young, xvi. 371 (J. Edmond).

Clergymans Magazine, 3rd Ser., vi. 296.

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

they shall: Son 2:16, Jer 31:33, Jer 32:38, Jer 32:39, Eze 16:8, Eze 36:27, Eze 36:28, Zec 13:9, Joh 10:27-30, Joh 17:9, Joh 17:10, Joh 17:24, 1Co 3:22, 1Co 3:23, 1Co 6:20, 1Co 15:23, Gal 5:24, 2Th 1:7-10, Rev 20:12-15

jewels: or, special treasure, Exo 19:5, Deu 7:6, Deu 14:2, Deu 26:17, Deu 26:18, Psa 135:4, Isa 62:3, Isa 62:4, Tit 2:14, 1Pe 2:9

and I: Neh 13:22, Psa 103:8-13, Isa 26:20, Isa 26:21, Jer 31:20, Zep 2:2, Mat 25:34, Rom 8:32, 2Co 6:18, 1Jo 3:1-3

son: Mal 1:6, 1Pe 1:13-16

Reciprocal: Gen 7:23 – and Noah Gen 33:2 – Rachel Gen 48:5 – are mine Exo 28:17 – thou shalt Num 8:14 – and the Levites 1Sa 25:29 – bound 2Ki 22:18 – thus shall ye Psa 16:3 – the excellent Psa 103:13 – them Psa 115:13 – He will bless Psa 119:126 – to work Psa 147:11 – taketh Pro 19:23 – fear Isa 25:8 – off Isa 43:1 – thou art mine Isa 43:4 – precious Isa 49:15 – a woman Eze 5:11 – neither shall Mat 7:22 – to me Act 27:23 – whose Rom 8:19 – the manifestation 1Co 3:13 – the day 2Th 1:10 – in that 2Ti 4:8 – at that Rev 3:5 – confess

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

JEWELS

My jewels.

Mal 3:17

There is much in the nature and history of jewels that strikingly illustrates the character of the Lords people.

I. There is an intrinsic difference between jewels and other common stones.Carve and polish a flint as you will, you can never make it a jewel. So is it with the Christian: he has a new heavenly birth, a new life, one with Christ and Christ with him, created anew by the Holy Spirit in the image of God. It is no partial reformation, hewing off here and there a glaring sin, but a thorough vital change.

II. Jewels are won with cost, and toil, and peril, from dark and lonesome mines, or as pearls from the bed of the ocean.Ah! the Christian will exclaim, here is a picture of my case. Words cannot tell the blackness of my own heart before the grace of God; and the ungodly were my chosen companions. Jesus came from heaven to this world of sin and sorrow, and rescued me with infinite labour and cost; but oftentimes with deepest humiliation do I look unto the rock whence I was hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence I was digged.

III. Jewels, after they have been found and won, are mostly carried many hundred miles over stormy seas and burning sands.Very few Christians are transplanted to heaven at once; most have to tread a long pilgrimage, and traverse the waves of this troublesome world.

IV. Jewels, moreover, have to undergo many processes before they are fit for setting in gold; they are carved, and ground, and polished, enduring many a hard blow, many a delicate operation. See in this the preparing of the Lords people for glory, their being made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

V. Jewels are only bought with a great price.I need not remind you Ye were redeemed not with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ. Oh! if earthly treasures had availed, the Lord could have created ten thousand worlds of gold, and myriad angels would have brought the riches of the universe. But it cost more to redeem one soul, so that man must let this alone for ever.

Yet the weakest believer may well swell the joyous acclamation, I know that my Redeemer lives.

Bishop E. H. Bickersteth.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

Mal 3:17. They shall be mine. If I were to buy and pay for something it certainly would be mine. Jesus purchased the church with his own blood and it is said to be His. (See Act 20:28; 1Pe 1:19 1Pe 2:9.) Jewels is from CEGULLAH which Strong defines, “wealth,” It is the word for “veculiar treasure” in Psa 135:4. The Lord regards the members of bis chUrch as jewels since t hey are so valuable, He having said such a great price (his blood) for them. That day means the Gospel dispensation in which time He was to make up or gather these jewels into the fold or church. I will spare them, etc., is equivalent In thought to that in Heb 8:11.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

3:17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day {q} when I make up my jewels; and I will {r} spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

(q) When I will restore my Church according to my promise, they will be as my own proper goods.

(r) That is, forgive their sins, and govern them with my Spirit.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Almighty Yahweh announced that He would honor those who feared Him as His own on the day He prepared His own possessions. This probably refers to the day of the Lord (cf. Mal 3:2; Mal 4:1; Mal 4:3) when He will resurrect Old Testament saints and judge them (cf. Dan 12:2). This will be when Jesus Christ returns to rule and reign on the earth. The faithful will receive a reward in His kingdom for their submission (Dan 12:3). He also promised to spare them as a man spares his own son. When Jesus Christ judges Old Testament saints, He will separate the sheep from the goats (Mat 25:31-46). Here God described the sheep as His sons. He will spare them the humiliation and punishment that will be the lot of those who did not honor Him (Mal 3:14-15).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)