They Shal Be Mine
They Shall Be Mine for paper June 26 Rev. Terry Goerz, Redeemer Lutheran Church
The prophet Malachi records the people saying and thinking harsh things against God wondering “It is futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the LORD Almighty?” But as this rant continues as if God cannot hear them others come together and talk realizing that God is listening and God responds: ‘Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other. “They will be mine,” says the LORD Almighty, “in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them,’” Malachi 3: 16, 17
Those who feared the Lord, that would include all of us. We are here both as God’s people who know and fear the one true God and at the same time as those who know the depth of our own sinfulness. Saints and sinners at the same time. Yet God Almighty himself is here saying that these people who fear him, that is, know and believe in him, will receive the best thing that can be received—becoming his very own possession, and treasured possession at that.
So we should ask ourselves just how a person, a people, becomes a treasured possession of God. Indeed, knowing what we are, what we see of our inner sinful natures as we look into the mirror of the Law, we know we can’t change that basic sinful self that remains with us until we die. Yet still, God says we will be his. That means that if there is to be a change in our nature so that we can stand before God, with God, as sinless, holy people, he’s going to have to make the change. You know the old saying: A leopard can’t change his spots. We can’t change ourselves, but God can—and does.
Now, what might it mean when Yahweh says, “In the day when I make up my treasured possession”? The day could be either the day that he gathers all who fear him, that is, all who believe in him as they leave this life, into the glories of heaven, or it could be in the day that a believer becomes a believer, which is Yahweh building his church one by one. But it might be best to think of it as the Last Day of time, when the Lord gathers all who belong to him to himself, into the presence of God Almighty. Oh, how good that will be!
And when he says he will spare them, he brings even more good news. He will spare them from what they deserve, that is, eternal condemnation. We might look at it like this: Suppose you’re working at a fruit selection conveyor belt with the fruit going past you, so that as it goes by you pick up the best and most beautiful fruit—to be handled separately and sold at premium prices. The rest goes on to be used for something else, maybe for juice or jam, but not to be sold as premium fruit. If you didn’t pluck up those good ones, they’d all go to whatever that something else is. Comparatively, all people are on that conveyor belt of life and would end up in the same place, the place of not being picked, or, better stated, of being rejected—except, except if someone reaches out and plucks certain ones and puts them in a most special place.
You know this, because all people are both sin damaged and committing sins, all deserve that rejection, that condemnation, including you and me because we all sin daily in spite of our faith. But, and here’s the critical point, the Holy Spirit creates faith in those who come to believe and, in effect, are then plucked up off the conveyor belt, the belt delivering all the rest to eternal condemnation. Those whom he plucks up because of their faith will be in the premium place of all premiums, in heaven with Jesus. To be honest, it is inexplicable as to why God chooses us and not others, and why we don’t become non-selects like all the rest. Yet somehow, God has come to us, given us faith to believe as a gift, and guaranteed for us the home above all homes as his treasured possession!
The reason all this can happen is Jesus, God’s Son, who came to earth, died on the cross, and rose again. The people of Malachi’s time, some four hundred years before Jesus, had the same faith we have, but their faith was in a promise, a promise of fulfillment that would not happen until Jesus came.
Thus, to look back on these words “They will be mine,” says the LORD Almighty, “in the day when I make up my treasured possession. I will spare them,’” Malachi 3:17 we hear so clearly and so wonderfully that God, now because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, declares most exquisitely that we, by faith, are His and His treasured possession. On account of that, what we do indeed does deserve condemnation, but has been removed, and we are spared from eternal destruction. Because of our faith, because of what Jesus has done, because of God’s most clear declaration, we know that when time ends, we will hear Jesus welcoming us to himself in the forever’s of heaven because he says “they are mine”. It could not be more wonderful! Praise God!
Blessings