"That They May All Be One"

by P. W. ATKINSON,Melbourne | Category: A People For God's Own Possession | Nov 1964

The precious promise given by God to Israel as a result of their obedience to His words and the keeping of His covenant, was "Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me from among all peoples: for all the earth is Mine... " (Exodus 19.5). The words "peculiar treasure" are rendered elsewhere "a treasure of mine own" (1 Chronicles 29.3). Thus this people, if they continued to be obedient, would be of great value to God and would be His own special possession.

They were a redeemed and purchased people (Exodus 15.13, 16), who had all been "baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Corinthians 10.2), and at Sinai, they heard the words of the LORD read by Moses, and answered, "All that the LORD hath spoken will we do" (Exodus 24. 7), following which Moses sprinkled the people with the blood of the covenant, confirming its acceptance.

As God viewed all the nations of the earth, He saw in this small nation ("the fewest of all peoples", Deuteronomy 7.7) that which gave Him great joy. They, out of all the nations of the earth, were willing to obey Him. Thus He called them His own and they were very precious to Him, "a peculiar treasure".

After the completion of the Tabernacle the LORD took up His dwelling in the midst of this people. "So Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the Tabernacle" (Exodus 40.33, 34).

No other nation had such a God as Israel. Others had their gods of precious metals and of wood or stone, but Israel was distinguished by the presence of the LORD in cloud, and the glory of the LORD, who was dwelling in their midst as they journeyed from Egypt to Canaan. What a happy people they should have been when they saw this evidence of the nearness of their God! Well did Moses say, "For wherein now shall it be known that I have found grace in Thy sight, I and Thy people? is it not in that Thou goest with us, so that we be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face of the earth?" (Exodus 33.16). Thus, they were a redeemed, baptized and separated people, truly a peculiar treasure unto the LORD.

Passing over part of the history of Israel and coming to the days of Solomon, we see now the glory of the LORD dwelling in the magnificent Temple built by Solomon. God was still dwelling in the midst of His people.

After the death of Solomon we read of his son, Rehoboam, and of his unwise dealing with the ten tribes of Israel. Represented by Jeroboam, this large section of the nation deliver an ultimatum to Rehoboam that he should lighten their burdens and ease the discipline imposed by his father. They wanted things to be easier. They desired more freedom, and that which should have weighed most in their minds, namely, the presence of the LORD, was f9rgotten. At Rehoboam's reply, the ten tribes said, "What portion have we in David?....to your tents, 0 Israel... So Israel departed unto their tents" (1 Kings 12.16). They broke away from their allegiance to the house of David.

Jeroboam, in his cunning, placed golden calves in the cities of Bethel and Dan, and counselled the people of the ten tribes to go there to worship, realizing that if he allowed them to go up to Jerusalem, eventually they would be won back to the house of David. Thus their sin of leaving the house of God was added to by the introduction of idolatry.

Israel's sin deepened as the years rolled on, until at last God in judgement sent the Assyrians to remove the ten tribes from their land and to disperse them among the nations (2 Kings 17.22, 23). The remaining two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, after alternating periods of revival and apostasy, were also led away to Babylon, where for 70 years they were in captivity. In the purposes of God they were then allowed to return to the land to rebuild the house of God (Solomon's Temple having been destroyed).

Passing over to the New Testament times, we find the Lord Jesus Christ, rejected by the nation of Israel, pronouncing that dread judgement on them, "The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matthew 21.43). They had refused their Messiah, the King, and were soon to be responsible for His crucifixion and to call upon themselves the guilt of His death in the words "His blood be on us and on our children".

The Lord who died was raised in triumph from the dead and ascended on high, entering into His glory. The names of about one hundred and twenty disciples were together in Jerusalem awaiting the promised Holy Spirit. On that great day of Pentecost, empowered by the Holy Spirit, Peter preached Christ to the vast number of Jews who were present in Jerusalem at that time. Under the power of the word multitudes cried out, "What shall we do?" (Acts 2.37). Peter's reply produced a great effect, and "they then that received his word were baptized: and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2.41, 42).

Thus we see a redeemed people, purchased by precious blood (1 Peter 1.19), baptized and added to the church of God in Jerusalem, continuing in obedience to the teaching, separated from that evil generation.

Of this people Peter wrote later, as others were added from among the Gentiles, that they were "elect... according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1.1, 2). He also wrote of them as having purified their souls in obeying the truth (1 Peter 1.22), and again to them, "Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2. 5); further, "But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession" (1 Peter 2.9). As God viewed the nations of the earth in that early New Testament day, He could see that holy nation (not Israel, for they had rejected and crucified His Son), distinct from all else, composed of those whose hearts were bowed to do His will - a people for His own possession.

This people consisted of the many churches of God, which were planted in that great movement which spread throughout the known world at that time, each church fitly framed together with the other churches of God, the entire structure forming the spiritual house of God in that day (Ephesians 2.21). What pleasure God received from this, His possession!

For years the testimony of the churches of God was bright and shining, but as time went on believers became careless and disobedient, with the result that the last view we have of the churches of God in the New Testament is in the early chapters of Revelation, where we see the Lord Jesus Christ walking in the midst of the lampstands (or churches), giving warning, commending or condemning as each church of God deserved (Revelation 2, 3). How sad that after such a short time the light of truth should have become so dimmed! Men wanted teachers who would make things more pleasing to the flesh. They wanted freedom to do what they liked. The will of God was secondary in their minds. So the time came when spiritual darkness descended and the light of collective testimony went out. The churches of God so far as we know ceased to exist.

For many centuries the darkness continued until in the latter part of the last century, when beloved brethren were stirred up by the Spirit of God to grasp and teach the precious truths of the apostles' teaching concerning the gathering of believers together in churches of God, which teaching resulted in the planting of churches of God and the establishing again of "the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Corinthians 1.9).

And so today, the word of God as already quoted from 1 Peter 2.9 comes to those who are gathered in the churches of God, seeking to be obedient to His word, and to walk in separation from all that is contrary to His word, "Ye are... a people for God's own possession", despised on every hand, few in number, realizing our weakness, yet, in God's eyes of greatest value to Him. How precious the thought As God views the whole earth today, He finds in His gathered out people, that which stands out as His peculiar treasure.

Let us therefore take courage and press on, remembering that the steadfast continuing of His people in obedience to His word is of great value to Him. His words to Israel in that far off day come to us today, "Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me from among all peoples: for all the earth is Mine".

P. W. ATKINSON,Melbourne | Nov 1964
A People For God's Own Possession