A story is told of a man who loved old books. He met an acquaintance who had just thrown away a Bible that had been stored in the attic of his ancestral home for generations. "I couldn't read it," the friend explained. "Somebody named Guten-something had printed it." "Not Gutenberg!" the book lover exclaimed in horror. "That Bible was one of the first books ever printed. Why, a copy just sold for over two million dollars!" His friend was unimpressed. "Mine wouldn't have brought a dollar. Some fellow named Martin Luther had scribbled all over it in German."

Much of our lives is spent in the pursuit of value. We want to obtain something of worth for a good price, we want to know we are valuable, we are worth something; otherwise, why bother to even get up in the morning? The trouble is, often we determine our worth by the wrong devices. If I were to ask you: "What are you worth?" How would you respond?

The knee-jerk response is to make a list of our assets to determine net worth. We may factor in job status or size of the home into the equation. A financial advisor relayed a formula some analysts use to determine how much they think you should be worth. Multiply your age by your salary, divide by ten. That is the amount they say you should have already saved at this time. You can add to that list the old saying that the human body, reduced to the minerals and chemicals it possesses, is worth $0.98. That's another perspective, but I’m not sure it helps.

While those may give us a sense of our value compared to others, it is an obviously superficial means of ascertaining our value. Scripture, fortunately, saves us from such machinations. It comes right out and tells us what our value is before God and what is more, it lets know us how God arrives at that valuation. Our passage this morning is a powerful reminder of our worth as seen by God.

6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

7 The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

8 But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.

10 But those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction; he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him.

11 Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.

This is among the warmest, most encouraging passages of Scripture. When you hear these words you begin to grasp the depth and power of God’s love. Yet the verses may appear strangely juxtaposed to those which precede this passage. What comes before may offend modern sensibilities, may alarm us for its apparent brutality. Nevertheless, to understand the passage we must know its context.

What comes before are the marching orders for the Israelites to possess the land God gave their forefathers. They are about to enter a land composed of seven nations, all stronger than they. Israel is to drive them from the land, ensure complete and utter destruction of any who remain. Rather than tolerance toward their worship practices, they are to break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down the Asherah poles and burn their idols. So much for diversity and tolerance. The reason for this response is our passage before us this morning. The reason given in verses 6-11 focuses on their worth determined by the God who has called them His own people, who has loved them and will be faithful to them.

I am holy - verse 6a

Israel is to possess this land God is giving them because they are holy. Holiness is the first key in determining your value. But to have this properly affect your life, you need to understand what the term means, as we often fill it up with concepts that are not particularly helpful. Notice first of all, this is a statement of fact. It is not a goal for personal achievement, but a Divine pronouncement. God takes the initiative here and declares this as true.

The Jews were holy not based on their performance record, but because of their relationship to God. The word "holy" originally meant to cut off and then developed the meaning separate. To be holy is to be dedicated for a special use, thus separate from the rest, having special value. The articles in the Tabernacle were holy not because of the quality of their production, but because of their use. That which comes in contact with God, that which is used by God, is therefore holy.

When growing up in my parents' home, the downstairs bathroom always had two sets of towels. There were the regular ratty, threadbare gray-green towels for use by children with filthy hands. Then there were the small gold towels with the appliqué crest on them. Those were dedicated for special use; they were for guests, not grubby kids. To use them would be to incur the wrath of Mother. Both sets of towels were cotton; both were probably bought at Sears. One was holy, separate from the others.

When God declares us holy, He points not to our inherent merit, our special performance, but rather to His divine choice. If you want to know your worth, first remember that you are already declared special by God. You belong exclusively to Him. If holiness is imputed to you, you are declared, by His grace alone, to be His. This gives you worth that you can never lose. That which you did not earn is never yours to let slip away.

But I look rather filthy. On what basis can I say I am special? Because I am chosen by God

Your worth is determined by God’s pronouncement of your holiness, your special status. That status has nothing to do with your performance, but God’s sovereign choice. This is the reason for your holiness before God: He initiated the whole process. What God says through Moses is what Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus when he said:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. (Ephesians1:3-4)

God’s choice of us has a purpose, a goal.

Unfortunately for some the doctrine of election is nothing but a cold, mechanical determinism. But the biblical account of God’s choice is that of special favor, based not on personal merit, but on divine grace. What is more, it has a goal in mind. God called us not for the sake of calling us, but with a goal in mind: that we would be special to Him.

How special? Notice the next line: we are chosen out of all the peoples to be His people, His treasured possession. This word is a technical term in the ancient world, flowing from economics. It speaks of valued property, something that is prized greater than all the rest of what one owns. Picture the child with the favorite blanket. No matter how mangy and worn, he’ll go nowhere without that treasured possession. The value of the blanket is determined by the choice of the child to make it a treasured possession.

Peter in his first letter makes reference to this when he writes of us in this same language. What is true of the Church in the Old Testament is true of today, the new Israel:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10)

How often do you think about your election, God’s sovereign and free choice of you to be His own?

To consider your election is to see how much God cares for you. God’s grace is not random, like a shotgun blast, hoping to hit something. Rather, God’s grace targets those who are His. When we speak of election, we get a glimpse into the heart of God’s love. We see how He makes something special out of that which is otherwise offensive.

To consider your election is to realize that you have the least influence on your own value. It is not that God foresaw something in you so that He would in turn chose you. God’s choice of us is not one part of our salvation wherein we must contribute the other part, like some old mystery movie where two characters each hold an important part of a broken amulet and only when they join forces can the power be found. Not at all. God holds it all.

Thomas Watson, the old Puritan preacher said: "Let us then ascribe the whole work of grace to the pleasure of God’s Will. God did not choose us because we were worthy, but by choosing us He makes us worthy."

Since God’s election is free and unencumbered by our performance, the arrogance melts away.

Verse 7 puts our value in perspective. God’s affection, God’s choice, has nothing to do with you.

Israel could have quickly concluded that God declared them holy because they were good, that He chose them because God knew a winner when He saw one. If anyone was good enough, strong enough, wise enough, it was they. Right? Wrong. God’s choice has nothing to do with their size or any ability present in them or foreseen in the future. Again, what is said here is what we find stated similarly in the New Testament when Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31:

26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.

27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are,

29 so that no one may boast before him.

30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

31 Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."

It's not because of who I am, but who God is, that God has done anything for me. Again, that is good news. To determine my worth, rather than looking at who I am, what I have done, notice where all the attention flows – to God. What about God then would make Him chose me?

Let’s not miss this important point. God’s sovereign choice is coupled with God’s sovereign love. Throughout Scripture, the connection between election and love must never be missed. When we looked at Ephesians 1 earlier, the next verses tell us that in love God predestined us to be adopted as sons.

The goal of election is holiness, being declared a special possession of God. But the reason is love. God’s love begins and completes the entire gamut of my worth. What are the reasons for the choice? Without elaboration, left still shrouded in mystery, God declares love.

We love because we see a reason to love; something in the other person generates that feeling, that determination. But with God, nothing external to Him will force His hand. Rather, He loves because He has willed to love. The reasons exist only in His unchanging character. The election was an act of God’s grace alone. This is what Jesus says to his disciples in John 15:16

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-- fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

What is the character of this love?

It is not an emotional attachment based on the varying hormones at the time. It is predicated on His word, the strength of His own oath. God gave His word to the forefathers. There was certainly nothing in them to make them worthy. God is bound only by His own word. God loves people because He has chosen to love them. As Charles Wesley put it, "he hath loved us, because he would love" and no reason for His love can be given except His own sovereign good pleasure.

The words used to describe God’s love illustrates how much He delights in us. The first term used in verse 8 is ’ahab, the root of which means to breathe after, to long for, to strongly desire. This term of romantic, passionate, marital love keeps us from conceiving of God’s love as a general disinterest, a vague fondness. It is the embrace of lovers. The second term, hesed in verse 9, translated here as "covenant love" points to the certainty, the love which promises and delivers.

The picture of marriage is the closest we come to describing this love. When a husband determines to set his love upon his wife, it is an exclusively loyal love, bound by a covenant. He will not love anyone else in the same way as he loves his wife, and that particular love cannot possibly be shared with anybody else. To do that would seriously violate the mutual agreement between them. That is why there is such a repetitive insistence in these verses that there can be no other gods.

The guarantee of their election was in the Word of God. He kept the oath He swore to your forefathers. He is not a vacillating, unpredictable God like the changeable gods of the surrounding nations, petulant, fickle, always ready to be coaxed or persuaded by the offering of the right kind of animal or human sacrifice. The God of the Hebrew people is the unchanging reliable God who honors His promises. Many years before He had given an assurance to Abraham, which He renewed to succeeding generations: one day they would possess the land they were about to enter.

Briefly, notice what this love does – it brought the Israelites out of Egypt; it redeemed them from the land of slavery.

What is pictured here is the great love with which God loved us when He gave His Son to redeem us from the slavery of sin. Once again Ephesians 1 paints this same picture of a loving God who sets His affection on those who are undeserving and declares them worthy by His own actions: In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. (Ephesians 1:7-8)

This is a love which knows no ends. It is a love which sacrifices for the other.

Know that God is supreme and faithful - verses 9-10

When you know the value of something, you treat it differently.

On the Antiques Road Show on PBS, people bring in everyday objects to have them appraised. Of course, they rarely show the antique dealers and appraisers laughing at the junk, but lovingly caressing the Chippendale table or the Revere silver. The owners who suddenly realize that old relic sitting in the attic is now valuable, probably go home and gingerly place that priceless heirloom on the shelf to be treasured and cherished. When we realize how much God loves us, we will respond first by knowing the truth of that love and then by obeying what He says.

In light of His love, they are to know that the God who loves them is God and that He is faithful.

These two components form the backbone of our God. When Moses says "your God is God" the redundancy points to God’s power. There is none like Him. He is sufficient; you need look nowhere else. Second, He is faithful. Not only is God able to save, He is willing, too.

In this world of ceaseless change, God is the only constant. As Moses declared, "He is the faithful God." That’s an important word for today. The Marine Corps motto is: Semper Fidelis (or shortened to Semper Fi)—Always faithful! But how many people do you know who do exactly what they say... regardless of circumstances or events? Only one who controls all events and contingencies is able to pronounce Himself as a faithful God.

Notice the extent of His faithfulness: to a thousand generations.

Because His love flows not out of varying emotions, but comes from His promise, the Covenant that He will fulfill, the promise, flows beyond you and me, to those who will come after us.

The positive aspect of this command is kept by God. He is the one who loves. But then comes the negative. It sounds so harsh, but look closely at what it says.

Up to this point in this passage there is nothing stated about our love. But here the curse is predicated on the individual’s hatred. Those that perish, perish by their own merits, but all that are saved are saved by God’s prerogative to love. No one is damned because God has not chosen him, because he is not elected, but because he is a sinner, because he refuses the means of grace offered by God.

Still, there is hope even in this. Notice the extent of God’s judgment. While His love extends to a thousand generations, His retribution is singular in nature, to that one generation. The cycle can be broken by faith in Christ.

When you know God is faithful, it is easy to do what God commands. When you know how much He loves you, when you wrestle with the extent to which He went to make you His treasured possession, when your election is certain because of His grace, a lifestyle of holiness will follow.

It should come as no surprise that following this statement of God’s grace, being clear on what God has done, we would then respond by grateful lives conforming to His commands. It is not that God will love you more if you obey or love you less if you don’t. What important here is that this is the normal response to grace.

As Israel is about to face seven nations larger than they, as they take stock that they are not very numerous, not skilled in combat, not up to the challenge, they can face what lies ahead because God loves them; God has promised and secured their salvation. There is nothing to fear.

The people are to take by conflict what God has decreed is theirs by grace. It is not a mistake that Christian spirituality is often portrayed in the New Testament in terms of combat; there is a fight which must be fought and will be won. Yet, it will certainly not be won purely by our own moral effort or religious zeal. Every Christian has to realize that God Himself is our conqueror. He fights for us, as for the Hebrew people many centuries ago, and we enter into the victory He has obtained on our behalf. Christian holiness does not begin with what we do but with what God has done for us in Christ.

In a moment we will discuss what we believe God will have us do. The answers may be hard, the work even harder. But no matter what, let us never forget that God loves us and will work out His love in our lives.