“I appointed twelve leaders of the priests – Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten other priests – to be in charge of transporting the silver, the gold, the gold bowls, and the other items that the king, his council, his officials, and all the people of Israel had presented for the Temple of God.
I weighed the treasure as I gave it to them and found the totals to be as follows:
24 tons of silver,
7,500 pounds of silver articles,
7,500 pounds of gold,
20 gold bowls, equal in value to 1,000 gold coins,
2 fine articles of polished bronze, as precious as gold.
And I said to these priests,
‘You and these treasures have been set apart as holy to the LORD. This silver and gold is a voluntary offering to the LORD, the God of our ancestors. Guard these treasures well until you present them to the leading priests, the Levites, and the leaders of Israel, who will weigh them at the storerooms of the LORD’s Temple in Jerusalem.’
So the priests and the Levites accepted the task of transporting these treasures of silver and gold to the Temple of our God in Jerusalem.”
Ezra 8: 24-30 NLT
That is a lot of treasure.
The priests and Levites were set apart, badal – to exclude, make a distinction. That word exclude seems to have a negative connotation. The priests and Levites are excluded from certain things. Which doesn’t seem fair until you finish the sentence: “as holy to the LORD.” Holy is qodesh which means sacred. Highly valued, important, and worthy of respect.
As God would have it, I woke this morning distressed by a dream. The dream? My husband had taken a second wife. He couldn’t understand why I was upset. I kept crying, “Love is jealous, love is jealous.”
I wouldn’t share him.
I couldn’t have him holding my hand at Thanksgiving, grateful for the ways God had provided for our family that year, knowing he was holding her hand, too. I was not going to sit next to him on our basement floor by the twinkle lights of the Christmas tree, watching our boys open the exact right presents, and exchange a contented, knowing look with him, wondering if he would then turn and give her a similar look.
And there is no way the most intimate aspects of marriage work when shared with another.
It actually made my stomach queasy.
Fortunately, I am quite sure my husband would say one wife is plenty. The dream was about my Savior.
The LORD our God is a jealous God.
You shall have no other gods before Me.
I will not yield My glory to another or My praise to idols.
Worship Him with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire.
And, as always, since He made us what He asks of us is for our good. Our best.
When we have nothing else in that sacred place but Him, every other relationship and activity and possession falls into its proper place. That most important relationship – like a marriage – is sacred, worthy of respect and highly valued.
And the flip side is, of course, also good news: as New Covenant Believers, we are all priests in His kingdom. We get to be excluded from certain things in this world, but only because we are included in the qodesh, the sacred. And we are His treasure.
The priests and Levites agreed with Ezra and accepted the task. Accepted here is qabal, to undertake. They undertook Ezra’s assignment to guard the treasures well. The Hebrew for guard is shaqad – to lie awake/be intent on doing something.
Are there treasures He has assigned you to guard? Relationships, a confidence, a course of study, a trust, a job, a ministry, a family, an assignment? Let’s be intent on doing it, grateful He will be the One to lie awake as we entrust the ultimate outcome to Him.
I’m so glad Jesus undertook His assignment. That He resolutely set His face to Jerusalem.
His most holy act bought for us what no amount of gold or utensils or sacrifices could: complete forgiveness and righteousness, an adoption into His family.
A treasure beyond compare.