Jesus says “where our treasure is, there your hearts [your wishes, your desires; that on which your life centres] will also be,” Matthew 6:21 (AMP).
Treasure
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines treasure as wealth (such as money, jewels, or precious metals) stored up or hoarded (a buried treasure); wealth of any kind or in any form (riches); a store of money in reserve; something of great worth or value; a collection of precious things; a person esteemed as rare or precious.
Also, to hold or keep as precious (to cherish, prize); to collect and store up (something of value) for future use (hoard).
We see that treasure is both a noun and a verb, and as a noun, it can be something material or a person.
It agrees with the way treasure is seen in the Bible. For example, king Artaxerxes commanded that “whatever else [material things] is required for the house of your God, which it falls to you to provide, you may provide it out of the king’s treasury” (Ezra 7:20).
In Exodus 19:5 God says to Israel “if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you [people] shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.”
God lives by His own words
That means that if He asks us to live in a certain way, He already lives that way. In Psalm 138:2 David declares that “he will worship toward the Lord’s holy temple, and praise His name for His lovingkindness and truth, because God has magnified His word above His name.” What God says, is what He lives by.
In I Timothy 5:8 Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, says that “anyone who does not provide for his own, and especially for his own household, has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” Since God lives by His own words, He is not an infidel. He provides – not only for His own but also for sinners.
When God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only [covenant] son, he was willing because he had a word from God about Isaac. However, the ram caught in a bush (Genesis 22:13) saved Abraham from physically offering Isaac.
God on the contrary, actually physically sacrificed His only Son. There was no “ram caught in a thicket” to bail Jesus out when He was nailed to the cross.
So, when Jesus says: “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,” and God lives by His own word, where do you think His heart is?
What, or who, is His treasure?
True Treasure
We’ve seen that treasure is something that cost someone a great price. And who did God, through sacrificing Jesus, pay the highest price for?
His actions show that His heart [His wishes, His desires; that on which His life is centred] is with us – His treasure!
That calls for the question: Where are our hearts?
After the King or the bling?
