HEBREW WORD STUDY – PRICELESS TREASURE – SEGAL סגל Samek Gimmel Lamed
Exodus 19:5: Now therefore if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my commandments, Then you will be a peculiar treasure until me above all the people, for all the earth is mine.”
Of course, this is a reference to the Jewish people but I tend to believe that all of us who have accepted Jesus as our Savior are spiritually Jewish and beneficiaries of this blessing. You know the one new man and all that. According to this verse, all we have to do is obey the voice of God and keep his commandments and we will be a peculiar treasure to God. What caught my attention in this verse is the thought that God loves us, He loves every body but there are apparently those who He not only loves but treasure.
Who doesn’t want to be a special treasure to God, well at least I do so I am going to a closer look at this verse. The first two words “now, therefore” bore some interest.” In the Hebrew, this is the word ’atah. When used as an adverb, as it is here, we find a number of different English words we could plug into this. We could say, “now, therefore” or “until” or “when” or “while” etc. The common link is that this particular adverb has a time element as: “so for the time being” or “in the meantime.”
The next few words are tricky: “If you will obey my voice.” If you want to push my “annoy me” button, simply ask me; “So what is God saying to you?” I hear people all the time saying: “Well God spoke to me and said…” “God told me the other day…” “I was standing in the check out counter line and suddenly God said…” I am not saying this does not happen, it is just not my experience. I have to go down the road quite a bit before I can discern if what I am feeling is God or my own desires and wishes. I would be happy to obey his voice if I know with absolute certainty it is His voice. I have to confess, most often I have a certain amount of doubt.
The word for voice is qatal which is speaking, calling, voice, etc. I find three elements that make up the word for voice or qatal and it is found in the three letters that make up this word. The Qop represents God speaking through a natural or human instrument, the Teth is God speaking through inward examination and the Lamed is God speaking through the Word of God, the Bible. In other words, this voice of God can come from a natural instrument, such as a preacher, teacher, prophet, friend, etc., or through a natural event. This voice is also heard as you spend time alone with God doing a deep inward examination. I experienced that a couple of days ago when God convicted me of spending too much time researching and not enough on meditation. So, I spent the Sabbath in meditation which resulted in a self-examination of my motives and desires.
There is a third element to the voice of God that comes from reading His Word. Today I listened to a preacher on You Tube bringing a message from the Word of God and I found myself experiencing deep self-examination. I realized that I had to make a change in an attitude. I accepted that combination of preaching, self-examination and the Word of God as God’s voice and knew I had to obey and make that change.
Next, we have the words: “If you will keep.” The word used for keep is shamar which means to observe, watch, guard, being alert etc.” I know we are not under the law and that the law will not bring us salvation, only Jesus can that, but the law is a schoolmaster which does instruct us in how to live a life pleasing to God.
So if we observe, and are alert to the laws of God and obey what he teaches in His Word and reveals to us within our spirit and is confirmed by other believers, we will be a “peculiar treasure,” That word for treasure is segal which really has the idea of being a possession. We will be a special possession to God. The Samek in this word indicates that this possession is one that is carefully protected and sheltered. The Gimel indicates that this is a prized, beloved possession, and the Lamed shows that this is a possession that he keeps developing and upgrading. That sounds like a treasure to me. As His peculiar treasure, we are under His protection, we are beloved and prized and he keeps polishing us and upgrading us.
The numerical value for segal – treasure is 93. The numerical value of the Hebrew word for inheritance or heirloom is also 93. I worked as an insurance claimsman many years ago and I continually ran into claims where some item, say a pocket watch, is stolen or destroyed in a fire. From the description I know that watch is virtually worthless, you could replace it for few dollars, but I can tell by the look in the owner’s eyes that there is no replacing that watch, nor can I put a value on it. That was their father’s, husband or son’s watch that they inherited after that beloved person died. That is what we are to God, a segal, basically just a worthless handful of dust, but to God, we are that heirloom from His own Son who gave His life for that lump of clay and as such that lump of clay, a handful of dust is a priceless treasure to the Heavenly Father. We who have received His gift of salvation and live a life that is pleasing to Him are a treasure that is priceless to Him.
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