Hebrew Word Study – Peculiar Treasure – Segal  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 unto me above all the people, for all the earth is mine.”

Note: This is taken from a chapter in Chaim’s newest book on prayer, Palal – A Hebrew Teacher Explores Prayer.  You may purchase this off Amazon or from the website in printed or ebook.

Why does God listen to our prayers?  Because we are a peculiar treasure to Him. So, all we have to do is obey God’s voice and keep His commandments and we become His peculiar treasure.  I love the idea of becoming God’s treasure but that peculiar business doesn’t sound good. When I think of treasure, I immediately picture an old pirate’s chest filled with gold and valuable gems. Even though being a peculiar treasure sounds good, I really want to know more specifically what that relationship with God really is. We need to examine just what a peculiar treasure really is to understand why God is so interested in our prayers. 

The word peculiar is not in the Biblical text. It was just a little paraphrasing by the translators of the KJV for the word segal which they say means a peculiar treasure. Most modern translations will more correctly say a treasured possession.  That word for peculiar treasure segal really has the idea of being a possession.  It is used for something that is highly prized. We will be a special possession to God.  The letter Samek in the word indicates that this possession is one that is carefully protected and sheltered.  The letter Gimel indicates that this is a prized, beloved possession, and the final letter Lamed shows that this is a possession that he keeps developing and upgrading. 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 is 93. The numerical value of the Hebrew word for inheritance or heirloom is also 93.  I drove a 93-year-old woman to the dentist on my disability bus today.  She lives alone and said she was robbed twice in the same month.  The thieves stole items that belonged to her grandfather, a pocket watch, an old comb, and a pocket knife.  The insurance company could only give her a few dollars for these items as that is all they were really worth, but to her they were priceless. Sometimes we look in the mirror and what shows back to us doesn’t look like anything or value. We are nothing but a handful of dust.  Some people may be poor, unknown, unaccomplished, and uneducated, but if they obey the voice of God and his commands they are like that pocket watch, old comb or pocket knife was to that elderly woman, a treasured heirloom, maybe worthless to everyone else but a precious possession to her as we are to God. So precious to God, in fact, that His own Son died on the cross for that seemingly worthless lump of clay.

Maybe in the eyes of the world, you feel you are worthless and of no interest or value to anyone.  But God promises that if you obey His Word and seek His voice you will be more valuable to Him than an NFL $100 million dollar talent superstar football player.  If that football player does not harken unto God, God will consider him just another of the 6 billion people that he created and loves who do not listen to or obey His voice.  Yet, this seemingly unknown, worthless lump of clay that has harkened to the voice of God will get His full attention and become a prized precious possession. 

What does that mean to harken or obey the voice of God?  The word voice is qol and means to express a thought either out loud or in some manner to another person. How many people hear a voice or God’s thoughts out loud? He did speak out loud on Mt. Sinai and when Jesus was baptized Matthew 17:5, but how many of us actually hear the audible voice of God? Yet, He has given us His Word, the Scriptures which also express His thoughts. Hence to read His Word is to hear His very thoughts, but we must read and study His Word to know His thoughts, and in doing so we know what to obey. 

We are the children of God.  Parents will make great sacrifices for their children and if their children harken to their voice they will learn to follow the right path to a full and successful life. I just read about a young woman who grew up in poverty. Her mother was a single mother who made only $15,000 a year.  They lived in a trailer house which sometimes had electricity and sometimes did not, it all depended upon whether there was enough money to pay the electric bill. The woman loved her mother and listened to her instructions.  She also observed how her mother would sacrifice so many things for her sake and to help her get an education. Her mother would sometimes go without food herself to make sure her daughter – her segal – her peculiar treasure, had enough to eat. Her daughter is now grown and success credits her mother’s dedication to the happy and fulfilled life she is now living.  Her mother can only delight in the satisfaction that she contributed to making her daughter happy. Would not our Divine find great delight the same way? 

For many parents, there is nothing they would not do for their child. God gave us earthly parents as a natural illustration of His love for us and the fact that He would not hesitate to sacrifice anything for us, even to giving His own Son shows how much of a treasure we are.  

God listens to our prayers because we are His children, His segal, His peculiar treasure. 

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