However the children of God may be despised by the carnally-minded yet they are beloved of the Lord. The appellations by which He addresses them, through the inspired writers, strikingly express His infinite affection.
They are called His redeemed people, the flock under His care, His beloved children, His special possession, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, the chosen, and the elect, etc.
To represent their honor and blessedness, the Spirit of God has employed the choicest imagery furnished by the heavens above, the earth beneath, and by things under the earth.
The sun indicates their progressive splendor unto the perfect day. The stars, or innumerable suns, indicate the brilliancy with which they shall shine when mortality shall be swallowed up in eternal life!
The flowers in their beauty and fragrance, indicate their moral excellence and beauty.The fruits of the trees, the grain of the field, and rain, and springs, and streams, and rivers of water denote their fruitfulness and utility in the world.
And the very foundations of the earth, furnish imagery to represent their present and future worth and glory.
[William Nicholson]
✞ ✞ ✞
Malachi 3:17 ... And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
Hosea 14:5-7 ... I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.
1 Peter 2:9 ... But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;❤
