“BEST THINGS” AND “PRECIOUS THINGS”
Deuteronomy 33:13 (to “his land”),15;
This passage in Deuteronomy has been before me; it speaks of “the best things” and “the precious things”. These are things that characterise Joseph’s land. Joseph, as we know, is a type of the Lord Jesus, and we can say that the things given by God to the believer in Jesus are truly the best things. God has prepared things for those that love Him, “which have not come into man’s heart”, 1 Cor.2:9. What God has given to us in the Lord Jesus far exceeds even the best that man could imagine. It cannot be compared to it; it has the character of “the best things”.
The “best things of the ancient mountains”: I was wondering if we could liken that to the purpose of God, the ancient mountains suggesting what was purposed long before man was brought into being, long before the creation of the world, before the creation of the universe. Before even time itself, before all that, the best things were purposed by God. There is nothing to be compared with them. Nothing that this world offers can compare: they are spiritual things and they have the character of the mountain. A mountain suggests what is stable, and immoveable, and ancient: the purposes of God are that; they have been in God’s heart before even time was. God had purposed in His heart to bless man in His Son, the Lord Jesus; His purpose is stable and sure, and it cannot be changed.
Another thing about a mountain is that it is a vantage point. It is interesting to consider persons in Scripture who were taken to the top of a mountain to see things, for example, Moses; Peter, James and John; and John again in Revelation. Think of what God would give us to see from the tops of these mountains, you might say the ‘long view’ of His purpose. It is interesting too that in Scripture we get “the bottoms of the mountains”, Jonah 2:6. The Lord Jesus had to go “down to the bottoms of the mountains” to secure and accomplish these best things of God’s purpose. Scripture also says that “the tops of the mountains were seen”, Gen.8:5. God, you might say, would reveal the “best things” to us first; what He had in mind was always the very best.
But what I had in mind was this, that even if God has provided the very best things for us in Christ, they might not be precious to us. God’s intention is that the best things should become precious things to us – like “the precious things of the everlasting hills”. I wonder if we have found the things concerning Jesus to be precious. They are the best; they are unquestionably the best because God has given them to us; but are they precious to you and me? Is the blood of Jesus precious to you? The passage we read in Peter says, “precious blood … foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world”. That precious blood has the character of what we have been speaking about, “the best things of the ancient mountains”. God knew about that blood of Jesus, before any of the Old Testament sacrifices had been made. What a wonderful way God has purposed to bring us into blessing. Peter speaks about it: “precious blood”. That was Peter’s valuation of it. What is your valuation of it? Can you point to the blood and say, as the hymn writer does, ‘This made my peace with God’? (Hymn 357). It is only on the basis of the blood of Jesus that you can be redeemed.
I think Peter realised that there was even more to it than redemption, that the blood also opened up free access into the presence of God – we can be at liberty there. In the Old Testament the blood was sprinkled before the mercy-seat seven times (Lev.16:14), the assurance from God that the way into His presence for us was clear. Jesus has accomplished that too. God’s intention is that these best things of His should become more and more precious to us. The more we contemplate them by the Holy Spirit, the more we enquire into them, the more and more precious they become. We realise that the assembly was purchased with that same blood, that vessel in which there will be glory to God “in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages”, Eph.3:21. That same precious blood that saved you and me when we were guilty sinners, that precious blood gives us access into God’s presence, and becomes even more precious as we realise that it has purchased the assembly for God’s eternal glory.
I feel limited in what I can say, but God has “the best things” in mind for you in Jesus, and He wants Him to become more and more precious to us as we go on. May the Lord bless the word.
Word in a meeting for ministry, Grangemouth
8 April 2026
John Speirs