1 Peter 2:4
“And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God”.
I’m going to focus on the “choice and precious” part of the verse. This is Jesus. Peter gave the majority response as “rejected by men”. Jesus often mourned this. When He entered Jerusalem, He cried over it as they would completely miss Him (Luke 19:42). This wasn’t new, as Israel resorted to idols often in their history. This was rejection of God.
The Lord has a different opinion. Jesus is choice and precious. He is choice. He is preferred. I was driving by stores on Black Friday eve and saw lines of people waiting for particular items. These people were willing to spend the night on a concrete surface. They were choosing to sacrifice their evening and their comfort for an item. So, God loves the Son. He places a high value on Him. The Lord chose Jesus as an ally in His battle against His enemies. Psalm 110:1 says ‘The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”‘ They have eachother’s back. Lucifer plotted against The Lord and recruited a third of the angels in a campaign against Him. The members of the trinity are loyal to eachother. “I choose You” would be their thoughts to one another.
The second thought is that Jesus is precious to God. The dictionary says precious is “(of an object, substance, or resource) of great value; not to be wasted or treated carelessly.” Usually precious items are hidden or stored in safe places. We guard our precious items. We worry about them. We only share them with trusted people who would appreciate them.
God viewed Jesus highly. Yet out of His love for us, He risked sharing Him with a people that might not accept Him. Jesus talked about not casting pearls before swine in Matthew 7:6 “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces”. The members of the trinity agreed to go a very difficult route and suffer much rejection by their redemption plan. Matthew 7:13,14 says ‘“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”‘ Jesus is saying in this passage that most will reject Him.
God viewed Jesus highly. Yet out of His love for us, He risked sharing Him with a people that might not accept Him. Jesus talked about not casting pearls before swine in Matthew 7:6 “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces”. The members of the trinity agreed to go a very difficult route and suffer much rejection by their redemption plan. Matthew 7:13,14 says ‘“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”‘ Jesus is saying in this passage that most will reject Him.
Jesus shared another parable in Matthew 13:45,46 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.” I think we who accept Christ view Jesus as precious. Unfortuanately our path to Him isn’t so noble. We often accept Him out of desperation. We need His help. We are like Peter in John 6:68 Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.”
Lord, thank You for Jesus. Help us to honor Him ever more.