When I Make Up My Jewels

In the book of Malachi the Lord said this of His people who fear Him: “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” (Malachi 3:17). In our dispensation He used this language again. Speaking again of His own people He said, “Yet I will own them, and they shall be mine in that day when I shall come to make up my jewels” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:3). He also said, describing Himself, “For I, the Lord, rule in the heavens above, and among the armies of the earth; and in the day when I shall make up my jewels, all men shall know what it is that bespeaketh the power of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 60:4). This idea highlights, I believe, two points. First, we are what matters most to the Lord; we are His treasure, His work and glory, His reason for the creation and plan of salvation. He wants to make us to be even as He is, and so we are to Him as jewels and riches are to a man seeking wealth. Second, the Lord wants to refine us. That He wants to make us His jewels means that He has work to do in order to help us become as He wants us to become. He said as much in the same chapter in Malachi: “And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness” (Malachi 3:3). He wants to purify us like gold and silver. He said similarly through the prophet Isaiah: “I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction” (Isaiah 48:10). In other words, He has refined us through our afflictions; we are not really silver to Him but similar to how man refines silver by removing the impurities, He refines us through our experiences in mortality.    

                I think there is an interesting contrast that is also instructive in this chapter of Malachi.  The Lord sees us as His symbolic “jewels” and “silver” and “gold” that He seeks to purify and refine and make up. We however, have a hard time giving up our literal wealth, as He accused the people of: “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house” (Malachi 3:8-10). This people were not keeping the commandment to offer a part of their wealth to the Lord and His work. They were, it appears, unwilling to give up their gold and silver and possessions to build up the Lord’s storehouse and help the poor. But in order for Him to make us His figurative gold and silver, we must be willing to part with our worldly wealth. If we are to become refined as He wants us, then His work must be more important to us than the jewels that we own. To become His jewels we must give up our own. In our day part of our refinement is to accept and live the law of consecration, as we promise in the temple, and that means that we must be willing to give to the Lord whatever He asks. Our promises in the temple must become more important to us than our worldly possessions. Interestingly, the Lord gave this invitation to the people as part of building the Nauvoo Temple: “And send ye swift messengers, yea, chosen messengers, and say unto them: Come ye, with all your gold, and your silver, and your precious stones, and with all your antiquities; and with all who have knowledge of antiquities, that will come, may come, and bring the box tree, and the fir tree, and the pine tree, together with all the precious trees of the earth; And with iron, with copper, and with brass, and with zinc, and with all your precious things of the earth; and build a house to my name, for the Most High to dwell therein.” The purpose of our gold and silver and jewels should be primarily to build up His kingdom and build temples so that He can “restore again that which was lost… even the fulness of the priesthood” (Doctrine and Covenants 124:26-28). When the ordinances of His house are of more worth to us than the ornateness of our houses, then we will know that He is refining us and making us up to indeed be His jewels.