There is a true story about a small tribe called the Wa, who have lived for hundreds of years in the mountains on the northeast side of Burma. Long ago they were headhunters, and were feared by all the tribes around them. Although they served demons, they knew a little about the true God. Ancient legends told about the true God whose name in the Wa’s language was Siyeh. He had given them a book ( the Bible) telling them how they should live, but the book had been lost for many generations. No one remembered what it said.
In the 1800’s, a prophet named Pu Chan arose among the Wa people. “Stop head-hunting!” he urged them. “Stop offering sacrifices to demons! Siyeh, the true God, is soon going to send a brother with a copy of the book we lost. If the brother comes near our territory and hears of our wicked practices, he may think we are unworthy of Siyeh’s book and go away. Then we may never have another chance to get our lost book!” The Wa people were both excited and alarmed. Could it be true? Would they finally receive the book they had lost so long ago? Or would they be considered unworthy? They stopped their head-hunting. They no longer tried to appease the spirits. They waited anxiously for the book’s arrival. (Ps 119:25 My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word).
One morning Pu Chan called together some of his followers. “Last night God told me that the brother has finally come,” he explained excitedly. “We must find him.” Quickly he saddled a little pony. “ Follow this pony,” he instructed them. God will guide it to wherever the brother is staying. When you find him, bring him right away. He can ride the pony. It would be ungrateful of us to make him walk.” As he spoke, the pony started off! The men looked at each other in astonishment. They traveled for days and days. The pony led the amazed tribesmen for two hundred miles! At last it entered the small city of Kengtung. Finally they came to a mud- brick wall with banana trees, papaya trees, and banyan trees towering behind it. The pony walked straight through the gateway and plodded over to an open well. There it stopped. Perplexed, the Wa men looked in all directions. No ‘brother” or “lost book” was in sight anywhere. What should they do? Suddenly they noticed scraping sounds coming from the well. They hurried over and peered in. There was a man in the well. “Hello, strangers!” called the man, his voice echoing strangely from the bottom, the well. He was speaking Shan, a language the Wa understood. “What can I do for you?” Climbing out of the well he had been digging, he brushed the dirt from his hands. Have you brought a book from God?” demanded the Wa men. The man, whose name was William Young, nodded in surprise. Overcome with joy, the men exclaimed, “We had a book long ago, but it was lost. One of our prophets told us that God was about to send a brother to give us the book. God led us to you.”( Ps 107:20 He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered [them] from their destructions.)
The New Testament was translated into Wa. Pu Chan and thousands of others were converted to believe in Jesus Christ. Eagerly they waited for each installment of teaching about the true God who loved them and sent his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to save them from the demons and darkness and sin that once enslaved them. God had restored His Book to the Wa people! (Ps 119:41 Let Your mercies come also to me, O LORD-Your salvation according to Your word). Ten thousand Wa were baptized. Eager to share God’s word with others, they became missionaries themselves. They spread the Gospel through eastern Burma and into southwestern China, praising God for His mercy in restoring His Word to them & giving to them the Salvation of God through the Living Word, Jesus Christ, coming alive in their heart. Truly God’s Word is a priceless treasure. (“as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”) Faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, is the most precious of the promises- having “obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the Precious Treasure of the treasure- “ unto you therefore which believe He is precious.” “ Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”
Are we willing to go sell all we have( to repent of our sin and have the faith in His grace that the Lord willingly gives to those who receive Him ) to have this only valuable treasure- Jesus- and the forgiveness and freedom from sin that he can bring? Are we willing to be free from the sin and darkness that enslaves us and in the end will bring eternal damnation? We have to make a choice. “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” The Wa people were willing to let God’s power deliver them from their worthless idols that brought death to let God give them the precious treasure of His Word with the grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ who longs to give eternal life. Oh, dear friend, sell all you have for this priceless treasure! (John 1:12-14 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born… of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.)