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Gold, Pearl & Precious Stones
John Boda
I am embarking upon this study with first posting a word of caution, please read and enjoy this with these few important points in mind;
One more note on this last point, I remember something that the great Isaac Newton once wrote about himself when others had begun telling him how much of a genius and great he was. (Which he really was!) But his opinion of himself was that of a small child walking along a vast beach and ocean, and turns over a pebble occasionally to discover something he never knew before!
Introduction
I have thought about this subject for many years, and even wrote a song/album with this same title which you can find easily here at this site. One of the reasons it has struck me so much is that I have studied and taught the book of Genesis on several occasions. I also have attempted to present a big panoramic picture of God and scripture for many years, and this study is very much along those lines of entering a much larger world of thinking.
But I suppose the one spark that set all this in motion was once when I was studying I Corinthians chapter three, and noticed that Paul speaks of “Gold, Silver and Precious Stones”, and I did a check and found that although both gold and precious stones are in Eden and the New Jerusalem, silver is nowhere to be found! That intrigued me! (I get amazed at such things)
There are reasons for that, just as each element signifies something for us. (Silver represents redemption and our salvation from present sin, something which we need now, but Adam and Eve didn’t need before the fall, and we won’t need forever in the New Jerusalem, I will get into the exact meaning of gold, pearl and precious stones as we move forward in the next segment).
But having been aware that everything, including every detailed word, number and phrase, in the Bible is precise and has meaning, I embarked upon my journey of discovery!
Working on a Building
There is an old Gospel song with this title, “Working on a Building”, which beautifully depicts this whole idea! All of us as believers and pilgrims are not only on a journey, but while we are on this journey we are working on a building. Or even better said, God is building his masterpiece and we are blessed and privileged to be used by him to help bring it to completion!
You might be thinking, “What building, what are you talking about”?! If so, that is understood, mostly because the majority of people, even Christ followers, don’t seek to view the larger perspective or the big picture. Most are content to accept the wonderful gift of salvation, but are consumed with day to day affairs and the here and now and think little about the panoramic view. (This is really God’s point of view!) So if this is God’s view, work, and purpose which he is doing now, I believe that we really miss out and can become largely ineffective in the work of the Kingdom of God apart from it! (If you go back and read many words of Jesus again realizing that he had the perfect vision of God’s big picture in view, you can make much more sense out of many statements!)
The Building Blueprint
All buildings begin with a blueprint! God’s building is no exception, except we don’t have many of the details. But we do have the three primary building blocks which will make up the entire magnificent structure, which will be finished sometime soon.
Remarkably, these three building blocks are found in 2nd chapter of the first book of the Bible – Genesis, and the finished, complete, glorious structure is found in the 2nd to last chapter of the last book of the Bible – Revelation. The remarkable thing is the beautiful finished masterpiece called The New Jerusalem, is made up of….you guessed it…Gold, Pearl & Precious Stones!
(More on Revelation and the finished masterpiece later.)
The initial blueprint is found in Genesis 2:11-12 where we are given a very brief glimpse of the Garden of Eden. In addition to the four rivers which are named, we are also told of the land consisting of three specific elements:
Of course, depending on what translation you are reading from, yours may translate these a little differently. In all translations the word “gold” = gold!
There is no problem with that and it is clear that there was gold there, however, the other two elements require a deeper look to discover what they were and why God placed them here in the scripture for us.
Bdellium
First of all let’s look at Bdellium. The best Hebrew scholars offer two schools of thought as to what this may actually be;
Some think that BOTH are somewhat correct! Because, in essence, both develop out of the same principle, the resin is formed from a damaged or broken living tree, and pearls form from a “broken”, damaged or injured oyster. The finished product of both resin and pearl even can look similarly, with the resin becoming a brilliant, transparent hardened gum, and the pearl becoming a brilliant, transparent gem!
Both the resin and the pearl also beautifully depict something of value being formed out of something wounded, does this sound familiar? Jesus was wounded for our transgressions and out of his suffering came the fulfillment of God’s plan and purpose and you and me…but I digress, more on that later!
Personally, I believe the Bdellium was actually more pearl than tree resin. But no one knows for sure and no one can be dogmatic on these issues, we will have to wait until the other side to find this answer! But for purposes of this writing, I will refer to the Bdellium as pearl from now on. (There are many reasons for believing it was pearl which you will see as we progress)
Onyx Stone
Now let’s look at just what the onyx stone may have been.
Once again, the meaning here is clear – it is simply onyx stone! But it is considered to be one of many “precious stones” of value. It is very likely that along with the onyx stone were many other precious stones along with it.
All precious stones are formed from intense heat and pressure deep within the earth. Over long periods of time, the combination of heat and pressure can change the molecular structure of ordinary elements like coal into precious stones like diamonds!
One simply cannot ignore the beautiful analogy of Christ followers who must go through this life filled with pain, suffering and death, with some experiencing much more of this than others. But if we have a solid faith in an eternal living Lord, we can come through it refined and much better than if we never went though it at all.
This is exactly what Paul speaks of in Romans 5:3, 4;
“…but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope.”
In fact, if you dig a little deeper into the original language, you’ll find this analogy even more pronounced.
The word “tribulation” in the above text is “Thilipisis” in the original Greek language, and its basic meaning is “pressure”. Not only are precious metals formed by heat and pressure, but even ordinary stones and rocks.
It is not surprising that all believers in Jesus are also called - Living Stones -being built up into a spiritual house! (I Peter 2:5)
So in summary, we can see three important elements present in The Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, which could be thought of as a rough blueprint of
a building. Then if we fast forward to the last book of the Bible, Revelation, we see these same three elements once again! But there, they are a part of the beautiful, magnificent, finished master piece called “The New Jerusalem”!
If we can continue with this big picture panoramic view, everything in between, from Genesis three to Revelation twenty one and two, concerns God’s desire, purpose, and work of constructing this building! This building is so closely linked with all of God’s people that in Revelation 21:2, 9-10, The New Jerusalem is spoken of as literally being the Bride, the wife of the Lamb! It is our eternal home, forever and ever, with God himself at the center and clearly visible. Once again, it is amazing to me that John lists the exact measurements as well as the detailed stones which make up the building, and they are ALL – Gold, Pearl, & Precious Stones!
These three elements can also be linked with the God-Head Trinity.
Gold = God the Father as it is not an element which is formed on earth by heat and pressure. It is actually formed within super hot stars which are burning up! As stars continue their dying cycle, they create new elements like Gold and others until they burn to their core of Iron. At that point they can go no further and, if the star is big enough, it explodes in a huge blast called a supernova, which spreads out these heavy elements in space to possibly form into other stars and planets after many years and the pressure of gravity.
Pearl = God the Son as it is formed within a living oyster which becomes injured. Because of its injury, it develops this beautiful hardened substance which becomes pearls. Jesus came to this earth as a living human being, born in a stable, and then was injured by being crucified and put to death on a cross. But because of his obedience to God the Father in going through with it, he came out three days later and rose from the dead, and emerged like a beautiful gem and pearl of great value!
Precious Stones = God the Spirit as they are all formed within the earth by heat and pressure to emerge later as beautiful stones of value. This is not so much the Spirit of God, as it really is the role and work of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes and guides, teaches, and leads all believers forward on this journey towards God the Father and the final New Jerusalem. This leading process involves much tribulation (pressure) and heated trials that we all must endure by God’s grace, but in the end when we emerge; we become “refined by the fire” and are transformed into precious gems like coal becomes a diamond!
Note: There was one more element in Eden, which was the dust which God took to form Adam. But there is no mention of dust, dirt, or anything of the old earth within The New Jerusalem. All of the old will be removed, at that time there will be a new heaven and earth, so the dust of which we are made of is very mortal, temporary, and of little significance within this context.
Satan’s Counterfeit – Babylon
As with many things of God, his arch enemy often comes up with a counterfeit copy. We must be aware of this! If we are not, we can easily become confused or deceived more and more as we approach these last days.
Have you ever gotten to the point where you just said, “All religions and Holy books basically say the same thing, so what’s the big deal?” If so, you have already become deceived and are very confused! No, they don’t all say the same! But since there are many books that claim to be “The Word of God”, it can be very confusing. But it really all began first with Moses getting God’s Word and writing it down into what is known as The Torah, (First five books of the Old Testament). Of course, God himself even wrote part of it with his own finger, the Ten Commandments.
But soon after, we have a man named Mohammed who is in a cave in a trance, and writes down words supposedly from God delivered by an Angel.
Then as years go by there are many more books supposedly written as the Word of God which either supplement, or completely overwrite the Torah, the Prophets and later our New Testament.
Think about it, if you were God’s arch enemy, and wanted to try to attack God in any way possible, and you discover that this God lovingly gives his Holy Word to human beings to help them find salvation, since you couldn’t directly attack God himself, you would insert your own versions of holy books to try to confuse, and lead these poor pitiful creatures astray! That is one example of a counterfeit copy, of other books coming to replace or add to the written Word of God (Logos), which we are told by that same word that it is complete! (We can use and enjoy many other books to help us in our journey, but never are we to consider anything else to be THE Word of God! Especially any book which has that claim and stands in opposition to the Bible.)
That is just one example, but there are more, such as false prophets appearing and claiming to speak for God like God’s prophets do. Or consider Satan coming up with his super man – Anti Christ, to counter God’s ultimate super man – Jesus –The Lord of Lords and King of Kings!
Sometime in the past, Satan learned that God was about working on his building. He learned this long ago vaguely, but now knows it in detail as God revealed the finished product to John as the New Jerusalem in Revelation. But Satan first knew of it not long after Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, how do I know that?
Because we can see all the details of his attempt at completing his own masterpiece called “The Tower of Babel” in Genesis chapter 11. Satan actually enlisted the help of most of the world’s people at that time! The first time there was world unity, it was used for evil purposes to serve Satan! (This is why world unity is never a good thing until Christ comes and rules on earth – see my study “The Theory of Unity”)
Please read Genesis Eleven for yourself to get more familiar with this story if you are not already. God himself had to come down and stop it! (I don’t want to get into a detailed study of this tower now, I do have an in depth outline of it in my Genesis outlines posted here) Although God stopped the physical building of the tower, and dispersed the people, yet their rebellion continued and the spirit of Babel – later called Babylon – continued.
I will state this very clearly; although there is no physical structure being built by Satan now, he is very much concerned with the advancement of progress of his counterfeit building called Babylon. Just like God’s building is not physical, but spiritual, so likewise Satan’s building is a spiritual one as well. (As with many spiritual realities, many times they have a physical counterpart on earth. The New Jerusalem is linked with our physical city Jerusalem in Israel. The physical link to spiritual Babylon is unclear, but many people believe it will be the actual old city of Babylon in Iraq which will be rebuilt also.)
If the Tower of Babel was the only example of the enemy counterfeit to The New Jerusalem, that would be enough, but there is more. Remember, I have been briefly outlining the amazing elements of Gold, Pearl and Precious Stones as they relate to God’s New Jerusalem. I was more than amazed, literally blown away, when I was reading Revelation several years ago and found out the exact materials making up Satan’s evil counterfeit – Babylon!
Revelation chapter 18 is all about the final demise and destruction of this completed spiritual empire masterpiece called Babylon. Even though Satan has been hard at work building it for centuries, God will completely destroy it in one hour! (Rev. 18: 17-19)
But within this chapter when Babylon is described, we find this amazing verse;
“Alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls.” (Rev. 18:16)
(There can be no doubt that this city is Babylon as it is clearly named through out this chapter.)
Wow! What a copy cat! Satan’s great city is adorned with the same three elements as God’s New Jerusalem!
(I also find it interesting that the words are slightly arranged differently with precious stones following gold instead of pearl as it is described for The New Jerusalem. It is almost as if God placed that here saying, “See the copy? - beware, similar, but yet very, very different!”)
Please take a few minutes to read the entire chapter of Revelation 18 now, it really is amazing! Also notice that after Babylon is finally destroyed, it seems to be a very, very big relief! It is a big deal! Why? Look what happens next in chapter 19, we find the original Hallelujah chorus breaks out! Not just a few people, but ALL of heaven breaks out! (For those interested, this also is the very first mention of any “Hallelujah” in the New Testament – it had to wait until the evil empire of Babylon is finally destroyed.)
Then after the Hallelujah praise chorus’…we then find the ultimate, true, and REAL King coming – Christ himself on a white horse to make war on Satan, the Antichrist, and a corrupted world that is following after them.
(If you’ve never read the Bible all the way through to the end…sorry... I just ruined the ending for you)
What about Silver?
Finally I would like to conclude with just a brief mention about one other element which the Bible does speak of often – silver.
If you do a detailed study on this element through out the Bible, you will find that silver represents Redemption. In other words, silver speaks of God’s salvation coming and people responding to it by repenting of their sin and accepting God’s free gift of grace and life!
People are often spoke of being refined as silver after/during they go through trails and suffer, yet all the time continue to trust God.
Although silver is found in many passages in the Bible, it is NOT found anywhere in the two places I have highlighted linked with The New Jerusalem; Genesis two / Revelation 21, why?
Because silver represents redemption, and that involves repentance from sin, suffering, faith and trust in God on earth now, those things will NOT be a part of eternity within The New Jerusalem!
Verses on Silver;
Proverbs 25:11 / Psalm 12:6 / Zechariah 13:9 / Psalm 66:10 / Proverbs 17:3 / Malachi 3:3
Here is another interesting fact on silver:
During the reign of Solomon, Israel lived under their most glorious epoch! In many ways, Solomon’s reign is a type of the future reign to come of Christ, when he will reign and rule the earth, both during the millennium, and then also as God – The Father –Son ruling the new heavens and earth within the home base of The New Jerusalem.
There are many scriptures about Solomon and his temple at that time, how it was awesome and beautiful, almost beyond description! It consisted of much gold and precious stones, but although silver was used, its value was considered worthless during those days!
Read it for yourself! I Kings 10:21 / II Chronicles 9:20
(The clear analogy is that just like redemption, repentance, and any sin awareness will vanish – and be of no value – during God’s eternal reign, so also it had no value during Solomon’s reign, who was a type of him to come)
Conclusion
I sincerely hope this study was not only insightful, but helpful in very practical ways for you on your journey.
How? Like I stated in my opening, whenever we can grasp a larger view of God, it can help us greatly in our day to day trust and faith in him.
The very essence of good theology can really be summed up in two things;
These two things are really what are called “synergetic”, in that they work together. We can never hope to know God anywhere near who he really is apart from first also knowing our hearts are corrupt and in need of grace.
Once we receive that grace and begin our journey, then we begin to grasp God’s hugeness, one bit, and one day at a time.
Hopefully, if you have come to some of my same conclusions on God’s master plan and building, you now have a larger view of who he is.
This larger view is not meant to be holed up into our minds to cause us to become self centered and puffed up, but rather, with this new larger-perspective, we now have a new responsibility to first grow deeper and move forward ourselves, and then secondly, to help others do the same.
That is my admonishment to you, and also I, because if we do that, we can then, and then only, expect further insight and newer increases in perspectives that God will allow us to see along the way.
Grace & peace to you! JB
Ok...if you came this far....as Andy said to Red in Shawshank....maybe you'd like to go a little farther!
Here is my song of the same title. JB