 |
|
| Volume 22 Number 11 November 2020 | Page 11 |
|
|
| Volume 22 Number 11 November 2020 | Page 11 |
Aaron Cozort
An author of financial books, Robert Kiyosaki, wrote concerning gold in his book Fake. In Fake, Robert examined the financial system in America and the results of removing the US Dollar from the Gold Standard in 1971. Throughout the book, Robert used an interesting analogy; he called paper money (i.e., fiat currency) “man’s money,” and gold and silver, he called “God’s money.” He explained that paper money is printed, created and devalued by men and governments. God’s money existed before governments and will exist after our nation crumbles. It will still be valuable no matter what happens to the US Dollar, the Euro, the Yuan or the Yen.
Gold appears early in Scripture. In Genesis 2:11-12, when the Garden of Eden’s location was described by Moses, we read, “The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there.” Abram was very rich in “livestock, in silver, and in gold” (Genesis 13:2). Pharaoh placed his signet ring upon the hand of Joseph and a golden chain around his neck when he put him in the position of second in command in all Egypt (Genesis 41:42). The sons of Jacob came to Egypt with gold in their sacks to buy grain and found their gold back in their sacks on the return journey home (Genesis 44:8). The items in the Tabernacle of God built by Moses and Israel were overlaid with gold inside and out (Exodus 25:3, 11).
Gold has value, and it had value when God placed it on this earth, but not everything that Scripture says about gold is good. Moses, following up on the giving of the Ten Commandments, wrote, “You shall not make anything to be with Me [Jehovah] — gods of silver or gods of gold you shall not make for yourselves” (Exodus 20:23).
Humanity is not to raise gold to the level of God. They are not equal. We are not to serve gold; we are to serve God. Yet, Israel sinned in this way in Exodus 32. In Ezekiel 16, God showed why gold is never to be considered equal with Him. He condemned Israel because:
You have also taken your beautiful jewelry from My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images and played the harlot with them… Moreover you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of harlotry a small matter, that you have slain My children and offered them up to them by causing them to pass through the fire?... And in all your abominations and acts of harlotry you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, struggling in your blood. Then it was so, after all your wickedness — ‘Woe, woe to you!’ says the Lord God — that you also built for yourself a shrine, and made a high place for yourself in every street… (Ezekiel 16:17-24)
Here’s the reality: the lifting up of gold to the level of God is nothing more than the precursor of lifting self to the level of God.
In this time of worldwide financial crisis, we should learn two critical lessons about gold. First, what God placed on this earth will have value far longer than what man invents. Second, money should never come between us and what has the highest value of all, our eternal souls and their relationship with God. “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Jesus the Breaker
Emanuel Daugherty
I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men. The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them. (Micah 2:12-13 KJV)
The righteous souls of Jacob and Israel in the Book of Micah are representative of all God’s people from the Northern and Southern Kingdoms who were to make up the remnant. The Remnant composed so great a portion of thought among the prophets that Isaiah named his son Shear-jashub, “the salvation of the remnant” (Isaiah 2:21; 6:9-13; 7:3; 8:2, 18; 9:12). His name served as a reminder to those of the Captivity that there would be a return.
The Remnant here in Micah is described as “large,” but it is still much smaller than the previous population of the two kingdoms. This gathering of the remnant is God’s work through the Shepherd Messiah. “The assembling of the remnant began with the work of Zerubbabel (Ezra 1-2) and Ezra (Ezra 7). These gatherings were but types of the Gospel gathering which is still going on today. While the focus here is primarily on Jewish ‘sheep,’ Jesus emphasized that he had ‘other sheep which were not of this fold’” (Smith 327). Micah said the gathering would be like a great herd of sheep and noisy as a great multitude.
The prophet then spoke of the Leader of the remnant. “The breaker is gone up before them… the King goes before them… Jehovah at their head.” This is an obscure prophecy of Jesus the Messiah as discerned from the context.
“Their king, the Messiah… the Liberator, one who breaks through the gates of their bondage” (Hailey). Respected commentator C.F. Keil said of this passage, “Breaker” is “the counterpart of Moses, viz. Zerubbabel, and in the highest sense Christ.”
The lead ram was the ram who went before the flock to butt or break down any and all barriers, rubbish, brush and undergrowth, making a way for the sheep who follow him. Just so, the Messiah Lord, Leader of the remnant flock, will break through all barriers to the ultimate accomplishment of God’s purpose, i.e., the gathering of God’s people into one body, the church. From this passage, the “Breaker-through” was one of the titles of the Christ known to the Jews (Pusey). Notice in this one verse there are three references to the same person: He is the Breaker, the King and Jehovah. This can only refer to Deity, Jesus the Messiah.
Let us now consider how Jesus through His work in the New Testament is identified with the Breaker of Micah’s prophecy. When one sees the redemptive work of Christ in the New Testament, it is easy to see that He is the “lead ram.” Jesus is not only the Good Shepherd and the Door to the sheepfold, He is as well their King who passes before them and the Lord Jehovah at the head of them.
Has He broken through to your heart? Are you letting Him lead your life?
Works Cited
Hailey, Homer. A Commentary on the Minor Prophets. Reno: Nevada P., 2009.
Keil, C.F. and F. Delitzsch. Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition. Electronic Database. Peabody: Hendrickson P., 1996.
Pusey, E.B. The Minor Prophets. Volume 2. Eugene: Wipf & Stock P., 2005.
Smith, James E. What the Bible Teaches about the Promised Messiah. Nashville: Nelson, 1993.