The Purest Gold

Given the current state of the world’s financial system, this Christmas the gift of gold brought by the wise men to the child Jesus has been of particular interest to me. Some Bible scholars have maintained that the purpose of the gold was financial provision for the Holy family’s needed flight into Egypt. While that may have been part of the purpose, I believe that the greater significance of the gold lies buried as a treasure in the pages of the Old Testament when, in antiquity, the Great I Am began unfolding the Plan of the Ages.

As a former schoolteacher I was taught in the teacher education program at the university that the most effective modality for teaching abstract or intangible concepts was the relating of a learner’s known or tangible concept to that particular abstract concept to be taught. When God began introducing Himself to mankind, it is interesting to note that this pedagogy originated with Him! The Old Testament is replete with sensory experiences and tangible lessons initiated in a most meticulous manner by God, motivated by His unfathomable love for mankind, in order to help us as sensory dominated beings see the unseen.

So it is with the precious metal, gold. From the beginning of time gold was associated with wealth, particularly the wealth of kings. When God directed Moses to construct a tabernacle, the innermost sanctum of the Holy structure, known as The Most Holy Place, contained the spectacular and resplendent Ark of the Covenant, a wooden chest overlaid with “pure” gold and adorned with golden Cherubims fashioned from “beaten work.” The border of the Ark simulated a golden crown—the headwear of kings. The Ark of the Covenant was the quintessential import of all that preceded it in the remainder of the tabernacle. It was the focal point to which all other aspects of the tabernacle worship led. God was “painting pictures” to show us how to reach His Most Holy Place—His Inner Sanctum—His Very Heart.

What does the Heart of God look like? We can surmise through the use of “pure” gold upon the Ark that His Heart is a great treasure and very precious—that His Heart is well-worth the search—whatever the cost. As exemplified with the containment of The Ten Commandments written upon stone tablets within the Ark, within His Heart—the Core of His Being—is the Perfection of the Law. But how can imperfect, sin-stained mortals reach and touch the perfection of the standards of His Law? How can we reach the “purest” gold Heart of God? The answer is found in understanding the golden-covered lid of the Ark. It was called the Mercy Seat and it was required that the blood of a substitutionary animal sacrifice be sprinkled upon it once a year by the high priest of Moses’ time. God stated that it would be from above the Mercy Seat that He would commune with His people. It is no coincidence that millennia later, the New Testament states that Jesus has become the propitiation for our sins. Propitiation means “mercy seat.” As with the glorious “beaten” cherubim attached to the Ark’s mercy seat, the glorious mercy Jesus extends to all of us was the result of the “beating” of the crucifixion.

The gold presented at the first Christmas signified all that had been foreshadowed in the Old Testament. The tangible lessons of the Mosaic Ark of the Covenant pointed to One Who would contain the Perfection of the Law within Himself; the “Crowned” One Who was born a King as declared by the wise men and died a King as declared by Pilate; and the substitutionary One who would become the Pure and True Mercy Seat whereby we could see the Heart of God. Dare to look closely into that Manger this Christmas, dear reader, for there is more there than meets the physical eye. There, in the unlikely location of a grotto fit only for sheltering livestock, was the Purest Gold of Heaven—the Mercy Seat from which God now communes with you and me.