The Precious Stones
“Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate” (Exod. 25.7). We have seen already that precious stones were used in the garments of the High Priest. Let us look again at these priestly garments in Exodus 28.
Firstly, Aaron wore a white coat, over that a blue robe, and thirdly the ephod. The ephod was made of fine twined linen, embroidered with blue and purple, scarlet and gold (verses 6-8). On the shoulder of the ephod were two onyx stones or “stones of memorial unto the children of Israel”. They were engraved with the twelve names of the tribes, and, we are told, “Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders” (verses 9-12).
This tells us that our Lord carries us upon His shoulders. Many people try to carry their own burdens. I have often seen people coming into a train, and still carrying their loads on their heads. They even sit down with big bundles still on their heads. They will not put the burden under the seat! That is what we often do also. The Lord has said: ‘Put your burden upon my shoulders’, yet we insist upon carrying it ourselves, and worrying over it night and day, ‘What will happen to-morrow?’ we ask. ‘What will happen next month —or after two months? We have five children now, and soon we will have seven. How are we going to educate them? How are we going to marry them?’ Even before they are born we worry about them! Let the Lord Jesus carry your burdens. Put your burden upon His shoulders, let Him carry it for you. Cast all your care upon Him, for He careth for you (1 Pet. 5.7). When you learn that lesson, and let the Lord carry your burden, you will enjoy His perfect rest and peace.
Over the ephod was the breastplate of embroidered linen with its chains and ouches of gold. Upon the breastplate were twelve stones, upon which also were the twelve names of the twelve tribes (verses 15-21). These twelve stones were very near the heart of the High Priest. Wherever he went the stones went with him and by them God reminds His people that He wants them to be very close to His heart.
Now some people do not come very near to God. No doubt they love God, and His Word, but they do not come as close to God as He wants them to be. Sometimes worldly friends come between us and God. How often when we feel like praying, a visitor arrives and we leave the presence of God to go and keep company with that friend, and in this way allow worldly friends to come between us and God. The time we ought to spend with God and His Word is spent upon worldly things. We like the thought of living close to God, but there is a gap somewhere. Now, through these precious stones, God is saying to us ‘My people, I want you very close to myself, to enjoy My full affection and love.’
Some people only pray when they want something. For example, when they are sick they pray: ‘O God, heal me, heal me, heal me’, but when they are healed again, they forget God. They only pray when they are in trouble, ‘Lord, see my difficulty! Oh, please help me in my trouble.’ But when God hears their prayers, again they forget Him. Many only pray when they are going through some great trial or affliction, but there are very few people who pray for God's sake, because they love Him.
You know how troublesome your growing children can be, but the small baby loves you for your own sake. As children grow older they love you for what you give them, but a small baby wants the mother's breast, and it does not mind if it has nothing else so long as it is given love and affection. As the baby is hungry for the mother's breast, we ought also to be hungry for God Himself. Without any request or supplication, without any particular need, we should cry out to Him: ‘O Lord, I want only Thee; I want to be in Thy presence, to be loved by Thee.’ We are to be like the precious stones upon the breast of the High Priest — drawn very close to God's heart, and in God's presence day and night.
Underneath these twelve stones, within the breastplate, there were two more stones, one called the Urim and the other the Thummim. Even to-day nobody knows what these two stones were. Their nature is a mystery, a secret which God has never revealed to us. We only know that with the help of these two stones, the High Priest could discover God's will. When people came to the High Priest to find out God's command concerning any matter, then he could do so with the help of these two stones.
In Psalm 43.3-4, we may see an allusion to these two stones. They can be compared to the Light of God and the Truth of God. “O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me.” God has given these to every believer. Just as the High Priest had these two stones, Urim and Thummim,. on the breastplate, so even now, in your heart, is the Light of God and the Truth of God, which you received from God when you were born again. (See 2 Corinthians 4. 4 & 6). Even as the blind have no light, those who have no faith in the Lord Jesus are in darkness, for the Devil has blinded their eyes. But God said, concerning those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that the light of God revealed in His face shines in them. But He said also: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col. 3.16). When by faith you see the Lord face to face and are born again, you have the Word of God, even the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking to you, and the light of God shining in you. Even as the High Priest could find God's will through the help of these two stones, so, with His light and His truth in our hearts, all of us can now find the will of God. Before we go anywhere, before we spend our money, before we make any plans or any decisions, for ourselves, for our children or for the future, we should find out God's will.
Alas I people do not find the will of God for their lives. They go on spending money and time and gifts as they like, and do not use those two stones, either for themselves, or for their friends, or for their children. How many Christian parents have put their children in darkness? Children of born-again parents are being educated in Roman Catholic Convents. You say that you put your children there because you want them to be taught English. That is a trick of the Devil, and not of God. All these Roman Catholic Convents and Schools are dedicated to idol worship, and when your children are small, if they see the nuns worshipping idols and pictures, they will think it right to do the same. They may learn English well, but they may also bring idolatry into the House of God. That is how many parents are the cause of their children's failure.
In the same way with the marriage of your children, you do not find out God's will and so you do not make happy marriages. As you seek the will of God in everything, you will be drawn closer and closer to God's heart, and these precious stones remind us that God's plan for His people is to draw them very near, and close to His heart.
In Revelation 21.14-18 we see these stones once more. There we have a vision of the walls of the Holy City, which have twelve foundations, on which the names of the twelve Apostles are written. These precious stones are found in those foundations, and speak of the strong apostolic foundation on which we are built (Eph. 2.19-22). Now the Apostles were only ordinary men. Do not think they were men of extraordinary temperament. They were men of like passions as we are, yet they were made strong by God. In spite of human failure, all of us can become strong like that. In Luke 6. 13- 16' we have the list of the twelve Apostles, and Simon's name comes first. We know what kind of a man Simon Peter was, yet, in spite of his failure, he became God's precious stone. Even though we too fail so often, yet, in the Lord Jesus Christ, we too are precious stones.
How did Simon Peter become a precious stone? That name ‘Peter’ means just an ordinary rough stone, but, that same rough stone became in the end a very precious, shining foundation stone. When he came to the Lord Jesus Christ in the beginning, he was like the ordinary, dirty-looking stones you see on the wayside; yet in the heavenly foundations he is represented by a very beautiful precious stone. “The first foundation was jasper” (Rev. 21.19). Peter, the rough stone, is now likened to a shining, bright, beautiful, precious jasper stone. How did he become like that?
In Luke 5.2-3 we see Peter sitting by his boat, washing his net. He was probably half-naked, with nothing upon his body save only a loin-cloth, and with a very rough face and rough hair. Then the Lord Jesus Christ came down to the seashore and by Simon's permission entered the boat and began to talk about faith, and other things. Meanwhile that naked fisherman was wondering how such things could concern him. But the Lord knew all about Simon, and after He had finished speaking, He told him: ‘Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.’ Even though the Lord was talking to so many people, yet he had seen the thoughts going on in the heart of Simon. Simon answered: ‘Lord, we have been toiling the whole night and we have caught nothing, but now, just to please You, I will do as You ask’. But he never believed that he would get even one fish. He said in his heart: ‘I am a fisherman, and this man does not know how to catch fish; yet He tells me to catch fish on that side of the boat. I have toiled all night and have caught nothing. I ought to know. But just to please Him, I will do it, —and he did (Luke 5.5-8).
And what happened? Simon, that rough looking stone, who earlier had been sitting there in the boat full of disappointment and doubt, obeyed the Lord; and soon the net was so full of fish that it began to break.
Such were the men whom the Lord chose: not B.A.s and M.A.s, but just unlearned and ignorant fishermen, full of failure and frailty and weakness, but ready to obey Him. For three years the same Simon gave the Lord Jesus Christ much trouble. He was so quick-tempered and impulsive that he had to be rebuked again and again. In Matthew 16 he confessed the Lord Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, but when He told him that He must suffer and die, Peter thought the Lord was making a terrible mistake and said to Him: ‘Never, Lord! You cannot do such a thing as that.’ But Peter did not know what he was saying, and the Lord rebuked him: “Get thee behind me, Satan. He said, ‘You are not standing for the things of God’. Yet Peter thought that he was following the Lord. How many people are like that I They have been to Bible Seminaries and have learned Hebrew and Greek; they know all about God; they profess to be walking in His ways; they even think they know much more than our Lord did, and like Peter they say: ‘O Lord, the Cross was not necessary. The Blood is not necessary.’
Such people tell us: ‘We like your preaching, but please do not talk about sin and the Blood. You can talk about anything else, but we do not like those words’. That is why so many so-called Pastors have given up talking about sin and the Blood of Christ. They have yielded to public pressure and will not even tell people that Christ died for their sins. But the Lord says: “Get thee behind me, Satan.” “The Son of Man must suffer.” “For this cause came I into the world.”
Again in Matthew 18.21 the Lord said: ‘You must forgive’, but Peter thought, ‘No Lord, how can I forgive? Lord, do not give such teaching. Men must be punished by bricks and stones. We must use the stick and the sword.’ See how Peter was again and again coming in the way of the Lord. Our Lord had told the disciples many times: ‘I must die; I have come into the world in order to die, because it is the only way that sinners can be saved. I left heaven to give My life willingly for all sinners’. Yet when Peter saw all the people coming around Him to take Him, he was so full of anger that he took out his sword and cut off the ear of the High Priest's servant. And again the Lord had to rebuke him.
Peter was a rough stone, and could not understand the mind of God. His life was full of frailties and weakness, but the Lord knew that one day the same rough stone would be like a precious jasper stone. And we are all like Peter. Before we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, we are bad-tempered and are always doing foolish things. Yet how patiently and lovingly the Lord goes on rebuking and teaching us, till we too become like precious stones. In spite of our failures and shortcomings and weaknesses, the Lord takes us and, if we only obey Him, will change and transform us till we become like a shining jasper stone.
Even years later God had to rebuke Peter through Paul the Apostle when Peter refused to eat with the Gentiles (Gal. 2.11-12), and we too shall receive many rebukes throughout our lives. Precious stones have to go through extreme heat under the ground to become so brilliant. God asks us to believe in His perfect will and to allow the trials He may send to work His will in us. That is how He can make of us shining stones. If we allow the light and truth of God to work in us, we shall become like precious stones drawn dose to the heart of God, to enjoy His full love and affection.
Thus we see the spiritual meaning of the material gathered for the House of God. Let our daily prayer ‘God help me to bring for Thy House, gold, silver and brass; blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen; goats' hair, rams' skins and badgers' skins; shittim wood, oil, spices and precious stones. Lord give me the joy and the honour of bringing these things into Thy House. I want to take my share in the building of Thy dwelling place’.