You know what they say, “just follow the money.” Well, that’s true in scripture too.
Consider this. The first place that gold is mentioned in the scriptures is actually in the Garden of Eden:
A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good… (Gen. 2.10-11)
And why not? Why wouldn’t the land of paradise have gold? Naturally, it would.
But with the fall of man, we see gold become an object to wrestle over it. Men accumulated it. Abraham had a lot of it. Men melt it down and reshape it, and literally idolize it. It covers the doors of palaces, thrones, and fills the treasuries.
Wars get fought over it. The kings carried it off, and yet still other kings attacked and carried it off to their own palaces. David. Solomon. Nebuchadnezzar. Cyrus. Darius. Back and forth, back and forth in wheelbarrows no less I suspect.
But with every story, and with every money trail, there’s always a conclusion. And in the case of gold, there’s an end for it as well. The gold of Eden, gold which is good, is found one again in the book of Revelation. It is the culmination, the apex of history, the dawn of a new era when we all return to the new Eden. It’s positioned appropriately in the new city, the new Jerusalem:
Pavement.
William High is the President of the Servant Foundation (www.servantchristian.com). Servant’s mission is to inspire, teach and facilitate revolutionary biblical generosity. He may be reached at whigh@servantchristian.com.
