Grasping Gold

I completed my fifth Bridge tour to Israel ten days ago. Every time I go, I find deep meaning revisiting both Old and New Testament sites. Seeing where Jesus lived and taught is very meaningful.

It’s interesting how every time I go, I learn something new.

One of my favorite Old Testament sites is Beit She’an, an ancient Canaanite city that was eventually conquered by Solomon…actually taken peacefully by him from Egyptian governance when he married Pharaoh’s daughter.

But there are two parts of Beit She’an: the upper tel that became part of the northern Israeli kingdom, and the later lower Roman city that eventually housed early Christians in the Byzantine period.

The upper city was abandoned when the Romans came. The lower Byzantine city came under Muslim control during the Arab conquest but was destroyed by an earthquake in the eighth century.

People in the city felt the rumblings of the impending earthquake and evacuated the city to save the population.

But after leaving town, one man remembered he left a bag of gold hidden in his home. So he raced back into town to fetch it. He grabbed his treasure and headed back out of his house when the earthquake struck.

When archaeologists began excavations in 1921, they found his skeleton under one of the fallen pillars, still grasping his treasured bag of gold.

Think about it. It was in his hand all those years. He had his gold. And they literally had to pry his cold finger bones from around it to find the contents. It was all still in his hand, but it was never enjoyed.

Here was a man who risked his life facing impending catastrophe because an elusive treasure was so important to him. And he lost his life because of it. What was more precious? The gold or his life?

I wonder if you are doing something similar. You don’t care that you might be losing your marriage, your kids, your integrity, your spiritual life. You’ve got to have that gold, that dream lifestyle, house, car, vacations, etc.

But that pursuit inevitably leads you to catastrophe. And you’ve got your gold. But you are dead inside, unable to even enjoy it.

It’s not worth it. There are some things that are just more valuable.

When it’s all said and done, what will matter to you then?

Pursue that!

1 Peter 1:7 – The genuineness of your faith [is] much more precious than gold!