THE GOLD STANDARD Larry W Peebles November 13, 2020 20.43
From ancient days, wealth or value was measured in precious metals such as gold or silver. This is evidenced by coins found by archeologists exploring the secrets of the past. In my lifetime in the United States, I remember my father speaking of gold coins in circulation, although I never saw them. I do remember silver coins, especially silver dollars being in circulation, and still have some in my possession. I also remember paper money that was a silver certificate, indicating it was backed by real silver in the U.S. Treasury. A large reserve of 4583 metric tons of gold valued at $291 billion dollars is held by the U.S. government in Ft Knox. While impressive, this is only slightly over half the gold held in reserve by the U.S. government.
In the early days of the American colonies, states often printed their own paper currency, as did the central government, in an effort to facilitate trade, and to finance the revolutionary war. Some said that currency was not worth the paper it was printed on. Only gold could be the safe standard for something of value.
My wife and I live in the mountains of North Georgia, 30 minutes from an area where gold was first discovered in the United States in the 1830s. A U.S. mint that produced gold dollars operated in the area until the gold ran out and all the gold seekers headed to California for that gold rush in the late 1840s. At its peak, hundreds of gold claims and producing gold mines were staked out in the mountain streams and rivers in the area. The community where we live today still shows evidence of diggings along certain streams. I had a dream (actually two) that we found gold on a property we owned in the area. In the dream, we found the gold near an Indian marker on the property, a tree bent to the ground that eventually grew back up toward the sun. These markers are all through the surrounding hills, marking trails and water, but in my dream this particular tree on our property marked Indian gold. We went all around that tree with our metal detector, but found nothing. Today, fool’s gold can be found in the local streams, and makes for a fun afternoon hiking with the grandchildren.
The Book of Job speaks of finding a different gold. Job was a wealthy, righteous man, blameless and upright, who feared God and shunned evil. When severely tested and tried by the devil, he went through a process that revealed his core values. By his own admission later in the story, He came to understand that he was lacking in his relationship with God. There was little strength and no depth to that relationship. Part of the discovery process involved lengthy discussions with some of his friends. One of those discussions, with a friend named Eliphaz the Temanite, is found in Job Chapter 22. Eliphaz said to Job- “Now acquaint yourself with Him [God], and be at peace; thereby good will come to you. Please receive instruction from His mouth, and lay up His words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; you will remove iniquity far from your tents. Then you will lay your gold in the dust, and the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks. Yes, the Almighty will be your gold, and your precious silver; for then you will have your delight in the Almighty, and lift up your face to God.” (Job 22: 21-26).
In the process of the testing, Job had lost everything he valued—not only his wealth, his possessions and livestock, but even his children. Eliphaz pointed out to Job that if he returned to the Almighty, he would find true wealth again. God would become his gold. Job’s assessment of himself and where he stood with God had become distorted. He perhaps had become focused on the things in his life instead of the One who created and blessed him with those things. It was time to get back to basic values, and determine what was important.
Eliphaz told Job to begin to listen to the Lord, and to take His words to heart. The value of hearing from the Almighty again was such that it would cause Job to pour out his gold onto the dust of the earth, and put his gold nuggets back into the streams where they came from. My wife and I often remind each other that we can go a long time on a “nugget”– a word from the Lord. One word of wisdom, encouragement, or direction from Him is huge. It changes everything. We suddenly know we can overcome the obstacle in front of us. We know what to do, and we know which way to go. His words to us are priceless.
We found that gold around our mountain home this year during the covid shut-in. We did not need the metal detector. With travel and contact with others restricted, we spent more time at home. We prayed and asked the Lord to help us use the time at home well. Our morning worship and prayer times together became longer and more fruitful. Worship became more focused. Prayer became more intense as the Holy Spirit came and told us how to pray effectively. After prayer we began to lie still before the Lord, and actually sensed and experienced His presence. In being still, He spoke and gave us wise counsel for the day. We came to grow in our relationship with Him. Hearing His voice became easier, and He spoke more often. We have come so far with the Lord this year that I would not trade the months in covid lock-down for anything. In fact, I would now say we have found that gold in my dream. The Almighty has truly become our gold. We are now re-focused on the Lord, and have been reminded of what is truly valuable. He is the One who made us, and loves us. He knows what we are going through, and He knows what lies ahead of us. Our standard for gold -what is truly valuable- has been re-established and magnified in Him.
Eliphaz had more to tell Job- “You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you, and you will pay your vows. You will declare a thing, and it will be established for you; so light will shine on your ways. When they cast you down, and you say ‘Exaltation will come!’, then He will save the humble person.” (Job 22: 27-29). These are three powerful benefits or promises that come out of receiving valuable instruction from the Lord, laying up His words in one’s heart, and making Him our gold.
First, He will hear when we pray. Jeremiah 29:12-13 says- “Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. We must search for God as we would look intently for gold nuggets in a stream. When we find Him, our gratitude will flow willingly in tithes and offerings back to Him.
Second, we will declare a thing, and it will be established or done. We will actually begin to speak for Him. We will hear Him speak, and declare (prophesy) His will into the earthly realm. Jesus clearly demonstrated this in John 12:49- “For I have not spoken on my own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.” Even Jesus did not speak on His own, He only spoke what the Father told Him. When He spoke, people were healed, demons fled, and the dead came to life. To be clear, we do not declare a million dollars for ourselves out of the desire of our own flesh. When He is our gold, His light will shine on our ways. We declare what He has told us to say, and it will be done.
Third, no matter who puts us down, if we stay humble before Him, He will exalt us. James 4:10 says- “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” Prophets of old were stoned, beaten and killed when they spoke of warnings and of tragedies the people did not want to hear. When we speak for the Lord, we are not to fight, argue, or defend ourselves. I heard a modern day prophet say he had stones thrown at him by the best. He did not fear the stones, but rather feared having to face the Lord because He did not say what the Lord told him to say. If we stay humble before the Lord, and follow His instructions, He will lift us up.
The miners of North Georgia suffered many inconveniences and put forth great effort looking for the gold they so highly valued. They endured the heat, the cold, loneliness, failure, and back-breaking work. We can make a similar effort to search intently for the better gold we are seeking. Our gold is the Almighty- a relationship, indeed a friendship with Him is priceless because it has eternal value. His gold makes the gold of this earth pale by comparison. When He is our gold, we have raised the standard for gold. May these troubled days mark the beginning of a new “gold rush”.
