Silver and Gold, Silver and Gold – #SoSSaturday

We will make for you ornaments of gold with beads of silver. – Song of Songs 1:11 

The two most precious materials of ancient times–Gold and Silver. Thus the Shepherd King intends to deck out His maiden fair.

Can you imagine how our girl feels when she hears this from the mouth of the one she adores? Remember we are still looking at her recovery from feeling dark and frustrated by her inability to keep her affairs in order.

When her Man sees her, He sees a fashion model, who should be wearing the finest jewelry.

But what do silver and gold represent? Are they simply a sign that the Lord wants to lavish us with good things, wants to deck us out in splendor and majesty?

Perhaps.

Mike Bickle says the gold represents divinity and the silver salvation and I like that. Peter tells us in one of my top 10 favorite verses:

…seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. – 2 Peter 1:3-4

He adorns us in gold–partakers of the divine nature. He decks us out with sparkling with silver–rescued from the corruption of the world by His marvelous salvation.

So I am good with that.

Then as I was getting ready to write this I was doing a bit of a search and found this little passage in Zechariah.

Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, And against the man, My Associate,” Declares the LORD of hosts. “Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; And I will turn My hand against the little ones. And it will come about in all the land,” Declares the LORD, “That two parts in it will be cut off and perish; But the third will be left in it. And I will bring the third part through the fire, Refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ And they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’ – Zechariah 13:7-9 

In this little parable, the Father allows the sword (the Cross) to destroy the Shepherd (Jesus) and those who lightly follow Him scatter.

The gold is tested and the silver refined.

Gold represents your faithfulness when tested by adversity. In the Parable of the Soils in Matthew 13 where the sun come and scorches the seedlings with no root. In the same way testing with the fire used to test the believer. We will go through the fire, and our faithfulness will be tested.

As this happens, silver is refined. The testing you walk through enhances the beauty and purity of your character.

Back to the Song–so it is with our maiden. Her initial encounters with adversity havn’t shaken her love for the Shepherd a bit, rather, intensified them. This demonstrates that she is worthy of adornment in gold.

These trials of her faith have purified her, and so she is worthy this beautification of silver.

So it is with you, beloved. Remain faithful as circumstances and people attempt to separate you from the Lover of your soul, and He will bedeck you with silver and gold. And this is a good place to start with Jesus.

Paul uses the same metaphor in 2 places:

For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. – 1 Corinthians 3:11-13 

And again

Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. – 2 Timothy 2:20

So you see, though we start our walk with Christ in crisis over our own failure, and our inability to keep out spiritual house in order (our unkempt vineyards) He sees our faithfulness and adorns us with the most precious of goods.

God is so good! What a wonderful salvation!

Thanks for coming by

See you next week!

Ben