PRECIOUS AS GOLD
Paul A Gray
Ezra 8: 27 (from “and two vessels”, 28 (to “also are holy”)
I suppose most people know that copper is not as precious as gold, and yet the Bible says here that it is. How can that be? Well, it is because God can do things that we cannot do. He can achieve results that we cannot achieve. He can bring things to pass that we could not begin to do. And God has brought about a victory over death and the grave in the death and burial and rising of the Lord Jesus. He has done something that none of us could do. No one can save themselves, and no one can save those near to them. It tells us in the Bible that:
None can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him,
(For the redemption of their soul is costly, and must be given up for ever),
Ps 49: 7, 8.
But God has done it. He did it for our sister, but He has done it for you. You may ask why He did it for you. He did it because of His love. You may ask what you did to deserve His love. You did nothing, because that was not the point. These thoughts of God were prompted by His heart of love and they are directed towards everyone to whom this is addressed. We are here because our sister has been taken home to be with the Lord, but we are also here because the Lord Jesus wants to speak to each one of us; He has something to say to each one of us. He knows you. He knows where you are and He can do something for you that you cannot do for yourself: He can give you eternal salvation. You may ask whether you need it. Again, I seek to base what I say on what the Bible says. It says, “for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”, Rom 3: 23. That is everyone. But what does the Bible say next? - “being justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God has set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood”, v 24, 25. God has come near to you in the Person of His own beloved Son. The Lord Jesus, who is God in His own holy Person, become Man, and He has come near to you in order that He might set you free as He did for our sister.
We need salvation, and then we need to be sustained in our lives once we have salvation. The Bible speaks about being “saved in the power of his life”, Rom 5: 10. Our sister was evidence of one who was “saved in the power of his life”. She had a life, you might say, down here but she had a life that was “hid with the Christ in God” (Col 3: 3), and that was what sustained her. No one else could have sustained her in all that she passed through, but the Lord was able.
The Lord can do something else we cannot do: He can gain victory over death. He has done it Himself, of course. That is the first thing. He died; He shed His blood; He was buried; and He rose triumphant from the grave; but to quote again what the Bible says, this Saviour is referred to in, “God’s glad tidings … concerning his Son (… marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of the dead) Jesus Christ our Lord”, Rom 1: 1, 3, 4. You and I cannot gain victory over death, but He can.
And here is another thing He can do: He can give every saint a body of glory, and He is going to do it. He is going to do it for our sister; He is going to do it for everyone that believes on Him. He is going to do it for everyone that is sheltered by His own precious blood, right back as far as Adam. Will He do it for you? I can say with absolute certainty that He wants to, but the way into it is by believing.
You may not be sure if you believe; you may not be sure if you can believe. Let me tell you this also: there are more things that God can do that you cannot do. He can give you faith, and He can also give you repentance; these are gifts from God. It says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him” (Heb 11: 6), but what God requires in His righteousness, He gives in His grace. It says, He “enjoins men that they shall all everywhere repent” (Acts 17: 30), and yet where does repentance come from? It comes from Him. And then if you believe on the Lord Jesus as Saviour and your sins are forgiven, you find that you are sheltered under the precious blood of Jesus. “Without blood-shedding there is no remission” of sins (Heb 9: 22) but that has been given too. And then you can have the gift of the Holy Spirit. God has given the Spirit “to those that obey him” (Acts 5: 32), and the first act of obedience is to trust in the Lord Jesus as your Saviour. These are things that God can do that we cannot do.
Now, we come to these two vessels. It would be hard to speak of our sister without also thinking of her husband; they are in our minds together. They are both with the Lord. That is not a matter of sentiment. It is not that they have gone to meet each other; they are both “with the Lord”. They are in His presence, which “is very much better” (Phil 1: 23) but while they were here, they were a testimony and they were an example; and what started off as copper became “precious as gold”. The Lord was pleased to set amongst us “two vessels of shining copper, precious as gold”, and in that He showed us what He can do; and He can do it for everyone. He says, “Ye are holy unto Jehovah; the vessels also are holy”. He loved them; He appreciated them.
You will find copper in the Bible in what is called the tabernacle system, a place called the tent of meeting that was set up by God’s instruction - you can read about it in Exodus - in order that He might be worshipped, in order that He might be approached. In that tabernacle there was an altar of acacia wood, and it was covered over with copper. What did the copper do? The copper withstood the fire. The Lord Jesus was the perfect example of that. He went through the fire of the wrath of God on the cross. “Him who knew not sin” God “has made sin for us, that we might become God’s righteousness in him”, 2 Cor 5: 21. And too He took away our sins: “who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”, 1 Pet 2: 24. He did all that. The fire of God’s wrath was there and at the end of three hours Jesus said, “It is finished”, John 19: 30. He did everything. And that was precious in the sight of God; there was never a time more fragrant to God than when the Lord “by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God” (Heb 9: 14); and yet in our brother, and in our sister whose body is now before us, the Lord worked out likeness to Himself. He would desire to do that in every one of us: “the vessels also are holy”.
I just want to close by quoting one other verse of scripture in the prophet Isaiah 43: 4. We have spoken about “precious as gold”. This is what the scripture says, “Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee”.
That is all I have to say, beloved brethren and friends. I trust we may be encouraged, and I trust we may have our faith and trust in the God who can do what we cannot do and is set to bring us through. The Lord will bring out every saint in triumph and glory in a day to come. May we be among them for His Name’s sake!
Bo’ness
15th July 2024