THE GOLD OF HEAVEN based on Rev. 21:9-21
By Glenn Pease
On our vacation in South Dakota, we stopped in the small town of Keystone. Almost every store in town had a variety of Black Hills Gold on display. Seeing all this gold made me want to study gold in the Bible. The streets of the New Jerusalem are to be made of pure gold, and that means gold will be a part of the eternal environment.
There are at least 367 references to gold in God's Word. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia states, "No metal has been more frequently mentioned in Old Testament writings than gold, and none with more terms applied to it." There are about a dozen different words for gold in the Bible. In the New Testament gold is mentioned 41 times, with 21 of them in the book of Revelation. 16 of the 21 are very positive, with only 2 negative, and 3 are neutral.
The first reference to gold is in Gen. 2:11-12. The first river that flowed from Eden wound it's way through the land of Havilah, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good. The first reference to gold in the Bible, and the last, refer to it as a good thing. It is the first and last precious metal mentioned in the Bible, and all through the Bible gold is a symbol of glory and wealth.
Every major kingdom in history, in an out of the Bible, was noted for it's abundance of gold. This is why the final kingdom of God's people is pictured as one of pure gold, for that has been the test of the glory of all the kingdoms in history. If God's people are to have the best in the end, then gold streets are a necessity to make their city the greatest ever.
In Athens, the most renowned sculptor of Greece, Pheidias, made a 38 foot ivory and gold statue of Athene, the patron goddess. It was completed in 438 B. C., and looked out over the city from the Parthenon, high on the Acropolis. More than a ton of gold was in robes alone. Next, he made a 60 foot statue of Zeus,...