Moses and his precious gems

A couple of things popped out at me this morning in my reading of the Bible. I'm in Exodus, where Moses goes up on the mountain the first time. While there, he's given instructions by God on how to make the tabernacle, the Arc of the Covenant/Testimony, the table for the showbread, the gold lamp stand and, most interestingly enough, the garments for the priesthood.

Most interesting? Priesthood garments are not known to invoke interest. At least not until I gave it some thought.

There are two strange things in Exodus 28:1-30 (that's where I left off for the day). The first is in verse three:

"So you shall speak to all who are gifted artisans, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's garments, to consecrate him, that he may minister to Me as priest."

The idea that God has filled these gifted artisans with the "spirit of wisdom" is intriguing. I'm a creative type. There's something to being creative and having a sort of wisdom. I guess I'm saying that, in order to truly create something that is enjoyed or used by others, one has to consider the user. In that consideration, there is observation and contemplation with understanding. Such brings about a sort of wisdom, at least in my opinion. Does it make artist types the wisest people on the planet? Not really, but there is something there. God, after all, is the Creator and there is wisdom in Him.

By the way, I have an "In The Way" comic about this:

Moving along, in verses 15-21, God instructs Moses on how to make the breastplate. Here's where it gets really interesting. God tells Moses to put four rows of stones in the breastplate.

¹⁷ And you shall put settings of stones in it, four rows of stones: The first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and an emerald; this shall be the first row; ¹⁸ the second row shall be a turquoise, a sapphire, and a diamond; ¹⁹ the third row, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst; ²⁰ and the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They shall be set in gold settings. ²¹ And the stones shall have the names of the sons of Israel, twelve according to their names, like the engravings of a signet, each one with its own name; they shall be according to the twelve tribes.

In order to engrave the names on the stones, they would have to be a significant size. Also, how would this engraving even be done? I don't know when the Exodus occurred, but it was a looooong time ago. I doubt Moses had a laser to engrave a diamond. And what would such a diamond look like? Surely not faceted like our contemporary subjects. In Exodus 25:7, Moses was to get the stones from the people. And we know that they plundered the Egyptians before they left so I reckon that's where all these gems came from. Were these gems all over? Could they have been used for currency? There was plenty of gold and silver, we know that. We also know that in 24:10, it mentions that the mountain was "paved' in a way:

⁹ Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, ¹⁰ and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity.

So the stones were precious, not just different from other stones. Also, this passage begs the question: did these guys see God? God is not a man so what did they see? In John 1:17-18, it says:

¹⁷ For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

But we also know that Jacob said, in Genesis 32:30:

“For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”

Of course, this is Jacob's account and his alone so I take it with a grain of salt. As I mentioned, God is not a man so Jacob couldn't be wrestling with the Creator of the universe. In addition, in Exodus 33:20, God says:

"You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me and live."

And this was right after it states in Exodus 33:11a:

So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, asa man speaks to a friend...

But I digress.

Of course, I realize that the story of the Exodus is considered by many to be a myth rather than fact so such details are irrelevant. That said, it's odd that the rest of the stuff that God has Moses make is pretty straightforward and this engraving command is just there as if it's something that was done all the time. "Let's just chisel stuff into one of earth's hardest known substances with rudimentary tools..."

Also, when were diamonds discovered? Or any of those other precious stones? One could state that writer(s) of Exodus documented/compiled the Exodus account and put it into writing after diamonds were discovered. I guess so. From what I understand, the Hebrew word for "diamond" basically means a hard gem or rock. Although, it's all so specific.

That's all I have for right now. I'd love to hear your comments or questions.