The golden Glow of Glory

by Baroness Martha von Blomberg

From the earliest ages, gold has been regarded as the most precious of metals. Gold was found in the River Havilah that flowed through the Garden of Eden. It is a yellow metallic element with a high lustre, most malleable and ductile, and one of the heaviest substances known. It is also found in rock in forms of gold ore. After it has been freed from admixtures of metals foreign to its nature, it can be beaten into sheets of finest thinnesses. When produced flawless by processes of refining it can be used in many ways. We speak of solid gold, gold-filled and gold-plated, gold in weights of carats, leaf gold, and gold of glory!

Gold is highly significant. Its symbol is used for the highest describable ideas throughout the Bible. The gold presented to the Christ-child by the Magi at the time of His birth in Bethlehem, symbolised His deity.

The words:

Who being the brightness of His Father’s Glory, and the express image of His Person.

speak of His manhood as being the effulgence of deity. The golden glow of Glory wreathed His Divine Head.

The Book of Psalms depicts the Queen in gold of Ophir at the King’s right hand, and of the King’s daughter all glorious within her clothing is of wrought gold. The Ark of the Covenant was overlaid with gold. There are crown of gold, cupolas of gold, vessels and jewelry of gold, gold thread and all manner of works of art in gold. Even human character is compared to gold as in the case of Job, who, during his severest trial said:

He knoweth the way that I take when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

The robing of the queen in gold of Ophir and the clothing of wrought gold worn by the king’s daughter speak ethically of crowned-living, throne-life, personal victory and triumph over the course of this world. Being in this world but not of it.

A gold-belt runs through the State of Xacatecas in Mexico. Conversing with the foreman of a mine, I asked him what the heaps of earth were, piled up in the open. His reply was: Gold! They looked to me like anything but gold. I only saw earth.

The foreman explained that gold was invisible because of the much earth around it. Once the earth, stones, and gravel clinging to gold were removed, gold would appear. How often carnal-mindedness hides the true gold of human character! The elimination of these carnal elements would free the gold and bring it to the foreground to see and enjoy.

Once friends and I were taken 8000 feet below the surface of the earth to see a South African gold mine where fabulous deposits of gold ore were stored in the rock. Dressed in miner’s outfit, we were let down the shaft in a lift, then transferred to a shuttle that conveyed us still further down into the depths of the dark domain. The feat of engineering was amazing! It was like a building of several floors, each floor equipped for specific operations. Down at the bottom of the mine natives were at work drilling out the gold ore in the light of electric lamps fixed to their miner’s caps. It was drafty, and the cold chilled us to the bone. The rattle of the power-drill deafened our ears. We watched on with awe. A world in itself!

We saw the gold ore resident in the rock. We saw it drilled out, then conveyed by car-loads to the surface of the earth. The gold was processed in different departments: the crushing mill breaking solids into pieces; the stamping mill reducing these pieces to smaller ones: the grinding mill pulverising them, the foreign metal particles were separated from the true gold which was then sifted, washed, and passed through purifying processes by fire.

If gold could speak as humans can, and as one speakes of a career, there would be much to learn of similarities of experiences between gold’s nature and human nature. There are always two sides in life; the sad and the glad both tending towards perfecting to mare usefulness. A child is born into the world by travail, but after the pains of travail are over they are forgotten. Only joy over the presence of the child remains. Life’s disciplines may not be joyous for the time being, nevertheless the promise of good are worked out by them as acceptable results. Crude gold becomes pure gold by processing. The golden glow of glory will outshine the primitive dullness.

The gold of Ophir of which the Queen’s garment was made, was the finest gold of its time. However, it had to go through every stage of proccessing, for purification, in order to make it malleable. Only then, when pliable could the gold-smith put it into shape worthy of a queen. Likewise the clothing of wrought gold worn by the King’s daughter.

If humans could think themselves into the nature of gold, the processes gold ndergo would serve as comparisons of what humans go through. The law of association helps in discerning and defining experiences of life; and, with the help of the Word of God, God’s dealings with mankind are better understood. It is the Spirit of God, who, as the Refiner of gold and the relining fire, works out the pattern of human personality as God the Creator foresaw it before the foundation of the world. The Word of God interprets life’s problems from a Divine Point of view whereas the philosophies of men stray in their diverse speculations.

To be clothed upon is the biblical language for Christian character. In salvation the believer becomes clothed in the garment of salvation and the robe of righteouqness in Jesus Christ. The further stages in Christian experience speak of other garments in symbolic language of Christian virtues, such as be clothed with humility or with garments for glory and beauty. But to be clothed in gold of Ophir suggests becoming partakers of His Divine Nature. For this reason it is easier understood how the refining of human nature to the utmost degree brings out the golden glow of Glory. And the golden glow of Glory further reveals the Christian’s triumph over the course of this world.

Gold is a treasure hid in the rock. Catastrophic forces of nature placed it there. And since how long? Centuries ago, perhaps, or more likely milleniums or even since pre-historic times? It is said in scripture that the Anoited Cherib that Covereth walked among every precious stone … and gold, in the Garden of God in the dateless past before Eden. Could one not take this passage as illustrating what happened to man in the fall? When then pure gold became hid and the foreign metals of inferior value took the foreground?

In the dark domain beneath the earth’s surface, gold is held captive in deposits from which it cannot free itself. It must be freed at the hand of another. Its nature had become encumbered by metals not of its native kind. Its native glow was lost out of sight.

The gold had to be drilled out of the rock by a powerful instrument released, and brought out to the daylight. The boring of the power-drill was by no means pleasant although the pain of it, to use human language, was worth the price of freedom.

Look to the rock whence ye were hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged,

God’s Word points out.

And the Work of calvary can clearly be seen through them.

Neither could the gold be handled with care as it was roughly thrown into car-loads together with clinging metals of another sort-brass, tin, iron, lead, dross. It was hardly treated as something individual and costly, so it seemed. The rattling of the rolling cars on rails as it was being transferred from darkness to light, was quite different to what it later experienced when it was ceremoniously handed in the form of a royal crown. The intermediate stages of refining were indispensable, preparatory for that glad day when it could shine its best in the world and beam out the golden glow of Glory.

To experience of being crushed in life, broken to pieces, as it were, every person living knows about; crushed by the ruthless actions of man, hurt by discourtesies received, depreciations rendered and all manner of criticisms. Or, may be the crushing came through bereavements and sorrows, and losses suffered. Whichever; the crushing mill is composed of people and circumstances. Yet God plans something more wonderful than we realise in the crushing. Liberation! Liberation from clinging brass, tin, iron, lead, and dross!

Though I speak with the tongues of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.

The lack of Love to God and one’s fellow men is equivalent to brass. Brass resembles gold, but it is far from being gold.

What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ […] and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. That I may win Him […] be found in Him […] that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death.

There is nothing cheap about this stand of faith.

Neither will I offer unto the Lord my God that which costs me nothing,

expresses the cheapness that the offering otherwise would be, in terms of tin.

The iron of unrelenting judgement, or judgement without mercy is well manifest, when one man judges another man who is guilty of the same crime such as: the man that doeth such a thing shall surely die.

The lead of a discontented spirit never lifts but rather weighs down itself and others. This was felt when the people complained against their leader at Kadesh-barnea. The lead of heaviness coming, not from a legitimately burdened heart but from a tendency to dissatisfaction.

Take away the dross from the gold, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer.

And dross is the refuse matter thrown off from molten ore or metal.

In any case, all these metals foreign to the nature of gold are to be melted out to set it free from their influences.

Everything that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire.

Therefore gold passing through the fire will abide after the undesirable dross has been melted away. The same goes for the human disposition that needs to be releaved of its undesirable dross. To be called upon to go through the fires of purification should be considered a privilege, for what cannot go through the fires of purification is not called upon to. We must remember that people and circumstance are only instrumental. God, the Holy Spirit has us in hand. He knows the individual and his need. He will never make a mistake to use wrong means. His purpose with us is clear to Him, although not always clear to us. But we can believe His unfailing Love and care and trust Him in the methods He uses in our individual lives.

Gold tried by fire came through refinings. God tried in the fire establishes the fact that a work of purification had been done. The three men who were thrown into the fiery furnace during Daniel’s days, stood the test It was established that the fire had no more power upon them, for there was nothing more that could burn. The flames slew around them but did not harm them physically, nor singed their hair, nor burned their coats, nor was a smell of fire upon them. The golden glow of Glory exceeded the glow of the furnace heated seven times more than usual. In fact, the seal of the experiences was that another beside them was detected, and the form of the Fourth (was) like the Son of God.

Christ Jesus from heaven challenged the Laodicean Church in a state of apostacy :

I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire.

For there was a group of believers who had kept themselves from the contaminations of the world and were persecuted for it.

Flawless gold reflects as in a mirror the image of the face that looks into it. It has become malleable and pliable, the Goldsmith hammering the precious metal into sheets of finest thinness in order to cut the pattern of the Queen’s raiment and to form it to her body. Also the King’s daughter receives her garment of wrought gold. These robings symbolise life on a higher plane in this world and life on the Highest Plane in the life to come. This privilege is for all who are willing to pay the price for God’s best and to share the throne-life to come with His Son.

For,

to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne.

Another impressive lesson of gold came to my attention in the gold mine of South Africa, namely that of maintaining the golden glow of Glory. The secret, as I saw it performed before my eyes, was as follows:

To gain a status of things is one thing: to maintain that status is another. The glow of a smile after a siege of difficulties, is wonderful; but to maintain that glow of a smile when more difficulties come, is more wonderful still. In many cases it is easier to attain than to maintain, for the latter requires constant vigilance to do so.

Self-effort at its best is not reliable, since it is a function of fallible human effort. But when a person depends upon the presence and power of the Holy Spirit by faith and implicit trust, maintainance of a status is possible. Humanism are not brought into account here as faults. It is the heritage of a Spirit-filled life in the believer. Neither does the superficial glamour smile come into question. It is artificial and never genuine. The golden glow of Glory is a heaven-born beauty that comes to one in touch with God.

It says of Moses that he wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with God. Moses maintained the glow when in close communion with the Lord.

The same was said of Stephen the Martyr; they saw his face as it were the face of an angel as the council steadfastly looked upon him. The glow not only came from above as he lifted his face towards heaven, but from within due to his relationship with Christ.

As we started up towards the surface of the earth again, we stopped on our way to see gold put into a fiery furnace of 1300 degrees heat. It went in the form of bricks, too heavy to lift: it came out a liquid mass.

As the doors of the giant furnace opened to receive the gold placed in earthen vessels, the glow of the furnace fire was so brilliant so that we needed dark glasses to shield from the glare.

The vessels containing the gold were embraced by huge iron tongs and shoved into the fiery flames. I remember saying to myself: ‘The vessel, the gold, and the fire!’ All three put together for a purpose! The doors were shut upon them and the iron latch let down. We stood in awe waiting to witness the results.

When the doors were opened again after a certain time, we saw nothing but a maze of Glory aflame. The earthen vessels holding the gold with out of sight as if they were not there. Only as the huge iron tongs laid hold of them, one by one, and brought them out, were we convinced that they still existed. In bringing them out the flames of fire still slew around them.

To begin with, all three – the vessel, the gold, and the fire – were separate elements. In the fiery furnance they became as one. At the start the vessel was black, the gold yellow, and the fire a golden red. In the process all took on the one colour of brilliant gold. Before there was a demarcation line that divided the three as separate objects: afterwards there was no line of division. They had become one. As we looked into the burning furnace, the black vessel changed into a flaming gold. The gold in the vessel had been melted to a liquid. The fire lost its tint of red. It composed a golden Glory.

The analogy was clear: the human body as an earthen vessel. The gold of Christ’s nature, of precious doctriness of Truth, etc. within the human heart. The fires of trials and testings in life. Often our Christian testimony is true but brick-like that means hardly anything to anyone. It must become liquidated to a flow of living influence.

The other analogy was equally clear: Only as the vessel containing the liquid gold remained in the fiery furnace, did it maintain its glorious glow. As soon as the vessel with the gold was taken out of the fire, the glow lessoned and the liquid gold hardened as they came in contact with the atmosphere outside the furnace. They cooled off. They lost some of the glowing colour. It spoke louder than words about the effects that result when contacting the former way of life that had once been changed made and beautiful. I asked myself the question: Must the gold always remain in the fire in order to maintain its glow? Must Christians always be in the midst of the fiery trials of life in order to maintain their glow? It is not literal fire we find ourselves in as Christians. Neither is it any suffering such as a literal prison, even physical martyredom that necessarily a true relationship with God. There are the finer tortures that are mentally inflicted by the subtle words and action of those around.

Whether one way or the other, we have this treasure (Christ) in earthen vessels which Christ in you, the hope of glory. Therefore, the secret of maintaining the golden glow of glory lies in our identification with Christ’s Divine Life (the gold), and to glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s and to glorify the Lord in the fires of whatever trials and testings they represent. To glorify the Lord in the fires implies the highest state in a Christian – in the beauty of His holiness since God is glorious in holiness. For it is written: Be ye holy; for I am holy. There is no other way ascribed than this in order to maintain the golden glow of gold.