elusive, will give that story. We must keep in our thinking that the basis upon which they were to be given possession of the land was that they prove themselves ready to do battle when alerted. It was Dr. Holt who stated that Reu ben was among those who stood on Mount Ebal to curse; not among those who stood on Mount Gerizim to bless. In the Book of I Chronicles, chapter 26, verses 31 and 32 we read, “ . . . In the fortieth year of the reign of David they were sought for, and there were found among them mighty men of val our at Jazer of Gilead. And his breth ren, men of valour, were two thousand and seven hundred chief fathers, whom king David made rulers over the Reu- benites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, for every matter pertain ing to God, and affairs of the king.” This is a very significant Scripture. Then, it is deeply arresting to dis cover that when Jehovah commands to inflict His judgments upon Israel, the commands are followed out as set down as, for example, in II Kings 10:32 — “ In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short: and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel; from Jor dan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the river Amon, even Gilead and Bashan.” Therefore, we are given to know that at no point did Reuben excel his dig nity — and that his glory completely dried up. It is important that we not leave the study of Reuben without seeing some thing of the significance of the stone — the emerald —■ which rested in its rank in the breastplate. Both the He brew and Greek words carry the mean ing of “flashing” for our English word, emerald — a jewel of velvety green col or. We are told that in olden times it was found in the land of Egypt and was doubtless among the spoil that Moses and his people took from that land when they fled. In the Encyclopaedia Britannica, we
came upon an article of good interest relative to the values attributed to this gem by ancient peoples. To them the emerald had power to refresh tired eyes, for one thing. No less a person than Pliny, the Roman scholar wrote that if the sight has been wearied and dimmed by attempts of pouring over things of reading, the beholding of the stone does refresh and restore the eyes. Such thoughts were theirs, but what can compare with Jesus in restoring your spiritual sight and my spiritual sight! This great phase of His ministry was in the forefront of His eternal pro gram. The Lord Jesus Christ raised the dead, unstopped the ears of the deaf and made the blind to see that they might glorify God, in whom they now believed. And today he makes men to see life with an entirely new value— they see their own lives as God meant them to be. In the World Encyclopaedia we find that folk of the 11th century believed that the emerald stone, powdered down and mixed with water was helpful in the treatment of leprosy. But we turn from such hopeless thinking to the pos itive fact that Christ laid down His life for soiled humanity that He might save them from the leprosy of sin. In the early Christian Church, the emerald spoke in a peculiar way of the resurrection and spiritual holiness in Christ. In II Corinthians 5:17, the Word of God declares that “ . . . if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” We wish that we might list many of the attributes twined around the em erald as men have looked at it through those earlier ages. While interesting, these theories have been properly rele gated to the limbo of discarded think ing. Man, in his desperate effort to find something that is true, something to which he can cling, can now look up and see that from the Cross of Calvary is flashing that certain power which, if he will accept, will meet every need, destroy every fear, and he will become the happy possessor of a sure faith which is the gift of God! 5
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