Lapis Lazuli

 

Every year, Mike buys me a gift for trapping season.  It's basically a "I'm a trapper.  You knew that when you married me, so no griping and see you in March" hush gift.  🤣 He lets me decide what I want and it's usually not more than $20.   

This year, I chose a bracelet made of lapis lazuli.  Lapis lazuli captured me this year.   When I listened through the Bible a few years ago, I loved how the narrator pronounced it.  (According to google, he was pronouncing it wrong 🤷) This year when I encountered it, I decided to take a deeper dive to consider it's significance.    

Lapis lazuli is a rock. Below is a picture of it in rawest form  It's known for its blue, sometimes violet color.  The most high quality lapis lazuli is found in Afghanistan and has been mined for around 6,000 years.  The book of Job, considered to be one of the earliest books in the Bible, mentions it...

"Food may come from the earth, but below the surface the earth is transformed as by fire.  It's rocks are a source of lapis lazuli, containing flecks of gold." Job 28:5-6

It is easily tumbled and polished, making beautiful jewelry--rings, earrings, pendants, amulets, necklaces, bracelets.  It can also be used for carvings and mosaics; or ground to be used as pigment in paint. 

In ancient times, lapis lazuli was highly prized by pharoahs and other royalty.  King Tutankhamun, ancient pharoah of Egypt, lies in a stone coffin that is inlaid with lapis lazuli. The  funerary mask of King Tut has lapis lazuli in the eyebrows and eyelids.  The ancient world believed that lapis lazuli represented divinity, power, and the heavens.  

Today, lapis lazuli is used for meditation and is thought to bring about clarity and spirituality.  A stone tumbled smoothly can be used as a "worry stone"--something to fidget with to calm sress and anxiety.

It's believed by some to unlock the energy center involving the throat, calming sore throats and enhancing voice when worn as a necklace.  It's also noted to offer protection from negative energy and presence.  When I showed Landon and Easton my new bracelet, they both recognized it as a stone that can be mined on Minecraft!  On this game, its used for decoration, it has enchanting power when used certain places, and can be used as blue dye.  (You can impress the gamers in your life by regaling them with all you know about lapis lazuli!!) 

Modern day Afghanistan--the region where the highest quality of lapis lazuli is mined--was part of the ancient Persian kingdom.  Persia is a key kingdom in several books of the Bible--Ezra, Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, Haggai.  But most famously in the book named after Esther, Queen of Persia!! Queen Esther likely wore something dyed with lapis lazuli, she might have had mosaics or statues in the palace, she might have even worn the beautiful blue powder as eye makeup.  But there are far more important, weighty mentions of lapis lazuli in the Bible, which is the  inspiration for my choice of bracelet.  

In Exodus 24, Moses has already gone up Mount Sinai to receive the words from God for the people, the Ten Commandments.  Moses returned to tell the congregation all he had heard from God.  The people united around the promise of obedience--"We will do everything that the LORD has commanded." vs 3

Moses built an altar and set up 12 pillars for the twelve tribes.  He sent out young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrifice.  Moses again read the scroll on which the covenant was written, and the congregation doubled down on their first vow: "We will do and obey all that the LORD has commanded." vs 7

Then Moses, Aaron the high priest, and his sons Nadab and Abihu, were joined by seventy of the elders of Israel. (In Exodus 3:16, we learn that the elders of Israel were likely some kind of leadership group, as Moses assembled them to lay out the plan for their rescue from Egypt and slavery.) 

This group of 74 men SAW the God of Israel.  Beneath His feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as clear as the sky itself.  The word here (and in other instances) is sometimes translated sapphire; however, sapphires were unheard of in this time period.  

In Exodus 28 when God gave the pattern for the priestly garments, their breastpiece was covered with 12 gemstones--one for each of the 12 tribes of Israel.   The second stone in the second row is a lapis lazuli, with a turquoise on one side and a diamond on the other.  

All throughout the book of Ezekiel (the one book I dread reading every year), Ezekiel told of the visions God sent him.  There is so much happening in this book that I could not even BEGIN to understand or explain in one post.  There are living creatures with wheels, wings, fire, animal faces, human hands....It's all important because it's in God's Word, but it's hard to read.  The living creatures have an "expanse" over their heads, and from above the expanse comes a voice that stops them in their tracks.  Something like a throne with the appearance of lapis lazuli was above the expanse over their heads.  Ezekiel is seeing in a vision the throne room of God, and the throne itself is made of lapis lazuli!  On it sits the pre-incarnate Christ, eternally victorious, in all His heavenly glory.  

In Revelation, John is seeing very similar visions to Ezekiel.  (If you did the Revelation study last summer, you might remember that Jen Wilkin's catchphrase was "look behind", and we spent some time in Ezekiel to explain the events of Revelation.)  In Revelation 21, John sees 

"a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more." 

John hears and sees so many beautiful words and sights.  (Read Revelation 21 through to understand.)

He also sees the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven, prepared like a bride for her husband.  One of the angels gives John a tour of the new holy city.  The city was arrayed with the glory of God, like a precious jewel.  There is a massive high wall, with twelve gates bearing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel guarded by twelve angels.  The city was a square with twelve foundations, each one labeled with the name of the twelve apostles.  The foundations were adorned with every king of jewel, and the second foundation--lapis lazuli.  

Do I think lapis lazuli is magical?  Do I think it has healing powers?  Because it's in the throne room of heaven, can I call down a voice from heaven using my bracelet?  The answer is no.  There are no powers within the stone itself.  The worship of gems, jewels, stones, crystals is a sign of Romans 1:25--

"They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever.  Amen."

Lapis Lazuli cannot grant me intuition and truth.  It cannot give me wisdom and inner peace.  It canot promise me health my whole life through.  It is not divine, but is intended to point to the One who IS!

When I wear my bracelet, I will see the lapis lazuli and think of the One who hid the precious stone to be mined from the earth. I will think of Esther, whose adopted homeland was gifted with this precious stone that's meant to point us to the divine.   I will think of those--past and present--who see the beautiful blue that matches the heavens and miss the One who dwells there.  I will think of Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the 70 elders who met with God on a sea of lapis lazuli.  I will think of Ezekiel, who saw someone who looked like a human sitting on a throne of lapis lazuli. I will think of John and I'll be thankful it was no ordinary human sitting on the throne, but it was and is still Jesus and forever more will be Jesus.  I will meditate on Him, who brings all clarity, calming stress and anxiety.  He is praised forever.  Amen.