Where Has Our Gold Gone?

**Eze 41:22
(22) The altar of wood was three cubits high, and its length two cubits. And its corners, and its length, and its walls were wood. And he said to me, This is the table that is before Jehovah.

Exo 25:23-24
(23) And you shall make a table of acacia wood, its length two cubits, and its width a cubit, and its height a cubit and a half.
(24) And you shall overlay it with pure gold, and you shall make on it a wreath of gold all around.

We have talked before about the Ark of the Covenant. It was made of wood and covered - inside and out - in pure GOLD. Gold is beautiful, so it is easy to understand why one would cover the outside of something in gold. But why the inside? Because INTEGRITY is vitally important to God. We are to not only be golden on the outside, but we are to be golden on the inside. If we are not, we are hypocrites.

The 'table' spoken of in Ezekiel 41 is the table for the incense. It's the same one spoken of in Exodus 25. So what happened to the gold? Israel had turned from God, and God's glory left His 'former' dwelling place amongst them. When God left, the glory left. When the glory left, the gold disappeared. God explained this two chapters later:

Eze 43:10-11
(10) You, son of man, declare to the house of Israel, the temple house, and they will blush from their iniquities. And let them measure its size.
(11) And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, the form of the house, and its arrangement, and its exits, and its entrances, and all its forms, and all its statutes, and all its forms, and all its laws, make them known to them. And write them in their sight, so that they may observe all its form, and all its statutes, and do them.

The Temple was a picture of them, their heart (laid bare to the wood), and their sad state.

America is no different. When we were yet a Christian nation, claiming God and holding Him high on our standards, we had gold. Now, we are - as a nation - spiritually and physically bankrupt. We've lost our gold.

But God always makes a way for us to come back to Him. It's time to do just that.

***Yechezkel / Ezekiel Commentary, Mesorah Publications, pp. 650, 651. This Jewish source rightly explains why v. 41:22 refers to the Altar of Incense, not the Showbread Table.