Lapis Lazuli

Lapis lazuli is a rather beautiful blue stone with golden flecks within it. When ground, its powder may be used for the base of blue paints, such as that employed by makers of illuminated Bibles and great works of early modern at, such as Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. It is possible that when the biblical writers speak of 'sapphire', they were speaking of this mineral instead of the blue stones with which we are more familiar. It is certainly a preference for the translators of the NIV, which for instance, use it in Exodus 24:10:

and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. (NIV)

-compared to:

And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. (King James Version)

The difference sounds confusing, but Moses was attempting, albeit with the Holy Spirit’s assistance, to describe the magnificent place whereon the glorious, Living God deigned to place His feet. Whether actual, earthly minerals were hewn and carved, I doubt; the heavenly material was an even greater and rarer celestial gemstone.

The presence of God may be helpfully likened to our earthly experiences, but the divine reality is always better and more glorious than anything we could consider or compare. Whatever you imagine when it comes to the appearance and nature of God, He will always outshine and prove superior to the contents of head or vocabulary.

Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Exodus 15:11

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