Amazonite

Some online sources suggest that Amazonite, above, is included in the High Priest’s breastplate as recorded in Exodus chapter 28, though the most reliable sources exclude it. The problem arises when the Hebrew words for certain stones cannot be translated to our English ones with certainty, and when the Greek translation of the Hebrew (the 'Septuagint') also chooses differing words to that which we might expect. The other oddity is that it is named after the Amazon River on account of its colour, yet it is not mined in South America; the Hebrews might have known it from its source in Egypt and Libya. It is therefore possible that the word lešem refers to this beautiful green stone, but I think it unlikely, and they would certainly not have used a South American-inspired name. Our naming it after a river (out of the beds of which it cannot be found) seems odd, but the colour surely evokes the great waters of that basin, all 5,300 miles away from Salem Chapel. 

Our understanding of heaven and the eternal realms might be limited and inadequate, but other little tokens and glimpses in scripture are still helpful. I am far from Amazonia, but on my desk is a little piece of Amazonite, reminding me of that far-flung place with all its beauty and grandeur. God's word, the Bible, sits next to it, and that sheds a few rays of light on our final, greater destination. 

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

1 Corinthians 13:12

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