Gold Shields

There is a heart rending story behind Isaiah 60:17. Listen...
    Instead of bronze I will bring you gold, and silver in place of iron. Instead of wood I will bring you bronze, and iron in place of stones. I will make peace your governor and well-being your ruler.
Well, that sounds good, doesn't it? Gold will replace bronze, silver will replace iron bronze and iron will replace wood and stones. The final promise is encouraging. We will go back and trace Isaiah's prophesy from chapter 48 up to here, but for now let's just focus on this little slice.

Placing bronze in place of gold is certainly an upgrade as they say. When you are looking at any consumer item and identify one you like, the salesman invariably will mention that for just a little more money, you can upgrade to....  I just was considering a new computer, an i5 and of course, the salesman showed me a faster model, a few more bells and whistles, and an upgraded processor. Obviously these improvements cost just a "little bit more" but then "you will be prepared for the next round of upgrades."

The story today is poignant because of what went before. Let's turn the clock back a little to 2 Samuel 8.
    7 David took the shields of gold which were carried by the servants of Hadadezer and brought them to Jerusalem.

This was replicated by Solomon later on in  2 Chronicles 9.
    15 King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of hammered gold went into each shield. 16 He also made three hundred small shields of hammered gold, with three hundred shekels of gold in each shield. The king put them in the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon.

Both David and Solomon festooned the kingdom with gold and the shields were special. It was probably an honor to march out on parade with between 15 and 20 pounds of gold on your arm. I would doubt that the shields were used in battle. Gold is pretty soft, yet heavy for its strength. (Like the guy trying out for the Globe Trotters. "I am short, but I am very slow." He didn't get the job.) But for showing off, these shields were magnificent.

Then, after Solomon died and his son Rehoboam took over, the fortunes of the country literally went south. (2Chronicles 12:9)
    9 Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's palace. He took everything; he even took the golden shields which Solomon had made.

Here is an early example of replacement theology. Verse 10 outlines the response.
    10 Then King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place and committed them to the care of the commanders of the guard who guarded the door of the king's house. 11 As often as the king entered the house of the Lord, the guards came and carried them and then brought them back into the guards' room.

The glory of gold was replaced by a substitute. The gold shields and the honor associated with them from both David and Solomon were replaced with bronze. In any accounting, this is lesser value in everyone's eyes.

What take-away do we have? The most obvious is the exchange. Are we exchanging gold for bronze? It does not have to be a forcible removal as old Shishak did. We might allow gold to slip away by ignorance, indifference, apathy or even a deliberate trade. Either way, we have forfeited value. The promise for us is as meaningful for us as it was Isaiah's first readers or hearers. The Lord has not abandoned us.

So the promise in Isaiah was especially poignant for those still in Jerusalem. A popular song in the "waning days" (they hoped) of the Depression of the 1930's was "Happy Days Are Here Again." It was an optimistic and yearning look back at the roaring 20's and anticipating a return to prosperity. We don't know what, if any song they sang when Isaiah preached this, but it had to be something uplifting as they contemplated the rest of his message.

They were going away, into Babylon, but they would return. Any little bit of encouragement was welcome. They just didn't know how long they would have to wait. This specific event does not seem to have occurred yet. But that certainly does not mean that it will not happen. It just gives us more to look forward to with our Jewish friends.

The trade is gold for bronze; silver for iron, bronze for iron and iron for stones. And best of all, peace and well-being. Sounds like a good trade to me.