The Eternal Gold Standard

As I listen to the radio and watch TV, I can't help but notice the sharp increase in the promotion of gold as the last sure investment in times of uncertainty. On one hand, buying of gold coins, gold bullion, and gold mutual funds is strongly recommended, even though the price of gold has never been higher. For the person just now getting into gold, the downside is far greater than the upside. On the other hand, jewelry companies and gold-buyers are scrounging the dresser drawers of the desperate and the pockets of the unemployed for every last ounce of old gold rings, earrings and tie tacks. What they pay these desperate people for their tiny bit of gold is obviously low enough to assure them rich profit when they themselves take it to resell to a legitimate gold-buyer. I am being told to buy and sell gold every way I turn. What shall I do?

Blessed is the man who finds wisdom,
the man who gains understanding,
for she is more profitable than silver
and yields better returns than gold. (Proverbs 3:13-14 NIV)

This was written by the man who, when presented with the opportunity to ask anything of the LORD, asked for wisdom. This exhortation gets to the heart of our dilemma. When called on to buy or sell gold, our best financial counseling lies in the Book of Proverbs. Wisdom and understanding of the heavenly kind are our best investment. They are more profitable than silver and they yield better than gold. King Soloman had so much silver that he had to throw it away, and yet he thought his best investment was in heavenly wisdom!

Wisdom is supreme;
therefore get wisdom.
Though it cost all you have,
get understanding. (Proverbs 4:7 NIV)

Soloman again extols heavenly wisdom as the supreme investment and godly understanding as the ageless and incorruptable substance worth more than any earthly material. In our day, heavenly wisdom is in great shortage, and godly understanding is seldom found. We are governed by a ruling class that covets gold and silver and shuns wisdom and understanding. The intellectual dishonesty of our leaders is breathtaking. King Soloman knew that only with the wisdom of God could he lead his people responsibly and successfully.

My son, keep my words
and store up my commands within you.
Keep my commands and you will live;
guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.
Bind them on your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart. (Proverbs 7:1-3 NIV)

Finally, Soloman exhorts us to not only find wisdom and understanding found in God's words, but to actually store up those words within us. We are to write the commands of God and His words of wisdom on our hearts. We are to memorize and recite the eternal words of knowledge and wisdom, and to literally soak our minds and hearts in God's thoughts and desires, not our own. The man, woman, boy or girl who does this carries in his or her mind the very wisdom and understanding of God of the Universe.

In a day when gold is held in highest esteem and the words of the Bible are trodden under foot, we must set our minds and hearts on Heaven, where the words of the LORD are held in highest esteem and the saints walk on streets paved with the gold that we once held as the last sure investment.

Wisdom is supreme, therefore get wisdom!!!