Jewels and refiner’s fire

3 Nephi 22 and 24 record the teachings of Jesus Christ about prophecies given (by Him) to Isaiah and Malachi regarding the latter days, before His Second Coming – our time – and the rewards and conditions of the Millennium. Isaiah and Malachi used some very descriptive words in these prophecies, and I wanted to look a bit deeper into them.

I’ve always loved the descriptions Isaiah gives of Christ’s promises, including those found in the prophecy that the Saviour shared with the Nephites here. He tells Israel, who at that time will have been scattered, driven, and persecuted over many centuries, that He will lay her foundations and build her protections with precious and lovely stones:

O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted! Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.

I will make thy windows (crenellations) of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders (walls) of pleasant (precious) stones.

3 Nephi 22:11, 12

What are these precious stones?

Looking into the meaning of these terms, we find that ‘fair colours’ is also translated as antimony and turquoise, and ‘sapphires’ as lapis lazuli. Agate is a rock of quartz and chalcedony, in a range of colours; the NIV uses ‘rubies’. ‘Carbuncles’ are red gemstones, such as red garnet; this is also translated as ‘sparkling jewels’.

Such lovely pictures! Of course, these things can’t actually be made wholly out of such substances; but the idea is that the fortifications which the people build to protect themselves against their enemies, and which have been repeatedly destroyed throughout history, will be rebuilt, replaced with beautiful things denoting prosperity and peace.

We can take this both more literally, as the earthly redemption of Israel, and metaphorically, as the redemption of the spiritual House of Israel – God’s people – through our Saviour’s Atonement and the Plan of Salvation. God promises here that our eternal habitations, or our lives themselves, will be formed as though from these precious stones.

In precious stone lore, agate gives a feeling of security and safety (this is the stone that the Saviour says He will make their crenellations from – the protections and spaces on top of walls for defense), while red gemstones (‘carbuncles’ in the KJV) were considered to give their own light. These would be their gates. Antimony is a “bright, silvery, hard” metallic element which is flameproof in compounds (the pure form is used for semiconductor devices like diodes and infrared detectors); there is a non-metallic form which the Egyptians called kohl (the not-very-healthy eye makeup). Flameproof building materials would be very helpful when repelling invasions – although turquoise would be lovely to look at.

These are all precious and beautiful stones of high value, with special properties or significance.

Refined like gold and silver: becoming Christ’s jewels

In 3 Nephi 24, we have the prophecy of Malachi 3, where the Lord says He is ‘like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap’.

And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.

Then they that feared the Lord spake often to one another, and the Lord hearkened and heard; and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.

And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels….

3 Nephi 24:3, 16, 17 – also Malachi 3, same verses

Gold and silver are usually found in compounds, and must be heated and purified out, sometimes with the help of other chemicals. Precious stones are found whole or as veins, and are physically removed from the surrounding rock.

God refines us, like silver and gold are refined, and cleanses us like fuller’s soap. This cleansing and purifying is the way in which we become his jewels, with our selves and surroundings formed as though of precious stones. These gems can’t develop without the purifying processes that mortal life puts us through. Like coal and diamonds, both different results of similar original materials, our beauty and eternal safety and joy is built out of the heating and manipulation of difficult experiences, carefully and expertly guided by God.

The process is painful and laborious; the end result – our eternal, exalted lives – is beautiful.