Gemstones—From Eden to Eternity

For my third birthday, my grandparents gave me a tiny gold ring with a small aquamarine, the March birthstone.

The ring slipped loosely around my finger. After a minute, my parents removed it and nestled it back into its case for safekeeping. I think I wore that ring twice in my childhood before my finger outgrew it.

For 36 years, my unwearable ring rested in the jewelry box on my dresser. Then my grandmother died. As I processed my grief, looking to memories to hold onto, I spotted that tiny birthstone ring I couldn’t wear. And I decided I wanted to wear it, a piece of love from my grandmother.

Wandering into the jewelry store carrying my simple ring, I found myself drawn to the cases of glittering gems set in intricate designs of rings, bracelets, and necklaces. Filigrees of gold adorning fiery rubies, diamonds crowning regal sapphires, bands of rose gold twisting around verdant emeralds—everything was beautiful beyond my imagination.

On my finger, I slid a ring adorned with four large pearls set in strands of diamonds on gold bands. It rested lightly on my hand like an elegant bubble bath.

“Someone once told me that the gates of heaven are pearl because they’re the only stones born from suffering,” the jeweler said.

Tears stung my eyes. On my finger rested a symbol of my future home with the Lord, a picture of grace.

Pearls form when a particle of sand or debris invades an oyster’s shell. In response, the oyster coats the irritant with a substance called nacre, which hardens into the milky smooth orbs we wear in our jewelry.

But what about the other luminous gems in the cases around me? Stones come from the earth—I knew that much. But did gemstones exist in the original creation or only after the global flood? With each morganite, tanzanite, chalcedony, and topaz, a new question rose in my mind of their connection with Scriptural significance. Why are earthly stones representatives of the 12 tribes of Israel? Why do they adorn the walls of the New Jerusalem?

The questions lingered long after I left my ring for goldsmiths to expand. My search for answers led me to Dr. Andrew Snelling, a creationist geologist and longtime contributor to Answers magazine. “None of the Bible commentaries are answering all my questions,” I told him.

He replied, “That’s because Bible commentaries aren’t written by geologists!”

As it turns out, sometimes you need a geologist to teach you some theology.

—Laura Allnutt

In the Beginning, There Were Gems

Dr. Andrew Snelling

Genesis describes the location of Eden in a land with “onyx stones” (Genesis 2:12). In some parts of the Middle East and every other continent today, some Precambrian (creation week) crystalline basement foundation rocks are exposed. Those creation-week foundation rocks contain gold and onyx, which were later exposed by the retreating flood waters that eroded the rock layers deposited by the flood. We still mine many ores and minerals in creation week rocks, including most of the world’s iron ores and much of its gold.

In Ezekiel’s prophecy, God compares the king of Tyre to the “anointed guardian cherub,” evidently a reference to Satan before his proud downfall and temptation of Eve:

Thus says the Lord God: “You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius [ruby], topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx and jasper, sapphire [Hebrew: lapis lazuli], emerald, and carbuncle [garnet]; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings.” (Ezekiel 28:13)

Since the anointed cherub was covered with these gemstones, and he was in Eden before he rebelled against God (Ezekiel 28:15), we can be sure that these gemstones existed before the flood.

But what importance might gems have with God? He created plants, water, and air to sustain life. So why did he make gemstone crystals and other non-precious rocks?

First, God is beautiful (Psalm 27:4). Since beauty is one of his attributes, we shouldn’t be surprised to see it displayed in creation.

Second, the crystal shapes and colors of gems display his genius in design and engineering because they reflect the internal configurations of the elemental atoms he used to construct them.

Third, he created the gems, as well as other non-precious rocks, for their practical uses for man to exercise his God-given dominion mandate. For example, diamonds can bedeck rings and crowns, but they can also cut tough metals and rocks because they are the hardest natural mineral. Rubies can focus light to produce lasers. Quartz crystals can keep time ticking accurately in watches and clocks. Non-precious rocks also have a plethora of uses: building materials, decorative stones, and ingredients for products like steel and drywall.

Cross section of a large agate crystal

A Rainbow in the Sky, a Rainbow in the Earth

After Adam and Eve sinned, their descendants became increasingly wicked. Some 1,650 years later, God judged the earth and man with a global flood.

As the flood began, the fountains of the deep broke open (Genesis 7:11), eroding the rocks in the crystalline foundation of the pre-flood supercontinent.

As the pre-flood supercontinent was ripped apart, the rapidly moving tectonic plates collided. Oceanic plates were pushed underneath the continental plates (a process called subduction). Subduction still happens in some places today, though it occurs at a snail’s pace.

Where continental plates collided with other continental plates, the sedimentary layers on those plates were buckled and thrust up as high mountains such as the Himalaya, where the Indian plate collided with the Eurasian plate.

Within these collision zones, the intense pressure and heat metamorphosed and melted sedimentary layers, producing the conditions for many of today’s gemstone deposits. Out of this crucible of heated and melted rocks came further works of beauty.

To human minds, it might logically follow that as judgment for mankind’s sin, God would rid the earth of beauty and leave sinful man to wallow in squalor. But he didn’t. The flood resulted in even more occurrences of gemstones than before. Like a mirror of God’s covenant in the sky, he set rainbows of gems in the earth—a picture of his grace.

An opal, found in Ethiopia

The High Priest’s Breastplate

When God gave the law to Moses, he told him to put 12 precious stones in the breastplate of the high priest:

“You shall set in it four rows of stones. A row of sardius [ruby], topaz, and carbuncle [garnet] shall be the first row; and the second row an emerald, a sapphire [Hebrew: lapis lazuli], and a diamond; and the third row a jacinth [zircon], an agate, and an amethyst; and the fourth row a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They shall be set in gold filigree.” (Exodus 28:17–20)

These 12 stones represented the 12 tribes of Israel—a precious and treasured nation in God’s redemptive plan (Deuteronomy 14:2; Isaiah 43:4). Commentator F. B. Meyer explains,

Among the garments of the high priest the breastplate was what the mercy-seat was amid the furniture of the sanctuary. The two shone with glory: in the case of the [Shekinah] it was the direct beam, and in the case of the breastplate, reflected. Whenever its wearer stood before the mercy-seat, the whole of the stones of his breastplate flashed with a glory and beauty that never shone on sea or shore.1

These 12 stones represented the 12 tribes of Israel—a precious and treasured nation in God’s redemptive plan.

The high priest’s breastplate in the old sacrificial system symbolized the precious nature of God’s people to himself.

Under the new covenant, people have access to God by grace through faith because of Jesus’ redemptive work on the cross. Jesus, our High Priest, has made his followers “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

The Shekinah glory that once shined onto and through the stones of the high priest’s breastplate now indwells and shines through all believers.

Heaven and the New Jerusalem

In the description of the New Jerusalem, Revelation describes,

The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire [Greek: lapis lazuli], the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian [ruby], the seventh chrysotile, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth [zircon], the twelfth amethyst. (Revelation 21:19–20)

These gemstones were present in the perfect world before the fall, and they are included in the description of the New Jerusalem. Thus, these gemstones on the high priest’s breastplate serve as both a reminder and foretaste of these realities.

While the gems in the high priest’s breastplate represented the 12 tribes of Israel, whose names also appear on the gates of the New Jerusalem, the stones in the walls of that city represent God’s people. Commentator Louis A. Brighton notes,

The precious stones of the wall illustrate God’s people as individuals who are precious in his sight. As represented by the twelve patriarchs of the tribes of Israel and by the twelve apostles, the saints in the holy city collectively reflect “the multicolored wisdom of God.” (Ephesians 3:10)2

The gemstones existed in the original creation, and they remain here as a reminder of the value of what awaits us.

Revelation describes the New Jerusalem with 12 gates, each made of a single pearl (Revelation 21:21). In one of Jesus’ parables, a merchant seeking pearls finds one so precious that he sells everything he has to buy it. Louis A. Brighton explains, “So precious is the entrance into the city that it is worth any cost—a price that only the Son of God could pay, but which now the Christian values as his one great possession, having abandoned everything else for its sake.”3

Why then does God have precious gemstones in our eternal home? To adorn his abode, just as we, made in his image, adorn the walls of our homes with precious human works. The gemstones existed in the original creation, and they remain here as a reminder of the value of what awaits us.

A Geologist’s Take on Theology

As a geologist, I seek to understand the earth’s rock layers, gemstones, and mineral deposits for man’s beneficial use. Seen through the lens of God’s Word, earth’s geology informs and deepens my understanding of theology.

When I travel to remote places like the Grand Canyon, I see his amazing handiwork and the gracious results of his flood judgment. With its towering walls around me like a grand cathedral, the tranquility calls me into closer fellowship with my Creator and Redeemer and draws my heart to sing, “How great thou art!”

The flood that destroyed the earth and reshaped it shows us how much God hates sin. Yet beauty remains in magnificent canyons, mountains, and gemstones birthed through catastrophe. I can only imagine what awaits us in our heavenly home—beauty beyond our imagination.

Glimmers of Grace

Laura Allnutt

The little stone in the resized ring on my finger glints with truth: “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:20).

The gems in that jewelry store sparked questions about their Designer, for beauty draws our eyes to him. And one day, when he makes all things new, those gems will remind us of the light he shined upon us when we yet lived in a fallen world. The world now and the world to come gleam with his grace.