Hidden treasure

In 1986 a man in Texas purchased a 1,905-carat sapphire at a gem show for just $10.00.  How?  He bypassed the professional dealers and went to an area where the amateur dealers were displaying their merchandise.  He found the stone in a box of rocks, all priced at $15.00.  He realized that the rock was valuable and inquired about it.  The dealer, keen to sell, cut the price to $10.00. The purchase was made. The sapphire was later valued at $2.28 million!

Recently in England a farmer found a cache of Roman coins buried in his paddock, where they had lain for 1700 years or more. The coins were found in earthenware pots which had been buried approximately 4.5 meters (15 feet) apart. They had only minor face values but eventually sold for more than £12,000 ($20,000) at auction. 

The coins were buried between the fall of the Gallic Empire in 274 AD and the establishment of the Brittanic Empire in 286 AD by rebel emperor Carausius. A Curator of Archeology at a local museum said the coins were buried at a time when there was a breakdown of law and order. “There was certainly a lot of coin burying going on then” it was, he said, “the equivalent of the modern practice of hiding money under the mattress” 

In 1755 a French ship, the Notre Dame de Deliverance, sank in a fierce storm 60 kilometers (37.3 miles) off Florida's Key West. The lightly armed merchant vessel had been chartered by Spain to carry treasures extracted from mines in Mexico, Peru and Colombia. Its cargo of 437 kilograms (963 lb) of gold bullion, 24 kilos of virgin sliver, 14 kilos of silver ore, 15,000 gold coins, 1,000,000 silver pieces (pieces of eight) six treasure chests of gems, miscellaneous other coins and finished gold and silver items, this Aladdin's hoard is worth an estimated $3,000,000,000 yep… that’s 3 billion dollars! The wreckage was discovered in 2005 and not surprisingly the Spanish and French governments, along with American officials are embroiled in an international row over just who rightfully owns this bounty.   

Edward Teach aka. Blackbeard

Operating during the so-called “Golden Age of Piracy” (1689-1718) the most notorious pirate of them all, Edward Teach, alias Blackbeard the Pirate, using a captured French vessel, renamed "Queen Anne's Revenge" is known to have stripped more than 45 ships of their cargo and buried, in various locations (most still undiscovered) throughout the Caribbean and up the eastern seaboard of North America, tens of millions of dollars worth of gold coins, gems and silver ingots. The lure of finding some of this loot still attracts hundreds, if not thousands of treasure seekers, hoping for a big find.   

Jesus told a parable about a person who discovered hidden treasure… “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field…., which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” Matthew 13:44-46

Sadly, there are today untold millions who fail to find the treasure freely left for us all so long ago by our Lord. It is well within their grasp, and yet they do not realize its value. That treasure is “eternal life” in an “eternal kingdom” -- the kingdom of heaven!  

And He has made all nations of men of one blood to dwell on all the face of the earth, ordaining fore-appointed seasons and boundaries of their dwelling, to seek the Lord, if perhaps they might feel after Him and find Him, though indeed He is not far from each one of us. Acts 17:26-27

There are many treasure seekers, usually expending all their energies looking for that which cannot add one single day to the length of their time on this little blue planet. Others long to find treasure that may be a place, a person, a purchase, or a dream; it may be an experience, a position for power, or an achievement. Their treasure hunt is a hunt for something that they believe will make life worth living. But their end is more-often-than–not, the same as Solomon’s… "Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun." Ecclesiastes 2:11

Most such treasure seekers eventually discover an eternal truth… Without God, all the treasure of this world will leave you nothing but empty.

Republished and updated from July 2014.