In less than three years, California went from a sparsely populated Western territory to the thirty-first state in the Union—mainly because of one thing: GOLD!

Specifically, it happened because of one man, then two, then hundreds of thousands. The one was James Marshall, a carpenter from New Jersey who was working for John Sutter to build a water-powered sawmill on Sutter’s Northern California property. On January 24, 1848, Marshall noticed shiny flakes of metal in the water trace leading to the sawmill. He showed the flakes to Sutter, and the two men had them tested privately. When the tests revealed that the metal was pure gold, Sutter tried his best to keep it a secret but not out of greed. He had plans to develop his land agriculturally, and he knew that a gold rush would destroy his property. His worst fears were well-founded.

By March 1848, the rumor that gold had been found at Sutter’s Mill spread through the streets of San Francisco and Sacramento; the rush was on. By August, East Coast newspapers were reporting the discovery, and in December President Polk announced the discovery in an address to Congress.

By 1849, the California Gold Rush was in full swing—“Forty-Niners” being the nickname given to those who raced to California to seek and find their fortune. It lasted less than a decade. By 1855, the gold fever had subsided, and the rush of fortune hunters turned into a trickle and then stopped. Many of the “Forty-Niners” stayed in California, but most found their way to other occupations. The history of the Gold Rush is that a few people struck it big, but most people didn’t. Many died, many more went broke, and many returned (if they could afford it) to the lives they had abandoned before leaving for California.

But it wasn’t just the miners who made money during the Gold Rush. The people who provided the tools the miners needed struck pay-dirt as well. Think about it: What would be needed to support the influx of hundreds of thousands of people arriving from all over the world to search for gold? Tools, horses and mules, clothing, tents, ropes, lumber, food, pots and pans, and more. And besides those items, infrastructure was needed: banks, stores, churches, manufacturing, repairs—towns like San Francisco and Sacramento became bustling cities within a matter of a few short years during the Gold Rush. (For example, in 1853 Levi Strauss opened a dry goods company in San Francisco to serve the city and the Gold Rush, eventually turning out denim pants now known as Levi’s—you may be wearing a pair of these pants right now!)

It took a lot of tools to fill up a miner’s toolbox and support his life as a prospector. Without those tools and the supporting infrastructure to use them, the Gold Rush would have fizzled even sooner than it did. And it was those tools and that infrastructure that made it possible for California to begin growing into the economic and agricultural powerhouse it is today.

There were three stages in the mining process: unpack the tools that would make finding treasure possible; unearth the gold that was the object of their search; and unlock the economic potential of the gold they discovered.

The Mining Metaphor

Before we explore the spiritual ramifications of those three stages in the miner’s quest for treasure, let’s discover how the Scriptures use the mining metaphor. The Bible says there are treasures to be found in God—and it uses mining as a way to illustrate what it takes to find them and develop their potential for ourselves and others.

The wisdom and knowledge of God are most often referred to as treasure. We have this treasure “in earthen vessels” (2 Corinthians 4:6-7) in the person of Christ dwelling in us (Colossians 2:2-3). But the question is, how do we unearth this treasure? How do we grow in the wisdom and knowledge of God?

Proverbs 2 has the answer: We treasure God’s commandments (verse 1), we listen to wise counsel and apply what we hear (verse 2), we pray (verse 3), and we search for it like we would search for hidden treasures (verse 4). When we do all those things, “then [we] will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God” (verse 5).

Three of those means are concrete, practical disciplines that we know a lot about: studying God’s Word, seeking and applying counsel, and praying. But the fourth is a metaphor, an abstract notion. We must search for God’s wisdom and knowledge the same way we would search for buried treasure.

What does that mean? Think about the California Gold Rush and the price men paid in their search for worldly riches. And they were mostly men—they left their wives and children behind when they headed for the gold fields. They lived in tents or dirt-floored cabins; they had gun fights over contested mining claims; they survived on beans, bacon, and bread; they burned in the summer and froze in the winter…all in search of a golden mineral. They also got creative over time, developing better and more efficient ways to extract gold from the earth.

If mankind—from Solomon’s day to ours—works so hard to seek “hidden treasures” that have no eternal value, how much harder and more creatively should we work to gain the eternal treasures of God’s wisdom and knowledge? Remember Jesus’ words: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth…but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:19-20).

Now—let’s talk about unpacking, unearthing, and unlocking the treasures of God.

Unpacking

First, we have to assemble, then unpack, our miner’s toolbox. For a California miner, that meant picks, shovels, axes, pans, lanterns, and other tools. There is no discovery of treasure without the proper tools.

And the same is true for us. In our search for the treasures of God, our main tool is the Bible, which most of us have. But do we have a study Bible, a few good commentaries, solid books on theology and spiritual life, and other study aids? Are we prioritizing Bible study for ourselves and our family? Are we part of a small group in which we can learn from others? Are we faithful in church attendance to hear the Word being taught? Then there are the tools of worship, prayer, service, giving—all tools of the faithful Christian, the use of which God has promised to bless.

There is no discovery of God’s gold without the necessary tools.

Unearthing

Some “Forty-Niners” were lucky—they looked down and saw a seam of gold exposed in a creek bank. Right place, right time. But luck is not the way most treasures are unearthed. The miners who found the most gold were the ones who worked the hardest and longest at their task.

Should we think of seeking the treasures of God as hard work? According to Proverbs 2:4, yes! Remember, “hidden treasures” have to be unearthed whether they are of the earthly or the heavenly kind. And digging takes work. It means getting up early, sacrificing pleasures, rearranging priorities, and living on the basis of commitments rather than comfort. But isn’t Church history filled with the stories of Christians who have lived that kind of life? Why shouldn’t we be among their number as well?

Unlocking

The most well-known modern investor, Warren Buffett, is famously averse to investing in gold: “[Gold] gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or some place. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.”¹ He’s only partly right, of course—gold has some utility in jewelry, electrical components, as money, and so on. But most of it is stored in vaults around the world.

But think about the treasure of knowing God. We have access to His wisdom and knowledge any hour of the day or night. In the midst of crises, crossroads, and crucial events in life, we can unlock the storehouse of God’s treasures to apply to our life.

I challenge us all to begin seeking God as we would search for hidden treasures: unpacking our tools, unearthing His wisdom and knowledge, and unlocking His treasures to change the world!

Citations:

¹Oliver Garret, “Warren Buffet Hates Gold…But Here’s Five Reasons You Need to Own It,” Forbes, April 27, 2017.