【读圣经学英语】红玛瑙

出埃及記第三十九章6~10节

39:6	又琢出两块红玛瑙，镶嵌在金槽上，仿佛刻图章，按着以色列儿子们的名字雕刻。 And they made the onyx stones enclosed in settings of gold, engraved with the engravings of a signet according to the names of the sons of Israel.
39:7	他将这两块宝石安在以弗得的两条肩带上，为以色列人作记念石，是照耶和华所吩咐摩西的。 And he put them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel as Jehovah had commanded Moses.
39:8	他用巧匠的手工作胸牌，和以弗得一样的作法，用金线，和蓝色、紫色、朱红色线，并捻的细麻作成。 And he made the breastplate, the work of a skillful workman, like the work of the ephod, of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet strands, and of fine twined linen.
39:9	胸牌是四方的，叠为两层；这两层长一虎口，宽一虎口。 It was square; they made the breastplate doubled; a span in its length and a span in its width when doubled.
39:10	他们在上面镶嵌四行宝石：第一行是红宝石、黄玉、绿宝石， And they filled it with four rows of stones. The first row was a row of a sardius, a topaz, and an emerald;

亮光:

这指明基督是我们的大祭司，祂所保守的不是尘土，而是变化过的圣徒，就是大祭司所穿以弗得的肩带上两块红玛瑙所豫表的。

有些圣徒听见这话，也许认为他们还没有被变化，就觉得很泄气。他们会说：“如果基督所保守的只是红玛瑙，不是尘土，那么我就不能经历蒙主的保守了。我觉得很灰心，因我还没变化成为红玛瑙。”事实上你的确有蒙基督保守的经历。再者，你也的确有一些红玛瑙。你也许常常觉得好像从主身上掉落了，但那掉落的是尘土，不是你。有时候主兴起一种环境来，使我们摇动，我们惟恐会掉落。然而，摇落的只是尘土，我们这些重生的人永远不会摇动，因为我们里面的红玛瑙永远不会掉落。红玛瑙一直存在，安在华美而荣耀的金槽上。

Enlightenment:

This indicates that what Christ as our High Priest holds is not dust; He holds the transformed saints, typified by the onyx stones on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod worn by the high priest.

When some saints hear this, they may feel discouraged, thinking that they have not been transformed. They may say, “If Christ holds only onyx stones, and not dust, then I am through with the experience of being held by Him. I feel discouraged because I have not yet been transformed into onyx stone.” Actually you do have the experience of being held by Christ. Furthermore, you do have some amount of onyx stone. Often you may feel as if you are falling away from the Lord. But it is the dust that is falling, not you. Sometimes the Lord raises up an environment which causes us to be shaken. We may be afraid of falling away. However, only the dust is shaken away. We ourselves as regenerated ones will never be removed, for the onyx stone in us will never fall. The onyx stone remains, placed in the beautiful and glorious settings of gold.