… and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. – Exodus 24:10

Today's Scripture Reading (October 11, 2021): Exodus 24

Lapis lazuli is a metamorphic rock that has been valued from ancient times because of its intense blue color. The color blue has been important historically, but it is also a latecomer to the world of art and textiles. In the ancient world, reds, blacks, browns, and ochres were widely used before blue. And part of the problem was trying to find a reliable blue dye that could be used in art and textiles. Enter lapis lazuli. The stone was used in early attempts to create a blue pigment that could be used for paintings. The name comes from the Latin word for "stone" (lapis), and lazuli comes from a word that means "sky." It is a "stone from the sky" or "heaven stone," referring to the stone's blue coloring. And in ancient Egypt, it was a favorite stone for jewelry and ornaments.

As the leaders of the nation of Israel move up onto the mountain, they look down and see pavement the color of the sky. The NIV declares that this pavement was made of lapis lazuli, but older translations argue it was a sapphire. And there is a good reason for the choice of sapphire in older translations. Sapphires are precious stones and are much more valuable than the semi-precious lapis lazuli; much more worthy of this meeting with God. The Tanakh or Hebrew Bible often mentions sapphires because of their color and value, but the problem with these mentions is that sapphires, or, at least, what we know of today as sapphires, were unknown in the ancient world. It seems likely that as the Israelites escaped Egypt, what they saw beneath their feet was the more common lapis lazuli or "heaven stone" than it was sapphires.

Back in Egypt, the people were kept busy making bricks out of straw. Some of those bricks would have been used to pave the roads and pathways in Egypt. But now, their situation had changed. The people now walked on a path made of lapis lazuli, a stone the Egyptians valued for jewelry, but that now had been made so common that the leaders of Israel walked on it like an ordinary rock or a slave-created brick. Israel had gone from being everyday slaves to being worthy of walking on the blue lapis lazuli, or the "heaven stone," as they met with the God who had brought them up out of Egypt. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Exodus 25