day no. 16,934: better by what standard?

1 Chronicles 29:2

I have provided for the house of my God, so far as I was able, the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, and the bronze for the things of bronze, the iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood, besides great quantities of onyx and stones for setting.

Is gold better than silver? Sometimes. It has historically been worth more, at least in fair trade on the open market, but that does not make it better at being silver. Sometimes you need silver. Is iron better than wood? It depends. Does it need to float? Does it need to bend? How much heat will it need to endure? What are you trying to do? By what standard?

David carefully set aside everything that would be needed for the house of God. He had categories. He didn’t just save a bunch of gold saying, “Gold is best. Make it all out of gold.” Gold is great, but it is also heavy and soft. Some things need to be light and some things need to be rigid. And some things are not always available for purchase, no matter how much gold you could offer for it.

David also didn’t just store up a bunch of gold saying, “Use this to buy whatever you need.” Gold can, after all, buy things that it cannot build. At the end of the day, however, David didn’t want to give Solomon a big bank account and a bigger to do list. He could have done that, but he didn’t. He gave him the things he needed in proportion to what they were needed for. Iron is strong, but onyx is pretty. Gold is precious, but wood can float. 

God has made everything according to its kind and purpose. It is our duty to appreciate things in proportion to what God made them for. 

If I set the sun beside the moon,

And if I set the land beside the sea,

And if I set the flower beside the fruit

And if I set the town beside the country

And if I set the man beside the woman

I suppose some fool would talk

About one being better.

— G.K. Chesterton, Comparisons

This is not some post-modern goo log about everything being equal. This is merely pointing out that context is required to assign value. The sun is better at governing the day than the moon is. The sea is better at being wet than the land is. A man is better at being a man than a woman is.

Every thing really is better than another thing at being what God made it to be and nothing is better than anything else at being what it is not.