More Than Fine Gold
“Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.” [Psalm 119:127]
The United States Bullion Depository, located on the Fort Knox Army post site, is said to be the most impregnable vault on Earth. The virtual fortress is built out of granite, concrete, and steel, sealed behind a 22- ton door, protected by a 109,000-acre U.S. military base, and watched over day and night by Army units with tanks, heavy artillery, and Apache helicopter gunships at their disposal. It is ringed by fences and multiple alarms, and few people have been inside the highly classified Fort Knox bunker. The depository is a top-secret facility. Visitors are not permitted, and exceptions are not made. It is easy to see why the depository’s nickname, Fort Knox, has become synonymous with total security and inspired expressions like “It’s locked up tighter than Fort Knox.”
The U.S. Mint says that the Fort Knox vault contains 147.2 million troy ounces of gold, stacked in bars measuring 7 inches long, 3 and 5/8 inches wide, and 1 and 3/4 inches thick. Each bar weighs approximately 400 ounces, or 27 and 1/2 pounds. In today’s market that’s about $238 billion. If all the pure gold were put in a single cube, it would measure 20.3 feet on a side. In total, the depository holds 2.5 percent of all the gold ever refined.
Since its construction in 1937, the treasures locked inside Fort Knox have included more than gold. During the uncertainties of World War II, other national treasures from Europe and the U.S. were also protected in the vault. These included the United States Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Gettysburg Address, the Magna Carta, and three volumes of the Gutenberg Bible. Yes, Bibles! Those priceless copies of the Scriptures may have been the most valuable bullion ever stored in Fort Knox.
How valuable are the Scriptures in your life? King David wrote that he loved God’s commandments more than fine gold, while King Solomon said, “How much better to get wisdom than gold!” (Proverbs 16:16). If David, called a man after God’s own heart, and Solomon, the wisest king in history, valued God’s Word so highly, shouldn’t we make it our top priority as well?
