Tarnishing Tarshish

Tarnishing Tarshish

 It is interesting how something ordinary can take on extra-ordinary significance, and yet this extra-ordinary significance can so easily be sullied, making the thing again ordinary (or less than ordinary). In Old Testament times, the ships of Tarshish were regarded as a symbol of beauty, strength and lofty ideals. Even ships going to Tarshish took on this same significance. The name Tarshish became also an epithet for any merchant vessel (as if for, to or from that Mediterranean Sea port - Tarshish ships were even made as far away as Eziongaber or Etsjon-Geber on the Red Sea-- 2 Chronicles 20:36).
Isaiah 2:16 even lists the ships of Tarshish in their symbolic beauty and loftiness along with one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Cedars of Lebanon.
2 Chronicles 9:21, Jeremiah 10:9, Ezekiel 27:12 and Isaiah 60:9 all refer to the ships of Tarshish bringing gold, and other treasures. Ezekiel 27:25 and 38:13 even go so far as to suggest that praise from the merchants or ships of Tarshish is to be desired.
And yet, despite all this, Jonah, in a singular act of rebellion against God, changed this perception: 'But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD' (Jonah 1:3).
God has given us an earth-full of wonderful gifts, treasures to have and behold, ideals with which to aspire and good news to share. However, in our rebellion we quickly tarnish Tarshish.
The word tarnish comes from the French word 'ternir' from the root 'terne', meaning 'dark' and often refers to oxidation of surfaces due to misuse. Tarnish on many surfaces can be removed by polishing with denatured (methylated) spirit. We all have rebelled and tarnished many of God's glorious gifts. But it is not too late. We can still use God's Spirit to put a shine on these things and move us out of darkness into his marvellous light (1 Peter 2:9).

-- Lionel Hartley, FreEzine Magazine, Issue 33 Vol 4 # 3  March 2003

Tarshish is now Turdetania in south-western Spain

Ezekiel 27:25 (KJV)  The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the seas.