Now that we have the “lead out” lets move on to the next metal.

Tin was imported, possibly from Spain or from Western Europe, and was a valuable metal in Israel.  It was worked into various articles like cooking utensils and artwork.  Tin was added to copper to make bronze.  Today, as in ancient times, tin is a major impurity in silver.

A modern day use of tin is to cover other metals so they don’t rust or oxidize.  Iron our next metal is treated this way; it hides or protects it from contact with other things.  Even though we call cans from the grocery store “tin cans” they are really made of iron.  In our modern slang attaching the word “tin” to something carries an inferior or cheap label. Examples are a “tin ear”, a “tinny sound”, a “tin man.”  Even in the movie The Wizard of Oz the “tin man” was rusted and had to be oiled; if he was pure tin that would not have been necessary, he was only tin-plated.

In people,  “tin”, like lead, comes from the outside of us. The “ tin things” in our lives will harden us and even change the way we look, just as copper changes color and becomes harder when tin is added to it to make bronze.  In 2 Samuel 12 Bathsheba was a “tin” to David.  Even though Solomon was born, this incident changed David’s life he had a lot of unrest and blood shed in his family from then on.  Fear of things will act as “tin” and can have great influence in our lives by limiting or covering us and changing our prospective and even our habit patterns.