The story goes that the Jewish people wanted to send a gift to the king. They filled a chest with treasures and diamonds and gave it to a man. They said, “Nachum Ish Gamzu is used to miracles; let’s give it to this man.” And they gave it to Nachum Ish Gamzu to deliver to the king.
Nachum Ish Gamzu stopped at a hotel. The hotel owner said, “What’s this jewel in this treasure chest? We’re going to take all the jewels, we’re going to take the diamonds, and we’ll fill the chest with dirt.” And that’s what they did: they filled the chest with sand and dirt. Nachum Ish Gamzu woke up in the morning, took the chest, which he thought had diamonds and jewels in it, and brought it to the king.
You know the story, yes? The king and his men opened the treasure chest, and inside was dirt. He said, “Dirt? The Jewish people are making fun of me. The Jewish people are mocking me. They’re mocking me. They’re giving me dirt as a gift.”
This is a moment of uncertainty for Nachum Ish Gamzu. Imagine you’re the one who delivered dirt to a king whom you’re obviously trying to appease, and now you’re doing the opposite. Nachum Ish Gamzu knew at that moment that Hashem runs the world, and it was up to Him.
One of the king’s advisors, who they say was really Eliyahu HaNavi, said to the king, “Maybe this dirt is the dirt that Abraham Avinu used when he was in a war in Palestine. Hashem ran between four kings and five kings, and it enabled him to win the war.” So the king said, “Okay, let’s try it.” He had conquered many countries, but there was one country he could not nail down. He couldn’t conquer it. He took this dirt and used it as ammunition, as bullets, as swords, as knives, as spears, and somehow this dirt enabled him to conquer the country. I don’t know how that works, but that’s not the point. He won, and the king was so thankful to Nachum Ish Gamzu. He said, “Wow, look at the gift you gave me.” He took the chest and filled it with treasures, diamonds, silver, gold, and jewels.
Now Nachum Ish Gamzu was traveling back home. He stayed at the same hotel. The hotel owner said, “What are you doing here?” He said, “Well, I went to the king.” The hotel owner said, “And what’d you get?” He said, “I got all of these diamonds.” The hotel owner said, “You got all these diamonds? Why? What’d you bring to the king?” Nachum Ish Gamzu said, “I don’t know. Whatever I had here is what I brought there.” The hotel owner said, “Wow, I know what he brought there. He brought our dirt there. It must be that our dirt is great dirt.” So the hotel owner knocked down his hotel to get all the dirt beneath it, took all truckloads of dirt to the king, and the king said, “You know that dirt you used? This is where it’s from. This is the dirt.” The king said, “Wow, let me try it.” He used it against the enemy, but it was just dirt. He was just throwing mud. He flooded people, and the king killed the owner of the hotel.
The moral of the story is that this is a lesson for every Jew. The moral of the story is Nachum Ish Gamzu’s attitude. The moral of the story is that when God sends you lemons, make lemonade. The moral of the story is that moments of uncertainty could lead to devastation, or moments of uncertainty could lead to the greatest results in your life. When a person has a moment when they’re not sure or they’re not comfortable, you don’t know how beautiful you could make it.