Emphasis Preaching Journal

Most people are familiar with the expression "white elephant." It refers to something that is expensive but is no longer useful to us. "White elephant" comes from the way that the king of Siam once got revenge on people. He did so by sending them a white elephant as a gift. At the time, white elephants were considered to be sacred, so they could not be made to do any work. And since the animal was a gift from the king, it would be a severe insult to return the elephant. So the recipient of the white elephant was stuck with the burden of feeding and housing that otherwise useless beast.