“Precious Metals In Scripture – Gold (Positive Application)” – Part 5 – Kethem
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By way of review
Most of the concordances agree that this Hebrew word for ‘gold’ is pronounced with a ‘th’ sound. So I am adding that to this week’s study. ‘Kethem’ is only one of the seven Hebrew words needed to express to us just how malleable, ductile, beautiful, enduring and useful God’s gold is. Because physical gold is so valuable to men because it is so beautiful, because gold cannot be tarnished, and because it is so soft and malleable and yet has such a high melting point, gold is a word which the holy spirit has used to express to us how God feels about all of these spiritual qualities. As with every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, gold is a word of spirit that really has nothing to do with physical gold, except as physical gold has the physical qualities that will help us to understand the spiritual qualities of God’s spiritual ‘gold.’ In other words:
Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
A brother recently told me that it was the strangest thing, that while he felt that he was growing more spiritually lately than he ever has, at the same time he felt like he was being destroyed. I told him the only reason he felt that way was because that is exactly what was being done. That is the way it works. For the spirit to grow within us the outward man must be destroyed.
Psa 107:25 For he [God] commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
That is not a ‘marketable’ concept, and yet we wonder why so few are capable of seeing the things of the spirit. Judgment, “the great and terrible Day of the Lord,” doesn’t even begin until “after the tribulation of those days.”
The net affect is that the the things of the spirit contradict the things of the natural man, so the natural man cannot comprehend the things of the spirit no matter the level of his IQ or the number of degrees conferred upon him.
1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Here are but two examples of this phenomenon.
Mat 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
Joh 9:39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40 And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.
“Finding life causes you to lose it?” Being blind gives you sight?” I can spell it out as God’s Word spells it out, but the only people who will comprehend it are those to whom are “given eyes to see and ears to hear.”
Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them [ the multitudes of those “who believe in Christ, – Joh 8:30-31] in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed [ it] unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
Kethem’ is the fourth of seven Hebrew words which have been translated into the English word ‘gold.’ Last week we saw that ‘kethem’ is likened to:
1) wisdom and understanding,
2} ‘Kethem,’ being the most precious thing of the physical realm, is never to be relied upon instead of God and His Word.
3) God’s wife, His queen, is said to be decked with ‘kethem.’
4) God’s Word fitly spoken is said to be “an ornament of “fine gold [ kethem] in the mouth of a wise reprover.”
5) Only God Himself can make “light be darkness” and “change and dim fine gold” [kethem].
6) Christ’s Word and His Truth “gird our loins in fine gold [kethem].” The last verse we covered told us that it was in judgment “in the day of the Lord” that man is to be made “more precious than the golden wedge [kethem] of Ophir.”
We will begin our study this week asking how “the day of the Lord” relates to “the golden wedge [kethem] of Ophir?
What “the day of the Lord is at hand” means as it relates to kethem “the golden wedge of Ophir.”
“The day of the Lord is at hand” here in Isa 13 and Joe 2 is where this statement in the New Testament gets its force. The book of Revelation was given to John while he “was in the spirit on the Lord’s Day” because that is what that book is all about. It is all about what happens on “that great and terrible day of the Lord,” and just like all that is in the book of Revelation, the day of the Lord is “at hand.”
Isa 13:6 Howl ye; for the day of the LORD [is] at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
Isa 13:7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt:
Isa 13:8 And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces [shall be as] flames.
Isa 13:9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
Isa 13:10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
Isa 13:11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
Isa 13:12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
Isa 13:13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
Joe 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;
Joe 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
Joe 2:29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
Joe 2:30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
Joe 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
Joe 2:32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
Mat 24:33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
Rev 22:7 Behold, I come quickly [“the time is at hand”]: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
Isaiah 13 and Joel 2 all began to be “at hand” on the day of Pentecost:
Act 2:16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; [“the time is at hand”]
Act 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
Act 2:18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
Act 2:19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:
Act 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:
Act 2:21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Notice this time line. Peter is here quoting Joel:
Joe 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
Joe 2:29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
Joe 2:30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
Joe 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
Joe 2:32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
So where does this leave us? Does “Shall be saved… delivered,” mean that the judgment is over? Or does it mean that judgment has just begun, that “judgment must begin at the house of God?” Is “the day of the Lord” the beginning of judgment, or is it the end of judgment? What do the scriptures teach?
Psa 50:4 He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.
Joe 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
Mat 24:29 Immediately a fter the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
Deu 32:36 For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.
Psa 96:11 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof.
Psa 96:12 Let the field be joyful, and all that [is] therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice
Psa 96:13 Before the LORD: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.
Psa 135:14 For the LORD will judge his people, and he will repent himself concerning his servants.
“The great and terrible day of the Lord” follows “the tribulation of those days.” Mark reiterates this Truth:
Mar 13:24 But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light,
The book which brings all of this together, the book of Revelation, says the same:
Rev 6:12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
Rev 6:13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
Rev 6:14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
Rev 6:15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
Rev 6:16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
Rev 6:17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
Then what? What is it that happens ” after the tribulation of those days” and after the signs in the heavens? Here is what happens next:
Mat 24:30 And then [“then” and only “then”] shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Mat 24:31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Mat 24:32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer [is] nigh:
Mat 24:33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. [“the time is at hand” (Rev 1:3)]
It is not until “the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; say to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”
It is not till ” after the tribulation of those days” that ” judgment must first begin at the house of God.”
All of this has to do with the time when God will “make a man as precious as the golden wedge of Ophir.” What is it that purifies a man and makes him as precious as a golden wedge of Ophir?
Isa 13:10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. [Joe 2:31 and Act 2]
Isa 13:11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
Isa 13:12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold [paz]; even a man than the golden wedge [ketem] of Ophir.
Here is what purifies gold:
1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
What does this fiery trial tell us about where we are in our walk? Are we in “the tribulation of those days”, or are we in “the great and terrible day of the Lord,” the day of His judgment? Here is what Peter goes on to explain in this same chapter:
1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
Verse 12 of 1 Peter precedes verse 17 for a very good reason. It is because “the tribulation of those days” precedes “the great and terrible day of the Lord.”
Now look again at what Christ said would follow all of this:
Mat 24:33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
In the face of all of this, and in the face of the fact that all of this has to do with making men as “precious as gold of Ophir; In spite of the fact that the book of Revelation twice tells us 2000 years ago, “I come quickly… the time is at hand… he that reads and hears the prophecy of this book must keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book…” In spite of the fact that Peter tells us Joel 2 was being fulfilled on the day of Pentecost; in spite of all of this, there are only two schools of thought concerning prophecy within the “historical orthodox Christian church.” Those two schools are called Preterism on the one hand and Dispensationalism on the other. Preterism teaches that judgment day came in 70 AD, and Dispensationalism teaches that judgment day is yet future. Either way, the words of the prophecy of this book are not for “he that reads and hears the words of this prophecy” unless “he that hears and reads the words of this prophecy” happens to be alive and standing on this earth either some time in the future or was standing on this earth and “reading this book” in 70 A. D.
What is The Truth of this matter? When do the scriptures teach us the day of judgment begins? It was Peter who told us that “the great and terrible day of the Lord” began on the day of Pentecost, and it is Peter who tells us this:
1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
The Preterists and the Dispensationalists have both overlooked this statement of our Lord:
Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
“My words shall not pass away” means that when Christ said “this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled,” what He meant was that every generation “reading and hearing His words” would every one “fulfill… all these things… every man in his own order.” That is how “a man shall become more precious that the golden wedge of Ophir.”
Isa 13:12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold [ paz]; even a man than the golden wedge [ketem] of Ophir.
Christ, our Lord, our head, the Word and the Truth is “the most [ ketem] fine gold, the golden wedge of Ophir.”
The last verse with the Hebrew word ‘ketem’ is in the Song of Solomon and it is, for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, in reference to Christ:
Son 5:10 My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.
Son 5:11 His head is as the most [ketem] fine gold [paz], his locks are bushy, and black as a raven.
Son 5:12 His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set.
Son 5:13 His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.
Son 5:14 His hands are as gold [zahab] rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.
Son 5:15 His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold [paz]: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
Son 5:16 His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
It’s the word ‘most’ that is translated from the word ‘ketem,’ and it refers to Christ as “most fine gold [paz].
We have seen that our studies are intended to give us just a little more of the mind and knowledge of God and His Christ, and we have seen how the Hebrew word ‘kethem’ expresses a high degree of purity concerning the precious things of God.
Because God values wisdom and understanding so much, it is this word for gold, the word ‘kethem,’ to which wisdom and understanding are likened. Because God thinks so much of Christ and Christ thinks so much of His church, both are likened to “the queen in gold [kethem] of Ophir.” “Words fitly spoken” are likened unto fine gold [kethem].
We saw how gold becomes dim and even fine gold [kethem] is changed when God does not endow us with a love of the truth and He sends us His strong delusion and blinds our eyes to the gold that is His Word.
We have seen that if we are to move about in service to our Lord, then our “loins must be gird about with fine gold [kethem],” the fine gold [ kethem] of God’s Word.
We have seen that the golden wedge of Ophir is a reference to what the judgments of God produce in His elect, and we saw that those judgments are not just ‘was’ and ‘will be,’ but we saw that God’s “golden wedge of Ophir” never tarnishes, and “His words shall never pass away.” I hope we have demonstrate the Is, Was and Will Be character of Christ and His words to the degree that we all understand that “this generation shall not pass away until all these things shall be fulfilled” is a reference to every one of us in every generation to whom are given eyes to see and ears to hear “the sayings of the prophecy of this book.”
Rev 22:7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
We have seen that the saying of the prophecy of this book teach that the “great and terrible day of the Lord,” the day that “makes a man more precious than the golden wedge [kethem] of Ophir,” does not even “first begin” in our lives until “after the tribulation of those days.”
Mat 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what [ shall be] the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? [aion]
Mat 24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
Mat 24:5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
Mat 24:6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Mat 24:7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
Mat 24:8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
If we have come to see God’s word in this, its timeless beauty, then we have come to see our Lord, our head, Christ as “the most fine gold.”
Son 5:11 His head is as the most [ketem] fine gold [paz], his locks are bushy, and black as a raven.
We got through one more word this week. This is the seventh installment of our study of God’s gold. We have three more words to cover. They are the words ‘paz,’ ‘betser’ and ‘segor.’
We will cover ‘paz’ next week, and we will see if we can get to any of the other words at that time.
Other related posts
- “Precious Metals In Scripture - Gold (Positive Application)” - Part 6 - Paz and Betser (November 19, 2009)
- “Precious Metals In Scripture - Gold (Positive Application)” - Part 5 - Kethem (November 19, 2009)
- “Precious Metals In Scripture - Gold (Positive Application)” - Part 4 - Ketem (November 19, 2009)
- “Precious Metals In Scripture - Gold (Positive Application)” - Part 3 (November 19, 2009)
- The Relationship Between God And His Children (March 24, 2009)
- The Prophecy of Isaiah 2:15-22 - When He Arises To Shake Terribly The Earth (August 20, 2016)
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- Exo 39:1-43 The Making of Priestly Garments (February 27, 2023)
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- Awesome Hands - part 90: "Watchmen" (October 28, 2015)
- Awesome Hands - Part 112: "The Golden Calf" - part 2 (March 10, 2017)
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- "Precious Metals In Scripture - Gold (Positive Application)" - Part 2 (November 19, 2009)
- "Precious Metals In Scripture - Gold (Positive Application)" - Part 1 (November 19, 2009)
- "Precious Metals In Scripture - Gold (Negative)" - Part 1 (November 19, 2009)
- "Precious Metals In Scripture - Gold (Negative Application)" - Part 2 (November 19, 2009)