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Silver’s Negative Application, Part 2 – Self-Righteousness and False Doctrines

Introduction

By way of review, let’s look again at Strong’s definition of silver:

H3701 – – keseph – keh’- sef – From H3700; silver (from its pale color); by implication money: – money, price, silver (-ling).

When we look at 3700, the Hebrew root for this Hebrew word ‘keseph,’ we find this:

H3700 – ka saph – kaw- saf’ – A primitive root; properly to become pale, that is, (by implication) to pine after; also to fear: – [have] desire, be greedy, long, sore.

But this is how this word is used:

H3700 – ka saph – Total KJV Occurrences: 5 – desire, 1 – Job_14:15; desired, 1 – Zep_2:1; greedy, 1 – Psa_17:12; longedst, 1 – Gen_31:30; longeth, 1 – Psa_84:2

So silver is connected with the concept of ‘desire‘, be it for good or bad. For example:

Gen 31:30 And now, [though] thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst [Hebrew: kasaf] after thy father’s house, [yet] wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?

Psa 84:2 My soul longeth [Hebrew: kasaph], yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.

Job 14:15 Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire [Hebrew: kasaph] to the work of thine hands.

This as a negative application:

Psa 17:12 Like as a lion that is greedy [Hebrew: kasaph] of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

Zep 2:1 Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired [Hebrew: kasaph];

Just as the base metals lead, tin, iron, and copper all typify what is refined out of the earth and yet is so plentiful that it has little value compared to precious metals, and is considered to be common and cheap, so too, the precious metals portray for us God’s view of the opposite end of the spectrum. Precious metals portray to us, spiritually, what is rare and expensive and highly valued, or highly desired by God.

There are only two precious metals mentioned in God’s Word. Remember that significance of the number two? Those two metals are silver and gold. Our study this week is the spiritual significance of silver in scripture. As always we will start out with the negative application, the dark side of silver in the Word of God. Before we go into that any further, let’s refresh our memory of silver’s primary, precious and positive application as the symbol in scripture for both atonement and redemption and as a symbol of the righteousness of the saints through “Christ in you.”

Silver as atonement and redemption

Exo 30:15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when [they] give an offering unto the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls.
Exo 30:16 And thou shalt take the atonement money [Hebrew: keseph, silver] of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls.

Tit 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works [He was valued at thirty pieces of silver].
Mat 26:15 And [Judas] said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.

Silver as righteousness

Before we show the use of silver as self-righteousness, let’s first show its symbolism as righteousness. Silver is always associated with Christ and His righteousness.

1Co 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1Co 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

We defile God’s temple when we live lives unbecoming the children of God. Even in God’s house there are both precious and base metals.

2Ti 2:20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.

Rev 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

As we will see below, works are also typified by ‘fine linen.’

Rev 19:8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

Silver is the metal that is used to condemn Joseph’s brothers while uniting Joseph with his favorite brother Benjamin and reconciling Joseph with his brothers who hated him

Joseph’s brothers were starving from the famine and came to buy grain from Joseph. This was their second journey. They were on their way back home with both Benjamin and Simeon. But their faith is about to be tried, and as always Christ himself doesn’t do it, He sends a messenger to try His brothers:

Gen 44:1 Then he [Joseph] commanded his house steward, saying, “Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack.
Gen 44:2 “Put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, and his money for the grain.” And he did as Joseph had told him.
Gen 44:3 As soon as it was light, the men were sent away, they with their donkeys.
Gen 44:4 They had just gone out of the city, and were not far off, when Joseph said to his house steward, “Up, follow the men; and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?
Gen 44:5 ‘Is not this the one from which my lord drinks and which he indeed uses for divination? You have done wrong in doing this.'”
Gen 44:6 So he overtook them and spoke these words to them.
Gen 44:7 They said to him, “Why does my lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing.
Gen 44:8 “Behold, the money which we found in the mouth of our sacks we have brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house?
Gen 44:9 “With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves.”
Gen 44:10 So he said, “Now let it also be according to your words; he with whom it is found shall be my slave, and the rest of you shall be innocent.”
Gen 44:11 Then they hurried, each man lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack.
Gen 44:12 He searched, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.
Gen 44:13 Then they tore their clothes, and when each man loaded his donkey, they returned to the city.

That, I submit, is how things are done in the realm of the heavens.

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

The life of a slave is valued at thirty pieces of silver.

Exo 21:28 If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be quit.
Exo 21:29 But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.
Exo 21:30 If there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him.
Exo 21:31 Whether he have gored a son, or have gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him.
Exo 21:32 If the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant; he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

Like Joseph, a type of Christ, Christ himself was sold to the Jews for the price of a slave. Notice the events surrounding Christ’s betrayal for thirty pieces of silver. They are very revealing of who you and I are. What they reveal is that we all “live by every word of God:”

Mat 26:1 And it happened when Jesus finished all these sayings, He said to His disciples,
Mat 26:2 You know that after two days the Passover comes, and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified.
Mat 26:3 Then the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, assembled together to the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas.
Mat 26:4 And they consulted so that they might take Jesus by guile and kill Him.
Mat 26:5 But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people.
Mat 26:6 And when Jesus was in Bethany , in the house of Simon the leper,
Mat 26:7 a woman came to Him, having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on His head as He reclined.
Mat 26:8 But when His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, To what purpose is this waste?
Mat 26:9 For this ointment might have been sold for very much and given to the poor.
Mat 26:10 When Jesus understood it, He said to them, Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a good work on Me.
Mat 26:11 For you have the poor with you always, but you do not always have Me.
Mat 26:12 For in putting ointment on My body, she did it for My burial.
Mat 26:13 Truly I say to you, Wherever this gospel shall be proclaimed in the whole world, that which this woman has done shall be spoken of also, for a memorial of her.
Mat 26:14 Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests.
Mat 26:15 And he said to them, What will you give me, and I will betray Him to you? And they appointed to him thirty pieces of silver.
Mat 26:16 And from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him. (MKJV)

Judas and all of Christ’s disciples were demonstrably self-righteous. The “son of perdition” is incited to betray Christ when Christ puts His body ahead of the poor. Here is this same story from John’s perspective:

Joh 12:1 Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was (who had died, whom He raised from the dead).
Joh 12:2 Then they made a supper there for Him. And Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those reclining with Him.
Joh 12:3 Then Mary took a pound of ointment of pure spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
Joh 12:4 Then said one of His disciples (Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who was to betray Him)
Joh 12:5 Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor? [denarii are silver Roman coins]
Joh 12:6 He said this, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief and held the moneybag and carried the things put in.
Joh 12:7 Then Jesus said, Let her alone. She has kept this for the day of My burial.
Joh 12:8 For you have the poor with you always; but you do not always have Me. (MKJV)

Mary had a more realistic valuation of Christ. It was the same difference Joseph placed between Benjamin and his other ten brothers:

Gen 45:22 To all of them he [Joseph] gave each man changes of clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of clothing.

All who are refrained from the presence of the Lord are refrained because they are not yet made aware of their total worthlessness in and of themselves in the flesh.

That is the message we are being given when we are told that the pillars of the court of the tabernacle are covered on the top, and banded on the top, and given hooks of silver to hold up the veil of “fine twined linen.”

That silver on those pillars with copper (brass) sockets (Exo 27:10) tells us two things, 1) our own self- righteousness, and 2) our redemption through the sale of Christ to His death.

Note the difference between the sockets for the pillars of the court and the sockets of the pillars and boards of the tabernacle. All but the sockets of the door of the tabernacle are pure silver sockets.

The four pillars between the holy place and the most holy are golden pillars with golden hooks, standing on sockets of silver

Exo 26:30 And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee in the mount.
Exo 26:31 And thou shalt make a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work: with cherubims shall it be made:
Exo 26:32 And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold: their hooks shall be of gold, upon the four sockets of silver.
Exo 26:33 And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy [place] and the most holy.

The sockets and the pillars of the court are brass, but the bands and hooks of these pillars are silver.

Exo 27:17 All the pillars round about the court shall be filleted with silver; their hooks shall be of silver, and their sockets of brass.
(BBE) All the pillars round the open space are to have silver bands, with hooks of silver and bases of brass.
Exo 27:9 And thou shalt make the court of the tabernacle: for the south side southward [there shall be] hangings for the court [of] fine twined linen of an hundred cubits long for one side:
Exo 27:10 And the twenty pillars thereof and their twenty sockets shall be of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets [shall be of] silver.
Exo 27:11 And likewise for the north side in length [there shall be] hangings of an hundred [cubits] long, and his twenty pillars and their twenty sockets of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.
Exo 27:17 All the pillars round about the court shall be filleted with silver; their hooks shall be of silver, and their sockets of brass [the false doctrine of free will, my works].

We all start our walk in Christ on a self-righteous, free will, base of spiritual copper. The silver bands, the silver hooks, and the fine linen speak indeed of our righteousnesses and of our good works, as we noted above:

Rev 19:8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. For the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.

1Co 3:11 For other foundation [sockets of the tabernacle] can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1Co 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

There is nothing in the temple of God but pure gold and pure silver. There are no alloys, and there certainly are no base metals except at the entry of the door, as we have discussed before. God does not want hard alloyed gold or hard alloyed silver. He wants gold so pure it can be beaten to cover all the boards, the arch of the covenant, and be formed into the cherubims with golden wings. The gold and silver in the tabernacle or the temple must be completely purified. All impurities are right now being burned out of the gold and silver in the temple of God:

Psa 12:6 The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.

It is our self-righteous works which are “burned up.” It is we who must “lose our lives that we might find life.” Silver, as Christ in us, is not at first in our view. Instead when we first enter into the court of the tabernacle or the temple, we are full of self-righteousness, as silver bands and hooks, on copper pillars which stand on copper sockets, symbolizing a foundation which is based on the false doctrines of “free moral agency” and “it is our own faith which saves us.” Those doctrines and that attitude are silver bands and hooks on pillars made of brass, standing on brass sockets.

Babylon also, is full of gold and silver and precious stones and fine linen.

Zec 9:3 And Tyrus [A type of Babylon] did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets [As Christ is figured by both a lion and a lamb, so it is with many things in scripture including ‘the prince of Tyrus and the king of Babylon’].

Rev 18:9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
Rev 18:10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
Rev 18:11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
Rev 18:12 The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,

It is all silver bands and hooks on a self-righteous copper pillar and standing on a socket and foundation of self-righteous copper or brass.

Exo 27:10 And the twenty pillars thereof and their twenty sockets shall be of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver.
(BBE) All the pillars round the open space are to have silver bands, with hooks of silver and bases of brass.

Conclusion

We have seen that silver, a symbol of atonement, redemption and of Christ performing good works in and through us, was also used to sell both Christ and Joseph into death and slavery. We saw that our Savior was sold for the price of a slave. We have also seen that both Tyrus and Babylon are full of silver and gold. We have seen how silver was used in the court of the tabernacle to cover the top of brass pillars and was used as hooks to hold up the veil of the court. We also saw that silver standing on self-righteous, brass pillars, standing on brass sockets is nowhere near the house of God and is never allowed into the house of God.

We have also been shown in 2 Timothy that God’s “great house… has vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor.” What we have seen is that Babylon is full of idols of silver and gold, which must never be permitted into the tabernacle of God.

There is much more about the subversion of this precious metal and how that subversion so successfully blinds us to the enthroning of the beast within us. We will see much more of this phenomenon next week when we see how silver is used by those who work with silver to form it into idols. We will see who the idol manufacturers are and where they work. Of course, what we will find out is that we have been partakers in the manufacture and distribution of idols as part of “living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”