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Gold (Positive Application) – Part 6, Paz and Betser

Introduction

I have been telling you that there are seven Hebrew words translated ‘gold.’ I have been saying that based upon the fact that Strong’s Concordance tells us that seven Hebrew words are all translated as ‘gold’. We will see today that Mr. Strong has misinformed us on this subject, and I will have to simply share this lesson with you and apologize for saying there are seven Hebrew words translated as ‘gold.’ In Truth there are only six, and the last two of these six are our words for this study.

Our Fifth of Six Words Translated Gold Is ‘Paz’

The first of these last two words is the word ‘paz.’ Paz appears nine times in the Old Testament.

It is found once in Job, three times in Psalms, once in Proverbs, twice in Song of Solomon, once in Isaiah, and once in Lamentations.

Why is this word ‘paz’ used in these nine verses, instead of any of the other six words translated gold? To understand why ‘paz’ is used in these verses let’s look at all nine entries:

Job 28:12  But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?
Job 28:13  Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.
Job 28:14  The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me.
Job 28:15  It cannot be gotten for gold [zahab], neither shall silver be weighed [for] the price thereof.
Job 28:16  It cannot be valued with the gold [kethem] of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
Job 28:17  The gold [zahab] and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold [paz].

Psa 19:9  The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
Psa 19:10  More to be desired are they than gold [zahab], yea, than much fine gold [paz]: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Psa 21:1  To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The king shall joy in thy strength, O LORD; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!
Psa 21:2  Thou hast given him his heart’s desire, and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Selah.
Psa 21:3  For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness: thou settest a crown of pure gold [ paz] on his head.
Psa 21:4  He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever.
Psa 21:5  His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.
Psa 21:6  For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.

Psa 119:125  I am thy servant; give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies.
Psa 119:126  It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law.
Psa 119:127  Therefore I love thy commandments above gold [zahab]; yea, above fine gold [paz]
Psa 119:128  Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.

Pro 8:11  For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.
Pro 8:12  I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.
Pro 8:13 The fear of the LORD [is] to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.
Pro 8:14  Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength.
Pro 8:15  By me kings reign, and princes decree justice.
Pro 8:16  By me princes rule, and nobles, eve all the judges of the earth.
Pro 8:17  I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.
Pro 8:18  Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness.
Pro 8:19  My fruit is better than gold [charuts], yea, than fine gold [paz]; and my revenue than choice silver.

Son 5:9  What is thy beloved more than [another] beloved, thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than [another] beloved, that thou dost so charge us?
Son 5:10  My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.
Son 5:11  His head is as the most [kethem] 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 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.

Verse 5 tells us that Christ’s “head is as kethem paz,” that is Christ’s head is “as most (kethem) fine gold (paz).” ‘Kethem’ here is a noun used as an adjective to express a superlative. ‘Kethem’ is ‘most’ fine gold (paz).

Continuing with our verses containing ‘paz:’

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 [paz]; even a man than the golden wedge [kethem] of Ophir.

Lam 4:1  How is the gold [zahab] become dim! how is the most fine gold [kethem] changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.
Lam 4:2  The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold [paz], how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of thepotter!

Eight times ‘paz’ is translated “fine gold.” It is likened in these verses to Christ’s “head,” it is likened to His feet, which are referred to here as “sockets”, and once it is used with ‘kethem’ as the ultimate gold, the superlative in golden jewels and valuables. So ‘Paz’ is called “a crown of pure gold”.  It is generally preceded by the word ‘zahab’, and is closely associated in these verses as gold having been formed into that which glorifies God. It certainly overlaps with ‘kethem’ in this application, but it is always translated as fine or pure gold, and ‘kethem’ is used as a superlative of ‘paz.’

Betser, the sixth of six words translated ‘gold’

The sixth of our six Hebrew words translated ‘gold’ is ‘betser.’ This word appears only in Job 22:24-25. In verse 24 it is translated as ‘gold’, and in verse 25 it is translated ‘defense’. It appears that ‘betser’ should have been translated as ‘gold’ in both verses.

Job 22:24  Then shalt thou lay up gold [betser] as dust, and the [gold] of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.
Job 22:25  Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence [betser], and thou shalt have plenty of silver.

‘Betser’ here in Job is followed by mentioning both “plenty of silver” and the “pureness” of the “humble person.”

Job 22:26  For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God.
Job 22:27  Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows.
Job 22:28  Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.
Job 22:29  When [men] are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person.
Job 22:30  He shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands.

Humility is gained only after pride is burned out of us. ‘Pureness of our hands’ is also achieved only after a purifying, purging process. It appears thus that verse 25 would be a more consistent translation if it read:

Job 22:25  Yea, the Almighty shall be thy gold [betser], and thou shalt have plenty of silver.

God is both our wealth and our defence, but When this same word is translated as ‘gold’ in the preceding verse, it is best to be consistent and translate it the same in verse 25.

Segor – A necessary correction

As I said at the beginning about today’s study my assertions that there are seven words translated as gold was mistaken. I have been saying that because that is what Dr. James Strong’s Concordance told me. Now that we have come to our supposed seventh and last word ‘segor’, I want to share with you how even scholars like James Strong must be verified against God’s Word. Strong’s Concordance told me that this ‘segor’ was found only twice, once in Job 28:15 and once in Hosea 13:8. Here is what Strong’s says about this word ‘segor:’

Now that we are here at this word and we see these two entries, here is what we really find:

Hos 13:8  I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul [segor], Strong’s H5458] of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.

When we get to Job 28, we find that Mr. Strong has made a mistake.

Job 28:15  It cannot be gotten for gold [zahab with another word included in the interlinear, the word ‘sagar’, Strong’s H5462], neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.

This word here in Job 28:15, which is translated gold, is ‘zahab.’ It is not the word ‘segor’ as Strong’s Concordance affirms, and I again cut and paste:

It is not ‘segor (“Total KJV Occurrences: 2”); it is rather ‘sagar’ and while it is apparently in the Hebrew, it is not even translated into English in Job 28:25. It is simply left out and ignored in this verse.

The Hebrew word ‘sagar’ appears 92 times and is most often translated ‘shut’ or ‘shut up’. Here is what Strong says of this word:

H5462
sa gar
saw- gar’
A primitive root; to shut up; figuratively to surrender: – close up, deliver (up), give over (up), inclose, X pure, repair, shut (in, self, out, up, up together), stop, X straitly.

‘Sagar’ is the root word from which ‘segor’ is derived, but look again at what Strong’s Concordance says of ‘segor’ the word taken from the root ‘sagar’.

It is not “also gold” and it is not “caul, gold.” It is rather, ‘caul, shut up, or caul, closely guarded.’

So the word translated ‘gold in Job 28:15 is the Hebrew word ‘zahab’, Not the word ‘segor,’ as it is listed in Strong’s Concordance under the number H5458. The word ‘sagar’ H5462 is not the word ‘gold’ at all in this verse, but should apparently be translated as ‘shut up’ or ‘closely guarded’, ‘sagar’, gold, ‘zahab’. Neither ‘sagar’, H5462 nor its derivative ‘segor’H5458 have anything to do with the six Hebrew words for ‘gold’ except as an adjective describing how gold is shut up or guarded because it is so valuable.
Both Strong’s Concordance and the Interlinear say the word ‘sagar’ not ‘segor’ appears in Job 28:15. I do not read Hebrew so I assume they are right, but if that is the case then it has been left out of the King James Version.

In review

In review gold’s negative application is its association with the color yellow, a type for sin in our flesh.

Psa 68:13 Though ye have lien among the pots, [yet shall ye be as] the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow [yeraqraq] gold [charuts].

Gold’s primary negative application in scripture is its misuse as a covering of our “idols of the heart.” We are all guilty of twisting God’s golden doctrines into the “doctrines of men.”

Eze 16:17 Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

2Pe 3:16 As also in all [his] epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Col 2:20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,
Col 2:21 (Touch not; taste not; handle not;
Col 2:22 Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?

Gold in its positive application has all the physical properties which reveal to us what God considers to be useful, valuable, rare, and beautiful. Gold alone has all the qualities of being extremely rare, extremely beautiful, extremely ductile, and extremely malleable. Gold alone does not tarnish or rust, and seems to be virtually indestructible. Gold will melt only under the most extreme temperatures of any of the metals mentioned in God’s Word. Gold is the only metal to be seen in the holy place or in the holy of holies.

Gold is so versatile that the holy spirit has seen fit to use six different Hebrew words to express its value and usefulness to our Lord. Here is a summary of those six words. While the use of these words overlap each other, there are definite uses which are more emphasized in the various words.

1) The first and most prevalent is ‘zahab.’ This is pure refined gold in its all inclusive application. Gold which has been tried and purified in the fire, the extreme heat needed to melt and refine gold from the earth:

Job 23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold [zahab].

2) ‘Dehab,’ the Aramaic form of ‘zahab,’ is found only in Ezra and Daniel and has the same overall and all inclusive application as ‘zahab’.
3) ‘Charuts’ is gold as malleable and ductile for its many uses. ‘Charuts’ is gold as “the hand of the diligent… (Pro 12:24), the valley of decision… (Joe 3:14), a threshing instrument…(Isa 28:27 and Mic 4:13), and the wall of God’s city (Dan 9:25 and Rev 21:12).
4) ‘Kethem’ is gold as being as rare and precious as “the golden wedge [kethem] of Ophir” (Isa 13:12). It is used to describe just how precious to our God is wisdom and understanding:

Job 28:12 But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?
Job 28:13 Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.
Job 28:14 The depth saith, It [is] not in me: and the sea saith, [It is] not with me.
Job 28:15 It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed [for] the price thereof.
Job 28:16 It cannot be valued with the gold [kethem] of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.

5) ‘Paz,’ is always preceded by ‘zahab,’ the all inclusive word for purified gold. ‘Paz’ overlaps but differs from ‘kethem’ in that it is always called fine gold, or pure gold and is mentioned as formed into a crown and as being fine jewels. Paz is used as a description of Christ Himself.

Job 28:17 The gold [zahab] and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold [paz].

Psa 21:3 For You meet him with the blessings of good things; You set a crown of fine gold [paz] on his head. (NASB)

Psa 119:127 Therefore I love thy commandments above gold [zahab]; yea, above fine gold [paz].

Son 5:10 My beloved [is] white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.
Son 5:11 His head [is as] the most [kethem] fine gold [paz], his locks [are] bushy, [and] black as a raven.

6) ‘Betser’ appears only in two adjacent verses in Job:

Job 22:24 Then shalt thou lay up gold [betser] as dust, and the [gold] of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.
Job 22:25 Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence [betser], and thou shalt have plenty of silver.

It appears that a consistent reading of ‘gold’ would better show ‘betser’ as a word describing great wealth as opposed to “defence.” This is especially true in light of the verses which follow, speaking of the strength and accomplishments of the humble person with pure hands.

Job 22:26 For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God.
Job 22:27 Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows.
Job 22:28 Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.
Job 22:29 When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person.
Job 22:30 He shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands.

The man who was spiritually the richest man who ever lived “had no place to lay His head,” and yet He had great riches in heaven:

Mat 8:20 And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

Conclusion

This concludes our study of God’s gold. It also concludes our study of the spiritual significance of all the metals mentioned in scripture.

Metals in scripture reveal where we have progressed in our walk. Of course we will see this only as we “look behind us to see the voice speaking with us.”

Rev 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

Rev 1:12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;

The base metals represent our walk as carnal Christians, the best of whom are but common copper; the best of the base metals. Gold and silver, on the other hand, represent our walk as converted Christians, God’s elect who are whole hearted, and are driven by, and filled with, a strong desire [silver] to become God’s most usable, beautiful, diligent, and uncorruptible treasure [gold].

We must all travel through and “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Mat 4:4). We must all start out as lead refined from lead ore, out of the ground, and progress upward through the tin, iron and copper into the strong desire to serve and please God until we come to be God’s beautiful, glorious gold, covering Him and in His house. “Precious Metals In Scripture – Gold (Positive Application)” – Part 5 – Kethem https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/metals_precious-metals-gold-kethem/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=metals_precious-metals-gold-kethem Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:32:26 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=3445

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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.

]]> “Precious Metals In Scripture – Gold (Positive Application)” – Part 3 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/metals_precious-metals-gold-positive-part-3/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=metals_precious-metals-gold-positive-part-3 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:32:25 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=3457

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Last week we had started looking into the different translations of the Hebrew word ‘charuts,’ which is translated as ‘gold,’ but it is also translated in several other ways. This week we will see what those other translations have to do with the metal gold, and in the process we will “strike gold” by coming to know and understand the mind of God just a little better.

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

How ‘charuts’ is translated:

Now look at what we find when we look at the other translations for this Hebrew word charuts.

Gold’s relation to diligence

This word is tranlated as ‘diligent’ in five of its 19 entries. That is only one less than ‘gold’. Let’s look at how this word for gold is also translated ‘diligent’:

Pro 10:3  The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked.
Pro 10:4  He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.

“The hand of the diligent makes rich.” Can you make a connection between ‘gold’ and ‘diligent’?

Let’s look at the other entries where this word is translated ‘diligent’.

Pro 12:24  The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute.

Pro 13:4  The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.

Pro 12:27  The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting: but the substance of a diligent man is precious.

Pro 21:4  An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.
Pro 21:5  The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness; but of every one that is hasty only to want.

Our God apparently sees similarities between the beautiful, untarnished, malleable, precious metal gold and “being made rich… bearing rule… being made fat… precious substance… and plenteousness.” Those are all listed as fruits of the life of a diligent man.

Gold’s relation to the day of decision in our lives

Let’s look at the other ways God uses this word:

Joe 3:12  Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.
Joe 3:13  Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness [is] great.
Joe 3:14  Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: [Hebrew: charuts – Also translated as ‘gold] for the day of the LORD [is] near in the valley of decision [charuts].
Joe 3:15  The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

This is what is called “the great and terrible day of the Lord.”

Joe 2:11  And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp [is] very great: for [he is] strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

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.

Peter tells us that this is what we all experience when the holy spirit comes into our lives:

Act 2:15  For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
Act 2:16  But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
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.

The holy spirit sees a connection between the fiery day of God’s wrath against the sin in our lives, the day of judgment we are living, and God’s gold – ‘charuts.’

Gold’s relationship to our trials against our flesh as ‘sharp pointed things.’

Job 41:30  Sharp stones are under him [Leviathan]: he spreadeth sharp pointed things [charuts] upon the mire.
Job 41:31  He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.
Job 41:32  He maketh a path to shine after him; [one] would think the deep [to be] hoary.
Job 41:33  Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear.
Job 41:34  He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride.

Isa 41:13  For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.
Isa 41:14  Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 41:15  Behold, I will make thee a new sharp [charuts] threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.

The holy spirit sees a connection between gold and the word ‘sharp’, judgment and threshing.

Gold’s relation to threshing instruments

Isa 28:27  For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument [charuts], neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.

Amo 1:3  Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away [the punishment] thereof; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments [charuts] of iron:

There is a definite relationship between the hammering out of gold and the threshing out of the wheat and the barley to be gathered into God’s barn. The relationship is so close that God uses the same word for both.

Here are a few verses to that effect:

Exo 25:18  And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat.

Exo 25:31  And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same.

Exo 37:7  And he made two cherubims of gold, beaten out of one piece made he them, on the two ends of the mercy seat;

Mic 4:13  Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat in pieces many people: and I will consecrate their gain unto the LORD, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.

Gold’s relationship to God’s wall

Dan 9:25  Know therefore and understand, [that] from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince [shall be] seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall [charuts], even in troublous times.

Rev 21:10  And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
Rev 21:11  Having the glory of God: and her light [was] like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
Rev 21:12  And had a wall great and high, [and] had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are [the names] of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:
Rev 21:13  On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.
Rev 21:14  And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
Rev 21:15  And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof.

The holy spirit sees a connection between the malleable, ductile, beautiful, untarnished, usable, precious metal gold and the wall of Jerusalem.

We are coming to see just how malleable gold is in the hands of an Almighty God.

Thus far we have covered three of the seven Old Testament Hebrew and one Aramaic words which are all translated as ‘gold.’ We have covered 1) ‘zahab,’ the most common Hebrew word translated ‘gold.’ We have covered the Aramaic word 2) ‘zehab,’ the equivalent of ‘zahab,’ and found only in Ezra and Daniel. With this study we have covered all the entries of the word 3) ‘charuts’ with its five very revealing different translations, which reveal to us the mind of God as relates to the word ‘gold.’

We have four more words to look into to understand more of the mind of God concerning His use of the most precious of all metals in scripture, gold. The four words we still must examine are :
Fourth: ketem– gold tried in the fire? The very purest of gold  (“gold of Ophir”) – ex. Job 28:16
Fifth: pazb – means pure but also translated as fine (pure) gold – ex. Psa 21.3
Sixth: betser– only found in Job 22:24 and 22:25 same word translated defense
Seventh: segor– only once Job 28:15 – probably impure gold – see contrast in Job 28:16
Also translated ‘caul’ in Hos 13:8

Lord willing, we will cover these remaining four words next week.

]]> “Precious Metals In Scripture – Gold (Positive Application)” – Part 4 – Ketem https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/metals_precious-metals-gold-ketem/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=metals_precious-metals-gold-ketem Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:32:25 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=3443

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In all of our studies we seek only to add to our knowledge of the mind of God and Christ for this reason:

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

As with every word of Christ, gold is a word of spirit, revealing something our Lord considers to be very precious, very beautiful and very useable. So we must keep the spirit of every word in mind when studying God’s Word.

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.

This study of gold will reveal just a little more of the mind of God and of Christ. Thus far we have seen that gold is extremely precious. God’s gold is the most precious of all the metals mentioned in His Word. We have seen that this most precious of all the metals mentioned in scripture is so useful to God that it has to be expressed with seven different Hebrew words just to help us see what is so precious, so beautiful and so useful in the eyes and the mind of God. The first two words were ‘zahab’ and its Aramaic counterpart ‘zaheb.’ Zahab is by far the most common of the seven Hebrew words which appear in scripture translated as gold.  ‘Zaheb’ is simply the Aramaic way of saying ‘zahab’, and it is found only in Daniel and in Ezra, both of whom were Babylonian captives, and Aramaic was the language spoken in Babylon.

Last week we covered the third word ‘charuts,’ and we found that this word, which is one of the seven words of the Old Testament  translated as gold, is also translated into five different English words, 1) diligent, 2) decision, 3) sharp pointed things, 4) threshing instrument and 5) wall. What all of this demonstrates, as mentioned earlier, is that gold is indeed malleable and ductile, precious and beautiful and can be used by God in so many different way to tell us of the things which to Him are very valuable.

There are yet four more Hebrew words translated as ‘gold,’ which we will look at, and we will learn even more of how God thinks about his precious possessions. Those four words are 1) ketem, 2) paz, 3) betser and 4) segor.

Ketem

Wisdom and understanding are likened to ketem

The first word, ‘ketem’ is often translated as ‘pure gold” and is sometimes followed by the words ‘of Ophir’ – Ophir being an area of the Middle East known for its gold.

Job 28:12  But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?
Job 28:13  Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.
Job 28:14  The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me.
Job 28:15  It cannot be gotten for gold, [zahab] neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.
Job 28:16  It cannot be valued with the gold [ketem] of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
Job 28:17  The gold [zahab] and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold [ketem]
Job 28:18  No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies.
Job 28:19  The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold [ketem].
Job 28:20  Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? .

Wisdom and understanding are very precious to our God. The only way to even come close to letting us know just how much God values wisdom and understanding is to tell us that they are far more valuable than pure gold: ‘ketem.’

The most precious things of the physical realm are likened to ketem

Job 31:24  If I have made gold [zahab] my hope, or have said to the fine gold [ketem], Thou art my confidence;
Job 31:25  If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much;
Job 31:26  If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;
Job 31:27  And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:
Job 31:28  This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.

When we place the physical above the spiritual, we have “denied the God that is above.” “The words that I speak are spirit…”

God’s queen is decked in ‘ketem’

Psa 45:6  Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.
Psa 45:7  Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
Psa 45:8  All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.
Psa 45:9  Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold [ketem] of Ophir.

Many things are valuable and precious but the build up to the most precious is the King’s queen in ” in “gold of Ophir.”

God’s Words fitly spoken are an ornament of ketem

Pro 25:11  A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold [zahab] in pictures of silver.
Pro 25:12  As an earring of gold [zahab], and an ornament of fine gold [ketem], so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear.

There is nothing more fruitful than proper words of admonition given to and received by “an obedient ear.” It is “an ornament of fine gold” – ketem.

Only God Himself can make light darkness and dim and change ketem

Lam 4:1  How is the gold [zahab] become dim! how is the most fine gold [ketem] changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.
Lam 4:2  The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold [paz], how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

Here is how the most beautiful, most precious and most valuable things of God “become dim.”

Mat 6:23  But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness!

“Light be darkness?” That is the equivalent of  “gold become dim.” Neither is possible, and yet we are told that it happens. Here is how the impossible is accomplished:

2Th 2:10  And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

The beautiful precious things of God – God’s pure gold, His fine gold – is His doctrine, His Truth. Light can only be darkness and gold can only become dim if God Himself “sends us strong delusion, that we should believe a lie.” We have all believed lies, and only a few will “come out of her my people” in this age.

It is in Christ’s Word and His Truth that we serve Him and gird our loins in ketem.

Dan 10:4  And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel [Tigris];
Dan 10:5  Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold [ketem] of Uphaz:
Dan 10:6  His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.

Why are His “loins girded with fine gold?” This verse will make that clear:

Deu 33:11  Bless, LORD, his substance [the substance of God’s Levites], and accept the work of his hands: smite through the loins of them that rise against him, and of them that hate him, that they rise not again.

It is with our “loins” that we are moved about and made mobile, and it is in Christ and His Truth that we live and move in His service.

Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

“Through Christ” we, too, are “girded with fine gold [ketem] of Uphaz.” It is in judgment that a man is made more precious than the golden wedge [ketem] of Ophir

Isa 13:1  The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.
Isa 13:2  Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
Isa 13:3  I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness. [Who judged Joseph’s brothers?]
Isa 13:4  The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the LORD of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.
Isa 13:5  They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land [God’s fiery Word is what destroys everything in the land that can be destroyed].
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 [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.
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.

We will have to finish this study of the spiritual significance of this word ‘ketem’ next week. So let’s review what we have learned thus far. Remember that “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” reveals to us what is the mind of God. The better we know His word, the better we know Him.

What we have seen about this word ‘ketem,’ translated only as pure gold, fine gold or golden wedge, is that God values wisdom and understanding so much that He likens it to ketem.

We have learned that the most precious things of the physical realm, the ‘ketem’ of the physical realm, must never come between us and the Truth of the Word of God. If it does, then we have denied the God that is above.

We have learned that Christ’s queen is decked in His truth, the gold [ ketem] of Ophir, and we also saw that God’s Word fitly spoken is like apple of gold in pictures of silver and an ornament of fine gold [ketem] in the mouth of a wise reprover.

We have seen that only God can make light, darkness and “dim and change” nontarnishable and indestructible gold when we are not given a love of the truth and are given God’s strong delusion.
Our service to our Lord is likened to having our loins girded in gold [ketem].

There is more to come about this word, but the last thing we covered today was the fact that it is by judgment that man is made more precious than the golden wedge of Ophir.

We will pick up here next week and finish our study of that which God values most , ketem, the fine gold of Ophir.

]]> “Precious Metals In Scripture – Gold (Positive Application)” – Part 1 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/metals_precious-metals-gold-positive-part-1/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=metals_precious-metals-gold-positive-part-1 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:32:24 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=3453

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Introduction

As we noted last week in studying gold’s negative application in scripture, there are several words that are translated into the English word gold. I had briefly looked ahead and had noted two more Hebrew words. I want to thank Stephen Morris for his assistance in this week’s study. Stephen sent me an e-mail noting that there are actually seven words translated as gold. I will quote Stephen’s letter.

The positive application of the color yellow, gold, and the “hidden wisdom” of God’s Word.

1Co 2:7  But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

The very fact that it takes 6000 pounds of gold ore to get one ounce of pure gold should tell us just how precious God’s elect are to Him:

Deu 32:9  For the LORD’S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
Deu 32:10  He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.

When we were covering the spiritual significance of colors in scripture, I told you that we would cover the positive application of the color yellow when we got into the metals, simply because the Hebrew word for yellow, in its positive application, is also a word translated gold. It is the Hebrew word ‘yeraqraq‘. Here is where that word is translated as the color ‘yellow’, and this is where ‘yellow’, a word which is generally used as a type of sin in the flesh, is also given a positive application in scripture.

Psa 68:13  Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.

Now, for the sake of understanding the mind of God, let’s briefly review yellow’s negative application. The word yellow is in the scripture very few times. It isn’t that long a study to determine what this color generally connotes in God’s Word. For example:

Lev 13:30  Then the priest shall see the plague: and, behold, if it be in sight deeper than the skin; and there be in it a yellow thin hair; then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a dry scall, even a leprosy upon the head or beard.

The word translated ‘yellow’ in this verse is the Hebrew word, tsa ho b, Strong’s number H6669, pronounced tsaw- obe’. According to James Strong, this word comes from H6668 tsa hab pronounced tsaw- hab’; meaning golden in color: – yellow.

Leprosy was not that uncommon in the Middle East and in ancient Israel. The yellow hair was there in the leprosy for any and all to see. It was not a green hair; it was a yellow hair.

We now have another Hebrew word used by the holy spirit to describe the color of gold:

Psa 68:13  Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.

The word ‘yellow’ here is H3422, yeraqraq. This word appears a total of 3 times in all of the Old Tesatament. It is translated as greenish twice – Lev 13:49, Lev 14:37 and yellow once – Psa 68:13, quoted above.

It should be obvious that both tsahob and yeraqraq mean yellow as in a “yellow thin hair” in a leprous skin and as the color of “yellow gold” respectively. While it is possible with today’s alloys to debase gold and make a green gold, that certainly is not the meaning of Psalm 68:13. Nevertheless, the translators of the King James Bible have seen fit to translate this same word, yeraqraq, as ‘greenish’ in these two verses:

Lev 13:49  And if the plague be greenish or reddish in the garment, or in the skin, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin; it is a plague of leprosy, and shall be shewed unto the priest:

We were just told in the thirtieth verse of this same chapter that if the hair of the skin were yellow; “if it be in sight deeper than the skin; and there be in it a yellow thin hair; then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a dry scall, even a leprosy upon the head or beard.”

Here is the only other entry for this word in scripture:

Lev 14:37  And he shall look on the plague, and, behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall;

I have made it very clear that I am not a Hebrew scholar. Neither am I unable to reason however. It is clear that the hair in the leprosy is yellow. It isn’t a green hair. You don’t have to be a scholar to see that. It is also very clear that gold is yellow. Gold is not green. So why would these Hebrew scholars choose to translate ‘yeraqraq‘ speaking of “anything of the skin” as “greenish”? If any Hebrew scholar out there can answer that very logical question, I would love to hear from you. I notice that Rotherham apparently had the same observation that I have had. Here is the REV tranlation of that verse. He simply adds the word ‘yellow’ to the King James ‘greenish:’

Lev 14:37 then shall he view the mark and lo! if the mark is in the walls of the house, with sunken places greenish yellow or reddish, – and they appear to be lower than the surface of the wall,

I mention all of this just to demonstrate that faith in God’s cryptic Word does not require that we check our brains and our logic at the door when we come to God’s word with an open and teachable mind. Faith is confidence in things that are not seen, but is not confidence in things that cannot be demonstrated by His Word.

Rom 3:3  For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?
Rom 3:4  God forbid: yea, let God [God’s Word] be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

Heb 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Heb 11:1  Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen. (ASV)

That “assurance” is the Word of God.

Throughout our studies we have seen time and time again how every word of God’s Word has both a positive and a negative application. It is this simple Truth that has so effectively blinded and deceived the whole world.

So once again, here with the positive and negative applications of the color yellow, and with the positive and the negative applications of the metal gold, we have two more examples of how God’s cryptography is applied in scripture so that only His elect can see and accept the Truths that are before them.

The military of every major country on earth has cryptographers who can crack any code contrived by man. Yet these highly trained and highly intelligent men have never been able to decipher the parables of scripture and tell you why Christ spoke in parables or why the single pillar at the Red Sea was complete darkness on one side and a bright fire, like the sun in the middle of the day, on the other side. Here is the only way God’s cryptography can be ‘cracked’ and understood:

Mat 16:13  When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
Mat 16:14  And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
Mat 16:15  He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
Mat 16:16  And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
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.

It seems impossible to the natural man, but only moments later Christ is calling this same “Blessed… Simon Barjona,” Satan. Look at the next few verses:

Mat 16:18  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Mat 16:19  And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Mat 16:20  Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.
Mat 16:21  From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
Mat 16:22  Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
Mat 16:23  But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

This is a perfect example of what God does with His malleable, ductile gold. Peter was capable of being beaten into a seraphim, a serpent, right after being told that he was being given the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Peter is a type of all God’s elect. We are all the “seed of the serpent… of our father the devil,” before we become “disciples indeed.”

Joh 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 8:37  I know that ye [Jews which believe on me] are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
Joh 8:43  Why do ye [“Jews (Christians) which believe on me”] not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

We have seen how the positive application of the spiritual significance of the color yellow is used in scripture, and that it is expressed with a word that is also translated as gold. We have also seen that God’s word is encrypted in parables which the world’s best cryptologists will never be able to decode, and yet it has been given to the poor of this world, the uneducated in this world and the weak of this world to decode and understand the parables of God’s Word.

We have also been reminded that gold is precious to God for the same reason it is precious to us. Gold is rare, it is malleable and ductile, uncorruptible, untarnished and beautiful.

Next week we will take a  brief look at each of the seven Hebrew words for gold, and we will see what the spirit has to show us.

]]> “Precious Metals In Scripture – Gold (Positive Application)” – Part 2 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/metals_precious-metals-gold-positive-part-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=metals_precious-metals-gold-positive-part-2 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:32:24 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=3455

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Last week we found that there are seven different words which are translated as gold. The word ‘zahab’ is the word we first discussed. It is the most common of the seven words translated gold. The word we covered last week was not a word translated as gold, but it is a word that describes the color of  gold. As contradictory as it seems, we found that the Hebrew word which describes the dying process is also used to describe  the incorruptible, untarnished color of gold.  That word is the Hebrew word ‘yeraqraq.’ It appears only three times in all of scripture, and its one positive application is here in Psalms:

Psa 68:13  Though ye have lien among the pots, [yet shall ye be as] the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.

We have also seen that just like silver, gold’s negative application is its perversion into deceptive uses from which it must be redeemed. Three times in scripture the phrase “my gold” appears. In all three cases, God’s gold has been devalued and misused. The first is King Ahab giving God’s gold to the king of Syria. The last two are God condemning the use of His gold to cover idols.

1Ki 20:1  And Benhadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together: and [there were] thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it.
1Ki 20:2  And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Benhadad,
1Ki 20:3  Thy silver and thy gold [is] mine; thy wives also and thy children, [even] the goodliest, [are] mine.
1Ki 20:4  And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I [am] thine, and all that I have.
1Ki 20:5  And the messengers came again, and said, Thus speaketh Benhadad, saying, Although I have sent unto thee, saying, Thou shalt deliver me thy silver, and thy gold, and thy wives, and thy children;
1Ki 20:6  Yet I will send my servants unto thee to morrow about this time, and they shall search thine house, and the houses of thy servants; and it shall be, [that] whatsoever is pleasant in thine eyes, they shall put [it] in their hand, and take [it] away.
1Ki 20:7  Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and said, Mark, I pray you, and see how this man seeketh mischief: for he sent unto me for my wives, and for my children, and for my silver, and for my gold; and I denied him not.

Ahab had married the daughter of a Philistine King. He had forgotten the source of  his gold. Here are the other two entries for the phrase “my gold.”

Eze 16:17  Thou [Israel, Ahab, each of us] hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

Joe 3:4  Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;
Joe 3:5  Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things:

All the gold is God’s gold, and all pride and all selfrighteousness is appropriating God’s gold to ourselves.

Hag 2:8  The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.

Now notice the verese on either side of this verse:

Hag 2:7  And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.
Hag 2:8  The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.
Hag 2:9  The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.

When we acknowledge that the silver and the gold are all  God’s, when we humble ourselves and acknowledge God as sovereign in all things, only then are we given God’s invaluable peace. The seven words which are translated as gold are:

The first and most prevalent: zahab – the one for gold we have already discussed:

Gen 2:11  The name of the first [is] Pison: that [is] it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where [there is] gold;
Gen 2:12  And the gold of that land [is] good: there [is] bdellium and the onyx stone.

‘Zahab’ is how we first come to see God’s gold. It has all the qualities of gold which we have discussed. There is so much more to learn about how the mind of God sees His gold.

Second: dehab– found in Ezra and Daniel only.

Dan 3:1  Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height [was] threescore cubits, [and] the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.
Ezr 7:12  Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law of the God of heaven, perfect [peace], and at such a time.
Ezr 7:13  I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, which are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee.
Ezr 7:14  Forasmuch as thou art sent of the king, and of his seven counsellors, to enquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of thy God which is in thine hand;
Ezr 7:15  And to carry the silver and gold, which the king and his counsellors have freely offered unto the God of Israel, whose habitation is in Jerusalem,

‘Dehab’ is actually Aramaic and apparently the same as the Hebrew word ‘zahab.’ Both Ezra and Daniel were captives in Babylon and both books were written in Aramaic. How we see gold while we are in Babylon is just slightly more mature than how we see gold before we are carried away as captives into Babylon. It is in Babylon that we look back and see all the giants we overcame in the land. It is in Babylon that we realize that we are still slaves, even after we have come out of Egypt, been baptized in the Red Sea, journeyed in the wilderness and fought the giants in the land. It is in Babylon that we finally come to see that the land of promise was never intended to be the land of possession, but merely the downpayment  given until the time of possession:

Eph 1:13  In whom [Christ] ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest [ down payment] of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

‘Dehab’ gold in Babylon is merely the promise of  our inheritance. It is a deeper understanding than zahab, but there is so much more we are yet to learn about God’s “purchased possession.”

Charuts, gold seen as incisive and diligent

The third word is charuts, pronounced khaw- roots’, and assigned the number H2742.

Passive participle of H2782; properly incised or (active) incisive; hence (as noun masculine or feminine) a trench (as dug), gold (as mined), a threshing sledge (having sharp teeth); (figuratively) determination; also eager: – decision, diligent, (fine) gold, pointed things, sharp, threshing instrument, wall.

This word is found mostly in Proverbs and is another and deeper understanding of God’s mind concerning His gold.

Pro 3:3  Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:
Pro 3:4  So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
Pro 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Pro 3:6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Pro 3:7  Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.
Pro 3:8  It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
Pro 3:9  Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:
Pro 3:10  So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
Pro 3:11  My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:
Pro 3:12  For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son [ in whom] he delighteth.
Pro 3:13  Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.
Pro 3:14  For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.
Pro 3:15  She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.
Pro 3:16  Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.
Pro 3:17  Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
Pro 3:18  She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.
Pro 3:19  The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.
Pro 3:20  By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.
Pro 3:21  My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion:

When God wants to show just how valuable wisdom and understanding are, He tells us “the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.” Three more times in the book of  Proverbs, this word ‘charuts’ is translated as ‘gold’ or ‘choice gold.’

Pro 8:10  Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.
 Pro 8:18  Riches and honour are with me [wisdom]; yea, durable riches and righteousness.
Pro 8:19  My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold [Hebrew: paz – a word we will cover later]; and my revenue than choice silver.
Pro 8:20  I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment:

Pro 16:16  How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!

Conclusion

We have seen in this study how words which are translated ‘gold’ in scripture are also translated as ‘yellow’, a word which is generally associated with the incurable disease of leprosy.

We have also seen how gold’s negative application in scripture, just as silver’s  negative application, is bound up in man’s misappropriation of God’s Word, which is His “fitly spoken word… as apples of gold.”

Pro 25:11  A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold [Hebrew: zahab] in pictures of silver.

We have seen how false prophets take God’s word and use it to cover the idols of men’s hearts with the malleable, ductile, golden words of God.

We have also seen how the English word ‘gold’, the most precious of the metals of scripture, is translated from seven different Hebrew words, which are also translated into many other English words. The Hebrew word ‘charuts’ is translated both as ‘gold’ and as ‘incisive’ and as ‘diligent.’ As we continue this study we will see that there is always a connection between the spiritual meaning of the gold and the other words which are also translated from the same words translated as ‘gold.’
When we are finished with this study, I hope you will have a better understanding of this verse of scripture:

Gen 2:9  And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Christ is “the tree of life” and, like the most precious of the metals of scripture, He, too, had to be made “out of the ground.” We will continue this study of the seven words translated as gold next week.

]]> “Precious Metals In Scripture – Gold (Negative Application)” – Part 2 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/metals_precious-metals-gold-negative-part-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=metals_precious-metals-gold-negative-part-2 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:32:23 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=3449

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“Precious Metals In Scripture – Gold (Negative Application)” – Part 2

Introduction

Last week we looked at the attributes of gold that make it the most precious metal mentioned in God’s Word, and we saw why God uses gold as a symbol of that which He values so much. We saw what gold is both from God’s perspective and from the perspective of jewelers and gemologists who work with gold.

This week we will look at how gold is used in God’s word in a negative sense, and we will see that gold, just as with every other word in the Word of God, has a negative as well as a positive application. We have already seen gold is capable of being “drawn” into wires finer than human hair. Gold can be and was woven into the fabric of the temple veils and was used in portraying the cherubims on those veils. This quality of being able to be drawn into wire is referred to as being ductile.

We also learned that gold was capable of being beaten so thin that light can pass through it. While there was no call for gold to be pressed or beaten that thin in the way God used gold in the tabernacle, this demonstrates this quality of gold which is called malleability. Gold’s malleable qualities were put to use covering everything in God’s house. It covered all the furniture of the holy place and all of the tools and utensils of the holy place. Of course it also covered the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat, which represents the throne of God. Even all the boards that made up the walls and ceiling of the holy place and the holy of holies were covered with pure ductile and malleable gold.

Finally, we saw that gold, unlike any other metal mentioned in God’s Word, does not tarnish, corrode or rust. All of  the other metals do tarnish, become corroded or rust.

How Can Gold, With All of These Qualities, Become Negative?

The answer is that just as these incredible qualities of being ductile, malleable and tarnish, corrosion and rust proof, appeal to God and are used for God’s purposes, these same qualities appeal to the flesh and the Adversary and are used by the Adversary to tempt and to entice and to deceive.

We have two scriptures which give us the ability to see just how gold, with all of its wonderful and incredible qualities, becomes a “cursed thing.”

Jos 7:11  Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.
Jos 7:12  Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.
Jos 7:15  And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel.
Jos 7:16  So Joshua rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel by their tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken:
Jos 7:17  And he brought the family of Judah; and he took the family of the Zarhites: and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man; and Zabdi was taken:
Jos 7:18  And he brought his household man by man; and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken.
Jos 7:19  And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide [it] not from me.
Jos 7:20  And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done:
Jos 7:21  When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.
Jos 7:22  So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran unto the tent; and, behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it.
Jos 7:23  And they took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua, and unto all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the LORD.
Jos 7:24  And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor.
Jos 7:25  And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.

Aren’t you glad that you are not Achan? Aren’t you glad that you have never defiled the temple of God? Aren’t you glad that you do not need to concern yourself with being destroyed from God’s people? Oh, but we are all Achan, we have all defiled the temple of God, and we will all be destroyed and “burned with fire.”

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.

Achan coveted what was supposed to go into God’s treasury. What is “covetousness?”

Col 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

Jos 6:18  And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.
Jos 6:19  But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD.

What is in us that gives us all these sinful desires? Here is what causes us to want God’s gold without going through God to get it:

1Jn 2:16  For all [sin] that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

What is the solution to the lust of the flesh?

Gal 5:16  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit,and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

When we “walk in the spirit” we do not “transgress my covenant which I commanded them“ as Achan did.

Achan wanted God’s gold, but he didn’t want to “do the will of his heavenly Father.” What we don’t understand is that God’s gold is doing God’s will and obeying His doctrine. God’s gold is what makes us ductile, malleable and untarnished in Christ.

Mat 7:21  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

So to whom does our gold belong? Is it really ‘our’ gold? Here again is what God had commanded Israel before they began the campaign against the cities of Canaan:

Jos 6:16  And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the LORD hath given you the city.
Jos 6:17  And the city shall be accursed, [even] it, and all that [are] therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that [are] with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.
Jos 6:18  And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.
Jos 6:19  But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD.

Does God not want us to have His silver and His gold? Not at all. He wants us to be “rich in silver and in gold.”

Gen 13:2  And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.

Eze 16:11 I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck.
Eze 16:12  And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.
Eze 16:13 Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.

We are a kingdom within:

Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you

We are God’s gold-covered temple:

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

We will all live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. What that means is that we will all be lustful, covetous, idolatrous, pride-filled Achan, and we will all be destroyed and burned with fire following our destruction.

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.

How will we all become Achan in our walk? How does gold become “the accursed thing” for us instead of being ductile, malleable and incorruptibe in the hands of our Lord? Besides the story of Achan who wanted and desired God’s gold without receiving it from God, we also have this scripture that helps us to see how gold becomes “the accursed thing” instead of the blessing it will later be. Here is how this is accomplished:

Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

Two chapters earlier we are told that these “images of men” are “idols of the heart” or false doctrines in which we take pride. How, then does gold become the cursed thing? When we take God’s wonderful gospel and twist it into another gospel and take it unto ourselves and fail to “glory only in the Lord,” our gold has just become an “idol of our heart” and a “stumbling block of our iniquity.”

2Co 11:4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

Gal 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
Gal 1:7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

Eze 14:1  Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;
Eze 14:5  That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.
Eze 14:6  Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn [yourselves] from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.
Eze 14:7  For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself:
Eze 14:8  And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD.
Eze 14:9  And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.

Achan “separated himself from God.” Though Israel did not realize what Achan had done, still “a little leaven” had leavened all of Israel, and Israel was being destroyed by the Canaanites by inward covetousness and pride.  Achan had taken God’s gold to himself independently of God. We do the very same thing every time we become puffed up over being given God’s gold and God’s silver. We have “taken of the accursed thing” – the very thing that is such a blessing when it is given to us by God and when we are able to acknowledge that it is only ours if we receive it “of the Lord.” Babylon is full of the Lord’s gold, silver and precious stones with which they have covered their idols of the heart.

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,

When we take God’s gold and God’s silver to ourselves and become boastful and proud of the knowledge and understanding given us by God, at that very point God’s gold and God’s silver become “the accursed thing” instead of the beautiful, untarnished, humble, ductile and soft malleable material He is bringing us all to be. But we do “keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book,” and we do “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Therefore we are all, at first, desirous of God’s gold and God’s silver without first acknowledging that we must first acknowledge that all the gold belongs in and is part of His treasury. Only after we acknowledge this great Truth, will we be found worthy to wear God’s uncorruptible, untarnished, ductile and malleable, rare and precious gold.

]]> “Precious Metals In Scripture – Gold (Negative)” – Part 1 https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/metals_precious-metals-gold-negative-part-1/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=metals_precious-metals-gold-negative-part-1 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:32:22 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=3447

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Introduction

Gold is the most precious of the precious metals. It is instructive that, in scripture there are four common, or base metals; four being the number signifying ‘the whole’ of the earth, and there are two precious metals, two being the number of God’s witness to the ‘four,’ to the whole of mankind.

The four base metals are lead, tin, iron and copper, and the two precious metals are silver and gold.

Num 31:22  Only the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead,
Num 31:23  Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation: and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make go through the water.

Gold’s first mention in scripture

Gen 2:11  The name of the first [is] Pison: that [is] it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
Gen 2:12  And the gold of that land is good: there [is] bdellium and the onyx stone.

“The gold of that land is good.” What does that tell us? Why is that statement even in the Bible? Does God want us all to know that South African gold  isn’t as good as gold from the land of Havilah? No, those who have been given eyes to see and ears to hear know that this word, as all words of scripture, is a spiritual word. As with every word of scripture, the word ‘gold’ has nothing at all to do with gold except for the spiritual lessons that are to be gleaned from the physical properties of gold.

“The gold of that land is good” is just God’s way of telling us that even gold has both a good and an evil application in His Word.

Jas 5:3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

What are the properties of gold that God wants us to understand?  Why is God so insistent that the only metal that is to be seen in the holy place and in the holy of holies, is gold? Here are several of the properties of gold which I have cut and pasted from a website entitled Indygems, constructed and maintained by a Keith D. Suskind, a graduate gemoligist and a member of the Gemological Institute of America. The scriptures are my insertions.

What gold is from a jeweler’s and gemologist’s perspective

Gold is one of the most precious metals in the world. It is present in the rivers, seas, and the earth’s crust and trace amounts are present in plants and animals. It is, however, difficult and expensive to extract. In modern mining operations approximately 3 tons of ore are needed to extract one ounce of gold. The many desirable qualities found in gold, along with its scarcity, have made it the most popular metal for use in jewelry today.

[Eze 16:17  Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,
Joe 3:5  Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things: (Added by author)]

Properties of Gold

Gold in its pure state: The Properties of Gold

Gold in its pure state has a melting point of 1945 degrees Fahrenheit (1063 degrees Celsius). When alloyed (chemically combined) with other base metals the melting temperature of the resulting alloy is changed. 18K yellow gold has a melting point of 1675 degrees Fahrenheit and 14K yellow gold has a melting point of about 1550 degrees Fahrenheit. 24 karat gold is pure gold, 18 karat gold is 75% pure and 14 karat is 58% pure gold. 12 karat gold is 50% gold and 50% alloyed metal.

  • Has a specific gravity of 19.33. It is relatively heavy compared to most metals, such as silver (SG 10.7) or iron (SG 7.8). A notable exception is platinum (SG 21.4).
  • Is more malleable than any other metal and can be hammered into foil so thin that it is almost transparent.
  • Has a unique ductility property allowing it to be drawn into wire so fine it can barely be seen.
  • Is deep yellow in color. Its great reflectivity properties help keep its brightness and color from fading with time.
  • Will not rust, tarnish or corrode. Gold jewelry recovered from ancient Egyptian tombs is in the same state as when placed there over 4000 years ago.
  • Is softer than most other metals. On the Mohs scale of hardness (which is a measure of a gemstone or mineral’s resistance to scratching), gold has a hardness value of 2 to 2.5. Diamond has a value of 10. Pure gold may easily be scratched. Fortunately, gold becomes harder when alloyed with other base metals.
  • Is relatively scarce and therefore expensive. It is estimated that only 125,000 tons of gold have been mined the world over since the beginning of time
  • Gold will alloy with nearly all base metals (Cu, Pb, Ni, etc.); different colors of gold are produced by alloying with different base metals. Common alloys are Ni and Cu.

What gold is from God’s perspective

If we apply the principle of Rom 1:20 to the human race, we might have some idea as to just how rare are those who make up the holy place and the holy of holies where God dwells in His people.

Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

“Three tons of ore are needed to produce one once of pure gold.” That three tons has to be put into a furnace with temperatures of 1945 degrees Fahrenheit.

Just witness the fiery, smelting context of  Rom 1:20:

Rom 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men [1945 degrees Fahrenheit!], who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Rom 1:19  Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Rom 1:21  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Rom 1:22  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

Gold is mentioned 361 times in the King James Version. Silver is mentioned 282 times.  Brass, a translation given Copper, is mentioned 142. These may not be accurate, considering there are other ways the Greek and Hebrew names of these metals, are translated, but these numbers serve to demontrate how much emphasis God places on a metal in relation to its physical value. It is the physical value of each metal that reveals to us what God’s valuation is of that part of our walk. Gold is the metal toward which God is bringing us all. There is nothing in God’s temple but gold. That is what God wants and desires in each of us. It takes time and a lot of heat to produce gold, but when those three tons of dross have been burned away and that one once of gold is all that is left, it is a very valuable and greatly prized and useful and desirable metal for us in God’s tabernacle.

The tabernacle is of gold only

God had Moses take an offering of Israel to construct a court and a tabernacle “That I may dwell among them.” Israel was not permitted into the tabernacle. Only priests could enter the tabernacle. The materials for the construction of both the court and the tabernacle were furnished by the people. We have covered the court and all of its instruments of copper, with the copper pillars of the court being banded with silver bands with silver hooks to hold the curtains of the court.

Now we will look at the construction of the tabernacle itself and all of the instruments within the tabernacle, and we will learn that they were all “overlaid with pure gold.”

Exo 25:1  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Exo 25:2  Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering.
Exo 25:3  And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass,
Exo 25:4  And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ [hair],
Exo 25:5  And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood,
Exo 25:6  Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense,
Exo 25:7  Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate.
Exo 25:8  And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.
Exo 25:9  According to all that I shew thee, [after] the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make [it].
Exo 25:10  And they shall make an ark [of] shittim wood: two cubits and a half [shall be] the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.
Exo 25:11  And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it, and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about.
Exo 25:12  And thou shalt cast four rings of gold for it, and put [them] in the four corners thereof; and two rings [shall be] in the one side of it, and two rings in the other side of it.
Exo 25:13  And thou shalt make staves [of] shittim wood, and overlay them with gold.
Exo 25:14  And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the ark, that the ark may be borne with them.
Exo 25:15  The staves shall be in the rings of the ark: they shall not be taken from it.
Exo 25:16  And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee.
Exo 25:17  And thou shalt make a mercy seat [of] pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof.
Exo 25:18  And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat.
Exo 25:19  And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: [even] of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof.
Exo 25:20  And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be.
Exo 25:21  And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.
Exo 25:22  And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which [are] upon the ark of the testimony, of all [things] which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.
Exo 25:23  Thou shalt also make a table [of] shittim wood: two cubits [shall be] the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.
Exo 25:24  And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, and make thereto a crown of gold round about.
Exo 25:25  And thou shalt make unto it a border of an hand breadth round about, and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about.
Exo 25:26  And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four corners that [ are] on the four feet thereof.
Exo 25:27  Over against the border shall the rings be for places of the staves to bear the table.
Exo 25:28  And thou shalt make the staves [of] shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be borne with them.
Exo 25:29  And thou shalt make the dishes thereof, and spoons thereof, and covers thereof, and bowls thereof, to cover withal: [of] pure gold shalt thou make them.
Exo 25:30  And thou shalt set upon the table shewbread before me alway.
Exo 25:31  And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same.
Exo 25:32  And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side:
Exo 25:33  Three bowls made like unto almonds, [with] a knop and a flower in one branch; and three bowls made like almonds in the other branch, [with] a knop and a flower: so in the six branches that come out of the candlestick.
Exo 25:34  And in the candlestick [shall be] four bowls made like unto almonds, [with] their knops and their flowers.
Exo 25:35  And [there shall be] a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, according to the six branches that proceed out of the candlestick.
Exo 25:36  Their knops and their branches shall be of the same: all it [shall be] one beaten work [of] pure gold.
Exo 25:37  And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it.
Exo 25:38  And the tongs thereof, and the snuffdishes thereof, [shall be of] pure gold.
Exo 25:39  Of a talent of pure gold shall he make it, with all these vessels.
Exo 25:40  And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount.

Gold has all the properties God finds desirable. None of the other metals can resist becoming tarnished and corrupted. Only gold has the qualities that show us what we are to our Father. We are the most precious of the precious metals, and God wants us very much:

Job 23:10  But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
Job 23:11  My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.
Job 23:12  Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
Job 23:13  But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and  what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
Job 23:14  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

]]> “Base Metals In Scripture – Iron” https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/metals_iron-part-1/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=metals_iron-part-1 Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=3437

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Base Metals in Scripture – Iron

Introduction

Base metals all are refined from out of the dust of the earth, but they are not very valuable because they are so common. Yet none of the precious metals would be considered precious to us without the fact that we have so much and so many of these base metals. For this very same reason, God’s “jewels” are ‘jewels’ because there is such an abundance of base metals:

Mal 3:16  Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
Mal 3:17  And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
Mal 3:18  Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous [jewels] and the wicked [base metals], between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

This same message is conveyed in the New Testament in different words:

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:

Our election is based upon the rejection of the multitudes. Through what was Christ raised from the dead:

Rom 4:25  Who was delivered for [Greek: dia – through] our offences, and was raised again for [Greek: dia – through] our justification.

Christ’s resurrection from the dead was “through our justification,” through God’s rejection of the common base metal called “sinful flesh.”

Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

Iron

The base metal of our focus this week is the metal iron. Iron is first mentioned, appropriately enough, in giving the genealogy of Cain:

Gen 4:17  And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.
Gen 4:18  And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech.
Gen 4:19  And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one [was] Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.
Gen 4:20  And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and [of such as have] cattle.
Gen 4:21  And his brother’s name [was] Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.
Gen 4:22  And Zillah, she also bare Tubalcain, an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubalcain [was] Naamah.
Gen 4:23  And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.
Gen 4:24  If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

That is Cain’s line from beginning to end. Cain is the base metals copper and iron. He builds cities and dwells in tents. He makes music and instructs those who work with base metals. His genealogy ends with a murder.

Iron is referred to as an instrument of death

Num 35:16  And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death.

Iron is Associated With the Giants and the Gentilesi The Land

Deu 3:11  For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof [13 feet, 6 inches], and four cubits [6 feet] the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.
Jos 17:16  And the children of Joseph said, The hill is not enough for us: and all the Canaanites that dwell in the land of the valley have chariots of iron, both they who are of Bethshean and her towns, and they who are of the valley of Jezreel.
Jos 17:18  But the mountain shall be thine; for it is a wood, and thou shalt cut it down: and the outgoings of it shall be thine: for thou shalt drive out the Canaanites, though they have iron chariots, and though they be strong.

Jdg 1:19  And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out [the inhabitants of] the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.

Jdg 4:1  And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, when Ehud was dead.
Jdg 4:2  And the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor; the captain of whose host [was] Sisera, which dwelt in Harosheth of the Gentiles.
Jdg 4:3  And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.
1Sa 17:7  And the staff of his spear [Goliath’s spear] was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.

Like Lead and Tin, Iron Typifies the Very Beginning of God’s Work in His People

Deu 4:20  But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as [ye are] this day.

Iron is Found in the Promised Land Flowing With Immature, “Sincere Milk” and Honey

Deu 8:9  A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.

Just as it is with all immature “babes in Christ:”

1Co 1:6  Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
1Co 1:7  So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Yet these Corinthians were just immature babes:

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2  But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: [base metals]

Iron is Associated With the Works of the Flesh and is not to be Used in the Service of God

Deu 27:5  And there shalt thou build an altar unto the LORD thy God, an altar of stones: thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them.

Jos 8:31  As Moses the servant of the LORD commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lift up any iron: and they offered thereon burnt offerings unto the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings.

Base Metals are in the Lord’s Treasury

Jos 6:19  But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, [are] consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD.

Jos 6:24  And they burnt the city with fire, and all that [was] therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD.

Iron is God’s Instrument for our Destruction of the Things of the Flesh

Deu 28:48  Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.

Base Metals Contrasted With Precious Metals Gold And Silver

Lev 26:3  If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;
Lev 26:4  Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
Lev 26:5  And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
Lev 26:6  And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make [you] afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
Lev 26:7  And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
Lev 26:8  And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
Lev 26:9  For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you.
Lev 26:10  And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new.
Lev 26:11  And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.
Lev 26:12  And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.
Lev 26:13  I [am] the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.

These are good works, and according to 1 Corinthians 3, good works are precious metals:

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.

The holy spirit takes ten verses to describe the benefits of obedience. Look at how many verses are needed to tell us of the curses of disobedience:

Copper and Iron

Lev 26:14  But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;
Lev 26:15  And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, [but] that ye break my covenant:
Lev 26:16  I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
Lev 26:17  And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.
Lev 26:18  And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
Lev 26:19  And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:

Deu 28:23  And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.

Lev 26:20  And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits.
Lev 26:21  And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins.
Lev 26:22  I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your [high] ways shall be desolate.
Lev 26:23  And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me;
Lev 26:24  Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.
Lev 26:25  And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of [my] covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
Lev 26:26  [And] when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver [you] your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.
Lev 26:27  And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;
Lev 26:28  Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.
Lev 26:29  And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
Lev 26:30  And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.
Lev 26:31  And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.
Lev 26:32  And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
Lev 26:33  And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.
Lev 26:34  Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.
Lev 26:35  As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.
Lev 26:36  And upon them that are left [alive] of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.
Lev 26:37  And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
Lev 26:38  And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
Lev 26:39  And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
Lev 26:40  If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me;
Lev 26:41  And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:
Lev 26:42  Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.
Lev 26:43  The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.
Lev 26:44  And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God.

You and I are the ‘land.’ It take our destruction of our old man for the ‘land to enjoy her sabbaths.’ It take being in Christ and Christ in us for the ‘land’ to rest from the works of the flesh which pollute the ‘land.’

Heb 4:1  Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
Heb 4:2  For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
Heb 4:3  For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Heb 4:4  For he spake in a certain place of the seventh [day] on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
Heb 4:5  And in this [place] again, If they shall enter into my rest.
Heb 4:6  Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
Heb 4:7  Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Heb 4:8  For if Jesus [Joshua] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
Heb 4:9  There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Heb 4:10  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God [did] from his.
Heb 4:11  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Conclusion

This has all focused on the negative application of this metal iron. It is the hardest of the base metals and is used to demonstrate the immaturity of babes in Christ. Iron is the metal most associated with that immature stage of our walk, is rejected, and cannot be accepted by God. Iron is the works of the flesh:

Deu 4:20  But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as [ye are] this day.
Deu 27:5  And there shalt thou build an altar unto the LORD thy God, an altar of stones: thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them.

In our next study on metals we will finish iron’s negative application and then look at how this, too, has a positive application in God’s Word.

]]> The Kings of Tyre And Babylon https://www.iswasandwillbe.com/the-kings-of-tyre-and-babylon/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-kings-of-tyre-and-babylon Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.iswasandwillbe.com/?p=4599

Hi Mike,

Thank you for your insight. I’ve been studying some different work and hope you can help me with your wisdom of Ezekiel 28.
Verse 13 – What do all the stones and diamonds have to do with the King?
Verse 14 – What is the holy mountain of God and the stones of fire?
Verse 16 – Why does he keep calling him a cherub?
I hope you can help me understand this better. Any time you can spend would be appreciated.
Thank You,

M____

Hi M____,

Thank you for your questions. The answer is: it’s all within us.

The stones and diamonds are God’s precious truths given to his “anointed.” King Saul was anointed of God, and yet he sought to kill God’s elect.

1Sa 24:6 And he [David, when God delivered King Saul into David’s hand in the cave] said unto his men, The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD’S anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD.

We are neither King Saul nor King David. Both are within us at our appointed time:

Ecc 3:1 To every [thing there is] a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
Ecc 3:2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up [that which is] planted;
Ecc 3:3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
Ecc 3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
Ecc 3:5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
Ecc 3:6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
Ecc 3:7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
Ecc 3:8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
Ecc 3:9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
Ecc 3:10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.
Ecc 3:11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

Psa 139:16 Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them. (ASV)

Precious stones in scripture are like precious metals. They are given to God’s anointed, and God’s anointed abuse them and act as if they have these riches because of their own efforts. We all do the same thing:

Eze 16:17 Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men [false doctrines], and didst commit whoredom with them,

All the powers that be are the Lord’s anointed to be such powers:

Rom 13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

The King of Tyre was “ordained of God,” too. But like King Nebuchadnezzar before him, the King of Tyre considered himself to be the source of his own strength and power.

Dan 4:30 The king [Nebuchadnezzar] spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?
Dan 4:31 While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, [saying], O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee.
Dan 4:32 And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling [shall be] with the beasts of the field: they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
Dan 4:33 The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles’ [feathers], and his nails like birds’ claws.

Ezekiel 28 and Isa 14 are saying the same thing.

Eze 28:2 Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyre, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thy heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art man, and not God, though thou didst set thy heart as the heart of God;

“Thou hast said…” God answers us “according to the idols of our hearts.”

Eze 14:2 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3 Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
Eze 14:4 Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;

That is the premise for calling the king of Tyre a ‘cherub’ and for calling the King of Babylon ‘son of the morning.’

Isa 14:11 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.
Isa 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

Mountains in scripture are kingdoms. You and I are “the mountain of God.” It is in us that God dwells and His kingdom grows:

Luk 17:20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

When we think that we are responsible for our own salvation, we are at that moment “the King of Tyre [and] the King of Babylon.” Ezekiel 28 and Isa 14, are one and the same, the beast within, the man of sin within, sitting on the throne of God within.

I hope this is of some help.

Mike

 Next FAQ: Satan and the Kings of Babylon and Tyre

 

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