The Slaughter of Good Gold
“A canopy (apiron) has King Solomon made for Him, from the wood of Lebanon. Its pillars he made of silver; its covering was gold, its seat was purple wool, its inner side was decked with love by the daughters of Jerusalem.” (So 3:9-10)
This week, we continue from last week's lesson on the chariot of King Solomon. If you didn't have a chance to read it or print it, click here. We'll weave in a couple of themes from this week's Torah portion, Vayera, particularly the second time Avraham calls Sarah his sister and the binding of Isaac on Mount Moriah.
Vayera “and appeared”
Genesis 18:1-22:24
2 Kings 4:1-37
Let's pick up with the question from last week:
Is Mashiach a father or son?
And why is Yosef the first mention of someone going into a merkavah, a chariot...even though it’s the second chariot to the king?
The chariots of fire known as the “horsemen of Israel” are the mystical transporters to heavenly places:
- Elisha saw it and cried out, “My father, my father, the chariots רֶכֶב of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw Elijah no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces. (2 Ki 2:12)
- When Elisha became sick with the illness of which he was to die, Joash the king of Israel came down to him and wept over him and said, “My father, my father, the chariots רֶכֶב of Israel and its horsemen!”(2 Ki 13:14)
These “horsemen of Israel” are thought to be Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who were buried in Hebron as a profession of faith in the resurrection. The first prayer of the Amidah is the Avot, "Shield of Avraham..."
But what of the strange language of our Torah portion "sisters" and the Song of Songs "mother" of King Solomon?
Why do Abraham and Isaac tell their wives, “Say you are my sister so that I may live on account of you”? Avraham even refuses to acknowledge it as a lie!
Why does Jacob consult two sisters (and possibly two more sisters, Zilpah and Bilhah) when he makes the decision to return to the Land of Promise, the resurrection Land?
King Solomon frequently wrote in parables and riddles. The entire book of Proverbs (Mishlei, "Parables") is wisdom literature, yet taught through parables: the virtuous woman, the adulteress, the harlot, the good wife...even the “dripping” wife and “she” is a Tree of Life.
These contrasting parables of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) and an adulterous spirit help us understand how King Solomon [The King to Whom Peace Belongs] was inspired to write.
Using this template, a father, son, brother, sister, or even mother may not be a literal, natural relationship, but a spiritual one, alluding to the locked garden of “my sister, my bride.” (So 4:9, 10, 12, 5:1) possibly alluding to the close relationship of Adam and Chavah, sharing the same flesh and bone in the Garden. They were married, yet brother and sister as all humankind, tracing to the same Father.
- “Go out, you daughters of Zion, and look at King Solomon with the crown with which his mother has crowned him on the day of his wedding, and on the day of the joy of his heart.” (So 3:11)
There’s no Biblical evidence that King Solomon’s mother crowned him on the day of his wedding...and then that begs the question...which wedding? King Solomon multiplied idolatrous wives, not to mention concubines. The Song of Songs instead presents a holy marriage worthy of a crown.
That reminds us of Mount Sinai and the betrothal ceremony where Moses introduces the Daughters of Jerusalem to their Bridegroom. The Shabbat became the betrothal ring that would set them apart, but what “mother” awarded the crown to the Groom? The mockery of Rome in crowning Yeshua with a crown of thorns even echoes the meaning of Sinai, "thorny," similar to Ishmael’s mockery in Vayera.
If we use the template of Mishlei, or Proverbs, then the “sister,” or Bride, relationship is complemented by the “mother,” or parable of the Ruach HaKodesh. The use of masculine or feminine gender in Hebrew language DOES NOT assign a literal, natural, earthly gender!
This symbolism of the mother to Holy Spirit was not unknown to early believers.
The Ruach Adonai, representing authority, is rendered into the parable of a hand:
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He stretched out the form of a hand and caught me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the idol of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy, was located." (Ezekiel 8:3)
There is a similar description that pictures a hand taking Yeshua by his hair from the Gospel of the Hebrews: “Just now my mother, the Holy Spirit, took me by one of my hairs and bore me up on to the great mountain Tabor.” (Dodd, 1993)
It was also the form of a hand in the Book of Daniel that Belshazzar saw write on the wall that the king had been weighed, measured, and then his kingdom numbered and divided. The form of a Heavenly hand signifies a Heavenly judgment on the kingdoms of men who do not walk in the cloud of faithful witnesses.
Also notice that the SEAT, the throne of the idol of jealousy is actually in Jerusalem. At different times in history, it has provoked both the nations and Israel to become the rivals of the Lord of Hosts, for it is the throne of the Word of God that will be sent to all nations in the Messianic Kingdom. Its “daughters,” however, lovingly adorn the Holy City and Temple with their “golden” obedience. There are seven types of gold in Scripture.
Its covering was gold...
“...this, too, refers to the Temple, and comports with that which we learned in the Mishnah Middot 4:1: ‘For the entire Sanctuary was plated with gold except the area behind the doors.’ ‘As it is written, ‘”and he covered it’” (the Sanctuary building) with good gold.” (2 Ch 3:5) 3§17
The first mention of gold is termed as “Good Gold.”
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Ge 2:8-14 The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.
Let’s assume that all gold is “good,” yet like the menorah, there are different qualities of goodness just as the Ruach has different qualities such as wisdom, understanding, counsel, power, knowledge, and reverence.
One type of gold, shachut gold, is so named because it is able to be drawn out like wax. It was soft and malleable, and it could be be fashioned into any form one desired. Shachut is from shachat, slaughtered, which describes how the animal’s neck is drawn out for the sacrificial slaughter, so it is “drawn-out gold.”
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And he made three hundred small shields [maginim] of beaten gold [zahav shachut], using three minas of gold on each shield; and the king put them in the house of the timber of Lebanon. (1 Ki 10:17)
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He made three hundred shields of beaten gold [zahav shachut], using three hundred shekels of gold on each shield; and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon. (2 Ch 9:15-16)
The patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob exemplify the “Shield of Avraham” in the first prayer of the Amidah, the Magen Avot [Shield of our Fathers].
Each was “drawn out” in some way to make them more malleable to the will of Adonai:
- Abraham was drawn out of Ur of the Chaldees and then out of Haran to the resurrection Land of Israel.
- Isaac was drawn out on the sacrificial altar on Mt. Moriah, figuratively resurrected.
- Jacob was drawn to “the forest of Lebanon,” or Haran, then drawn back to struggle with the angel of exile all night for the resurrection of the tribes.
The chariots of fire known as the “horsemen of Israel” are the mystical transporters to heavenly places: "My father, my father, the chariots רֶכֶב of Israel and its horsemen!” There is more than one kind of father. There is a natural father, a spiritual mentor-father such as Elijah, and the fathers of faith such as Avraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who walked with their wives in faith of the resurrection. Those wives, mothers, are also those daughters who crown King Messiah Yeshua, symbols of obedience to the Ruach HaKodesh.
Fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, sons, and daughters...these terms of endearment demonstrate how the Body of Messiah all relate to the Father and Son, yet also how they will be Good Gold, restored to the Garden once they have submitted to the slaughter of self-will.
It is not easy to read parables as Scripture, but often the beauty is concealed there to be searched out simply by using the Scripture itself as the template.
*For more detailed information on Joseph, the chariot, and the father-son/Father-Son relationship in prophecy, visit YouTube Playlist: Studies in Genesis 2019
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