Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim:

Genesis 3:14: “And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou are cursed above all animals and above every beast of the field, upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.”

My pastor made a very interesting observation last Sunday.  He said that Satan was condemned to eat dust and since we are made of dust he is seeking to devour us.  That little insight, which I believe is absolutely true,  started me on a journey to find a more precise meaning for the word “dust” or “aphar.”

As I pointed out yesterday, there seems to be a spiritual element to the word “dust.”  Man is the only creature to be formed out of “aphar” or “dust.”  There has been reports of gold dust falling out of the heavens during certain worship services. I know little about this and have not had such personal experience so I can not say yea or nay on the topic. However, let’s assume for the moment that this experience is real and gold dust does fall from heaven. There have been test run on these particles and they were not found to contain gold. It has aluminum and various other metals in it. (I do know that glitter uses aluminum).  These particles just happen to be gold in color. If God were trying to enrich His people financially he certainly won’t do it with these elements.  I am not saying these demonstrations of gold dust were staged, just that the natural elements that make of the gold dust is unimportant.  I tend to believe there is a miraculous element here.  Like most of the miraculous, you can not prove it in a laboratory  It is not the natural elements that make up the gold dust that is important, but the spiritual element which can not be demonstrated in a laboratory.  The first question that comes to my mind when I hear about gold dust appearing in some worship is not whether it is a fake but what is the purpose. Is God trying to enrich his people?  Is he trying to show how pleased He is with His people? Or is He giving a warning?

Our first thought when we think of gold is wealth, and prosperity. Yet, gold has many other practical uses.   More and more gold is being used in microelectronics for it’s sensitivity to electrical impulses.  Astronauts have a thin layer of gold on the visor of their helmets to reflect not only the light rays but the harmful radiation.  There seems to be some connection between light and the color of gold.

My point is this, if you happen to be in a service where gold dust appears, I would not be too quick to shout praisealleujah.  Maybe it is a loving, gentle warning.  What I am offering is simply a theory, not proven fact, definitely not dogma, or theology, but only a thought for your consideration.  Every so often I like to step off the reservation and test the grounds.

Here is my theory.  Satan was the light bearer, he lost that position when he fell.  Jesus said in John 1:4: “In Him was the light and the light was the life of man.”   This dust has something to do with light. God took the dust from the fertile soil and added His light to it, something supernatural. Perhaps the reflective nature of gold made this dust gold in color as we were meant to reflect the light of God.  God intended for us to take the place of Satan as the light bearers.  So it is not so much us that he wants to devour, but the light within us from the very substance from which we were formed.  He wants to devour the Resh, in the Ayin, Pe Resh (‘aphar – dust) the spiritual part of us and leave us with the natural, earthly part.  He seeks to get us to focus all our attention on the Ayin (mind) and Pe (body), on this natural world, all our hopes, desires, plans, dreams are to be filled with the natural world less the Spiritual (Resh).   The Hebrew word for “dust” is “aphar” spelled Ayin (mind). Pe (body, language or communication) and Resh, (spiritual).   He wishes to remove the Resh (spiritual) and replace it with the Lamed.  There are only three root words that can be form with an Ayin and Pe in Classical Hebrew.  It is Ayin Pe Resh which is our word for dust.  There is the Ayin Pe Lamed which is the word for pride.  Then there is the Ayin Pe Hei which is the word for a branch.  Satan seeks to remove the Resh from the Ayin Pe and replace it with a lamed – pride and a Hei – branch or a personal creation. We spend our lives building our personal little empire, our homes, wealth, position and then we take pride in what we have built.   The enemy causes us to lose complete focus on the spiritual aspect of our lives, to the point where we extinguish that light.  Jesus told a parable about a man who had a great harvest.  He decided to tear down his own barns and build new ones and make a nice retirement. But then God said: “Thou fool, this day your soul (spiritual accounting – Resh) will be required of you.”

As I read Genesis 3:14 in the Hebrew I am seeing a statement of fact.  I do not see God putting a curse on the serpent but only declaring what has taken place.  The word that is rendered as “curse” here is “’arar” which is to declare one to be despicable and despised. God was telling the serpent that because he did this thing he was despicable and despised and would be upon his “belly.”   This word for “belly” is “gachan” and is spelled Gimmel, Chet, Nun.  This has the idea of making evil appear good, creating obedience through fear and dualistic thinking.  Dualistic thinking is to separate the supernatural from the natural. Reaching for a natural means to resolve a natural problem rather than seeking a spiritual solution.   This is how the serpent operates, crawling on his belly so to speak to catch one unawares.   The purpose will be to devour that Resh in your “aphar” or “dust.” I don’t believe God put a curse on the serpent, he merely revealed to us his secret modus operandi (Latin for mode of operation) and his purpose.

So, if you happen to be in a service and it begins to rain gold dust,  I would encourage you to consider my wacky theory.  That gold dust is not to enrich you or to tell you God is pleased with you (He already is pleased with you) but to remind you that you are made of dust with a  Resh or a spiritual light and you must seek the spiritual first and the natural second.