Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim:
Joel 3:5: “Because you have taken my silver and my gold and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things.”
This is very odd indeed. The prophet is speaking of the time of King Jehoram and of course the time of the prophet himself, who lived at the time of King Jehoram. At this time Jerusalem had not been conquered by a foreign power, nor has the gold and silver in the temple been taken as spoil.
This could be a prophetic perfect tense. Such a thing was believed not to exist in Hebrew when I first studied Hebrew as an undergraduate and as a graduate student. However, recent findings from the Dead Sea Scrolls have proved that such a tense does exist. A prophetic perfect tense is a verb that is in the past tense yet, it speaks of a event that has yet to take place. For instance, David talks about his enemies being destroyed. However at the time of his writing the enemy was not destroyed. David was speaking in a prophet perfect tense, in other words he was so certain that God would destroy his enemies or that in a realm where time did not exist, God had already destroyed his enemy, That he spoke of the event as having happened before it actually occurred. We call it speaking in faith.
So perhaps Joel was speaking of some future event where the gold and silver furniture and relics of the temple were taken as booty. Such spoils of war were often displayed in the temple of pagan gods as an offering of thanks for the victory. Still, the question begs to be asked: “Why does God seem so disturbed over a few items of gold and silver being taken away by an enemy. He is God, he can make more.
Up to this time the enemies of God did not plunder the temple, but they were marauders. They were said to not have placed any city under siege or taken control of any city in Judah, especially Jerusalem, However, they did kill God’s people and plunder their possessions.
When looking at the words “silver” and “gold” esoterically, we do see something quite interesting. The word for silver in Hebrew is “kasaph.” This is a very interesting word esoterically speaking. The word is spelled Kap, Samek, Pe. The letter “Kap” is spelled Kap, Pe and means the palm of the hand. It was believed by ancients that one’s heart rest in the palm of the hand. The samek represent a shelter. Silver is a picture of finding shelter in the palm of God’s hand, or in His heart.
Take a look at gold, it is spelled “Zayin, Hei, Beth.” The Hei is the mildest sounding letter. It is spoken with one’s breath. Joined with the Beth representing the heart, the Hei Beth represents the heartbeat of God. The Zayin is the number seven which represents the Sabbath, a time of peace and rest. Thus gold would represent the peaceful heartbeat of God. Gold and silver then is a picture of his children nestled in the palm of his hand finding comfort in his heartbeat.
It is often said that if you adopt a puppy, the first night it is away from it’s mother, it will cry out. The best way to comfort the little guy is to put a ticking clock in his bed which will remind him of his mother’s heartbeat and that apparently will quiet the puppy’s cry. I don’t know if it is true, but it is a good picture of the esoteric idea behind “zahav” (gold) and “kasaph” (silver).
One of the great joys of a mother is to hold her baby near her heart as she nurses him. A joy for the mother to have her child close to her heart and a comfort to the child to hear it’s mother’s heartbeat.
Where does gold and silver get it’s value? There are surely other rare metals or gems that can be of equal value. Why does God make such a big deal out of gold and silver? Perhaps it represents one of his greatest joys, that of having his people close to His heart listening to His heartbeat and thus bringing the ones’ he loves comfort. To take away or steal His gold and silver is to take away that which is dearest to His heart.
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