WORD STUDY – GREEN – Yod Resh Qop
Isaiah 15:6: “For the waters of Nimrim shall be desolate, for the hay is withered away, the grass faileth, there is no green thing.”
Today my study partner was telling me about a personality test and that these test assigned certain personalities a color. It has been shown that color does affect our personalities, moods and attitudes. I recently read where a study was done and found that the color pink help cut down on thefts and so many macho athletic teams began painting locker rooms pink. They actually noticed a drop in thefts in the locker room. Restaurants did a study on colors and tried to determine colors which affects the appetite.
In modern times we have learned to synthetically produce colors on such a massive scale that we really never give much thought to color. In ancient times, as well as medieval times color, was special. Most of a person’s world was in black and white. Thus, to come upon a field of wild flowers one would be far more awed by the colors than we who are surrounded by colors all day long. Even today the sudden appearance of bright colors do startle us. Did you ever watch the Wizard of Oz where the movie starts off in black and white and then when Dorothy opens the door of her house in the Land of Oz, the movie introduces full technicolor. Even today we are awed but you can imagine how audiences in the thirties who were used to their movies in black and white must have felt when they saw the color, most for the first time on screen.
To ancient man reading Isaiah 15:6 the mention of a color, green thing, must have really stood out to him more than it does for us today. Isaiah the prophet is predicting the desolation of Moab. The waters of Nimrim which flows into the Jordan and brings fertility to the area would dry up. Hence the hay will wither away. Actually, there is no word for hay here, it is just the word wither and due to the syntax translators felt obligated to put something in there that withers so they called it hay. Some translations say vegetation. I tend to agree with the World English Bible which says the grass withers and the tender grass fails. In other words all green plantations disappeared such that there was nothing green left.
If you really read this passage you get the idea that the prophet is not so much talking about the disappearance of a food supply as he is talking of the disappearance of color. One of God’s greatest gifts to us is color which we take so for granted. It has been found that the color green has the tendency to sooth a troubled mind, to relax you and sooth you. In fact in many cities where they switched from a bright white street light to a green color found crime decreased.
The word green in Hebrew here is iereq which your lexicon will simply say means green or green plantations. It is also used for the word spittle which has a greenish color so the emphasis with ‘iereg is not on vegetation but on the color. It is interesting to note that ancient man felt there were healing powers in one’s spittle which is why healers would often anointed someone with their spit. Of course in our culture green spittle is gross but not to ancient man. The Old Testament is filled with color and we, as Christians, simply focus on the symbolism of color.
Even the ancient rabbis who assigned letters to the word for green ‘iereg spelled it out so as to show that Green was a color that brings peace and rest. The first letter, Yod, teaches us to be at one with our changing world, to calmly and peacefully embrace it. As the green grass fades in autumn and winter, there will be a spring where it will again return. Yod teaches us to trust our creator’s faithfulness as demonstrated in His faithfulness to give us our seasons. The next letter is the Resh which is the letter for the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus called our Comforter (John 14:16) that He himself would send to us. The Resh is also the letter of healing and it is through this Comforter that we are healed. The last letter is the Qop is the letter of completion, and fulfillment. The Qop brings us into peace with the changes around us. Thus, God gave us the color green ‘iereg to bring us into peace and to sooth our troubled minds. When I need to find peace, I turn to God’s medication or prescription: “Take two walks in the lush green of My park, sit under My green leaves of My trees and give Me a call.”
I was just informed by my editor that my lastest book has gone to the printers and will be ready for release in January. It is entitled: Journey Into Silence. It tells of my experience of living in silence. While living in silence I walked through a forest where I was surrounded by green vegetation. Surrounded by God’s creation with a dominate color of green. I felt the peace of God in such a way that I never feel when I am in the city.
I always introduce my Hebrew classes with a lecture on art as you cannot fully understand Hebrew unless you understand what art is all about. Artist, painters, love to deal with color and they try to create colors that will invoke a passion or emotional response in someone. I love to tell of my favorite artist, Vincent Van Gogh. Van Gogh originally aspired to be a pastor and indeed was a missionary to a mining town in Belgium where he began sketching the people in the community. Van Gogh was also a man with a troubled mind who was tortured with depression. The genius of Van Gogh was his ability to take his pain and torment and turn it into color. Well, that is what any artist tries to do, but what made Van Gogh stand out from all the rest and indeed is probably the only artist in history to do so, was his ability to take his pain, turn it into color and then make something beautiful out of it.
God’s gift of color found in His creation was meant for a purpose. Every colorful bird, animal, sea creature and vegetation is given to us by God so that in spite of all the misery, pain, sadness and torment of this world, He has given us something beautiful.
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