My friend, Karen challenged me to speak about the seven colors of the rainbow and the
seven Spirits of God. I’ve been swimming in this for a month now. I found a
couple of websites that make these correlations.
http://www.nhccministries.com/uploads/2/3/1/9/23197588/7_spiritsian_c..pdf
The Spirit of the Lord is red: mandates us for position.
The Spirit of Wisdom is orange: equips us for position.
Spirit of Understanding is yellow: authorizes us for position.
Spirit of Counsel is green; prepares us for position.
Spirit of Might is blue: reveals us for position.
Spirit of Knowledge is indigo: empowers us for position.
And the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord is violet, or purple: brings
accountability for position.
The following website agrees with the above and gives a nice illustration
using a menorah.
7 Colors of the Rainbow and the 7 Spirits of God ‣ (tdr-thedreamroom.com)
"ISAIAH 11:1-2 THERE SHALL COME FORTH A ROD FROM THE STEM OF JESSE, AND A BRANCH SHALL GROW OUT OF HIS ROOTS…
1. THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD SHALL REST UPON HIM,
2. THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM
3. AND UNDERSTANDING,
4. THE SPIRIT OF COUNSEL
5. AND MIGHT,
6. THE SPIRIT OF KNOWLEDGE
7. AND OF THE FEAR OF THE LORD."
However, I didn’t see any Biblical references as to why these colors were
associated in either of these lists.
but the colors were inferred from scripture, not quoted.
"Red—Righteousness; Blood of Jesus: Jehovah-Tsidkenu
The Lord Our Righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6 NRSV In his days Judah will be
saved and Israel will live in safety. And this is the name by which he will be
called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.)
Orange—Praise; Harvest; Warfare: Jehovah-Nissi
The Lord Our Banner (Exodus 17:8-15 NRSV vs. 15 And Moses built an
altar and called it, The Lord is my banner.) The story implies that we can also
understand this as “The Lord is my victory.”
Note this is between righteousness and God’s presence.
Yellow—Presence; Council of God: Jehovah-Shammah
The Lord Is Present (Ezekiel 48:35 NRSV The circumference of the city shall
be eighteen thousand cubits. And the name of the city from that time on shall
be, The Lord is There.) This name signifies God’s presence which is not only
with us, but fills the whole earth. The artist Van Gogh used yellow to
represent God’s presence.
Green—Peace; Life; Mercy: Jehovah-Shalom
The Lord Our Peace (Judges 6:24 NRSV Then Gideon built an altar there to
the Lord, and called it, The Lord is peace.)
Blue—Healing: Jehovah-Rapha
The Lord Our Healer (Exodus 15:26 NRSV I am the Lord who heals you.)
Indigo—Shepherd: Jehovah-Ra-ah
The Lord Our Shepherd (Psalm 23:1 NRSV The Lord is my shepherd; I shall
not want.) Jesus is the good shepherd, and he cares for God’s flock. Notice
that it’s on the spectrum between healing and provision.
Violet—Wealth, Provision: Jehovah-Jireh
The Lord Our Provider Genesis 22:13,14 NRSV And Abraham looked up and
saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram
and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So, Abraham called
that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of
the Lord it shall be provided.” (See our story Supernatural Multiplication of
Ham)"
From this list were even more scripture inferences, but I still couldn’t find
direct references! These two lists also give different
meanings for the colors.
"Red: Blood of Jesus (Ephesians 1:7), love of Christ (Romans 8:35-36), blood
of the Lamb, atonement (Leviticus 14:52-53), redemption (Galatians 3:13),
salvation (Joshua 2:18-21)
Orange: Fire of God (Ezekiel 1:4; 27; 8:2), deliverance (Daniel 3:19-
29), warrior (Psalm 97:3), passionate praise (Ephesians 3:19)
Yellow: Faith and glory of God (Romans 4:20), anointing (Exodus 25:6)
enlightenment, Joy (Isaiah 55:1; Nehemiah 8:10)
Green: Praise (1 Chronicles 16:32-34; Psalm 63:3), life (1 John 2:25), health
(Genesis 1:30), growth (Genesis 9:3), prosperity (Genesis 30:37-41),
restoration (Isaiah 61:3; Psalm 23:2,3) new beginning (Isaiah 27:6; Romans
6:4), fruitfulness (Psalm 52:8; Hosea 14:8), flourishing (Jeremiah 17:8;
Ezekiel 17:24; Psalm 92:12- 15)
Blue/Sapphire: Law/commandments (Numbers 15:38-41), heaven (Ezekiel
1:26), revealed God (Exodus 24:10), grace (Romans 6:14; Hebrew 4:16), the
Priesthood (Exodus 28:31), water of the Word and authority (Ephesians
5:26), prayer, river of God (Revelation 22:1-2; 17), over-comer (1 John 4:4;
Revelation 3:21), living water (John 7:38-39), Holy Spirit, divine revelation
(Hebrews 10:15-16)
Purple: Royalty (Esther 8:15; Revelation 1:6), kingship (Mark 15:17; John
19:2), majesty, mediator, wealth (Judges 8:26; Revelation 18:16), authority
(Ezekiel 27:7)"
So, I went looking in the Hebrew and Greek to see if I could figure it out.
Turns out our perception of 7 colors is a pretty modern development.
Did you know that the only ancient language that has a word for blue is
Egyptian? And that people’s perception of colors are different based on the
words they have in their language for colors? There are tribes that don’t have
a word for blue, but have more words for green than we do. Studies have
shown that they are able to pick out variations of green that we cannot, but
when shown a group of green squares with one blue square, they had a very
difficult time picking out the blue square.
In light of this, I went searching the Hebrew and Greek to see what their
words for colors are.
Turns out the word we have translated “blue” is not blue. It is violet.
From the Strongs:
tᵉkêleth, tek-ay'-leth; probably for H7827; the cerulean mussel, i.e. the color
(violet) obtained therefrom or stuff dyed therewith:—blue.
In addition, the words we have translated as green seem to mean the
condition of live plants more than the actual color. These are the words our
English Bible translate as “green”:
yereq, yeh'-rek; from H3417 (in the sense of vacuity of color); properly,
pallor, i.e. hence, the yellowish green of young and sickly vegetation;
concretely, verdure, i.e. grass or vegetation:—grass, green (thing). It is also translated as yellow
In Lev 13:30-36 the word is used to describe hair that indicated leprosy.
לַח
lach, lakh; from an unused root meaning to be new; fresh, i.e. unused or
undried:—green, moist.
For instance, in Genesis 30:37 this word is used to describe the poplar sticks
that Jacob cut to cause the sheep to bear spotted lambs.
In Esther 1:6 one of the colors of the drapes in the palace are described as
green.
סַפְּ רַכּ karpaç, kar-pas'; of foreign origin; byssus or fine vegetable wool:—
green. cotton or fine linen
I have heard that Hebrew is a much more pictorial language than English.
The Hebrew concept of green as a living plant rather than a “color” is a
perfect example of this. The words for purple and scarlet are actually the
names of the animals or insects from which those dyes are made. The closest
I could find to orange was fire or gold.
To make things even muckier, the robe Pontius Pilot put on Jesus is described
by Matthew as scarlet in 27:28 and as purple by John in 19:2-5.
It seems that for the Hebrews and Greeks, blues, reds, and purples were
basically different shades of the same color. In the Bible they are associated
with passion and royalty, but for the Hebrew or the Greek, there would not be
7 colors to associate with any of the groups of 7 such as the 7 names of God
or the 7 Spirits of God. That does not mean we can’t make these associations
based on our understanding of colors, but they are modern associations, not
Hebrew.
For years I have kept the precept in mind that to understand the Bible, you
need to think like a Hebrew. It has been fascinating to explore this difference
in perception even though I didn’t find what I was looking for.
In reality, the rainbow is made up of innumerable different color shades,
many of which the human eye is utterly unable to see regardless of our words
for color. God is light and He, like the rainbow is more than we can possibly
comprehend with our natural mind and body.
While I didn’t find much correlation between the 7 colors of the rainbow and
the 7 Spirits of God in all this searching, I did find a golden nugget! To the
Hebrew the real power of the rainbow is this:
The Hebrew word used in Genesis for the rainbow is תֶ שֶׁ ק qesheth, keh'-sheth;
- an archers bow. After the flood in which God destroyed the world, He made
a promise never to destroy it again because of man’s sin. The sign of this
covenant was an archers bow in the sky. The bow was turned away from man
and toward Himself! In placing this bow in the sky, God was saying He
would never again aim His weapon at mankind for their sin. Instead, He
would aim it at Himself to take the punishment for our sin on Himself!
I also ran across this revelation written by Ian Clayton:
"Every letter in the Hebrew alphabet has a meaning and there are those who
believe that if you put the meaning behind each letter in a Hebrew word it
will reveal to you a hidden or built-in commentary on that word.
So, I took the word for rainbow as it was written in Genesis 9:16, qashath and
applied the built-in commentary. I asked the question as to what does the
word rainbow or qashath really teach us as to why God will not destroy the
earth with a flood? The first letter of the word is the Qof which is a letter
representing a sacrifice. God is promising to send a sacrifice to show the
meaning of the second letter, the Shin which is the passionate and fiery love
of God. This sacrifice when coupled with the fiery love of God will lead us
to the last letter the Taw which represents Truth. God will one day send a
sacrifice of pure love to redeem us and the world of the sin nature that has
come into this world."
Another gem in the story of Noah is found in
Genesis 9:12 And God said: This is the token of the covenant which I make
between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual
generations:
"The word token here is spelled Aleph Vav Tav. Aleph is the Hebrew
equivalent of the Greek letter Alpha. Tav is the last letter in the Hebrew
alphabet as is the Greek letter Omega. Jesus declares that He is the Alpha and
the Omega repeatedly in Revelation. So here we have a word that begins and
ends with these two letters. Guess what the middle letter represents? A NAIL!" (from The Shinar Directive by Dr. Michael Lake)
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