Yellow within the Bible the hidden meaning.

The Spiritual Significance Of The Color Yellow 

"The holy spirit teaches comparing spiritual with spiritual" (1 Cor. 2:13).

1 Cor 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 

We are going through colors in scripture and we are seeing that colors, when mentioned in the scriptures, all have behind them a spiritual message and meaning. Our color we will examine today is the color yellow.

As with every word in scripture, this word 'yellow' has both a positive and a negative application. Today we will concern ourselves mainly with its negative application in the Word of God. The reason for this is that the positive application for this word has as its root the Hebrew word for gold. We all know that 'gold' is generally given a positive connotation in God's Word. 

Strong's Definitions 

Since we intend to cover the spiritual meanings of  the various metals mentioned in God's word in our next series of studies, we will not go very deeply into the positive application of this word yellow here today. Here is the Hebrew word for gold and Strong's definition of that word:

H2091
זהב
zâhâb
zaw-hawb'
>From an unused root meaning to shimmer; gold; figuratively something gold colored (that is, yellow), as oil, a clear sky: - gold (-en), fair weather.

Here are but a few of ways this word is used in God's Word:

Gen 2:11  The name of the first [river] is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;[zahab]

Job 37:22  Fair weather [zahab] cometh out of the north: with God is terrible majesty.

Gen 13:2  And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.

Yellow is one of the three primary colors: Blue, red and yellow. Here is Strong's number and definition of the word 'yellow.'

H6669
צהב
tsâhôb
tsaw-obe'
>From H6668; golden in color: - yellow.

How 'Yellow' Is Used In Scripture

Yellow is found in only four verses in scripture. The first three are in Leviticus where yellow is first found in reference to our spiritually dead and dying condition:

Lev 13:29  If a man or woman have a plague upon the head or the beard;
Lev 13:30  Then the priest shall see the plague: and, behold, if it be in sight deeper than the skin; and there be in it a yellow [H6669 - tsâhôb tsaw-obe'] thin hair; then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it [is] a dry scall, [even] a leprosy upon the head or beard.
Lev 13:32  And in the seventh day the priest shall look on the plague: and, behold, if the scall spread not, and there be in it no yellow hair, and the scall be not in sight deeper than the skin;
Lev 13:33  He shall be shaven, but the scall shall he not shave; and the priest shall shut up [him that hath] the scall seven days more:
Lev 13:34  And in the seventh day the priest shall look on the scall: and, behold, [if] the scall be not spread in the skin, nor [be] in sight deeper than the skin; then the priest shall pronounce him clean: and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean.
Lev 13:35  But if the scall spread much in the skin after his cleansing;
Lev 13:36  Then the priest shall look on him: and, behold, if the scall be spread in the skin, the priest shall not seek for yellow hair; he [is] unclean. 
Lev 13:37  But if the scall be in his sight at a stay, and that there is black hair grown up therein; the scall is healed, he is clean: and the priest shall pronounce him clean.

Who is 'the priest' and what is this scall? Here is Webster's definition of the old English word 'scall' which my google spell-check does not even recognize as a word:

Scall
SCALL, n. [See Scald and Scaldhead.]
Scab; scabbiness; leprosy.
It is a dry scall, even a leprosy on the head. Lev 13:30.

The Spiritual Application Of The Color Yellow

Here is the spiritual application of these verses in Leviticus 13 concerning the spread of leprosy in the camp of Israel:

1 Cor 5:5  To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be savedin the day of the Lord Jesus.
1 Cor 5:6  Your glorying [is] not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?  [Just as leprosy spreads through out the entire camp]
1 Cor 5:7  Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
1 Cor 5:8  Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened [bread] of sincerity and truth.
1 Cor 5:9  I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
1 Cor 5:10  Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
1 Cor 5:11  But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
1 Cor 5:12  For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
1 Cor 5:13  But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. 

What Is "The Spirit Of Truth?" 

"The spirit of Truth" is the serum that protects us from the poison of this spiritual leprosy. This phrase 'spirit of Truth appears four times in the New Testament. They are very revealing in their connection with our subject, the color yellow and it's meaning:

John 14:17  [Even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

John 15:26  But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, [even] the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:


John 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, [that] shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

How Can We Know Whether We Have This "Spirit Of Truth?"

1 John 4:6  We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. 

"Us" is not just anyone who says that this "us" is their group. The only way you can know who this "us" is, is to realize that this "us" is speaking of those who are faithful to and abide in "the doctrine of Christ:

1 Tim 6:3  If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, [even] the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; 

Now if "the words of our Lord Jesus Christ" to you means words which are "above what is written" then you are a ship adrift on a raging sea full of dangerous and destructive rock and mountains just below the surface. You are there without the benefit of  the rudder of "what is written." You are at the mercy of anyone who points to the heavens and proclaims "Thus saith the Lord," because you have no way to "try that spirit to see whether it is of the Lord."

1 John 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 
1 John 4:2  Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the ["same as the children - Hebrews 2:14] flesh is of God:
1 John 4:3  And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the ["same as the children"] flesh is not of God: and this is that [spirit] of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. [That Christ "was made sin" was denied from the days of the apostle John]
1 John 4:4  Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
1 John 4:5  They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. 

So the yellow and deadly doctrine of "the immaculate conception" in its many and varied forms continues and is accepted by the church world to this day. But what we are admonished to do to avoid deception is about as popular with the church world as any of the other "doctrines of Christ."

2 John 1:9  Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
2 John 1:10  If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your[spiritual "holy place"- priest are not to eat with Levites who are not chosen of God as priests] house, neither bid him God speed:

Heb 13:10  We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.

How little understood and despised is this doctrine in the churches of Babylon which teach that today is the only day of salvation through a ten-second sinner's prayer. But all doctrines which conflict both with each other and with the Word of God, are 'yellow...leprous...leavened' deadly false doctrine of  "false prophets gone out into the world" and have spread like leaven and leprosy throughout all the camp of Israel. (1 John 4:1).

The word 'yellow' appears one other time in the Bible outside of the book of Leviticus in the book of Psalms:

Psa 68:9  Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary. 
Psa 68:10  Thy congregation hath dwelt therein: thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor.
Psa 68:11  The Lord gave the word: great [was] the company of those that published [it].
Psa 68:12  Kings of armies did flee apace: and she that tarried at home divided the spoil.
Psa 68:13  Though ye have lien among the pots, [yet shall ye be as] the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.
Psa 68:14  When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was [white] as snow in Salmon.

This is, of course, a positive application of the color yellow but this is an entirely different Hebrew word. The word translated 'yellow' here is:

H3422
ירקרק
yeraqraq
yer-ak-rak'
>From the same as H3418; yellowishness: - greenish, yellow.

Here is how this word is translated in the King James Version:

Lev 13:49  And if the plague be greenish [yeraqraq -3422] or reddish in the garment, or in the skin, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin; it [is] a plague of leprosy, and shall be shewed unto the priest:

Lev 14:37  And he shall look on the plague, and, behold, [if] the plague [be] in the walls of the house with hollow strakes, greenish [yeraqraq] or reddish, which in sight [are] lower than the wall;

And the third and last time this word appears in the Old Testament is the verse in Psalms we have referenced above:

Psa 68:13  Though ye have lien among the pots, [yet shall ye be as] the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow [yeraqraq - 3422]  gold. 

So 3422, yeraqraq, which is translated "greenish" two out of three times, comes from the same as 3418. Here is Strong's definition of 3418:

H3418
ירק
yereq
yeh'-rek
>From H3417 (in the sense of vacuity of color); properly pallor, that is, hence the yellowish green of young and sickly vegetation; concretely verdure, that is, grass or vegetation: - grass, green (thing).

Here is how this word is translated in scripture:

Gen 1:30  And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein [there is] life, [I have given] every green [Hebrew - 3418 - yereq] herb for meat: and it was so.

Gen 9:3  Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. 

We will cover this color in much more detail next week, but suffice this verse to indicate the significance of the color green at this time:

1 Pet 1:24  For all flesh is as [green] grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: 

Seeing this connection between the Hebrew root of the words for yellow, greenish yellow and gold has given me a new appreciation for the old saying that "all that glitters is not gold."