Yereq: Refreshing the GREEN

GREEN: yereq, masculine noun (Strong’s 3418); yaroq, masculine noun (Strong’s 3387).

Root: ירק

Sounds like: yeh’rek & yaw’rohk

I love diving into family history and I’ve been obsessed with it since I was a young teen. My income is provided by being a library technician; my ministry is HebrewWordLessons; but my hobby is genealogy. Today is St.Patrick’s Day and many people turn a blind eye to their authentic heritage and embrace their Irishness, whether they have any Irish in them or not.

I did a DNA test a few years ago and my adult children just did it recently. They have a tiny bit of Irish from their Dad’s side, but I am 0% Irish. Instead I should be celebrating St.David’s Day on March 1st to represent my Welsh heritage. Unexpectedly my children are 8-9% Jewish, and I rest uncomfortably at 0%. Instead I’m a delightful mishmash of Gentile heritage from England & Northwestern European, Germany, Italy, Wales, Scotland, Sweden/Denmark, Greece & Albania, Cyprus, France, and Malta.  

Heritage and ethnicity is a fun thing to look into, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s rather unimportant. Highlighting our nationalism seems a bit outdated and, honestly, unfaithful. Paul tried to break down nationalistic barriers, gender barriers, and economic bearers when he said: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise (Galatians 3:28-29).

We ought to celebrate just simply being human because we are all God’s children, regardless of our DNA. If we claim YHWH as our God then we are also His heirs who bear His image to the rest of the world. We were created, not to separate ourselves into factions and nations and cliques, but to join together in unity and share God’s love around the globe. 

That being said, it’s really hard not to join in the celebrations of a day like Saints Patrick’s Day where people dress in green, eat some Irish stew, and belt out “O, Danny Boy” with more gusto than talent. I recall back to one of my favourite days touring the tiny Island, Inis Oírr (Inisheer), off the West coast of Ireland. It certainly lived up to the image of Ireland that I had in my mind, with sweeping green fields, stone fences, ancient burial mounds, and medieval ruins. One of those ruins was St. Caomhán’s church, which had been dug out of the sand dunes in the 1980’s, revealing a beautiful 10th century chapel.

So in honour of all my lovely readers who feel an affinity for Ireland, we’ll take a look at the word GREEN today. 

Green, in Hebrew, is yereq/yaroq. This was the Hebrew word for green in the days of antiquity and it remains the Hebrew word for green today.

Actually green is only mentioned a few times in the Bible, but if you search your translation it seems to show up a fair bit. Many translations add the word “green” as an adjective in front of words like (green) grass, (green) trees,  (green) fields,  (green) leaves. Green may not be in the original Hebrew manuscripts in these instances, but it seems that our translators have added it in, in order to paint a grander and more colourful picture. However, it was actually fairly rare for “green” to be added as an adjective in the Bible. Most people didn’t need a reminder that grass was green or the leaves were green. Mentioning the colour, in these instances, was redundant.

God was actually the first to mention the colour green in the Bible and He used it not in a redundant way, but in order to specify what kind of things He was referring to: 

Genesis 1:29-31

Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every animal of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green [yereq יֶ֥רֶק] plant for food”; and it was so. And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Not only was the word green the first colour uttered by YHWH, it was also the first colour mentioned in the Bible at all. Green was about good eating and the abundance of vibrant fresh food which was meant to be available for every human being.

After the great flood, YHWH reminded Noah that His promise stood. Following a few simple rules, there was to be no shortage of food, from meat to green plant:

Genesis 9:1-4

Then God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every animal of the earth and on every bird of the sky; on everything that crawls on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea. They are handed over to you. Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I have given everything to you, as I gave the green [k-yereq כְּיֶ֣רֶק] plant. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.”

If humans remained in right-relationship with YHWH, the God of all creation, then they would remain in right-relationship with the planet. Life, in balance, with God at the centre, meant healthy good living, with an abundance of food and a strong, flourishing, planet. But when humans made the choice to turn away from YHWH and tried to be little gods of their own desires, life would go out of balance. As soon as humans began placing themselves as number one (the center of their own universe), then competition, and greed turned the world to chaos and the good green earth and healthy food supply went out of sync. The Tanakh (Old Testament) warned us about this outcome in the story of Egypt.

The Devastating Loss of Green

When the Pharaoh of Egypt stood as an adversary against YHWH and His people,  life for the Egyptian people was put out of balance. 

Exodus 10:14-15

The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled in all the territory of Egypt; they were very numerous. There had never been so many locusts, nor would there be so many again. For they covered the surface of the whole land, so that the land was darkened; and they ate every plant of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Therefore nothing green [yereq יֶ֧רֶק] was left on tree or plant of the field throughout the land of Egypt.

The enemies of God were quick to recognize that, when you messed with YHWH and His people, good green eating was put at risk.

When the Moabites saw that Israel was on their doorstep they feared a food shortage. Balak, the king of Moab, said this: “Now this horde will eat up all that is around us, as the ox eats up the grass green [et yereq אֵ֖ת יֶ֣רֶק] of the field!” (Numbers 22:4).

In truth, it did not go well for the Moabites. They opposed YHWH and His people and their good eating withered away:

Isaiah 15:5-6

My heart cries out for Moab; his fugitives are as far as Zoar and Eglath-shelishiyah, for they go up the ascent of Luhith weeping; indeed, on the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of distress over their collapse. For the waters of Nimrim are desolate. Indeed, the grass is withered, the new growth has died, there is no greenery [yereq יֶ֖רֶק].

David poetically used decaying greenery as a metaphor for the fading away of God’s enemies:

Psalm 37:1-3

Do not get upset because of evildoers, do not be envious of wrongdoers. For they will wither quickly like the grass, and decay like the green [u-k-yereq וּכְיֶ֥רֶק] plants. Trust in YHWH and do good; live in the land and cultivate faithfulness.

Humans were meant to live in the land and cultivate faithfulness, instead humans can be accused of taking advantage of the land and cultivating wealth at the expense of others. That’s a big problem. 

However, there is hope. When humans connect to YHWH, through the Spirit, and fulfill their commission as the earth’s caretakers (Genesis 1:26-28, 2:15), the good green earth will flourish… and it will flourish abundantly! We have a job to do and we need to take it seriously.

Living Free, Eating Green

In the book of Job, after Job faced off against YHWH and claimed injustice, YHWH simply painted a picture of His abundant goodness offered to every creature on the planet. Take a look at what YHWH said about the free, wild, donkey:

Job 39:5-8

[YHWH to Job:] “Who sent the wild donkey out free? And who opened the bonds of the swift donkey, to whom I gave the wilderness as his home, and the salt land as his dwelling place? He [the donkey] laughs at the turmoil of the city, he does not hear the shouting of the taskmaster. He explores the mountains of his pasture, and searches after every green [yaroq יָר֣וֹק] thing.”

This donkey was living his best life because God set him free. At the donkey’s disposal was every green thing… all the goodness that God had provided from the beginning. The donkey was care-free and under no bonds of ownership. All he needed was in front of him, there for the taking, because God provided it without cost.

We have much to learn from this image of the wild and free donkey. Life, today, is out of balance. There are unnatural extremes, from starvation to excessive food waste. There is greed and corruption in the food industry. We act like we own the planet, but the truth is, we have no right to such a claim. This planet was meant to be a beautiful, refreshing, gift that we were supposed to nourish and take care of, in order that every creature could live well and be free. That is not the picture we see today.

Much of the world stands against YHWH and much of the world is in great need. That’s not a coincidence. We can’t change the whole world, but we can do our best to fulfill our mission. We are to be caretakers of the planet and all that is upon it, and that means feeding the needy, expressing God’s mercy and compassion, and sharing Yeshua’s redeeming love.

Next week: WAVES