An appropriate word from my friend Alan Newton:
The Prince is son of the King 4-26-2016
There has been much attention and excitement recently about the sudden and unexpected death of the singer/song writer known as Prince, and many have been emotionally impacted by the death of Prince. If those that are emotionally mourning the passing of Prince understood more clearly the spiritual implication of his name, and the color purple that seemed to be almost a symbolic trademark of his music ministry/career, much of the sadness of his unexpected demise could be replaced with joy, and great peace. Everything is a Spiritual message to us, whether we can hear it or not. It was reported Prince was 57 years of age at his passing. Fifty. And seven. Those numbers are not without serious signification in scripture. I won’t elaborate on that here.
The word ‘purple’ appears in the King James translation 39 times in the Old Testament, and 9 times in the new. This writing is interested primarily in the O.T. usage, and the Hebrew concept that is behind the word we translate as ‘purple’. The Christ was scourged with 39 ‘stripes’ at crucifixion, according to the dictates of Torah. Coincidence? Probably not. Purple is referred to more in Exodus (26 times) than the rest of the Bible combined, for purple is used much in the description of the character of the tabernacle in the wilderness, as Moses was instructed to fashion it. And in every Exodus verse containing the word purple, the purple is preceded by the word blue. Why?
I was first introduced to the concept of purple by Rudy Jones in his Tabernacle Teachings that are rich in character, and deep in spiritual understandings. It was Rudy that introduced to me the idea that blue is representative of Spirit, red is representative of ‘adam ( ‘dam’, among other things, is recognized as blood, and red), and purple was the combining of the red of adam with the blue of spirit. So from this concept, purple could be representative of adam when he is introduced to, and impacted by, God’s Spirit. I accepted that idea, lock stock and barrel, and still do 30 years later; even more so 30+ years later.
My fascination with Biblical Hebrew has taught me that ‘adam’ is living soul, and as such, is destined to produce chaos and disorder until such time as ‘adam’ submits the carnal appetites to the superior leading of Holy Spirit teachings. The Hebrew word ‘torah’, or law, is better understood as ‘teachings’. In that analogy, adam being red would take on the blue of spiritual guidance, and the end result is a manifestation known as purple. But why? What does purple represent; and as purple, why is it always preceded by blue in the tabernacle in the wilderness representations?
The remainder of this writing will require the reader to ‘hear’ by the spirit what is being revealed in this pageantry, and not be confused or distracted by the carnal interpretations and western transliterations of a message that was only intended to communicate a spiritual truth, in parable and metaphor, and not a natural or physical reality. God is Spirit, and so the message to ‘adam’ is one of Spirit Nature.
The Hebrew word we translate as purple is pronounced as ‘argaman’; nmgra The root word in this compound called ‘argaman’ is ‘ragam’, or in Hebrew, ~gr, and as with all root words, ‘ragam’ is an action verb. ‘Ragam’, as an action root verb, appears in scripture 16 times (?), and is translated all but two of those times as “…to stone”, as in stoning an individual. The concept of stoning in the Bible isn’t lost on religion and the natural or carnal mind, but the spiritual life of the word remains mysteriously hidden. Israel, as a group or family that followed the teachings from Moses, was told that those in their midst that refused to conform to the spiritual teachings were to be ‘stoned with stones’. The implication is that the non-conformist was to be stoned to death. But wait. The ‘stoners’ were told to stone the violator with ‘stones’. And the word translated as ‘stones’ is the Hebrew ‘eben’ !ba. And the root of the word eben, a stone and a noun, is the Hebrew ben !b, which is the son. How many times in the scripture is God referred to as the Rock? And ‘eben’, or stone, is the building material with which to build the son.
KJV Numbers 15:36 And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned (ragam ~gr) him with stones (eben !ba) and he died;
I hope you are beginning to see this spiritual truth. ‘adam’ has to die to his ‘adam nature and control, and come alive anew in the Spirit of God. But that is only the beginning of the story. As adam (red) dies to his carnal appetites, he comes alive anew (rebirth) in the Spirit (blue), and the result then is the purple (red plus blue make purple) that is indicative that the red man has now put on the Spirit of God, which is Love, and his purple recognition is that of royalty. Purple is the color most often designated as royalty. And incidentally, adam never loses his red appetites, but rather submits them to the Spirit of God (blue) in order to obtain a purple recognition. It is in our Purple Identity as Spirit Royalty that we manifest a Purple Reign. The purple rain of the Purple Reign is by having the blue of God Spirit added to our adam red. This is so basic in the pageantry of the tabernacle that Moses was told to rear. And the word purple (argaman) means that you have died to your carnal adam control, and are now submitted to the leading and guidance of God Spirit. We must be stoned (ragam) with stones (eben) to bring us to death to our carnal control and accept the Spirit of God as our ‘son’ (ben) recognition and identity. And as the son, we are also the Prince (sar rf), and the prince is son of the king. The word for prince, or sar, is also the foundation of the word Israel (y’ sar el), ‘Sarai and Sarah (princess), and also the word for flesh (basar rfb). And so the flesh (basar) of the Prince (sar) is covered in purple (argaman) to show that he has died to the control of carnal appetites, and is now alive as the Son by the Spirit of The Father (The King). The Purple Reign is the son living in submission to the Life of The Father. Incidentally, in the pageantry of the tabernacle, we see over and over again the phrase “…blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen…”. [Ex. 25:4] The word translated as ‘fine linen’ is the Hebrew ‘sheysh’, or VV. And this also happens to be the exact spelling, and pronunciation, of the Hebrew for ‘six’. Six? The number for man? So, what does all of this blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen refer to? This entire pageant is all about the parables and metaphors and analogies that prove, over and over and over again, that we are the Tabernacle of God. We always have been, and we always will be. And only when we are submitted to the Spirit of God, which is Love, that we exhibit and manifest our Prince nature in a Purple Reign. And so, what if the Prince of Purple Reign should suddenly and without expectation pass from this scene? Well, he just ascends to The Father. What a glorious finale to ascend from the Prince of Purple Reign to The Father. What great peace that is. Shalom, Y’all.