Where does the phrase "Beauty for Ashes" come from?

Inspired Midrosh › Where does the phrase "Beauty for Ashes" come from?

From the Bible

Beauty for Ashes comes from the Holy Scripture - Isaiah 61:3

Where does it come from ? “beauty for ashes” I know that there
are a lot of people out there that want to know where this piece of scripture
came from in the Bible. You may ask how I think I know this? Well as it turns
out our gracious friends at GOOGLE send traffic our way from people doing a
search on the meaning of this phrase due to the name of our web site.
www.BeautyForAshesGifts.com - So I decided to help these precious folks out,
and let them know what I think I know about the scriptural references that
have a bearing upon this verse. I am not writing to those who know what it
means, only those who don’t. I won’t go into why we picked this name for our
business, but when I am through with my ramblings about it, you might have a
pretty good understanding of the phrase, and therefore figure out the basis
for part of it. FYI. If all you have is the Strong’s Concordance to look up
Hebrew and Greek words, then I need to educate you somewhat. In my humble
opinion, Strong’s is at best a common numbering system where by we can all
find a level playing field as far as finding common terms and general meanings
go. It is in no way the final word on any one word in the Scripture, and in a
lot of cases, I find somewhat lacking in scope and detail. I also find that in
other cases it shed some light on things I don’t see anywhere else. So it
needs to be kept in its proper perspective as a research tool goes. Should you
wish to get some additional serious research tools to study the scripture
with? Give me an email, and I will be happy to share what I have and use as
reference materials. I’m sure there is even better and more extensive writings
on the original Hebrew than I have, but I don’t know about them. I know there
are several very good sources of reference material, and one does what he can
with the limited resources they have. So, to start with, let’s examine the set
of scripture that this particular phrase is embedded in to get a general
mental picture of its foundational principals. Then we will go on to elaborate
on some possible deeper meanings of the same verses, and their implications.
The particular set of scripture that it comes from is outlined and framed in
the following set of verses from the book of Isaiah in the Tenach as a Hebrew
reference, or the Old Testament from a purely Christian stand point of view. Is
61:1 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me
to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the
prison to them that are bound; Is 61:2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the
Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; Is 61:3
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of
heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of
the Lord, that he might be glorified. Is 61:4 And they shall build the old
wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the
waste cities, the desolations of many generations. Is 61:5 And strangers shall
stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen
and your vinedressers. Is 61:6 But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord;
men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the
Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves. Is 61:7 For your shame
ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion:
therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall
be unto them. Is 61:8 For I the Lord love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt
offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an
everlasting covenant with them. Is 61:9 And their seed shall be known among
the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall
acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed.
Now if all you wish to know is the place in the Bible where this phrase comes
from? Well then here it is, you need not read any further. However if you want
to hear the ramblings of a very ignorant, outcast from society, and one with
more questions about everything than he has answers. Read on, and enjoy your
selves if that is possible?. I should probably say at this point that I know
that we could uncover layer after layer, and precept after precept, just based
upon this little phrase. There is much more to it than I am willing to go into
at this time. None the less I will try to keep my meaningless jibber jabber to
a minimum for my sake. Next, to add more Bible scripture that might give you
some closure on the above verses, if Scripture is all you want? Lets read the
Book of Luke Chapter 4 and verse 13 thru 22. Some foundation might be helpful
to those who just don’t know the WORD of GOD. (TORAH) or (The likenesses and
teachings of Elohiem). Now I know that the book of LUKE is not in the Organic
TORAH or the first five books of the Bible. However based upon the meaning of
the Hebrew word TORAH, from GOD’S viewpoint it might just include more than
one might think. So forgive me if I place the book of LUKE in the TORAH or
HAFTORAH, or BRITAUTASHAW, or the entire TANACH if you will. Yeshua (Jesus),
if you will, is the subject of the leading verses here so one is clear who
these scriptures are referring to. Lets read, shall we? Lu 4:13 And when
the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. Lu
4:14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there
went out a fame of him through all the region round about. Lu 4:15 And he
taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. Lu 4:16 And he came to
Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into
the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. Lu 4:17 And there
was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened
the book, he found the place where it was written, Lu 4:18 The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor;
he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that
are bruised, Lu 4:19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Lu 4:20 And he
closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the
eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. Lu 4:21 And
he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Lu 4:22 And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which
proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?
Once again if the Scripture is all you want that is the bulk of it that
relates to each other. There are some other ones that are reaching from a
different perspective and overlap; however, these will do for the sake of this
conversation. Please feel free to come to your own conclusions as to their
meaning or lack thereof, and Please don’t think for a second that I know
anything! I will offer you some of my thoughts on these precious verses, and
their content, if you wish to trudge along with me? In the big scheme of
things, to a Christian, basically the verses in the Book of Isaiah are a
prophesy of the coming Messiah (Christ) and the work that He would perform in
His ministry of Salvation. The scriptures in the Book of Luke basically
fulfill the prophesy of Isaiah in the preceding verses. The conclusion is that
Isaiah was prophesying about the coming Messiah or Christ, and Yeshua (Jesus)
came fulfilling them in total. End of argument to the majority of Christians.
A rather simplistic view of them, but in my opinion, accurate as far as it
goes. I don’t know the Rabbinical viewpoint of these scriptures, nor what
those in the Talmud say concerning these verses in Isaiah. Therefore I state
my Ignorance, and lack of scholarly formability as it pertains to such.
However, since I believe that Yeshua is the promised Messiah, I am not very
interested in those opinions that say He is not. Please don’t for a second
think that I don’t love those with differing opinions as much as I love my own
flesh and blood. The LORD knows I do. Simply we have a difference of opinion,
and if possible, can sit down and reason together in love should occasion
permit. Difference of opinions maybe, but love and respect for one another
none the less. I feel that I owe my entire salvation to the Jewish peoples of
the world. Why? you ask. Because were it not for their zeal to serve, to
suffer, to be persecuted, to die if necessary even by some calling themselves
Christian, for their undying and never ending love for GOD and His Word (The
Tenach). I would never have had a chance to read it nor know Him as I do. I
Owe them everything I have, not withstanding our differences of opinion
concerning Jesus, Yeshua. Are they perfect, not in a million years. Am I
perfect, not in a million years. But the scripture is crystal clear, if you
have a pure heart, that the Jewish people are an integral absolutely necessary
part to the entire Word of God. It isn’t because of what they are, it is
because of God’s Precious Promises to Abraham. If they are not in full force
and effect? Then no one has even a shred of a chance of finding salvation on
any level! If you have a love for God’s word and the truth contained therein,
then you know for a fact that the LORD loves them, and cares for them every
bit as much as He does for you and me. Enough rambling, lets get into the meat
of the issue, shall we? Psalm 42:7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy
waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. I am not going to
elaborate upon this verse from the Psalms, but simply to ask you to meditate
upon it at face value for a little while before you go on. If I broke all
these scripture down into Hebrew, and the meanings and underpinnings of those
meanings? We would be here for an awful long time, so I will attempt to just
cover some of the things that flow with what I am trying to cover. Isaiah 61:1
says the following with a slight addition of English derivation. Is 61:1 The
ruach (wind) of the Lord God (Yahweh Elohiem) is upon me; because the
Lord(Yahweh) hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath
sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and
the opening of the prison to them that are bound; Is 61:2 To proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort
all that mourn; I can think of many directions to go from here, it is hard to
just keep it simple because the LORD is sooooooo self revealing. OK, here goes
for what it is worth. For brevity sake I am not going to actually spell these
words out in Hebrew Font. I will use the English derivation of same in an
attempt to shorten things up with out loosing any insights I may have. The
first important Hebrew word we stumble upon here is the word for “Spirit”. In
Hebrew it is the word “ruwach” sounds like /roo’-akh/ it means “breath of air”
or “air in motion” or “breeze” or “the wind” with one huge emphasis. None of
these pertain to just human breath, or the wind in the air or some natural
aspect of O2. It is used in a supernatural way to point at the powerful Life
that is in GOD Himself when it is in motion. All of the above types are
nothing but metaphors to give us something to anchor to as far as a basic
understanding of the term goes. The bigger issue is that when this term is
used as a noun in relationship to God? It has endless possibilities beyond our
reach as mortal human beings to fathom, in our intellectual capacities. It
embodies in one instance somewhat the real nature of wind. Without being able
to be seen, but however somewhat detected by other senses of our earthly
bodies. It embodies all of the attributes, of a very powerful shadow and type
of everything, from a undetectable move of the air to a small breeze to the
most powerful hurricane one can imagine, yet all made out of the same
substance, if you will, the air! None of which you can see, but can detect in
various ways. Some very slight and pleasant, others very powerful and
overbearing. On one instance life giving to human kind, and the other, extreme
destruction of everything in its path, of the most terrifying kind and done
instantly. In the Old Testament (God knows I hate that term, but I need to use
it for understanding sake of others referring to the set of scripture it
embodies) it refers to The Divine Spirit of God Himself, with peculiar
endowments of mind, as that of an artificer, a prophet, a prophetic spirit, a
interpreter of dreams, a force of supernatural instances that defy all the
laws of nature as we know it, the supernatural courage of a military leader,
as well as extremely kindly and loving virtues in many instances. Now no
amount of words will describe this life giving or life taking force of the One
True GOD. Suffice it to say this, for those who came directly into His
presents!!! Well, they fell on their faces instantly as a dead man without
recourse. Except He told them not to fear, or rise up, they were dead before
they were born. Now I haven’t even covered a very small part of this one word,
so if I keep going on like this we will be here all the next 1000 years, Yuk
Yuk, and still won’t have covered it all!!! Suffice it to say you will never
get your intellect, no matter how smart you are or what your Mensa score is,
to wrap your mind around this one aspect of God which will always escape
mankind. If you are very, very, fortunate, and have a real pure heart, follow
the scripture with all your heart, then you get to only experience it. If you
are very, very, very, …. privileged, and some how manage to garner His extreme
favor, then you can walk in the Holy Fire of His Presents. Then you too can
fall on your face as a dead man, be terrified beyond your wildest imaginations
and then some, and know what it is like in your flesh to be both dead and
alive, frozen in time but not somehow, set on extreme fire yet not consumed or
burned on your flesh when it is over with, all at the same time. Should this
happen to you, then I can tell you from first hand experience, you will be
thinking about your experience with Him for the rest of your natural life in
awe and amazement. Ever wondering about what exactly happened, what it meant,
how it happened, what exactly took place, and never being able to even come
close in describing it to anyone, and never knowing why it happened to you and
not others who you may think are much more worthy than you are. Personally I
consider my self just a plain old dirt bag with more sinful baggage than most.
So go figure, because I have spent 30 years trying to figure it out and
haven’t even come close. But this one thing I know for sure! Ask me if He is
real, ask me if he is alive, ask me who He is, ask me all these and there will
be no hesitation or doubt in my mind or my answer to you. I know He is alive,
I know who He is, I know He is very, very, very REAL!!! I also know that He
Loves all of us with a love so deep, so real, so purposeful that nothing in
this world or the next will change it. It would be like you blowing on the
hardest surgical steel or substance known to man, and thinking somehow that
you could alter its atomic structure in some way. Good Luck!!! And I will say
to you that even if you could, you will never alter His. Well as I blab on in
the middle of the night, maybe I should get back on point as my law
instructors would always say to me. Well only one Hebrew word down and God
Himself knows how many are left. This might take a while as Zorro said to his
bride to be. Lets go to the next word in Hebrew, shall we. (To be continued so
stay tuned!)

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