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Awesome Hands – part 40

“ God meant it unto good”

Throughout the “Awesome Hands” series thus far, we have looked at various types and shadows which have culminated in us arriving at Gen 50.

This chapter is a very revealing and pivotal chapter because it is the beginning of us learning the ways in which our Lord and God works with all of mankind.

In the last study, we focused on the three blessings/ judgments which were given to Judah, Joseph and Benjamin.

That isn’t to say that we do not also partake of the blessings/ judgment of the other brothers, but because the premise of this series is on God working His hands in our lives and the lives of all those in our lives, we noted and studied the two times that “hand/ s” were mentioned in chapter 49.

In the study today, we are going to see a pivotal shift in our spiritual understanding on just how specific the Lord is with us on what He is doing in our lives.

At the end of chapter 49, we see that Jacob/ Israel has died, and that is where we pick up in chapter 50 with.

This study in no way covers all of the types and shadows contained in chapter 50, but I hope this study will be used to increased our understanding, wisdom and knowledge on the workings of the Lord has He molds us into His image as a Potter who works His clay in His hands.

“ The physicians embalmed Israel”

It takes a mighty earthquake of the Lord to shake us up. Just as a physical earthquake breaks apart the earth and rearranges the boundaries of the dirt, we too are sharpened by great distresses and stresses the Lord sends into our lives.

As I hope we will all conclude today, this is all done to the glory of the Father so that He can be seen as dragging those He loves to Him with much chastening.

Pro 3:11 My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:
Pro 3:12 For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.
Pro 3:13 Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.

Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Heb 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
Heb 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
Heb 12:10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.

As we have covered in many ways throughout this study, we have come to understand that there is a continuous war taking place in our hearts and minds.

As such, the Lord is working His will so that when the old man dies, the Fruit of the Spirit is able to take root and bring forth even more fruit i. e. “much fruit”.

Though Heb 12:9-10 is speaking primarily in context about physical fathers who chasten us for their own pleasure (“kid, you need to LISTEN TO ME or ELSE!”), our Father of spirits does so for our spiritual benefit.

Given that we are describing the physical aspects of this chastening; we also know that there is a spiritual application to these same verses.

We have a father in our flesh who is the father of this world and all that is in it.

Gal 1:4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:

Joh 8:43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

1Jn 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1Jn 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

The reason I bring these things into focus for this study is to give us a little spiritual context on what we see happening at the beginning of Gen 50.

Gen 50:1 And Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.
Gen 50:2 And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.
Gen 50:3 And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.
Gen 50:4 And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,
Gen 50:5 My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.
Gen 50:6 And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.

Upon Jacob dying, we see that forty days and nights were fulfilled for his embalming, but why is this specific piece of information given to us?

There are several instances that should come to mind about “forty days and nights,” and here are a few.

Gen 7:4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.

Exo 24:18 And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.

Deu 9:9 When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tables of stone, even the tables of the covenant which the LORD made with you, then I abode in the mount forty days and forty nights, I neither did eat bread nor drink water:

Deu 9:13 Furthermore the LORD spake unto me, saying, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:
Deu 9:14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them, and blot out their name from under heaven: and I will make of thee a nation mightier and greater than they.
Deu 9:15 So I turned and came down from the mount, and the mount burned with fire: and the two tables of the covenant were in my two hands.
Deu 9:16 And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against the LORD your God, and had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the way which the LORD had commanded you.
Deu 9:17 And I took the two tables, and cast them out of my two hands, and brake them before your eyes.
Deu 9:18 And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

1Ki 19:1 And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.
1Ki 19:2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time.
1Ki 19:3 And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there.
1Ki 19:4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.
1Ki 19:5 And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.
1Ki 19:6 And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again.
1Ki 19:7 And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.
1Ki 19:8 And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
1Ki 19:9 And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?
1Ki 19:10 And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

And the last, but certainly not least of the examples I will read come forth from Christ:

Mat 4:1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
Mat 4:2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

I took the time to read these scriptures to give a little context to what I am about to point out. What happens when we have this mysterious number forty come into our lives is two- fold.

We covered the in the last study how the blessings being given to Judah and Joseph represent in type and shadow the significance of Christ making of twain one new man.

Well, we have just read several examples of this process happening in type and shadow.

When a GREAT FLOOD comes to the earth for forty days and nights, we see a great transformation which happens in that a great amount of death is produced, but on the other side life comes forth from the salvation of the ark with the ark representing Christ in type and shadow.

With Moses, he goes up into the midst of the terrible and thundering cloud of which the Israelites wanted no part of, and he comes down with the 10 commandments of which we literally for a lawless and disobedient people but put an end to the old way of life for the Jews.

1Ti 1:8 But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;
1Ti 1:9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

With Elijah, he is being persecuted for being a prophet of the Lord and must make a long journey to the mount of God in Horeb. Upon his arrival he confess’ that “he alone” is left of the Lord.

Look at what the Lord does in this situation revolving around “forty days and forty nights”.

1Ki 19:11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:
1Ki 19:12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
1Ki 19:13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?
1Ki 19:14 And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.
1Ki 19:15 And the LORD said unto him, Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus: and when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria:
1Ki 19:18 Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.

Out of this situation, we have the work of the hands of the Lord working the situation so that a SECOND time the Lord comes to Elijah and asks Elijah in a STILL SMALL VOICE, what Elijah’s purpose is “here” and the proclamation that there are 7,000 knees in Israel that have not bowed to Baal.

So, what in the world does “forty days and forty nights” reveal to us?

In the way the Lord works in our lives, it is the process of “forty days and nights” that death comes to the old man, for the old man must die, so that LIFE can come via the “BAPTISM of His death” to bring forth much life.

Forty is the multiplication of the number 4 representing “the whole” and 10 representing the “completeness of the flesh”. Forty represents the whole completeness of the flesh at its pinnacle.

This is the point in our walk where the WHOLE of what our flesh can produce has to be WIPED OUT.

However, forty also has a positive application in that it represents what is produced from this “deathly experience”.

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

What is that “much fruit” in this “type and shadow?” Remember, even Christ went througnthese forty days and nights before anyone was converted so the type applies to Him as well while IN THE FLESH.

Forty is a combination of eight multiplied by five. Eight represents the NEW MAN and five is the CHANNEL for which the new man, CHRIST in YOU is born. This happens via Grace and Faith.

2Ti 3:15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

1Pe 1:5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

“Mourning in the floor of Atad”

Bring this all into focus on what is happening to the children of Israel we see that the Pharaoh, typifying the Father “whom we gain permission from,” allows or “causes” us to do what we have promised to our father Jacob.

Gen 50:7 And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,
Gen 50:8 And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father’s house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.
Gen 50:9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company.
Gen 50:10 And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.
Gen 50:11 And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name of it was called Abelmizraim, which is beyond Jordan.

All the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of Joseph’s house and the elders of the land of Egypt make this journey to bury “the old man,” but the young ones stay behind. Even the representation of the strength of Egypt, chariots and horsemen make this journey as a VERY GREAT company.

Notice this great company comes to the threshingfloor of Atad, so what are we being told?

H329

‘a t a d

aw- tawd

From an unused root probably meaning to pierce or make fast; a thorn tree (especially the buckthorn): – Atad, bramble, thorn.

H329

‘a t a d

Total KJV Occurrences:6

bramble, 3

Jdg_9:14-15(3)

atad, 2

Gen_50:10-11(2)

thorns, 1

Psa_58:9

‘a t a d

BDB Definition:

1) bramble, thorn, buckthorn

2) the threshing Atad, meaning thorn, also called Abelmizraim and afterwards called Bethhogla was located on the west of Jordan between the Jordan and Jericho

Part of Speech: noun masculine

A Related Word by BDB/ Strong’s Number: from an unused root probably meaning to pierce or make fast

Same Word by TWOT Number:71a

So, what is located on the west of the Jordan between Jordan and Jericho?

Jdg 9:12 Then said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us.
Jdg 9:13 And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?
Jdg 9:14 Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us.
Jdg 9:15 And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.

Psa 58:1 To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David. Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
Psa 58:2 Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.

Psa 58:8 As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
Psa 58:9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
Psa 58:10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
Psa 58:11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.

What happens at Atad, on the west side of the Jordan, is that a completeness of the judgment of God is placed on the “old man” within us.

Gen 50:10 And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.

It is at Atad that we all grievously mourn the old man which is passing away.

What happens at Atad is that with the passing and burial of the old man, we have the fear of the Lord set upon our hearts in that we fear that God will now return vengeance upon us for our transgressions and sins we have committed.

What we don’t realize is that this process is actually very good for us and Joseph, Christ in type and shadow, has been BORN in us (“you must be BORN again[ Spirit and Water]”) and everything has happened so that “much people can be saved alive this day.”

Gen 50:12 And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them:
Gen 50:13 For his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a buryingplace of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.
Gen 50:14 And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.
Gen 50:15 And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.
Gen 50:16 And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
Gen 50:17 So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.

What Joseph’s response to them will be is that what the ark represents, what the commandments of God represent, what going beyond the Jordan to between the Jordan and Jericho represent, is that GOD has WORKED all these THINGS after the counsel of HIS OWN WILL!

Jericho is the first city that the Israelites conquered when entering into the Promised Land. It is significant that the old man dies and is going to be buried, that this great company come here to mourn the death of Jacob.

The conquering of Jericho is a long way off from where we are here in Genesis, but in type and shadow, this is showing us that we are going to be brought to the point that we get to the Promised Land by passing over the Jordan, but going through the Red Sea, by riding the waves in the arc, so that we can see in baptism we RISE into LIFE! I hope this is ringing true with your spiritual eyes and ears.

With all the being said and being true, we STILL are only STARTING to be at the point here where we go to fight the giants in this promised land and that is where Joseph’s brothers are in this story.

So, what is Joseph’s admonition to his family?

Gen 50:19 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
Gen 50:20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
Gen 50:21 Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

This whole process of Genesis is to show as the example of what the rest of scripture holds as a biblical example of what is to follow in all the rest of the books of the Word of God, cover to cover.

If you still aren’t convinced that this is talking about YOU and ME, then I want you to notice one last thing about how Genesis ends.

Gen 50:22 And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father’s house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years.
Gen 50:23 And Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation: the children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph’s knees.
Gen 50:24 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Gen 50:25 And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.
Gen 50:26 So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Joseph being the second to youngest brother of the tribes of Israel dies FIRST among all his brethren.

Christ too, DIES FIRST, having overcome “THIS LAND” of the flesh, so that He could bring much fruit into our lives in the Spirit and He speaks to us the same as Joseph speaks to His brethren.

Joh 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
Joh 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
Joh 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.
Joh 14:18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
Joh 14:19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
Joh 14:20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
Joh 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

As we conclude this book of Genesis, simply believe that “God will surely visit us” in our times of earthquake , during the violent winds which split the rocks, as the waves flood the boat and know that we will not be left comfortless.

The old man MUST die. We must die daily, but in doing so, Christ the resurrection will daily increase in us as we decrease and there will be a day, Lord willing, when we rise to see Him as He is for we will be as He is. He will save us from ourselves, AMEN!

Luk 1:68 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,
Luk 1:69 And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;
Luk 1:70 As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:
Luk 1:71 That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;
Luk 1:72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;
Luk 1:73 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,
Luk 1:74 That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,
Luk 1:75 In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.
Luk 1:76 And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;
Luk 1:77 To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,
Luk 1:78 Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,
Luk 1:79 To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Let us all go before the face of the Lord who prepares His ways giving knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins.

May your feet go in the Way of Peace!