Foundational Themes in Genesis – Study 80
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Foundational Themes in Genesis – Study 80 (Key verses: Gen 27:41-46; Gen 28:1-9)
Rulership in both earth (the “visible”) and heaven (the “invisible”) is the powerful inheritance of God’s firstborn, Jesus Christ (Mat 28:18; Rev 3:14; Col 1:15-16). This rulership is what Jesus also promised to all His spiritual sons, even in the thousand year reign on earth, and the time of judgement over those in the spiritual age in the lake of fire (Rev 20:4-15). These sons are the symbolic twenty four elders seated with Christ in judgement (Deu 7:6; Luk 12:41-44; Eph 2:6; 1Pe 2:9). The number twelve spiritually represents foundations and these sons of God will have authority over the foundations of the earth and the foundations of heaven (Gen 17:20; 1Co 3:11):
Luk 22:29 And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me;
Luk 22:30 That ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.Rev 4:4 And round about the throne were four and twenty seats [Greek: “thronos” = thrones]: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.
But by God’s design, the earth or the flesh is by nature an enemy of the heavenly things of the spirit of God, as it cannot receive or understand the spiritual things of God:
Rom 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Rom 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
This antagonistic relationship between the heaven and the earth was established right in the beginning and hidden in many parables to reveal to us in due time how these opposing spiritual worlds also play their role in our own lives:
Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Gen 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Gen 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.Gen 2:9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee [the serpent] and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
But both these spiritual dimensions were made for God’s good purposes by which He will establish His peaceful conclusion for all creation:
Isa 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.Gen 1:31a And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
This enmity and struggle is also typified in the twins of Isaac and Rebekah, even before they were born and it continued throughout their lives (Gen 25:22-23; Rom 9:10-13):
Gen 27:41 And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father [Isaac] blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand [Isaac’s death]; then will I slay my brother Jacob.
Jacob, the second born after his twin brother Esau, was the representative or type of God’s firstborn, Jesus Christ. Jesus came as the “last Adam” who is the only giver of spirit life as opposing to the earthly life which came through the first Adam (Rom 5:14):
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening [Life-giving] spirit.
1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
Through Jesus, God made provision for everything the sons of God will need in this earthy life, which He will use to eventually bring them to spiritual maturity:
Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
God also uses the evil He created, and also the wicked, to bring about His wonderful and marvellous works which the sons of God appreciate when they are given to see the purposes of all these things. The sons of God learn daily how to respect God’s wonderful works, and how to submit to God’s thoughts and ways (Isa 55:8-9):
Gen 50:19 And Joseph said unto them [his brothers who could not as yet understand that they were instruments in God’s hands to do evil to Joseph], 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.Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
In Jacob’s life God provided his mother, Rebekah, to help him to deceive his father, Isaac, to receive the blessing from his father (Gen 27:5-17). Jacob in the process also caused Esau to sell his birthright for a pottage of lentils (Gen 25:29-34). This was one very unhappy and divided home filled with deceit and conniving. Rebekah (her name means “ensnarer”) was the one who worked very hard and very meticulously in the process to see to it that Jacob was getting what she knew was rightfully his according to the word and revelation she received from God:
Gen 25:21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
Gen 25:22 And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
Gen 25:23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.
In this discussion of the sons of God we see how Rebekah is fulfilling her task. Even while she had the truth of God’s word in her heart, she used evil schemes and instructions of deception. All God’s sons will be exposed to evil influences in their journey to spiritual perfection, and they will fall victim in obeying and following after wrong ways. It will however bring much trouble and tribulation which Jacob in type will have to face and endure in time to come:
Pro 25:26 A righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring.
It is therefore important to note that the sons of God will also give an account to God through the judgment and wrath He will bring on them for “hold[ing] the truth in unrighteousness”:
Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Jacob will also find out in due time that all that has been “spoken in darkness” (after carnal thoughts and words) shall be revealed through judgment, especially as concerns the sons of God and their time in deception (Luk 12:47-48):
Luk 12:2 For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.
Luk 12:3 Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.Isa 26:9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
The spiritual sons of God through Jesus are also very much aware of their walk along this dark road “in times past” (Eph 2:2-3). But they will, by God’s chastening grace, receive the light of Christ and ask forgiveness and correct the wrong to do what is right in the eyes of God, but also in the eyes of the world (Rom 12:17):
2Co 8:21 (GNB) Our purpose is to do what is right, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of others.
1Co 10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
Rebekah’s last task was to see to it that Jacob is moved to a place of safety to escape the hatred and evil plans of Esau:
Gen 27:42 And these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah: and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, Behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee.
Gen 27:43 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran;
Gen 27:44 And tarry with him a few days, until thy brother’s fury turn away;
Gen 27:45 Until thy brother’s anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him: then I will send, and fetch thee from thence: why should I be deprived also of you both in one day?
What she told Jacob is not the same story Rebekah told Isaac as she again weaves her subtle cords of deception in a mastery fashion. The journey from one of the most beautiful love stories between the young Rebekah and Isaac, to where it is now, took many years to develop as no deception and separation happens without a history. When a person deals superficially with the removal of evil in this age, that person will come up with Isaac and Rebekah in the second resurrection where God’s sons (typified also by the seven angels with their seven vials) will judge them. There all will learn that God is extremely thorough in rooting out all evil (Rev 20:11-15). The sons of God are the first to receive these very same vials which opened the way into God’s temple:
Rev 15:6 And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.
Rev 15:7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.
The following are also the last words recorded in scripture which Rebekah spoke. But this is all written to show us that nothing and nobody is of more importance in this life than the purposes of God for His elected sons as God will move heaven and earth for His elect (Psa 2:6-8). We now see how the purposes of God are established even through this marriage of Isaac and Rebekah:
Gen 27:46 And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?
The name “Heth” means “terror” or “dread”, as Heth and his offspring are associated in that sense with death and a buryingplace, as revealed through Abraham:
Gen 23:3 And Abraham stood up from before his dead [Sarah], and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying,
Gen 23:4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.
The daughters of Heth also represent this death process of flesh even as they are part of the daughters of Canaan (the philosophies and doctrines of this world) which the sons of God were commanded by God not to get involved with. Isaac knew from personal experience through his father Abraham, that God wanted his sons to get their wives from his kindred in Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia spiritually represents Babylon, the land of the Chaldees from where Abraham originated:
Gen 24:2 And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh:
Gen 24:3 And I will make thee swear by the LORD, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell:
Gen 24:4 But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.
All the inhabitants of Canaan are representing our uncircumcised flesh and those who are in the promised land, but never even experienced spiritual Babylon. Canaan also harbours those who never endured the trials, tribulations and rejection needed to crush the old man in us (Gen 9:25; Jos 3:10; Jos 5:1-2; Jos 17:18; Zep 2:5). Canaan is the land of our spiritual father, the spiritual Amorite of flesh, and our spiritual mother, Heth:
Eze 16:3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite (a daughter of Heth).
But God will take His spiritual sons, God’s good figs, to an ever increasing period of trials and tribulations, for their good (Jer 24:5):
Exo 3:17 And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.
But this milk and honey period is taken to its fulfillment in the spiritual whore Babylon, where our Amorite nature is brought to its full climax (“the fourth generation” – Gen 15:16):
Jer 24:5 Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.
Jer 24:6 For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.
Jer 24:7 And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
It is in Babylon where the sons of God start to see the abominations in themselves and in that great city. This is when they can hear the voice of God to come out from her and be separated from all her false doctrines (Rev 14:8; Rev 18:1-24). But those born in Canaan (especially the daughters of Canaan) are in no position to appreciate the route that God uses to bring His sons to maturity, and that is also why Isaac, after blessing Jacob, had no choice to instruct him according to God’s divine order:
Gen 28:1 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.
Gen 28:2 Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother’s brother.
Gen 28:3 And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people;
Gen 28:4 And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.
Gen 28:5 And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padanaram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother.
Esau, following his spiritually dead carnal mind, was already married with two daughters of Canaan, but now he wanted to please his father by marrying in the family (Gen 26:34). But he did not know that even the generational line of Abraham through Ishmael was also the rejected line which could not please God (Rom 8:6-8; 1Co 1:29). This all witness once more to Esau’s attraction to the fragrance of death in pleasing the flesh for which he had no resistance (2Co 2:16):
Gen 28:6 When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him away to Padanaram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan;
Gen 28:7 And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram;
Gen 28:8 And Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father;
Gen 28:9 Then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had Mahalath [also known as “Bashemath” meaning “fragrance” – Gen 36:3] the daughter of Ishmael Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.
We will hear more about the generations of Esau when we get to Genesis 36, God willing. It is always amazing how God joins those who belong together to also separate the light from the darkness (2Co 6:14). This joining of people has both a positive and a negative applications:
Mar 10:9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
Pro 30:18 There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:
Pro 30:19 The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.
As Jacob will soon find out, even the sons of God must first be joined to the wrong wife before God will fulfil the divorce through His seven vials when the sons of God are established in the beautiful union to the bride of Christ:
Rev 21:9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.
Rev 21:10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.
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Detailed studies and emails relating to these foundational themes in Scripture are available on the www.iswasandwillbe.com website, including these topics and links:
The Number 12 – The Number of Christ
Come Out and Be Ye Separate
Coming Out of Babylon
What Becomes of Our Flesh?
How to Know God’s True Followers
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