Hi Mike,

I have been coming across this advertisement about the age of the Earth on youtube, which I strongly disagree with.  I believe that the Earth is only about six thousand years old, and I see no evidence to believe otherwise. I just want to be certain my beliefs are of one mind with the Bible. Perhaps you might do a timely study to expose any error in understanding concerning the age of the Earth.

YbitC, B____

Hi B____,

Thank you for your question about what is called ‘The Gap Theory of Creation’.

This man in the link you gave me quotes:

Isa 45:18  For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain [Hebrew: tohu], he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

Then he quotes:

Gen 1:2  And the earth was without form Hebrew, [tohu], and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Then he concludes that since Isaiah says it was not created in tohu, and Genesis 1:2 states that “the earth was… tohu”, therefore the earth had been created perfect, and something happened between verses 1 and 2 of Genesis 1, which caused the earth to ‘become’ tohu. He speculates that the period between verse 1 and 2 could be millions or billions of years. He points out that the Hebrew word ‘haya‘, translated as ‘was’ should have been translated as ‘became’ and should read ‘… the earth became tohu‘.

What this man will not allow is that the creation account begins with God creating a ball of mud in tohu: water and earth mixed together, out of which, in a mere six days, He separated the earth from the water and created dry land and all that is upon the dry land and in the waters and in the air. He created the ball of mud and step by step created dry land, plants, fish, birds and animals, all within a period of six “evenings and mornings” as we are told six times in Genesis one and again confirmed in:

Exo 20:11  For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

However, the entire six-day creation all began with a ball of mud, in tohu. It was in tohu because the creation was not yet completed. In its completed form, Isaiah 18 tells us: “…He created it not in vain [Hebrew: tohu], he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.”

The earth and the trees, the fish and all the animals in the sea, the birds and even Adam, were all created with the appearance of age and not as helpless babies. Why would not the earth itself be created with an appearance of age also? The trees were created with rings already in them. The birds were created with mature wings capable of flying, and Adam was created with an outward appearance of age. So there is no need for a lengthy gap between verses 1 and 2 of Genesis one.

There is an FAQ written over a decade ago dealing with this question. You can read it at this link:

Is There A Gap Between Gen 1:1 and 2?

There is nothing, not even the use of the word ‘haya’, to lead one to this man’s conclusion that since we are told the earth was not created in ‘tohu‘ that therefore ‘tohu‘ could not possibly have been part of the creation process. That is absurd.

Now just look at where we next see this word ‘haya‘:

Gen 2:25  And they were^{H1961 ‘haya’} both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Did Adam and Eve start off clothed only to “become naked”, as this man wants to make Genesis 1:2 read? That is a preposterous question. Adam and Eve were both created naked and in a sinful state. They did not become that way after millions or billions of years. It all took place in a very short period of time, and indeed “He created it not in ‘tohu‘, even though the creation process began with a ‘tohu‘ mass of mud. The creation simply was not yet complete, and God is simply revealing for our benefit that He is even now in the process of completing His creation as a new spiritual man, which began in a state of ‘tohu‘.

This ‘Gap Theory’ was the doctrine of the World Wide Church of God out of which Sandi and I were delivered back in 1973, so I am very familiar with it.

Read that link to the FAQ which was written over a decade ago, and if you still have questions, then feel free to get back to me.

YbitC, Mike

(Key verses: Genesis 46:1-30)

The book of Genesis provides a beautiful foundation for the whole process through which God will bring all in the first man Adam to spiritual maturity. This all starts off with the establishment of a physical six-day creation which also reflects the spiritual work of God within this first Adam in each person, which is all completed on the seventh day (Gen 1:1-31; Gen 2:1-3). Through the creation of heaven and earth, two opposing dimensions were also established by God, which replicates the two generational lines through Adam:

Gen 3:13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
Gen 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

These two opposing generations run throughout all of the scriptures which reflect our own road to spiritual maturity. These generations are the contrary natures of the fleshly “first man” with its worldly spirit as symbolised by the earth, and the spirit of God in the generation of the “second man”, Christ, the Lord from heaven (Gen 2:4; Joh 3:31; Rom 8:5-8; 1Jn 2:16):

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 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

The line of Christ, which is the seed of the woman, is typified in the scriptures by a small group of people through which God will bring the whole salvation process to fulfilment (Mat 22:14). The generations which reflect the fleshly line were always an enemy of the line which reflects the spirit of God, even right from the beginning:

1Jn 3:10 In this the children of God [the seed of the woman] are manifest, and the children of the devil [the seed of the serpent]: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.
1Jn 3:11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
1Jn 3:12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.

It is by our works that our hidden heart (our mind) is made manifest:

Mat 15:18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
Mat 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

Pro 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

The flesh and its carnal heart are only capable of producing evil works as this is what is happening “under the heavens”, even on the earth:

Ecc 1:13 (CLV) I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it.

After Cain killed Abel, the generational line of the seed of the woman was continued through Seth who was “instead of Abel” (Gen 5:3-32):

Gen 4:25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.

Even in this generational line through Seth most people were defiled by the pollutions of flesh. All the sons of God, even His elect, first live “according to the course of this world”, and will fornicate with the spirit of the world with its pride and lusts in the form of the “daughters of man” in the days of Noah (Eph 2:2-3; 1Jn 2:16):

Gen 6:1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
Gen 6:2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

However, one man in the generational line of Seth, namely Noah, found grace in God’s eyes and was kept undefiled within his generation by God (Tit 2:11-12):

Gen 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
Gen 6:9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

Disobedience, and all flesh with its inherent defilements, will be judged and totally destroyed by God as typified in the global flood through which only eight souls were saved:

1Pe 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

The number eight spiritually points to the new man coming forth from the total destruction of the old man (Rev 17:11). After the flood, the generational line of the new man was typified through the lives of men like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who were born in the line of Noah’s son, Shem. God gave all these men the promise of a great nation and a land of their own. This line of those who were faithful in their obedience to God is finally brought to a zenith in the life of Joseph, the favourite son of Jacob. After a twenty-two year absence from his family, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers when he was ruler over Egypt under the Pharaoh:

Gen 45:3 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence.

They were indeed troubled at his presence for he was as one raised from the dead. This revelation initiated a process of restitution after ten of his brothers sold him into slavery, and he had to spend thirteen years in Egypt going through several trials:

Gen 45:4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.

After revealing the Pharaoh’s dreams, Joseph was given rulership over Egypt and for the first seven years it was a time of “great plenty” in which Joseph gathered enough food to feed the whole world, and even now help his own family not only with food, but also with their feelings of guilt and grief:

Gen 45:5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

Before this revelation, the brothers of Joseph were already slowly taken through their time of judgment by Joseph, which typified the period of judgment in the lake of fire. This judgment is taking place after the symbolic thousand years under the rulership of God’s elect on the earth, symbolised by the seven years of “great plenty” in Egypt under Joseph’s rulership (Rev 20:3-15). The time of physical prosperity for the world is also a preparation period in which God is seeking an occasion against the flesh to bring it all to destruction, even our own fleshly wicked man of sin (Jdg 14:4; 1Ch 29:18; Psa 10:17; Psa 44:22; Isa 14:4-27; Isa 53:7; Act 8:32; Joh 6; Rom 8:36):

Jer 12:1 Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?
Jer 12:2 Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins.
Jer 12:3 But thou, O LORD, knowest me: thou hast seen me, and tried mine heart toward thee: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.

There were still several years ahead in which these internal torments in the brothers will take their ordained course. This again reveals to us that salvation and entry into the kingdom of God is only fully achieved when all the trials ordained for us are completed (Act 14:22):

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.

Joseph is used by God as a type of Christ, and His work though His elect to usher in the end of the age in our own lives, as it also points to the final stages of God’s plan of salvation for the whole world at the appointed time:

Gen 45:8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

In our time of being given dominion over our flesh, we still have an old man to deal with (Rom 6:1-23). While Joseph typifies the new spirit man in us who is being established in this rulership over flesh, Jacob, the father of Joseph is still alive (“doth my father yet live?”). In this sense Jacob typifies the old man in us who was pushed to the background when the life of Joseph was brought into focus in the book of Genesis. As the new man in us increases, the old man indeed is decreasing (Joh 3:30). In the last five chapters of Genesis, God brings Jacob back into focus for a different purpose, even at the command of Joseph to his brothers:

Gen 45:9 Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt: come down unto me, tarry not.

The theme of restitution helps us to see how God is bringing together all things in and through the Christ, and this theme is central to the function and purpose of the elect of God (Act 3:20-21; 1Co 15:22-28):

Act 3:18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
Act 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
Act 3:20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
Act 3:21 Whom the heaven [His elect] must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

Eph 1:9 (YLT) having made known to us the secret of His will, according to His good pleasure, that He purposed in Himself,
Eph 1:10 (YLT) in regard to the dispensation of the fulness of the times, to bring into one the whole in the Christ, both the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth–in him.

Although the details of God’s salvation for us are captured through “the sum” of God’s Word, by which we all must live in our own time, the book of Genesis provides us with a synopsis of the whole process (Psa 119:160; Mat 4:4). In Genesis God declared important aspects through the lives of the five main characters, namely Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph (Isa 46:10). Through Jacob (also called “Israel”) and his family’s lives, especially the experience of Joseph, we see how God will indeed bring it all together in the end. Jacob and his twelve sons are those from whom the physical Israel stems, but it is God’s spiritual Israel who are indeed the “sealed” elect of God as they were given the “advantage…much [in] every way… because that unto them were committed the oracles of God” (Rom 2:28-29; Rom 3:1-2):

Rev 7:4 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

Gal 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
Gal 6:16 And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

The spiritual “Israel of God” can be numbered or measured as the true temple of God in heaven, meaning they are able to receive the Word of God in their hearts and do it faithfully (Exo 15:26; Deu 6:6-8; 2Co 1:22; Eph 1:13; Eph 4:30):

Rev 11:1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.

Twelve is the number which spiritually indicates our foundation, whether in the flesh or in the spirit. Our spiritual foundations can only be established when the fleshly foundations are exposed and destroyed. The twelve sons of Jacob and their offspring are a shadow of the spiritual twelve tribes, which are the foundations of the new spiritual creation of God. These spiritual tribes are those who “were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb” (Rom 8:23; Jas 1:1; Jas 1:18):

Rev 14:3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
Rev 14:4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

It is the spiritual Israel who is given His spirit of wisdom to know how His redeemed church is built on the true spiritual foundation, which is Christ, and they are “the fulness of Him that filleth all in all” (Rom 8:23; Gal 6:15-16; Jas 1:18):

1Co 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Eph 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
Eph 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Eph 1:19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
Eph 1:20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
Eph 1:21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
Eph 1:22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
Eph 1:23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

After Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, he gave instructions for his whole family to join him in Egypt. Jacob is now on his way to Egypt to be reunited with Joseph, but he first established what God wanted in this move to Egypt as he sacrificed to God at Beersheba:

Gen 46:1 And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba [meaning “well of the oath”], and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac.

Abraham and the king of the Philistines (Abimelech) made an oath here, and the number seven is also linked to this place:

Gen 21:30 And he said, For these seven ewe lambs shalt thou take of my hand, that they may be a witness unto me, that I have digged this well.
Gen 21:31 Wherefore he called that place Beersheba; because there they sware both of them.

The number seven spiritually points to the completion of a process. It is in this time of sacrifice here at Beersheba that Jacob received the assurance from God that this is all of Him:

Gen 46:2 And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I.
Gen 46:3 And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation:
Gen 46:4 I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.

It is through the elect, God’s church, that all eyes will be opened or closed, even as Joseph is used by God to bring conclusion to the life of Jacob (Oba 1:21; Rev 5:1-14):

Eph 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
Eph 3:10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
Eph 3:11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The last chapters of Genesis refocus our attention on the spiritual promises of God of the salvation of all (“a great nation”) and the promise of a land (“bring thee up again”). Although Jacob was buried in Canaan after his death in Egypt, and his descendants returned later to Canaan in a great multitude, these promises of a “great nation” and a land can never be truly fulfilled in the physical, as only in Christ, the one seed, are all the promises of God truly fulfilled in spirit (Gen 50:5-13; Lev 26:11-12; Joh 6:63; Rom 9:8; 2Co 6:16; Php 3:7-8):

Rom 9:8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted [those that are numbered and sealed spiritually in the symbolic 144 000 (Rev 7:4; Rev 14:1-5)] for the seed.

Gal 3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

Gal 3:29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

2Co 1:19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea.
2Co 1:20 For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by [Greek: “dia” – through] us.

All the promises of God are concluded in and through the Christ, the Head and the body – Amen! We know that it is only through judgment that these promises are spiritually fulfilled, and God indeed brings comfort in that sense as all our trouble in this world is indeed purposeful (Isa 52:6-10; 2Co 1:3-5). Jacob was comforted by God at Beersheba as he brought all he had to be reunited with Joseph:

Gen 46:5 And Jacob rose up from Beersheba: and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.
Gen 46:6 And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him.

All Jacob’s physical offspring at this point in time were seventy in number:

Exo 1:1 Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob.
Exo 1:2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
Exo 1:3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
Exo 1:4 Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
Exo 1:5 And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.

Here we see that the number seven in one of its multiples (7 X 10) is emphasizing the completion of God’s work in the flesh, which is represented by the number ten. This is typifying the rest of God in us when we know that He was the One who worked it all from beginning to end through Jesus (Gen 2:1-3; Rom 11:33-36; Heb 4:1):

Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

All Jacob’s offspring are brought together as one family. Jesus will bring all His physical family to spiritual completion, even as Joseph wanted all his family with him as no exceptions were made. Jacob’s offspring through Leah were altogether thirty and three and were all included even though they were all born outside Canaan: Reuben and his four sons, Simeon and his six sons, Levi and his three sons, Judah and his three sons and two grandsons, Issachar and his four sons, Zebulun and his three sons, and also Dinah (Gen 46:8-15). Jacob’s offspring through his concubine Zilpah were also brought to live with Joseph, and they were altogether sixteen: Gad and his seven sons, Asher and his four sons, one daughter, and two grandchildren (Gen 46:16-18). Jacob’s offspring through the concubine Bilhah were altogether seven in number: Dan and his one son, Naphtali and his four sons (Gen 46:23-25). Jacob’s offspring through his beloved Rachel were altogether fourteen: Joseph and his two sons, Benjamin and his ten children (Gen 46:19-22). All of them settled in a fertile region called Goshen:

Gen 46:28 And he sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to direct his face unto Goshen; and they came into the land of Goshen.

The land of Goshen is also called “the land of Rameses” in the Scripture, and this word “Goshen” means “drawing near” according to the Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew Definitions (Gen 47:11). Goshen was the place where Joseph drew his family nearer to him, even as God draws everyone in Adam to Him through the Christ at the appointed time (Joh 6:44; 1Co 15:22-28):

Gen 46:29 And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen, and presented himself unto him; and he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.
Gen 46:30 And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive.

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 Called and The Chosen
Numbers in Scripture
The Christ and Times Aionios
The Meaning of “The Christ”
Rev 7:4-8 Who Are The 144,000 – Part 2

(Key verses: Gen 35:21-29: Gen 37:1-2)

The book of Genesis starts with a general picture of the creation of this physical world with the focus on one individual – the first man Adam. All these physical things or visible things of creation are used by God to serve as types of an inward spiritual process He is working to bring His spirit life through another individual, the last Adam, even Jesus Christ, through whom all things actually have their being from the beginning to the conclusion of this process (Rom 1:20; Rom 5:14; Act 17:28; Joh 1-1-5; Col 1:15-19; Rev 1:8):

1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

This narrowing down process is repeated throughout scripture to also emphasize this important truth which few can accept:

Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

God indeed has His chosen favorites through whom He works His plan to bring all to spiritual maturity eventually (Eph 1:3-12). Through the creation of heaven and earth, God also brought about two generational lines through Adam and his wife Eve, which again highlights God’s election and how He works with His chosen few to bring forth His purposes and desires (Gen 3:15; Rom 8:5; Gal 5:17; 1Jn 3:1-3; 1Jn 3:12-13). Naturally, we all start off with the spirit of the world in us, which opposes and hates the new spiritual generation in Christ, but the few chosen eventually become aware of their election in this age (1Jn 2:16; Rom 8:14-17). Through the life of Noah we see that this narrowing-down process applies even within those who are called and chosen as the sons of God, as God has a faithful few that will endure until the end (Mat 24:13; Mar 13:13; Heb 12:7; Rev 17:14):

Gen 6:1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
Gen 6:2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

From the whole human population on the entire earth, and from the chosen sons of God of that time, only eight people were saved through faithful Noah (2Pe 2:5):

Gen 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
Gen 6:9 These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.
Gen 6:10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

After the flood, the narrowing-down process is highlighted again through the generation of Shem, Noah’s one son who received the blessing from God above his other brothers (Gen 9:26-27). Through the offspring of Shem, the focus moves swiftly in the scriptures to the life of Abraham where much more detail is given to us about this man of faith and his descendants (Gen 10:21-32; Gen 11:10-31; 1Ch 1:17-27). Through faithful Abraham, we see the type of spiritual justification which comes through the faith of Christ in us (Rom 4:1-3; Gal 3:6-9). This justification by faith also establishes the foundation from which Isaac, a type of spiritual sonship in Christ, is entrenched and developed (Gal 3:26-29; Rom 8:14-23):

Gal 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Through the life of Jacob, we learn about the rights of the firstborn of the spirit of God, even our inheritance through Christ (Deu 21:15-17; Rom 8:29; Jas 1:18). As sons of God we also learn through the life of Jacob that the process of sanctification is a long and enduring work of God by which He positions us in the right place to function in God’s kingdom and to serve Him and those with whom we are joined in His body (1Co 12:12; Eph 4:16; Eph 5:31; Col 2:19). Sanctification has to do with getting purged from immature lusts driven by pride and self-righteousness:

2Ti 2:21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.
2Ti 2:22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

After the experiences of Jacob and his family in Shechem and Bethel, and also after the death of Rachel in Ephrath, they journeyed farther with their tents – now under the new name as the family of Israel (the prince that prevails with God):

Gen 35:21  And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar.

A tower usually spiritually refers to an elevation in us, whether it is the high-mindedness of the carnal mind of flesh, or the mind of Christ in us (Gen 6:5; Gen 11:1-6; 2Co 10:5; 1Jn 2:16; Psa 61:3; Psa 144:2; Pro 18:10). The name “Edar” refers to a flock, and it is the flock of Jacob (his own offspring) on whom the spotlight of the scriptures falls in this last section of Genesis. This period in the lives of the sons of Jacob also relates to how the tower of God (His mind) is established to bring in God’s spiritual rulership through the destruction of all human towers, even as typified by the life of Joseph (Jdg 9:51-54; Pro 18:10; Isa 30:25). Jacob was given twelve sons – the first ten sons were all from three different women: Leah, Jacob’s lesser loved wife bore him six sons; two sons from Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid, and two sons from Bilhah the handmaid of Rachel. But the last two sons, Joseph and Benjamin, were born from his favourite wife, Rachel:

Gen 35:23  The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun:
Gen 35:24  The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin:
Gen 35:25  And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali:
Gen 35:26  And the sons of Zilpah, Leah’s handmaid; Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padanaram.

With Jacob’s return to Canaan, his father Isaac was on his last days, and Jacob and Esau buried him when he died. Rebekah’s death is not mentioned in scripture, only the place of her grave with the buryingplace which Abraham bought for his family (Gen 49:30-32):

Gen 35:27  And Jacob came unto Isaac his father unto Mamre, unto the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned.
Gen 35:28  And the days of Isaac were an hundred and fourscore years.
Gen 35:29  And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Although both Esau and Jacob came together to bury their father, their two households or generations are used in the scriptures as opposing each other, again emphasizing this theme in scripture of the flesh’s opposition to the spirit (Gal 5:17). But now this opposition or contrast shows its application within the household of Jacob. It is this more intimate division in us which needs to be exposed, although painfully so. This also applies to the church of God as the apostle Paul also warns:

1Co 11:18 For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.
1Co 11:19 For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.

It is indeed through the life of Joseph and what he stood for, that we see how the house of Jacob is divided and disintegrating, to manifest Joseph’s approval by God. It is also through Joseph that the house of Jacob will eventually be reunited after many years of alienation. The theme of spiritual glorification is brought to us through these typical experiences of Joseph – from almost being killed by the brothers who hated him, to be eventually placed in the highest authority at that time, to rule the whole world of his day. What Jesus mentioned, and which was written down in Matthew concerning this road of spiritual glorification for His spiritual generation, sounds very familiar when we look at the life of Joseph, who was to be “separated from his brethren” (Gen 49:26):

Mat 19:28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Mat 19:29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.
Mat 19:30 But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.

This is the road of the elect in Christ who are being changed “from glory to glory” to be His true spiritual rulers on this earth, and they will also be the judges who will sit with Him on thrones:

2Co 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Through Joseph we learn so much about how rulership of this world is established (inwardly first), and how this process of spiritual glorification is masterfully worked by God in His elect (Psa 73:24; Isa 60:1-2; Isa 66:5; 2Th 1:12; 1Pe 5:10). This is how the apostle Paul described this process by which the spiritual sons of God are made faithful to be glorified in the Christ

Rom 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Rom 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Yes, it is only through suffering with Christ that we are glorified to bring fulfillment to God’s plan of salvation for all mankind (Eph 1:4-6):

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.
Rom 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

The experiences of Joseph are first given to us in the scriptures when he was at the age of seventeen where he, even at this young age, showed a strong desire for the truth, even at the risk of losing his life at that age:

Gen 37:1 And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan.
Gen 37:2 These are the generations of Jacob [as per Genesis 35:23-26]. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report [Hebrew: “dibbâh” = slander].

The first aspect that is mentioned here in terms of Joseph and his relationship with his ten brothers is this aspect of “their evil report”. In spiritual terms, the number ten relates to the flesh, and this physical age is an evil experience which is the report we must first live by (Ecc 1:13). We are first these ten brothers of Joseph before we are given to see and acknowledge our own evil report to our heavenly Father. The Hebrew word for “report” in verse 2 is the word “dibbâh” which means “slander” and this connects with ‘unbridled’ words and deceitful and evil actions (Rom 2:23-24; Eph 2:2-3; Eph 4:22; Php 1:27; Heb 13:5; Jas 1:26). Joseph’s fearlessness in bringing the slanderous words and deeds of his brothers to his father’s attention is very insightful. This slanderous report also relates to those who honour and glorify themselves believing they are God’s shepherds, but in doing so they rather bring dishonour to God. They twist God’s Word and reject His true doctrines (Jer 23:1-2; Jer 50:6). The faithful sons of God will have no fear or show no favour in bringing to the light these evil slanders of the unfaithful shepherds or the “hireling” who opposes the truth and flee when trouble comes to the flock (Joh 10:1-18; Tit 1:9):

Eph 5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
Eph 5:12 For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.
Eph 5:13 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.

Jacob is on the receiving end of all these evil slanders of these ten sons. The evil report of the deeds of Simeon and Levi, which was previously also brought to Jacob, caused him trouble and made his name “to stink among the inhabitants of the land” (Gen 34:30). The evil in the hearts of Simeon and Levi was revealed after their sister, Dinah, was raped by the son of the prince of Shechem (his name was also Shechem). Some of the sons of Jacob made a deceitful deal of forgiveness with Shechem and his father to have all the men of Shechem circumcised to allow intermingling and intermarriage between the two groups. However, Simeon and Levi slaughtered these men of Shechem on the third day after their circumcision while they were still in great pain. After this horrible series of events in Jacob’s household, yet another evil report concerning his family reached Jacob:

Gen 35:22  And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine: and Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve.

Reuben, the eldest son of Jacob, slept with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and this slanderous act was severely condemned by Jacob, even in his final words on his deathbed:

Gen 49:3 Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:
Gen 49:4 Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.

The reports of these acts of the sons of Jacob were also not what Joseph agreed with or took part. He was indeed separate from his brothers in these evil slanders against their father. This is not what these brothers wanted him to do as they wanted him to join them in these slanders. Even when they sold Joseph as a slave, they had no problem reporting deceitfully to their father Jacob:

Gen 37:31 And they took Joseph’s coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood;
Gen 37:32 And they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son’s coat or no.

Joseph is a type of Christ, and the world cannot accept the righteous report of God about His Son (Joh 8:18-19; Joh 8:54-59):

Isa 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?

The world also cannot accept the report of the Israel of God who declare with boldness that the Christ is indeed the Saviour of all men and that God “will have all men to be saved…to be testified in due time” (Gal 6:16; 1Ti 2:3-6). The world cannot accept that God has His favour on a few whom He elected because the world cannot stomach the fact that God uses “the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty”:

1Co 1:26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
1Co 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
1Co 1:29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.

Joseph, like Christ, was seen as an insignificant immature youth by his brothers, and he was despised and not esteemed by them. These evil slanders are what the Christ, Christ and His elected body of believers, will have to face all the time to be glorified (Luk 24:26; Luk 24:46):

Isa 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
Isa 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

When the two faithful spies, Joshua and Caleb, who had a “different spirit” than the spirit of the world in their fellow Israelites, came to report to Moses about the prosperous conditions of the promised land and that the inhabitants were actually no problem for God in whom they believed, the majority rejected this report because they preferred to believe the evil and faithless report of the other ten spies:

Num 13:32 And they [the ten spies] brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
Num 13:33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

Num 14:36 And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander [Hebrew: “dibbâh”] upon the land,
Num 14:37 Even those men that did bring up the evil report [Hebrew: “dibbâh”] upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.
Num 14:38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.

This is what Moses also codified for our learning concerning the false reports which elevate human perspectives:

Exo 23:1 Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
Exo 23:2 Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest [pervert] judgment.

God’s spiritual land and His spiritual promises will bring life to those who can receive His good news report, while the majority or multitude will love the evil and false reports, even coming through modern day news and media agencies highlighting the importance of human efforts and achievements. They do indeed despise the truth that God works all things after the counsel of His will and that nothing is outside of His control. The good report of God includes the judgment of God on our old man and all its false reporting about God (including all human ideologies and false religions). We shall all give an account of our own multitude who murmurs against God and slanders His ways of doing things in this creation:

Rom 14:12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

It is in giving this truthful account that we break ranks with our fleshly brothers in the first Adam and become the target of those whose works do not witness to the light and truth of Christ. As it happened to the righteous Christ, who also reflected openly about the evil reports of His physical Jewish leaders and brothers, so Joseph brought his brothers’ evil report to his father. This action of God’s elect will always inspire more intense hatred and despising in the hearts of those who oppose the truth, as it happened with Joseph’s brothers towards him (Ecc 4:4; Mat 10:22; Joh 10:34). At this point in time Joseph had no idea what evils were still ahead of him, especially at the hands of his own brothers. In the end, when they all reconciled with him, he could utter this comforting and truthful report to the same brothers:

Gen 45:5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

The final report that Jacob received about Joseph was the best report of all. The report of death has changed to a report of life, even as all in the body of death of the first Adam will be given the resurrection from that death to be given spirit life in Christ:

Gen 45:24 So he [Joseph] sent his brethren away, and they departed: and he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way.
Gen 45:25 And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father,
Gen 45:26 And told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob’s heart fainted, for he believed them not.

Jacob revived on hearing the words of Joseph and seeing the wagons, typifying the words of Christ and His provisions through them:

Gen 45:27 And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived:
Gen 45:28 And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.

After Jacob’s death, Joseph’s brothers still believed he would take vengeance on them and could not as yet accept Joseph’s truthful forgiveness, neither could they understand the sovereignty of God over all things in this creation:

Gen 50:18 And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.

Joseph indeed mentioned their evil again, but it was not done to bring up old matters which they thought Joseph kept in his heart against them, but rather he did that to show God’s report to them and that they were part of His plan and His acts:

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.

Our own evil and slanderous reports will be replaced by God’s truthful report as being the one true God who works all things to bring forth His holy desires (Job 23:13; Isa 46:10). To compile this report of the works which are all caused by our heavenly Father will require us to see that we indeed live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. This is also what Job had to learn through his painful trials which brought increasing maturity in Job:

Job 2:10 But he said unto her [his wife], Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

Our spiritual glorification as ministers of God comes through the acknowledgement of both evil and good reports – “all things are yours” (1Co 3:21-23):

2Co 6:4 But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,
2Co 6:5 In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings;
2Co 6:6 By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,
2Co 6:7 By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,
2Co 6:8 By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true;
2Co 6:9 As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed;
2Co 6:10 As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

God created all things for His good purposes, and that is why they are very good as He alone can call evil good (Gen 1:31; Isa 5:20). God is the only one who is accountable or responsible for everything in His creation because He designed and structured all reports and accounts long before we even become aware of this truth – our books are all in His book:

Psa 139:16 (ASV) Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.

————

Detailed studies and emails relating to these foundational themes in Scripture are available on the iswasandwillbe.com website, including these topics and links:

How Does Christ Manifest Himself to Us But Not to The World?

How Do We Know We Are Elect?

Make Your Calling and Election Sure – Part 2

Numbers in Scripture

Did Joseph Slander His Brothers?

Why We Are Hated of All Men

What is The Glory of God?

Key verses: Gen 20:1-18

God created the generation of the fleshly Adam to be given an evil experience first, and afterward He will conform all in that Adam into the spiritual image of His Son, Jesus Christ, through a lengthy spiritual judgment process (Gen 2:7; Gen 3:19; Jer 18:4; Rom 8:20):

Ecc 1:13  I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it. (CLV)

1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

One of the biggest mistakes we make in our journey in this life is to underestimate the deceptive powers of evil which God created, even in this flesh (Isa 45:7; Pro 16:4; Rom 7:14-23). The life of Abraham is a beautiful Old Testament type of the constant battles inside us even after we have a few big battles behind us in our spiritual development. The spirit of lasciviousness is always very active after a victorious battle in one area of our lives or when our guard is down when we “bless [our]self in [our] heart” (Num 32; 2Sa 11-12; Luk 18:10-14):

Deu 29:18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;
Dwu 29:19 And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst.

We must take heed to ourselves when we read this important warning, which was given to the physical nation of Israel to not become overly confident after they have seen the provision and miracles of God in Egypt and in the wilderness (1Ti 4:16; 1Co 10:11; Rom 15:4). After all the trials of Abraham’s faith and the victories he achieved, he moved toward the south again, which is also significant to take note of if we want to understand our own deceptive flesh and its convincing arguments:

Gen 20:1 And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.

Gerar was a Philistine city with very fertile farmlands in its surrounding valleys, which is where Abraham, and later also Isaac, lived during their sojourning (Gen 21:32; Gen 26:12; 2Ch 14:13-15). Knowing that judgment, even through various trials, symbolically comes from the north, moving toward the south symbolically indicates a spiritual slack in our approach to learn about the righteousness of God and His doctrine (Jer 1:13-16; Jer 6:1; Isa 14:31; Isa 26:9). This slackness in the growth of faith is also what we see in the life of Abraham when he moved southward to the land of the Philistines. Here in Gerar Abraham denied his wife, Sarah, for the second time after he previously did this in Egypt several years before when he also moved southward (Gen 12:9-20):

Gen 20:2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

Abimelech means “father of the king,” and this name is also linked to a title of rulership in Philistine cities throughout the scriptures (Psa 34; 1Sa 21:10-15; Psa 56:1). It was also before Abimelech that Isaac, Abraham’s son, later denied his wife, Rebecca, when he moved south to Gerar while there was famine in Canaan (Gen 26:1-11). Spiritually we all deny our wives when we leave the truth contained in the doctrine of Christ and through our lusts and pride become involved with the deceitful doctrines of the spirit of this world in us (1Jn 2:16). Through these three occasions of denying one’s wife via Abraham and Isaac, we learn that this spiritual process of denying Christ and His truth will always be a huge temptation until the end. During this period of denial while Abraham lived in Gerar, God is using a very important method to bring sanity back to Abraham which appears here for the first time in scriptures:

Gen 20:3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife.

This is the first time dreams appear in the scriptures as a way which God also ordained to communicate with mankind. We will briefly touch on this theme of dreams as it relates to the foundational theme of faith in this discussion as the topic of dreams will come up as a separate theme in Genesis in a future discussion, God willing. The generation of Adam always has a big fascination with dreams (“by night”) as it also opens up so many avenues through which God sends His spirits to us as He works all things after the counsel of His will (Heb 12:9; Eph 1:11). This is how Elihu also brings this important foundational truth about dreams to the attention of Job and his three comforters – and all of us:

Job 33:15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed;
Job 33:16 Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction,
Job 33:17 That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.

Dreams are indeed used by God to bring various messages to people, including specific instructions as we see here in the case of this king of Gerar (Mat 2:12-13). God is the cause of everything, and He also brings frightening messages and strong delusion to deceive mankind through dreams (Job 7:14; Ecc 5:7; Isa 21:4; Dan 2:1; Mat 27:19; Eze 14:1-9; Jer 23:25-29; Job 33:15-17; Isa 29:7-11).

Jer 29:8 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.

Speech and knowledge come to us through words which reveal spirits or the “fowls that fly in the…heaven” even as “the firmament shows His handiwork” in our heart/mind (Gen 1:20-23; Rev 19:17; Mat 13:19; Eph 6:12; Psa 19:1-3). Mental images, like dreams, attach themselves also to words or meaningful concepts in our mind. We are commanded by God to try every spirit behind words that come to us, and this also applies to the interpretation of dreams (1Jn 4:1-6). The only true way to try any spirit is by the spirit of God which is His infallible word as the true interpretation of any dream belongs to God:

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Gen 40:8 And they said to him, We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said to them, Do not interpretations belong to God? Now tell it to me.

God speaks in various similitudes (“dark sayings”) to us before we can see the enlightening brightness of His express image in His Word (Psa 78:1-4; Pro 1:6; Hos 12:10; Eph 1:17-18):

Heb 1:1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
Heb 1:2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;
Heb 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.

When God speaks “mouth to mouth” with a person, it is deeply intimate, and there is no chance of delusion to creep in. This intimacy is the prerogative of God’s elect in this life, and God makes no excuse for His choices, as typified in the way God spoke to Moses:

Num 12:6 And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.
Num 12:7 My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house.
Num 12:8 With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?

The Word of God is the highest expression and measure of spirituality which also reveals the very mind of God through Christ, the Word (Joh 1:1-3). God indeed speaks in different ways to people, but in the final analysis it must be tested against the expressed word of God, even that Word “which is written”:

1Co 4:6 And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.

Faith comes only through the Word, and no other communication from God can replace this in the final analysis if we are to please God (Rom 10:17; Heb 11:6; Rom 1:17). Only the faith of Christ will produce the works of Godly righteousness in our lives (Gal 5:22-23; Eph 2:10; 1Ti 5:25; 2Ti 3:17; Jas 2:17). The strong delusion of gnosticism and mysticism (especially Christian mysticism) is prevalent even in our day and especially in the field of dreams and dream analysis. God willing, we will avoid “profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science [knowledge] falsely so called” which hide false and deceitful spirits (1Ti 6:20). The fear of the Lord is only found in the obedient submission to His word as the highest authority on any subject, and all else should be seen as vanities and deceit of men (Isa 55:8-9):

Ecc 5:7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.

Jer 23:25 I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.
Jer 23:26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;
Jer 23:27 Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.
Jer 23:28 The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD.
Jer 23:29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

Spiritual chaff is when we take pride in our dreams and visions and follow man – even our own man of sin and his spiritual ideas (2Th 2:3-4). This chaff prevents us from seeing that it is God who also brings those deceitful dreams and their fulfillment which becomes the strong delusion from which few escape in this life (Jer 23:27; 2Th 2:11):

Deu 13:1 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
Deu 13:2 And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
Deu 13:3 Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deu 13:4 Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.
Deu 13:5 And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.

Abimelech was the king of a righteous nation, from his perspective:

Gen 20:4 But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?
Gen 20:5 Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.

The words “in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this” expose Abimelech’s self-righteous attitude as he is convinced that he is the cause of his not sinning. Abimelech sees himself as ruler of a “righteous nation”, as the Philistines are used by God as a symbol of our own uncircumcised self-righteous Babylonian flesh which has limited communication with God. This is when we believe we have faith, but it is all of our own doing. This is the counterfeit faith which is causing us to do wonderful good works in God’s name when we cannot “approve things that are excellent” (1Co 12:31):

Php 1:9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;
Php 1:10 That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere [unfeigned faith – 1Ti 1:5] and without offence till the day of Christ;
Php 1:11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

Jesus warned about this untried and insincere faith that abounds not “more and more in [true] knowledge and in all judgment” (1Pe 1:6-9; Rev 15:8):

Mat 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

As in the case with this Abimelech, this self-righteous flesh will always compare and point to the life and words of God’s elect when the elect do err and walk deceitfully after the darkness of their carnal mind (2Co 10:12). Abraham indeed told lies about his true relationship with Sarah though she was of the same father as Abraham, but not of the same mother (Gen 20:12). A half lie is a 100% lie, as a little leaven affects and infiltrates the whole lump eventually if not repented of and removed quickly (Gal 2:4-5; 1Co 5:1-7; 1Jn 3:3):

Gal 5:9 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

God acknowledged Abimelech’s innocence in this respect but also reveals to him (and us) that it is God who keeps anyone from falling:

Gen 20:6 And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.

God is the only One that is able to keep us from falling:

Jud 1:24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
25 To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

The phrase “that [God] is able to keep us from falling” does not deny the truth that He also is the cause behind our falling.

Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

This is what God also reveals through His words in the dream of Abimelech and the lie of Abraham (Psa 119:10-11; Rom 1:28):

Gen 20:7 Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.

Abraham is still God’s chosen prophet, and he is ordained by God to pray for Abimelech to stay alive! It is through the elect that God will bring spirit life because they are the true prophets of God. They are the only ones ordained by God to speak His words and doctrine of truth. As we see in Abraham’s life, this includes the humiliating process in which the just man shall fall seven times and be risen up to fulfill this duty. The elected ones in God’s house are indeed first to be crushed to powder in this life and shall never come to God in haughty fleshliness (1Pe 4:17; Mat 21:44):

Pro 24:15 Lay not wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; spoil not his resting place:
Pro 24:16 For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

The “dwelling of the righteous” is the mind of Christ and His true doctrine. To have that in your midst will surely bring death to the flesh, and that is what the presence of Sarah in Abimelech’s household symbolized:

Gen 20:8 Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid.

God’s truths reveal and destroy our own self-righteousness, pride and lusts for our ultimate salvation from this earthly life (Joh 1:5; 2Pe 1:19). The carnal mind cannot understand or accept God’s fiery and fearsome judgment because it cannot see why self-righteousness must be replaced with God’s righteousness in our lives (Isa 26:9, 1Co 2:14):

Gen 20:9 Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done.
Gen 20:10 And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing?

It was the Philistines who also housed the ark of God for a time and wanted to get rid of it when they found that death of the flesh is associated with the truth of God (1Sa 5:1-12; 1Sa 6:1-21). Abraham’s explanation to Abimelech as to why he lied to him is very revealing to us:

Gen 20:11 And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife’s sake.
Gen 20:12 And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.
Gen 20:13 And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.

This subtle lie was part of the life of Abraham (which Sarah also agreed with) since the time they left Ur in the land of the Chaldees. It appeared when needed, and Abraham never dealt with this lie properly. Our flesh has a way to hide pet sins as if they are innocent and not harming anyone. Our flesh believes its own delusion and is in love with its own solutions. It devises deceptive and creative schemes to avoid judgment on these private sins. However, our deepest hidden motives will be judged by God as we must be sure that our sins will find us out when we avoid entering into battle against these hidden enemies (Num 32:23). God in His mercy will bring His deliverance through very strange ways, even through the dreams and sacrifices of the world:

Gen 20:14 And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and womenservants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife.
Gen 20:15 And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee: dwell where it pleaseth thee.
Gen 20:16 And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that are with thee, and with all other: thus she was reproved.

Even the world knows that taking another man’s wife is a grievous sin in the eyes of God which will serve as a shameful rebuke when we take our eyes off God’s pearl of great price, even His doctrine (Job 31:1). This sacrifice of possessions from the side of this Philistine king all proves that God’s truth will be established in our hearts through His fiery humbling process – a thousand pieces of silver (10 X 10 X 10) points to the process of how God’s word is tried in a furnace of earth (Mat 4:4; Psa 12:6; Pro 17:3). Our righteous judgments and our walk should exceed that of the world (Mat 5:18-20). To disobey the doctrine of Christ does not only bring great shame, but if we do not repent of our sins, a terrible punishment awaits when we indeed tread the Son of God under our feet:

Heb 10:29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
Heb 10:30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
Heb 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

God’s elect will be kept faithful to His commandments as they will be humbled to admit to their sins and agree with their adversary quickly before they bring a gift to the altar of God (Mat 5:23-26). God’s faithful elect will be used by God to the salvation of Jesus to all in the generation of the first Adam:

Gen 20:17 So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children.
Gen 20:18 For the LORD had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham’s wife.

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Detailed studies and emails relating to these foundational themes in Scripture are available on the iswasandwillbe.com website, including these topics and links:

Abraham and Isaac Denying Their Wives
Ecc 5:3-10 “For In The Multitude of Dreams and Many Words There Are Also Divers Vanities”
Understanding Dreams
Strong Delusion

(Key verses: Gen 24:1-10)

The faith of Christ is a foundational truth of the doctrine of Christ, but faith also abides now and is, in the end, an essential part of the mature fruit of the spirit if we are to please God (Heb 11:6):

Heb 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
Heb 6:3 And this will we do, if God permit.

1Co 13:13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Rev 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and [keep] the faith of Jesus.

The work of Christ in us is compared to a plant, a building and a human body, among others, in the scriptures. There is something that is a common denominator in all of these:

1Co 3:7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
1Co 3:8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
1Co 3:9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.
1Co 3:10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

This foundation (Christ) is the common denominator for growth or increase (Heb 6:3).  A foundation is to a building as roots are to a plant – it is the basis of growth and maturing, and without a sound basis, proper growth cannot take place. Growth also is essential to maturing, even as Christ is both the foundation and the finisher of all aspects of His doctrine, including faith (1Co 3:11). This growth is also compared to a race or a battle – not against others who compare themselves with others, but more within ourselves – the old man Adam in us versus the new man or the last Adam – Christ – in us (2Co 10:12; Eph 4:22-24):

Heb 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

When faith stays at its foundation level, it is called stagnation (being idle) or spiritual immaturity. That type of faith cannot see beyond the physical application of the Word of God. It is indeed with boldness, which God supplies, that anyone will be empowered to go beyond the veil of the flesh and to enter into the higher heavens of understanding truth:

Heb 10:19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
Heb 10:20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.

The apostle Peter describes this growth and maturing in faith and all that should be added to faith, as follows:

2Pe 1:5 (MKJV) But also in this very thing, bringing in all diligence, filling out your faith with virtue, and with virtue, knowledge;
2Pe 1:6 and with knowledge self-control, and with self-control, patience, and with patience, godliness,
2Pe 1:7 and with godliness, brotherly kindness, and with brotherly kindness, love.
2Pe 1:8 For if these things are in you and abound [Greek: pleonazō = grow / increase], they make you to be neither idle nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the life of Abraham, this growth in his faith toward God is given to us as this type of becoming mature through the works which come through the faith of Christ in us (Rom 4:3; Rom 4:12; Rom 4:16; Gal 3:14; Heb 11:8-10; Heb 11:17; Jas 2:21). In Genesis chapter 24 we find another important stage in Abraham’s life in relation to his growth in faith. This is the longest chapter in the book of Genesis, which will be divided in four segments for the purpose of this discussion:

• Verses 1 to 10: Abraham gives specific instructions to his servant about a wife for Isaac;
• Verses 11 to 28: the servant of Abraham went to find this wife and meet Rebekah;
• Verses 29 to 61: the servant of Abraham meets the family of Rebekah;
• Verses 62 to 68: Isaac meets Rebekah and takes her as his wife.

We will only deal today with the first section (verses 1 to 10) where Abraham, as a loving father to Isaac, commissioned his servant to find a wife for Isaac. This also links to our heavenly Father who sends His servants, throughout the history of the church, to bring the bride to Christ and invite and prepare that bride for the big wedding feast (Mat 22:1-3; Rev 19:7; Rev 20:4-6).

2Co 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Eph 5:31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
Eph 5:32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

The focus is mainly on this servant in this section. Abraham is said to be of a high age when this servant was given these instructions:

Gen 24:1 And Abraham was old [Hebrew: “zâqên” = aged / an elder in wisdom], and well stricken [Hebrew: “bô” = advancing] in age [Hebrew: “yôm”]: and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things.

The concept of age is repeated in that one verse which helps us to see that this is not merely talking of physical age only, but more to Abraham’s maturity in terms of his growth in his relationship to God being blessed “in all things”. Abraham started to act like God because that is the sign of maturity (Rom 12:2; 1Jn 4:17). Another reference to age is also found in the next verse which also links to this concept of maturity:

Gen 24:2 And Abraham said unto his eldest [Hebrew: “zâqên” = an elder in wisdom] 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:

This servant is not mentioned by name although some speculate that this could be Eliezer of Damascus which was mentioned in Genesis 15 (Gen 15:1-2). The point of this servant is to show us that he was a mature servant in the household of Abraham, and God only commissions His mature servants to do certain tasks (Luk 22:32; Acts 1Co 12:28-31; 1Co 13:11-13; Eph 4:11-12; Tit 1:5; Tit 2:3-5; 1Pe 5:1; Heb 5:14). Mature servants listen to all of their master’s instructions and diligently do them. In our time of service to God in His household of faith, we are maturing in the spirit, and God’s spirit also enables us to recognize the true bride of Christ which is His true church. God’s spirit also empowers us to serve the church of Christ in whatever capacity is needed. All of these combine within this symbol of a servant in this story in Genesis 24 as this servant also had to make a vow to Abraham:

Gen 24:2…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…

This is the first time the symbol of a thigh appears in scripture. This manner of making a vow also appears when Joseph had to swear to Jacob about the specifics of the place of his burial (Gen 47:29). The thigh relates to power as the thigh is the most powerful part of the body to bring action forth (Rom 1:20; Gen 32:25; Eze 24:4). The thigh also contains the strongest, longest and heaviest bone in the body, called the femur. It is interesting to note that the thigh is also the place where a sword was attached in the scriptures, also relating to the aspects of might, glory and majesty in power (Son 3:8):

Psa 45:3 Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty.

Rev 19:16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

When we put all the meanings of this symbol of a thigh together it becomes clear that Abraham is giving this servant the legal right (power of attorney in a sense) to find this wife for Isaac. This relates to us as God’s servants who are given this faith of Christ through His powerful Word to unite us to His spiritual bride and to be confident in our work within His church and in the world, even under the worst oppression and tribulations (Rom 10:17; 2Co 10:2; Eph 3:11-13; Eph 6:17; Heb 3:6):

Act 28:30 And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house [while in captivity in Rome], and received all that came in unto him,
Act 28:31 Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.

1Co 2:4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
1Co 2:5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

It is this powerful Word who is sent by the Father and given to His servants to draw the bride to Christ (Joh 6:65):

Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

All God’s true servants use only the Word of God to draw people to Christ because they know the mighty spiritual power in those words through their own experience (Rom 5:1-6). They keep within the safe parameters of what is written and stay far away from the wisdom of man which only puffs up according to human pride and lusts (Joh 2:16):

1Co 4:6 And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.

Abraham wants this servant to make this vow to him and to be diligent in following his specific instructions of getting a wife for Isaac. The first instruction concerns our perspective of the bride of Christ:

…that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell.

All the inhabitants of Canaan are representing our uncircumcised flesh, and those who are in the promised land but have never yet 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 symbol of our first birth and time of enjoying the flesh, which is the land of spiritual immaturity of milk and honey (Heb 5:12-13):

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.

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.

Abraham’s second instruction to his servant is also significant:

Gen 24:4 But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.

Abraham came from Ur in the land of the Chaldees in Mesopotamia and here we see a very important pattern being set (Acts 7:2). This land of the Chaldees is spiritually also very significant in our path to spiritual growth and also to those with whom we associate spiritually (Php 3:17; 2Jn 1:9-11):

Psa 37:37 Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.

We must be careful to mark whether those with whom we spiritually connect were taken “out of” the land of birth by God:

Gen 15:7 And he [God] said unto him [Abraham], I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.

The land of the Chaldees is also known in the scriptures as part of the region of Babylon (Isa 48:14; Dan 2:1-2; Dan 5:30; Dan 3:8-12):

Isa 13:19 And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

Isa 47:1 Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.

The wives of Abraham, Isaac, and also later Jacob, were all from the land of Babylon where Abraham heard the voice of God for the first time. This spiritually links to the time we heard the call of God on our lives and when we found our first love for Christ in His foundational principles of His doctrine – our first spiritual wound (Heb 6:1-2; Rev 13:3a). This also links to the time after physical Israel applied the blood on the doorpost in the land of slavery and sin (symbolized by Egypt) and after they were “baptized” in the Red Sea. This is also the time when the first spiritual wound is healed, and we are amazed with the physical healings and miracles God performs (Rev 13:3b-17). This relates to the “fathers” of physical Israel who experienced all these things and yet could not enter the promised land:

1Co 10:1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
1Co 10:2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

It is to this land of the Chaldees where the elder servant of Abraham was sent to look for a bride for Isaac. It is only the “few” who have been enabled by God to come out of the “many” in spiritual Babylon who are given the will to come to Christ to be His true bride. The servant of Abraham highlights another important aspect with his question to Abraham:

Gen 24:5 And the servant said unto him, Peradventure the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land: must I needs bring thy son again unto the land from whence thou camest?

Like this servant of Abraham we also at a certain stage will be more focused on our abilities and qualifications to bring the bride to Christ, and we cannot see clearly that God works all things if we obey Him in doing what He told us to do (Eph 1:11; Php 2:12-13). We always need to be reminded that it is a work of God from start to finish and that He will build His church, and nothing and no one can stop Him to fulfill that to the minutest detail. In our growth in the faith of Christ, we will receive the revelation of the Father that He is the One who rules and controls everything. He binds or loosens first in heaven and then that is applied on earth – this is the true chain of command:

Mat 16:15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
Mat 16:16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Mat 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Mat 16:19 (CLV) I will be giving you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, and whatsoever you should be binding on the earth shall be those things having been bound in the heavens, and whatsoever you should be loosing on the earth, shall be those having been loosed in the heavens.”

Mat 6:10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Abraham’s third instruction to his servant links to this position of Christ as revealed by the Father and seen in Abraham’s words concerning Isaac as a type of Christ:

Gen 24:6 And Abraham said unto him, Beware thou that thou bring not my son thither again.

Nothing is initiated on the earth, and nothing on the earth can limit, change or derail God’s work in any way. As the rain comes from heaven and waters the earth to bring forth all things, so is God’s will the only free will ruling supremely over all of His creation (Isa 55:8-11). This is the line of authority as God will also send His angel ahead of this servant to prepare the hearts of those who must receive His truth as indicated by Abraham also (Psa 10:17; Psa 139:16; Pro 16:1; Mat 13:11-17;Eph 1:11; Rev 21:2):

Gen 24:6 And Abraham said unto him, Beware thou that thou bring not my son thither again.
Gen 24:7 The LORD God of heaven, which took me from my father’s house, and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and that sware unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land; he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence.

Abraham wanted the wife of Isaac not to respond according to sight, even as the bride of Christ will only respond to faith and live by faith to endure until the end (Joh 20:29; Rom 1:17; Rom 8:24; 2Co 5:7; Heb 10:38; Heb 11:1). Although we all start off by serving Christ after the flesh while we are in spiritual Babylon, we mature to worship Him in spirit and truth and regard Him no more in physical terms (2Co 5:16). We must fulfill that physical part of our walk in faith first before we are given the humility to see that we are indeed nothing of ourselves as we are called to “come out of her”, even as the wife of Isaac was to take a long journey from the land of the Chaldees to be with Isaac (Mat 4:17; 1Co 10:11-12; 1Pe 5:5-6):

Rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come [this verb “exerchomai” is in the Greek Aorist tense meaning it is an ongoing process] out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

There is no pressure on this servant of Abraham as the choice of a wife for Isaac is not his, and Abraham also supplied him with everything:

Gen 24:8 And if the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath: only bring not my son thither again.
Gen 24:9 And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and sware to him concerning that matter.
Gen 24:10 And the servant took ten camels of the camels of his master, and departed; for all the goods of his master were in his hand: and he arose, and went to Mesopotamia, unto the city of Nahor.

God supplies all His strength and His ability even in our task to be the bride of Christ and to supply for those we must bring into this body of believers in this age (Php 4:13). Jesus said all spiritual authority was given to Him by the Father, and this spiritual authority is given to His servants to fulfill the job He has given them to do:

Mat 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Joh 20:21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
Joh 20:22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
Joh 20:23 Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.

Next week, God willing, we will continue with the other segments of this beautiful work of faith in our lives, as also described in Genesis 24.

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Detailed studies and emails relating to these foundational themes in Scripture are available on the iswasandwillbe.com website, including these topics and links:

The Parable of the Prodigal Son
Come Out of Her My People
Coming Out of Babylon
Revelation 18:1-4
Revelation 19:6-10

(Key verses: Gen 22:20-23; Gen 23:1-20)

In our previous discussion we saw how God intervened to save Isaac’s life after God revealed Abraham’s obedient heart of faithfulness to His commandments. The scripture says Abraham received Isaac back from the dead in a figure as he had already accepted Isaac’s death (Heb 11:17-19). After this event on mount Moriah in Genesis 22, the scriptures added a few names which seem to have no relation to this trial of Abraham’s faith. This all prepares us for what is about to take place in Abraham’s household:

Gen 22:20 And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she hath also born children unto thy brother Nahor;
Gen 22:21 Huz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram,
Gen 22:22 And Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel.
Gen 22:23 And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Abraham’s brother.

These are very emotional times for Abraham as he also received news from his family in Mesopotamia. The name that stands out in these verses is that of a daughter, Rebekah, who was an offspring of one of the eight sons of Abraham’s brother, Nahor. As God knew all things in advance and works all these things after the counsel of His will, He never intended Abraham to slay Isaac because God had already prepared a wife for him (Isa 46:10; Isa 55:8-9; Rom 11:33; Eph 1:11).

That trial in Abraham’s life prepared him for the next one which would test Abraham’s faith in a much deeper and personal way. In this discussion on the foundational theme of faith, we are once more encouraged to see that the faith of Christ will indeed see us through the deepest sorrows in life and even keep us faithful not to compromise within our weakest moments:

Gen 23:1 And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah.
Gen 23:2 And Sarah died in Kirjatharba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.

The last time we heard about Abraham and his family is when they stayed in Beersheba after God saved Isaac’s life when Abraham was prepared to sacrifice him in obedience to God’s commandment. From there they moved to Kirjatharba, which was another name for Hebron, where Abraham, Sarah and their family also stayed before in their times of sojourning in Canaan (Gen 13:18). Here in Hebron Sarah spent her last days before she died at the age of one hundred and twenty seven years. Sarah’s death brought Abraham to a very vulnerable state, and this is also the first time we read that Abraham wept. Emotions and sensual things are part of this life of mankind, but the faith of Christ in us will give us the ability to handle these powers in our flesh in the proper way (Pro 25:28; Ecc 3:4; Gal 5:16-17; Rom 8:28; Heb 10:23):

Php 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Amid this emotional and painful time in Abraham’s life, it was his faith in God which still empowered him to stand firm on his status as being a stranger and sojourner whose only inheritance is death on this earth:

Gen 23:3 And Abraham stood up from before his dead, 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.

Death is the spiritual state of all in the fleshly Adam as created by God to be our temporal dwelling:

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.
Rom 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

Abraham wanted to “bury [his] dead out of [his] sight”, and this is something the faith of Christ in us will always encourage us to do when we are in a position to do that:

Luk 9:59 And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
Luk 9:60 Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.

The primary meaning of God’s word has to do with its spiritual interpretation:

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

These words of Christ to “let the dead bury their dead” is referring to the taking up of our own cross and dying to our own earthliness (death), and that is how we can follow Christ (Joh 6:63). This is how we preach the kingdom of God in the most powerful way:

Mat 10:38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:39 He that findeth his [earthy] life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Abraham spoke to the sons of Heth about taking possession of this “buryingplace”. Heth means “terror”, even as death brings the most fearful emotion in a human heart. Heth was the second son of Canaan, the son of Ham who was cursed by Noah when Ham did not cover his father’s nakedness (Gen 9:21-25). From Heth the Hethites or Hittites came forth (Gen 23:10; Gen 49:32). The Hittites were one of the tribes which occupied the land of Canaan, but this very land was promised to Abraham by God as a possession (Gen 15:19-21; Gen 17:8). Taking possession of our own “buryingplace” is to be given the ability to see that flesh and its carnal mind is spiritual death, and that losing this earthiness is the only way to get the new life of Christ (Gal 2:20). Life in the spirit is the true inheritance God has promised as we overcome “by little and little” in our dealings in our land of flesh (Exo 23:30; Deu 7:22):

Gen 23:5 And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him,
Gen 23:6 Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead.

Abraham was seen as a “mighty prince” to these Canaanites as they were well aware of Abraham’s life before God. Through Abraham we also learn that “every good gift and every perfect gift” we receive from God will come through faith as that keeps us “unspotted from the world” and its standards (Jas 1:17-27; Heb 11:6). Although Abraham knew that this land of the Hittites was promised to him and his offspring by God, Abraham still approached these children of Heth with respect and humility:

Gen 23:7 And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth.
Gen 23:8 And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and intreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar,
Gen 23:9 That he may give me the cave of Machpelah [meaning to fold/double], which he hath, which is in the end of his field; for as much money as it is worth he shall give it me for a possession of a buryingplace amongst you.

Abraham did not compromise on the truth by conforming to the standards of the world. He wanted to pay for the cave of Machpelah, and he also insisted on paying the full price of the value of this buryingplace (Rom 12:2). There is a very popular false doctrine which claims that salvation is free, easy and quick, even via a short sinner’s prayer. The truth is that salvation comes through a costly and lengthy process as is witnessed throughout the scriptures. One of these examples is given to us through the life of king David. David never offered anything to God that did not cost him:

2Sa 24:19 And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as the LORD commanded.
2Sa 24:20 And Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king on his face upon the ground.
2Sa 24:21 And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar unto the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
2Sa 24:22 And Araunah said unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him: behold, here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood.
2Sa 24:23 All these things did Araunah, as a king, give unto the king. And Araunah said unto the king, The LORD thy God accept thee.
2Sa 24:24 And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
2Sa 24:25 And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.

This was the very foundation on which the temple built by David’s son, Solomon, was built at a later stage. This foundation also relates to the spiritual foundations of the city of God which Abraham was always looking to in faith:

Heb 11:10 For [“by faith”] he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Ephron, one of the Hittites, was the owner of this cave and also the field in which this cave was situated. Ephron also wanted to give the cave and the field as a gift to Abraham:

Gen 23:10 And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying,
Gen 23:11 Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead.

The faith of Abraham once again enabled him to openly stand strong amid his vulnerable emotional state, as he did not budge to this gesture which seemed like a bargain in the eyes of flesh:

Gen 23:12 And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land.
Gen 23:13 And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me: I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there.

There is a saying that there is no such thing as a free lunch – we will somehow pay dearly for free gifts. The words “free gift” appear in the following verses in the King James translation and has also given rise to many false teachings concerning the grace of God. The grace of God does not work the lascivious spirit in many who preach that salvation excludes going through the wrath of God and His fiery judgment on all fleshliness in us (1Co 3:13-15; Jud 1:3-7; Rev 15:8):

Rom 5:15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift [Greek: “charisma”]. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
Rom 5:16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift [Greek: “charisma”] is of many offences unto justification.

These two words, namely “free gift”, are actually translated from one Greek word, “charisma”, which refers to unmerited favour. God’s unmerited favour is to bring salvation through His chastening and scourging grace to all in the first Adam by which we give up on the pride and lusts in our life at the appointed time:

Tit 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12 Teaching [Greek: “paideuō” = discipline by punishment] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.

Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth [Greek: “paideuō”], and scourgeth [Greek: “mastigoō” = flogging/plague] 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 [Greek: “paideuō”] not?

Salvation is indeed a gift from God, but can only be obtained when we buy our own oil as the wise virgins also realised in the following parable, but the foolish virgins could not see the purpose for working out their own salvation with fear and trembling (Php 2:12-13):

Mat 25:1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
Mat 25:2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
Mat 25:3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
Mat 25:4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
Mat 25:5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
Mat 25:6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
Mat 25:7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
Mat 25:8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.
Mat 25:9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
Mat 25:10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
Mat 25:11 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
Mat 25:12 But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
Mat 25:13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.

The wisdom in God’s elect helps them to see that they must zealously keep “buying” and investing into His gold, His raiment and His eyesalve, while at the same time selling all their fleshliness in true repentance to God:

Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Mat 19:21 Jesus said unto him [the young ruler], If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.

Abraham shows us that the faith of Christ helps us to be patient and merciful in our walk in this life, and in that way we will frustrate the proud and lustful flesh to reveal its true nature and intentions (Rom 12:20; 1Jn 2:16). Ephron eventually reveals his true price for the piece of land which Abraham paid in full to Ephron in the sight of all the sons of Heth:

Gen 23:14 And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him,
Gen 23:15 My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead.
Gen 23:16 And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant.

Silver speaks of redemption in scripture – we need complete redemption and deliverance from our old life in the flesh to be given the new spirit life of Christ (Rom 8:23-25 Eph 1:13-14). We must patiently work out our own salvation, even when it seems others have an easier path. The pride in us naturally wants to compare with others and naturally we are dead wrong about what our carnal mind wants us to believe about others (1Jn 2:16; 2Co 10:12-13).

More than this, we are also given this deep assurance that all those to whom we are attached in the flesh will in their own time be taken through their unique process as determined by God to eventually receive the new life in Christ. Ephron not only sold the cave, but also the field with all the trees to Abraham:

Gen 23:17 And the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders round about, were made sure
Gen 23:18 Unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city.
Gen 23:19 And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan.
Gen 23:20 And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a buryingplace by the sons of Heth.

It is in this area where Abraham and all his offspring were buried, including Isaac, Jacob and Joseph (Gen 25:9; Gen 35:29; Gen 49:29). Abraham prepared a place for his offspring to bury their own dead, as Christ also prepared a place for all in Adam by showing that life comes through death, even the burying place of the cross which He prepared for us before He comes to take us to be seated with Him in heaven (Eph 2:6; 2Co 12:1-11):

Joh 14:1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
Joh 14:2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
Joh 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Joh 14:4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.

Even in His deepest sorrow and a time of great loss Abraham is given to us as a type of how the faith of Christ provides for those who come after Him by taking up their own cross and burying their own dead (Mat 10:38-39):

Pro 13:22 A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.

————-

Detailed studies and emails relating to these foundational themes in Scripture are available on the iswasandwillbe.com website, including these topics and links:

The Image of The Beast
How to Handle Freeloaders
Is Our Faith a Gift or a Free Choice?
Does God Foreknow Our Decisions?

(Key verses: Gen 21:1-13)

The faith of Christ is an assurance of things hoped for and a conviction of things not seen, as the scripture declares (Heb 11:1). This faith works as a contrast to all natural and worldly reasoning and inclinations. Even in type, the faith of Abraham helped him to hope against hope that God will fulfill His promise to give them an offspring through Sarah which will be in number like the stars in the heaven (Rom 4:17-22; Gen 15:5-6). In this sense Abraham represents the Old Testament example of the Christ as the Saviour through whom the “great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues” will be saved (1Cor 15:22-28; 1Tim 4:10; Rev 7:9):

Gal 3:8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

In Genesis 21 this promise of a son to Abraham, through which all the nations of the earth will be blessed, is fulfilled (Gen 22:18):

Gen 21:1 And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken.
Gen 21:2 For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.

Abraham is also our Old Testament type of total obedience to God’s commandments which is only possible through the faith of Christ in our lives (1John 5:1-5):

Gen 21:4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him.
Gen 21:5 And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.

Two numbers are given here in these two verses which also help us to apply this obedience through the faith of Christ within ourselves when we will not doubt that God will do everything He has promised. The number eight relates to the new man in Christ and the spiritual circumcision of the heart. This relates to us being transformed in the mind to be able to let go of our physical concepts and to serve God’s people according to our measure of faith (Rom 12:1-3):

Rev 17:11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

The number one hundred contains two tens (10 X 10) which in this case of Abraham relates to the witness (the spiritual meaning of the number two) against the idea that spiritual perfection can be attained in the flesh (the number ten points to what the flesh represents spiritually). Abraham “considered not his own body now dead…neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb” is describing this truth so beautifully (Rom 4:19). God will only bring the new life when our own flesh and its carnal mind come to a progressive realization that it actually profits nothing (Joh 3:30). Only God can bring new life out of the deadness of flesh (Rom 7:24; Rom 8:6; 2Co 5:17). This spiritual insight of the total deadness of our flesh is given to us at “the end of the world” which is the end of our time of being subjected under the carnal thinking of our natural mind (Isa 62; Mat 24; Mat 13:37-43; 1Co 10:11; Rom 6:14). Here is how the apostle Paul describes this evil eon of the flesh and its purpose for all in the first Adam before the faith of Christ is given to us:

Gal 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin [the first eon or age of the flesh], that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Gal 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

Our carnal eon (the time period of our “first man Adam”/“the lawless and disobedient”/“the man of sin”) is ruled by natural laws (“the elements of this world”) outwardly and inwardly. These various “elements” under which all in the generation of Adam also operates can be associated with “the law of a carnal commandment” under which physical Israel functions (1Ti 1:9; 2Th 2:3-4; Rom 2:14-15; Gal 4:3; Heb 7:16). While the old fleshly tabernacle is yet standing, the new tabernacle of the spirit cannot come, which is introduced by “the time of reformation”:

Heb 9:8 The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:
Heb 9:9 Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;
Heb 9:10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

The time period of one hundred years for Abraham also reveals to us the many agonizing years we will have to wait for the fulfillment of God’s ultimate spiritual promise of life in the spirit. The new life of Christ only comes through “much tribulation,” and there are no short cuts in this enduring process. Even in this example of Abraham the false teaching of a quick salvation process is exposed as a lie throughout the scriptures, for those who can see that (1Co 10:11):

Act 14:22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

Luk 21:19 In your patience possess ye your souls.

This new tabernacle of spirit is typified by the birth of Isaac as the second born of Abraham:

Gen 21:3 And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac [Hebrew: “yitschâq”].

Isaac’s name means “laughter,” and this theme of laughter is interestingly interwoven within the first thirteen verses of Genesis 21. Here is how Dr Strong connects the Hebrew meanings in this word “yitschâq”:

H3327
yitschâq
yits-khawk’

From H6711; laughter (that is, mockery); Jitschak (or Isaac), son of Abraham: – Isaac. Compare H3446.

H6711
tsâchaq
tsaw-khak’

A primitive root; to laugh outright (in merriment or scorn); by implication to sport: – laugh, mock, play, make sport.

H3446
yiśchâq
yis-khawk’

From H7831; he will laugh; Jischak, the heir of Abraham: – Isaac. Compare H3327.

H7831
shachătsôm
shakh-ats-ome’

From the same as H7830; proudly; Shachatsom, a place in Palestine: – Shahazimah [from the margin].

These meanings behind the name ‘Isaac’ in Hebrew also link with these words of Sarah which she uttered when Isaac was born:

Gen 21:6 And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh [Strong’s number H6712], so that all that hear will laugh [Strong’s number H6711] with me.
Gen 21:7 And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age.

H6712
ts^echôq
tsekh-oke’

From H6711; laughter (in pleasure or derision): – laugh(-ed to scorn).

In these meanings behind these Hebrew words we find the positive and negative application of laughter. Through this we can also see that laughter is an outward expression of either genuine joy or to provoke derision and mockery (Job 22:19; Psa 22:7; Psa 80:6; Psa 126:2-3; Psa 137:3; 2Ki 19:21; Neh 2:19). In this discussion on the foundational theme of faith we will also focus on how this faith of Christ in us brings forth the joy of the Lord to keep us strong amidst the mocking of the natural man. The positive application of laughter can be seen in the joy which Sarah and Abraham experienced at the birth of Isaac. Although we are to rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep, we are also admonished to always rejoice within our time of trials when we can see the reason behind these painful judgments:

1Pe 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
1Pe 1:8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

Jas 1:2  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various trials,
Jas 1:3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
Jas 1:4 But let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. (EMTV)

Abraham and Sarah had to endure years of waiting and experience severe trials, but they never staggered at the promises of God because they judged God to be faithful even through all His wonderful and strange works to the children of men (Heb 11:8-12; Rom 4:17; Psa 107). Throughout the New Testament we see how the joy of the Lord is also intimately connected with the trials of our faith (Heb 12:2; Heb 10:34; Jas 1:2; 2Co 6:10; 2Co 8:2-3; 1Th 1:6; 1Th 5:16; 1Pe 1:6-9). Joy is an inherent aspect of the faith of Christ in us and part of the fruit of the spirit of God (Heb 12:2; Gal 5:22-23; Act 13:49-52):

Joh 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

Sarah was barren, in terms of childbearing, until she was ninety years old, but for her and Abraham the times of mourning were turned into gladness and praise to God when Isaac was born into their household (Psa 30:11-12). It is at the time of judgment (spiritually relating to the number nine combining with the number ten in the age of Sarah) that we can see the righteous ways of God (Isa 26:9; 1Co 11:32). Then we are caused by God to “understand the reading” of the words of the Lord and how we live by those very words (Mat 4:4). This “joy unspeakable and full of glory” is typified also in Nehemiah and those few who came from Babylon when they could read and understand the Word of God after they completed the task of rebuilding the walls and gates of Jerusalem:

Neh 8:8 So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.
Neh 8:9 And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.
Neh 8:10 Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.

They were commanded to rejoice in the Lord as they could understand for the first time the purpose for all the hardships they had to endure. Joyfulness and gladness are such a powerful testimony to ourselves of our measure and growth of faith in the acceptance of God’s wonderful works in us (Deu 28:45-47; Psa 4:6-8; Psa 21:5-7; Psa 92:4-5; Psa 107):

1Ch 16:27 Glory and honour are in his presence; strength and gladness are in his place.

Psa 45:15 With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king’s palace.

Psa 97:11 Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart.
Psa 97:12 Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

The negative application of laughter is also found here in Genesis 21. Abraham is now brought to the point where his firstborn son, Ishmael, could not stay in his household any longer. Ishmael was almost fourteen years old when Isaac was born and what an agonizing time this must have been for Abraham knowing all the while that the time of separation from Ishmael was inevitable. However, God in His mercy will provide the strength and power, through His new life in us, even as our firstborn flesh will be mocking us:

Gen 21:9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking [Strong’s number H6711 – “laughter”].

Just like Hagar despised Sarah when Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, we also see this same attitude in Ishmael in this persecution of Isaac (Gen 16:4):

Gal 4:28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
Gal 4:29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

The mocking of Isaac by Ishmael is described in the scriptures as ‘persecution’. As we have already seen, the word mocking comes from the same Hebrew word translated as laughter in other verses (Gen 18:13; Gen 18:15; Gen 21:6; Gen 17:17; Gen 18:12; Gen 18:15). The flesh and its worldly spirit will always despise and oppose the spirit of God as it cannot understand spiritual things, even as “the new agrees not with the old” (Luk 5:36). The flesh was given the spirit of the world by God to help us to see that the spirit of God is totally the opposite of that carnal spirit in us (Gal 5:17; 1Jn 2:16). We learn through opposites, and that is also the reason why we are given a temporary fleshly existence as we will never understand and appreciate the spirit of God and how the spirit of God teaches us (Rom 1:20; 1Co 2:12-15). Opposition and resistance also stimulate growth and maturity. Our heavenly Father always has our spiritual growth and maturing in faith and in spirit in His focus:

Gen 21:8 And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.

To fully understand this maturing in spirit, we must be weaned and drawn from the breast of the physical (Isa 28:9; Rom 14:1; 1Co 3:1-3; Heb 6:1-3). This weaning process will eventually bring us to the point where we can see that our firstborn flesh cannot inherit the kingdom of God in any shape or form:

Gen 21:9 And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.
Gen 21:10 Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.
Gen 21:11 And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son.

As with Abraham, our natural man does not accept or agree with this very grievous salvation plan of God and the way He ordained things to be done. Abraham also wanted Ishmael to be part of God’s inheritance, and in this we also see our own kicking and screaming “against the pricks” of God (Act 9:5):

Gen 17:18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!

Although we understand the spiritual things via “the things that are made”, the physical concepts in our natural mind cannot understand spiritual thing (Rom 1:20; 1Co 2:13-14). Like the Sadducee mockers, who could not understand or accept the resurrection, our carnal reasoning does not know the scriptures or the power of God:

Mar 12:24 And Jesus answering said unto them [the Sadducees], Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?

God ordained a time for the flesh to have its dominion in our lives, and only God controls that time (Mat 24:36; Act 1:6-8). This is also what we learn through God’s answer to Abraham concerning his firstborn Ismael and his nation as God already also promised to Hagar (Gen 16:7-13):

Gen 21:12 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
Gen 21:13 And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.

The voice of Sarah symbolized the words of God through Christ and His church. It is these words of Christ that will remain and not pass away and through which all the earth (all in the generation of the first Adam) will be blessed, even in the destruction of their earthiness through the spiritual fire of God (Mat 24:35):

Jer 5:14 Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Christ is the spiritual foundation which the Father has laid and we are all first given wood, hay and stubble to build on this foundation which all relates to our own works of the flesh. In time we are also given His gold, silver and precious stones relating to His spiritual works in our lives. The flesh will be destroyed while “the spirit will be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” (1Co 5:5):

1Co 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1Co 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

Isaac is given to us as the type of Christ through whom all will inherit the spiritual promises of God:

Gal 3:16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

Gal 3:29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

———-

Detailed studies and emails relating to these foundational themes in Scripture are available on the iswasandwillbe.com website, including these topics and links:

Numbers in Scripture
Who Is Under the Law?
What Are the Elements of the World?
Comparing Spiritual with Spiritual

(Key verses: Gen 18:1-33)

We are discussing the foundational theme of faith as it is typified in the life of Abraham. As we develop spiritually through the faith of Christ working in us, the communication with God, especially our prayers, also grows in maturity. Prayer is basically a two-way communication with God which He works in totality – He always initiates prayer and also brings His conclusion or answer to that prayer according to His will (Mat 6:10; Jas 4:15; 1Jn 5:14):

1Jn 5:15 And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

Php 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Abraham is not only our physical type of what the faith of Christ entails, but he is also our Old Testament example of a man of prayer:

Gen 13:4 Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the LORD.

Gen 17:3 And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,

In Chapter 18 of Genesis we see an interesting development in the life of Abraham which prepared his heart to be in a position to make petitions to the Lord, who personally appeared to him. Three things are recorded here which all combine to bring us the full picture of how a heart is prepared by God to pray fervently “without ceasing” and to see how God never forsakes the righteous (1Th 5:17; Psa 37:25):

Rom 1:9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers.

2Ti 1:3 I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day.

Abraham’s meal with three visitors

Gen 18:1 And the LORD appeared unto him [Abraham] in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;

We already discussed the plains of Mamre in an earlier study (study #56) concerning Abraham’s connection to this place in Canaan (Gen 13:18; Gen 14:13). ‘Mamre’ means vigour or strength as we grow stronger in the faith of Christ, even as we also “sit in the tent door in the heat of the day.” The heat of the day refers to the fiery trials we need to endure in the time of our flesh for the purpose of maturing the faith we received from God (Eph 2:8-9):

1Pe 1:5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
1Pe 1:6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:
1Pe 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

The number three spiritually confirms this process in our spiritual growth and even in the three men who came to visit Abraham:

Gen 18:2 And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,
Gen 18:3 And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:
Gen 18:4 Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:
Gen 18:5 And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.

Through the faith of Christ in us we also learn how to be servants of God to all people whom God sends on our path (1Pe 4:8-11). If we serve others we can only present them with what we have been given to share. God loves a cheerful giver, and we should not begrudge people afterwards – that only reveals the carnal selfish spirit in our hearts when we think things are our possessions and not gifts from God to share with others (Rom 12:6-21; 2Co 9:1-15). It is only those at the right hand of God who will have this cheerful spirit in them to share their gifts, and they do not even seek recognition when they do good (Heb 13:2; Mat 25:34-40). Again the number three is emphasized in this event with Abraham when he asked Sarah to make cakes for these three visitors using three measures of fine meal:

Gen 18:6 And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.

It is only fine meal that is useful in the kingdom of heaven as the three measures is progressively leavened in us (Rev 6:6):

Mat 13:33 Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

Leaven, like all things God is using in this creation through His Word, has a negative and positive application. The negative of leaven is connecting with unbelief and false doctrines in our hearts. The positive leaven is the pure Word of faith which is hidden by the woman, the church of God, in those who are crushed to powder by the stone over which we first stumble (1Pe 2:8):

Rom 10:8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach.

Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Mat 21:44 And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

The good leaven produces the faith of Christ in us and is continually increased as we are also increased in the measure of our sacrificing to God (Rom 12:1-2):

Gen 18:7 And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it.
Gen 18:8 And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.

He took one of his best young calves – an offering of the herd which represents the highest offering one can make and gave it to a “young man” to dress it. Youth is used in the scriptures as pointing to immaturity, but here the positive application of youth is emphasized in this sacrifice of Abraham:

1Ti 4:12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

This sacrifice also indicates that Abraham somehow recognised that his visitors were of a high order. ‘Tender and good’ refer to our humility and meekness in our service to God and His people. The higher our sacrifice, the clearer we hear the voice of the true shepherd and how we can be more precise or diligent in following that voice.

A clear announcement of the ordained time of the birth of Isaac

Gen 18:9 And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent.
Gen 18:10 And he [one of the three men] said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him.
Gen 18:11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.
Gen 18:12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?

On numerous occasions God promised Abraham an offspring, but now the time of the birth of this child is certain or fixed by the Lord as He also makes this announcement Himself:

Gen 18:13 And the LORD said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?

This person who brings this news to Abraham and Sarah is now revealed to us also as the Lord Himself as He also knew every word which Sarah said in her own heart. Our thoughts are known to God as He ordains all things to come to us, and nothing is hidden from His sight (Psa 139:1-6). Humans are fond of parading their ignorance in Godly matters in the form of knowledge or “science falsely so-called” (1Ti 6:20). In our carnal state of mind we cannot also see that nothing is too hard for God, even as we unashamedly protest against the Lord Himself in our self-righteous attitudes:

Gen 18:14 Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
Gen 18:15 Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he said, Nay; but thou didst laugh.

The intercession of Abraham for the righteous

These visitors ate with Abraham, and the announcement to Abraham and Sarah of the time of the birth of Isaac all coincides with the judgment that God was to bring on Sodom and Gomorrah. This brings to mind the meal Jesus had with His disciples when He also made the final announcement of his imminent death (His judgment) and resurrection of new life (Mat 26:17-35; Luk 22:7-38):

Gen 18:16 And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom: and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way.
Gen 18:17 And the LORD said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do;
Gen 18:18 Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?
Gen 18:19 For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

Abraham is a type of Christ who “will command His children and His household…to keep the way of the Lord.” “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do” is also emphasising that Jesus indeed reveals His secrets or mystery of His will to His elect (1Co 2:7: Eph 1:9)

Amo 3:7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

God’s secret includes His sovereignty, and few can see how God works all things after the counsel of His will, especially His salvation plan through “His servants the prophets.” His servants will indeed be informed by Him about His ultimate purpose with all in the generation of the first Adam. He determined before the creation of this world to “gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth” (Eph 1:3-12). However he does not reveal the future to His prophets because in the “is” the “was” and the “is to come” part of the revelation of Jesus Christ is settled (Mat 6:25-34; Jas 4:14):

Rev 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

God only informs us that all He had written in our books before we were born, will happen on the earth as it has been ordained and determined in the heavens (Psa 139:16; Mat 4:4):

Mat 6:9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Mat 6:10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

The distinction between the earth (represented by the evil in Sodom and Gomorrah) and the heaven (the righteous having the mind of Christ) is the focus of this conversation between Abraham and the Lord who stayed with Abraham, while the other two angels went to speak to Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah:

Gen 18:20 And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;
Gen 18:21 I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.
Gen 18:22 And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD.

Sodom (and Gomorrah) represents the evil city (or cities) of our own flesh which is also symbolized by that great city, the spiritual whore Babylon, which controls all the “waters” of humanity (Rev 11:8):

Rev 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

The cry that came from Sodom (and Gomorrah) represents the prayers of the saints who still live under these evil worldly systems and who were at their appointed time also trading in its merchandise before they were dragged out by God (Eph 2:2-3). Lot was in this case the type of the righteous elect of God as Lot is also described as “just” and a “righteous man” in the scriptures for this purpose (2Pe 2:6-10). Lot cried to God concerning this city and all its evils, while he sat at the gate of Sodom. The Lord indeed knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, by taking them through the trails and temptations first before they are taken out:

Gen 19:1 And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground.

2Pe 2:7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
2Pe 2:8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)

God’s elect are the ones who are “vexed…in seeing and hearing…the filthy conversation…[and]…unlawful deeds” in Sodom as they wait for the judgement of God on all evil. God already determined that Sodom and Gomorrah will be destroyed, but these evil cities also serve the elect to understand the process of salvation inwardly first. This process is now revealed through Abraham as the Lord will drag him into making petition to the Lord for the sake of the righteous:

Gen 18:23 And Abraham drew near [Hebrew: “nâgash” = very intimate/something is “at hand” – Rev 1:3], and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
Gen 18:24 Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?

Making petition is a type of prayer where God brings to our heart the desire to “reason together” with Him while we are growing in the prayer of faith (Isa 1:18). God wants Abraham and us to first see and concentrate on the needs of His elect. Abraham’s plea to the Lord for the salvation of the righteous is reflecting God’s goal of the salvation of His elect first and foremost. God is not saving the world at this time, as He also does not pray for the world in that sense (Joh 17:9). Through the salvation of the elect God will cause the whole of the earth to be covered with the knowledge of the Lord at the appointed time (Isa 11:9; Hab 2:14):

Gen 18:25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
Gen 18:26 And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.

At this point it is interesting to see how the number five and its multiples are constantly used in Abraham’s prayer as they apply to the righteous (or elect) first, as that is also Abraham’s focus. The number five relates to the spiritual application of what “grace…through faith” is all about (Eph 2:8-10; Tit 2:11-12; Heb 11:6; Heb 12:6). In Abraham’s first plea to the Lord he starts with fifty – the number five joining in with the number ten as ten relates to the flesh – all those in Adam. All in the flesh will be saved through the faith and work of Christ. That is the macro-spiritual picture God’s plan of salvation:

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
1Co 15:24 Then cometh the end [Greek: “telos” = “the final point aimed at”], when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

Although “they that are Christ’s at His [first] coming” will be raised in the first resurrection, this salvation process is not yet concluded at that time. The rest of humanity (described here as “the end” or “telos” in the Greek) will be the conclusion of the salvation process. This conclusion is when the “kingdoms of this world” (all in Adam) will be in the kingdom of God and delivered to the Father in spiritual perfection by Jesus. This is also symbolised by the fiftieth year when “liberty [is given] throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof” in the Old Testament (Rev 11:15-19; Lev 25:8-10).

The number fifty also indicates the feast of weeks (“pentecost”) which is fifty days after the first feast of the harvest, which is the feast of unleavened bread in the calendar of the physical Jews (Lev 23:9-44; Exo 23:14-16). The feast of unleavened bread was fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ as the “firstfruit of them that slept” in death (1Co 15:20). The feast of weeks is fulfilled in the elect who is the “kind of firstfruits” who will be given spirit life at the first resurrection (Jas 1:18). This is why Abraham starts with fifty as referring to the righteous chosen ones specifically. We are not saved only for our own benefit, but for the benefit of all in the generation of the first Adam. These few elected ones will be used to bring in the rest of humanity in what the scriptures called “the lake of fire” or second death where this second group will come to see their own spiritual death state:

Rev 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Now Abraham is caused by God to enquire further from the Lord to help us to get a deeper understanding of this salvation process by using another multiple of the number five (all related to faith and its growth in us):

Gen 18:27 And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:
Gen 18:28 Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it.

In the number forty-five, the number nine joins with the number five. Nine relates to judgment in the scriptures. Though painful and filled with anguish, the elect experience judgment as something positive because it is only through judgment that we are taught the righteousness of God (Isa 26:9; Mat 26:38-39). The elect does not escape the judgment and wrath of God, but it is first on them as the house of God before it comes on the rest of humanity (Isa 54:7-8; Mat 24:34-35; 1Co 10:11; Eph 2:2-3; Rev 1:3; Rev 15:5-8):

1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Now Abraham is moved in his petition in prayer to the Lord to help us understand that the new spirit man is indeed ordained for all through faith in another multiple of five:

Gen 18:29 And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty’s sake.

The number forty is also formed by a combination of numbers eight and five in their spiritual meanings. The number eight is the number for the new spirit man in the scriptures which will come through the completion (number 7) of judgment and destruction of the kingdom of the beast in us:

Rev 17:11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

The righteous will indeed be covered and protected by God (2Sa 22:3-4; Psa 121:1-8; 2Th 3:3).

Gen 18:30 And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there.

The number thirty includes the number six as it joins with the number five. Although the number six in its negative application symbolizes the carnal man in us, in its positive application it represents the covering and protection which comes through the Word of God. This new covering destroys our old tent of fleshly dependence as Boaz (typifying Christ) gave Ruth (typifying the elect) six measures of barley which started her new life with him:

Rth 3:15 Also, he [Boaz] said, Bring the veil on you, and hold it. And when she [Ruth] held it, he measured six measures of barley and laid it on her. And she went to the city.

Jdg 7:13 And when Gideon had come, behold, a man told a dream to his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came to a tent, and struck it so that it fell, and overturned it, so that the tent lay along.

Abraham in his petition to the Lord for the righteous in Sodom is again caused to realise that it is indeed a very small number who were chosen to be in that holy and blessed first resurrection when another multiple of five is mentioned (Mat 22:14):

Gen 18:31 And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty’s sake.

Twenty is the number four combining with the number five. The number four spiritually points to the whole of something, and in this prayer of Abraham the whole of the elect will be kept faithful by God until the end (1Sa 22:1-2; Mat 24:24; Rev 17:14):

Mat 24:31 And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

The last multiple of five which Abraham used in his petition to the Lord for the righteous is the number ten:

Gen 18:32 And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.

The number ten has the number two joined with five and the number two represents the true witness of the elect as in their mouth the Word shall be established:

2Co 13:1 This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.

The reason why Abraham did not go lower than ten is found in the following verse:

Gen 18:33 And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.

The Lord ended this conversation by going “His way.” God initiates everything in this life, including our prayers to Him, and He brings an end to everything according to His own counsel – He is indeed the beginning and the end:

Rev 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

———

Detailed studies and emails relating to these foundational themes in Scripture are available on the iswasandwillbe.com website, including these topics and links:

The Spirit as Flesh
Rev 17:7-11 The Scarlet Beast
Numbers in Scriptures
Our Great and Precious Promises

(Key verses: Gen 17:1-27)

In our discussions on the foundational theme of faith, we are given the life and sojourning of Abram in the Old Testament as a type of our own growth in the gift of the faith of Christ (Eph 2:8-10; Rom 4:16; Gal 3:7-9; Gal 3:29). It is through these written records that we learn how to be patient within this whole salvation process and to know that we are not the first or the only ones going through this. As the faith of Christ grows in us, our hope also strengthens as we learn progressively how to inherit the promised land, which is the spirit life of God, the Father, through His Son, Jesus Christ (Joh 17:3; 1Co 13:13):

Rom 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

Rom 8:24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

We were only given a promise of that spirit life, and, like Abram has done physically, we are for the time being only sojourners in the flesh until the fullness of the spirit life of Christ is given to us (1Co 15:45-50):

Eph 1:9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

This promise of spirit life is now only obtainable through the faith of Christ in us, and that faith alone pleases God, and nothing we do through our own efforts can satisfy God’s holy standards in any sense (Gal 2:16):

Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Php 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.

This faith will go through severe trials in us to bring forth the glory of salvation with unspeakable joy – if we are given endurance by God to continue faithfully in God’s word and in the doctrine of Christ (1Pe 1:5-9). Untried faith is what many are given, which brings the distinction between what makes us disciples of Jesus or true “disciples indeed”:

Joh 8:30 As he [Jesus] spake these words, many believed on him.
Joh 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

“Disciples indeed” are those who continue faithfully in His Word and in the one and only doctrine of Christ which enlightens our understanding as we learn how to completely submit to God and His way of doing things – the very things we naturally reject. God is indeed sovereign over every aspect of our lives and what is happening in this creation:

Psa 119:164 Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments.
Psa 119:165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.
Psa 119:166 LORD, I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments.
Psa 119:167 My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly.
Psa 119:168 I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies: for all my ways are before thee.

In Genesis 17 God is drawing our attention to yet another important aspect in our spiritual growth and submission to Him as we build on the foundation of the faith of Christ in our lives (Heb 6:1-3):

Gen 17:1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty [Hebrew: “shadday”] God [Hebrew: “êl”]; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
Gen 17:2 And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.

Here we see that God reveals Himself now to Abram as God Almighty (“El Shadday”). This is the first time in the Scriptures that God reveals this name to anyone and through this name we learn so much about how God brings dominion over sin in our lives. Like the first Adam, we were all created “in sin”, and it is a part of our earthly lives through our “body of sin” and its “law of sin” which is at work in us from our birth until death (Gen 2:7; Psa 51:5; Rom 7:23-25). We are indeed promised dominion over that sin, even in the here and now (Rom 6:6-9):

Rom 6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Rom 6:13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Rom 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

In Hebrew, the word “shadday” (Almighty in English) comes from the root “shâdad” which means “to violently destroy” something (Job 37:22-24; Psa 68:14; Joe 1:15). Very few can accept this character of God as a consuming fire who will deal brutally with our carnal mind and “the sin in our members” to give us dominion over sin through His spirit (Rom 7:5; Heb 12:29). The name “El Shadday” appears six times in Genesis and, very significantly, thirty-one times in the book of Job where we learn so much of God’s destructive judgment on self-righteous attitudes. The first three occasions where this specific name of God is mentioned it is connected to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and this is also where an interesting aspect of our new spiritual inheritance is revealed (Gen 17:1; Gen 28:3; Gen 35:9-12). In Genesis 28 we read for the second time where this name of God, “El Shadday”, is revealed when Isaac spoke to his son, Jacob:

Gen 28:3 And God [Hebrew: “êl”] Almighty [Hebrew: “shadday”] 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.

In Genesis 35 we see the third time where “El Shadday” appears in the scriptures:

Gen 35:9 And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him.
Gen 35:10 And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob [meaning “supplanter”]: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel [meaning “he will rule as God”].
Gen 35:11 And God said unto him, I am God [Hebrew: “êl”] Almighty [Hebrew: “shadday”]: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;
Gen 35:12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.

Not only did God reveal Himself in a new name to them, but a name change is also now under discussion on two of these disclosures of “El Shadday”. Name giving and a name changing is an outward sign of the giving of dominion or authority throughout the scriptures, even as Abraham (and Sarah), Isaac and Jacob were given the promise of rulership over nations – they will rule as God. This name giving and the relation with authority or dominion were first seen in the garden of Eden. Adam was given authority over all the animals through the giving of names to the animals (Gen 2:19-20). God gives names and He changes names for this very purpose – to reveal His sovereignty and power over all things – and then He appoints leadership (Exo 33:17; Isa 43:7; Isa 49:1-3; Joh 10:3-4). Abram acknowledged God as such by falling on his face:

Gen 17:3 And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,
Gen 17:4 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
Gen 17:5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
Gen 17:6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
Gen 17:7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
Gen 17:8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

Abram, meaning exalted father, will now not only serve his family interests, but the interests of “many nations” through his new name “Abraham” which means the father of a multitude. As faith grows, it broadens our understanding and insight of what we are chosen to be by God’s design and purpose. We will serve God not only for our benefits, but for the benefits of His whole creation, especially those in the generation of Adam. God enables us to see His provision for that service in us even now in His church:

Rom 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
Rom 12:4 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:
Rom 12:5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
Rom 12:6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;
Rom 12:7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;
Rom 12:8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.

God alone makes these decisions, and we will submit to His will in due time and in all things. Abram is our example as he will now have a much broader service to perform which he could not see before this moment. Even Sarai, representing our own flesh, will be part of our reasonable service for God and others:

Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

The name “Sarai” means “my princess” but her new name will be “Sarah” as she will also now be a mother of nations:

Gen 17:15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.
Gen 17:16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.

Her new name will be “Sarah” because now she will also be the “princess of the multitude”. This all typifies Christ and His church who will be a father and mother to many nations (Rev 19:11-16). For our flesh this sounds too much, and naturally we cannot see beyond the limitations of our fleshly veil:

Gen 17:17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

This is where we need to face the inevitable rejection of our fleshly solutions and attachments – our carnal ideas of leadership and election are always wrong:

Gen 17:18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!

“El Shadday” announces to Abraham that Ishmael, his firstborn of the bondwoman, Hagar, is rejected (Gal 4:22-31). Our flesh is our first born as it was never made in the image of God but in the bondage of corruption from its creation (Rom 8:20-22). God made a covenant with Abraham to bless the offspring who will come through his true seed. The sign of this covenant was fleshly circumcision of all males in his household:

Gen 17:9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.
Gen 17:10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
Gen 17:11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.
Gen 17:12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.
Gen 17:13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
Gen 17:14 And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.

In this circumcision of flesh the salvation of all in the first fleshly Adam is also prophesied through Abraham, pointing to Christ and all in His creation:

Gen 17:23 And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him.
Gen 17:24 And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
Gen 17:25 And Ishmael his son was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
Gen 17:26 In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son.
Gen 17:27 And all the men of his house, born in the house, and bought with money of the stranger, were circumcised with him.

The faith and obedience of Abraham typified the faith and obedience of Christ. The promise of spirit life comes through the faith and life of Christ. As all male children in the generation of Abraham were circumcised on the eighth day, so will the new life also come when the physical “week” which links to our physical eon is concluded in all in the first Adam at the appointed time for each one (Mat 24:1-47; 1Co 10:11; 1Co 15:22-28). The number eight links to the start of the first day of the week which connects with the spiritual meaning of the number one – the number which reflects God, the Father:

1Co 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

“El Shadday” will bring the eighth day – the new day of spirit life to all through the “perdition” or destruction of our old beast – life comes through death which is our first “estate [as] the sons of men” (Ecc 3:18; Rom 7:24-25; Rom 8:6; 1Co 15:44-57):

Rev 17:11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

Through the obedience of Abraham we see a type of the submissive mind of Christ to His Father’s rulership. It is the obedience of Christ to His Father’s will to have all mankind saved that He will have all carnal hearts circumcised by destroying the heart of stone which is naturally in the generation of the first man Adam (Eze 36:25-30):

1Ti 2:3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
1Ti 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
1Ti 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
1Ti 2:6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised, which once again points to our time in rebellion and enmity of the carnally-minded flesh when we rely on our own strength to be accepted by God (Gen 14:4; Num 29:13-14; Psa 147:10; Rom 8:6-8). “El Shadday” has instituted a destructive process for His purposes to be fulfilled which is now being revealed to Abraham. Many are offended with the violence and suffering associated with the kingdom of heaven:

Mat 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

Naturally we cannot see that God is giving us outward parables to prepare us for the real inward suffering and violence He ordained to happen (Isa 45:7; Gen 6:9-8:22; Exo 7:14-12:29; Deu 20:16-18; Pro 16:4; Amo 3:6; Act 4:25-28). These violent judgments of God are for a limited period (age lasting) and will not continue for ever and ever as some want that to happen revealing their own hateful heart against their enemies. Only with the mind of Christ can we see how we can see God’s love in all of this when we are enabled to love our worst enemies, even as God loves His enemies (us), by saving them through Jesus Christ (Rom 8:7; Jas 4:4; Mat 5:43-45). God willing we will see our own violent ways first as we through our natural hatred and despising of others are guilty of being the “chief” violent murderer above all (1Ti 1:15). The fiery judgments of God on our “wood, hay and stubble” (our carnal nature) have a purpose and if that purpose is achieved, that part of the work of God’s fire is stopped (1Co 3:11-15; 1Co 15:26):

Pro 26:20 Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth.

God’s judgment is also revealed in the spiritual meaning of the number nine, even in the ages of Abraham and Sarah:

Gen 17:17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

Gen 17:24 And Abraham was ninety years old and nine, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

Through judgment the righteousness of “El Shadday” is taught and revealed (Isa 26:9). The same judgment which destroys the flesh also establishes the spiritual truths in us:

Gen 17:19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.

Gen 17:21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.
Gen 17:22 And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.

God promised Abraham that Ismael will also have twelve princes. Twelve spiritually refers to foundations and in this case the sandy foundations of the flesh are first established (Mat 7:26-27; 1Co 15:46):

Gen 17:20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.

These foundations and confidence of the carnal heart will be replaced by the foundations of the rock of truth, Jesus Christ, when we do His commandments and worship God in spirit (Mat 7:24-25; Mat 16:18; Joh 4:24). This Rock will indeed fall on us and destroy all death in all (Mat 21:44; Rom 9:33; 1Co 15:26). This is the true circumcision by which all will indeed be saved and receive our new name (1Ti 4:9-10; Rev 2:17):

Php 3:3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

Col 2:11 In whom [Christ] also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
Col 2:12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

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Detailed studies and emails relating to these foundational themes in Scripture are available on the iswasandwillbe.com website, including these topics and links:

Christ Overcomes Our Flesh
What is Spiritual Circumcision?
Numbers in Scripture
Why Did God Change People’s Names?

(Key verses: Gen 16:1-16)

Our natural mind is made to be ruled by spiritual darkness by God’s design and purpose, and we are naturally destitute of the wisdom of God (Psa 69:5; Joh 1:5; 1Co 1:20; Jer 17:9). God created the darkness first in us before He brings the Light (Gen 1:2-4; Isa 45:7; Jer 18:4; Rom 8:20; 2Pe 1:19). In this darkened state of mind we joyfully follow our own foolish counsel, also referred to as the “wisdom of this world” (Pro 12:23; 1Co 1:20; 1Co 2:6; 1Co 3:19):

Pro 15:21 Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom: but a man of understanding walketh uprightly. .

Pro 19:3 The foolishness of man [Hebrew: “âdâm”] perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the LORD.

Pro 28:26 He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.

In this discussion on the foundational theme of faith, we will find that folly is indeed a subtle counterfeit of faith which few can see before they experience its devastating effects in their own lives. We all, like Job, witnesses this in others first before we see it in ourselves:

Job 24:12 Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them.
Job 24:13 They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.

When folly also masquerades as faith it takes on a deeper deception. Foolishness has the appearance of light when it ministers to us its own righteousness and wisdom:

2Co 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2Co 11:15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

All things God reveals about the kingdom of heaven in us have a dark (a negative application) and a light side (a positive application), for those who can receive this. So also is the spiritual meaning of the number five in scripture. Through the scriptures, we learn that the number five is spiritually linked to God’s grace which comes through faith (Exo 25-27; Lev 1-5; Eph 2:8-9). Foolishness also has a counterfeit application through the number five:

Mat 25:1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
Mat 25:2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

Foolishness relates to our natural disregard to heed God’s word (His spiritual oil) when following the advice of our natural mind. Our old man Adam is the fool in us as he is naturally “full of words” which in the end will swallow and judge him (Luk 19:22):

Ecc 10:12 The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.
Ecc 10:13 The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness: and the end of his talk is mischievous madness.
Ecc 10:14 A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him?
Ecc 10:15 The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city.

This is also what we learn through the life of Abram (later called Abraham) – one of the main characters in the Old Testament whom God used to bring to us a picture of what the faith of Christ in us also has to endure. We will never receive the righteousness of Christ by following our own foolish ideas of flesh:

Gal 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Php 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.

In this discussion we will focus on how the folly of our own understanding obscures the path of the faith of Christ in us for which we will pay painful lessons which God causes to achieve humility in us. Abram, his wife Sarai and his offspring help us to see how foolishness plays itself out through bitter and regrettable decisions we all make. The first time we meet Sarai in the scriptures, we see her as a woman who is unable to bring forth children:

“Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children”

Gen 11:30 But Sarai was barren; she had no child.

Bareness is indeed a reflection of our first spiritual condition from the hand of the Potter as we all bear the terrestrial body of flesh with its dark carnal mind (Psa 51:5; 1Co 15:40). The second time we read about Sarai’s barrenness another interesting lady is mentioned in the same breath:

Gen 16:1 Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.

Hagar was part of “all that he had” when Abram went out of Egypt after he went there to get away from the grievous famine in Canaan:

Gen 12:9 And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.
Gen 12:10 And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.

Gen 13:1 And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.

Longsuffering and patience are parts of the fruit of the spirit of God and are therefore not part of the natural mind as created by God in the beginning (Gal 5:22-23). The natural mind is lawless and cannot please or obey God, which Adam and Eve also proved by their disobedience in the garden of Eden (Gen 3:1-24; Rom 8:6-8; 1Ti 1:9). The carnal mind wants everything instantly or in the shortest time period and will actually come up with ingenious ways and means to get what it wants. One of the biggest deceptive schemes of the carnal mind is to convince us that we are actually walking in faith, when it is actually following its own twisted concept of faith – when we believe in our faith and not in God:

Gen 16:2 And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.
Gen 16:3 And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife.

After ten years in Canaan, the flesh of Abram and Sarai revealed its inherent impatience. This is a sure sign of folly in our lives. The number ten spiritually indicates completeness of flesh as we also think we can please God through our fleshly ideas of the operation of faith. Like faith, folly will also make sacrifices, and this case Abram and Sarai sacrificed their marriage to accomplish God’s will for them to have children – or so they thought and were sincerely convinced about. By God’s design, it is our carnal striving and impatience which sets us up for our biggest battles which will teach us so much of how we need to wait on the Lord. Here again we see a pattern which was started in the garden of Eden when Adam listened to the words of Eve instead of the Word of God. Godly faith comes via the Word of God exclusively (Rom 10:17):

Gen 3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

Sorrow and cursing are what we reap when we follow our flesh – our deceived wife and not the Head, Jesus Christ and His Word (Hos 1:2; Pro 7:10; 1Co 11:3; 1Ti 2:14; Rev 17:1-6). This is what Abram will also learn since this action of theirs brought forth an offspring which will be a thorn in the flesh until this day. How deceitful is the heart of natural man when it brings a beautiful solution but hide the enormous price attached to it (Jer 17:9). The folly of the flesh is actually seen as a work of faith when we do not as yet have the patience to wait for God’s perfect time (Ecc 3:1; Luk 21:19):

Pro 8:33 Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.
Pro 8:34 Blessed is the man that heareth me [this is Godly wisdom talking], watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.
Pro 8:35 For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD.
Pro 8:36 But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death.

Isa 30:15 For thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.

Our natural folly “would not” listen to wise counsel because it cannot – it is an obstinate and stubborn beast (Isa 48:4; Hos 8:9; Psa 32:9; 2Co 2:14). Living according to our physical understanding is what God ordained in order that we should not see His purposes and plan until His appointed time:

Ecc 3:11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

Our folly is witnessed in our words and actions – through the fruit we bear, God reveals to us what tree we are living of (Gen 2:9; Mat 7:16). Abram and Sarai are learning the folly of laying hands on someone in haste (Heb 6:1-2; 1Ti 5:22):

Gen 16:4 And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.

Hagar’s heart could not resist the despising of her mistress. She found favour from God above her mistress. Our natural offspring will always be there long before the spiritual fruit can be brought forth, and very few can resist the temptation to show off their physical blessings in this age. Our own sins will reveal to us our folly, and this is what Sarai also found out (Jer 2:19). Sarai did what all natural minds do when caught – it shifts the blame ‘out there’, even as Adam and Eve did in the garden of Eden (Gen 3:12-13). In Sarai’s eyes Abram was the main culprit. Like Adam, Abram also brought in the “hand of man” to solve the problem (Gen 9:5; 1Ch 21:13):

Gen 16:5 And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and thee.
Gen 16:6 But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face.

King David said these words which reflect the mercilessness of the natural hand and heart in all of us, which Sarai also showed to Hagar. This is yet another sign of folly in our lives – harshness – when we forget that we have received mercy (Rom 11:29-32):

2Sa 24:14 And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man.

This is what also happened to Hagar – she mercifully fell into the hand of the Lord:

“the angel of the LORD”

Gen 16:7 And the angel [Hebrew: “malak” = messenger] of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.

The phrase “the angel of the LORD” appears 59 times in the KJV, and this is the first time this phrase is used in the scriptures. Here in Genesis 16 the identity of this angel is also revealed through Hagar’s words:

Gen 16:13 And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?

It was the Lord Jesus Himself who spoke to Hagar. Jesus is indeed “the angel of the LORD” as He is the angel of God to whom the Father said these words:

Heb 1:13 But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?

Psa 110:1 A Psalm of David. The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

Jesus said that these words of David refer to Him as the Christ and the Son of David, as “the angel” at the right hand of God, the Father which the Pharisees could not see:

Mat 22:41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,
Mat 22:42 Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David.
Mat 22:43 He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying,
Mat 22:44 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool?

The angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar in the desert and posed some of the most important questions humanity is struggling with:

“….where did you come from? and where will you go?”

Gen 16:8 And He said, Hagar, Sarai’s slave, where did you come from? and where will you go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai.

Our human answers are limited to what we can perceive in our earthly lives from physical birth up until this point in time. Hagar answered according to her limited understanding of things. Through this interaction we also learn how to submit to God as He is the One who wrote all our days in His book (including all our thoughts and actions), and everything in our lives is 100% according to His plan (Psa 139:16). Flesh and blood has no truth of its true origin without the Word of God, neither does it have any idea of the destination or the purpose to its existence. So God answers us according to our level of faith and understanding at each point of our journey (Psa 18:25-26):

Gen 16:9 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.
Gen 16:10 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.

The promise of the angel of the Lord also relates to these words of God to Abram:

Gen 13:16 And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.

A split in the offspring of Abram is first introduced here, as Hagar will bring forth a multitude from the seed of Abram. This multitude must be seen in terms of the multitude (or the “many”) that will be the enemy of the few in this age. It refers to those who cannot hear the spiritual words of God (Luk 22:47; Luk 23:1; Act 16:22; Act 21:36):

Mat 13:34 All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them.

Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

Hagar and her offspring in us are very much part of God’s plan. During our whole lifetime in the flesh, the same “multitude” will always be there to be a servant to God to humble us and force us to always look to God and not depend on our own ideas and solutions. Hagar and her offspring are those who can see only as far as the Lord can supply their physical needs:

Gen 16:11 And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction.
Gen 16:12 And he will be a wild man [Hebrew: “pereh”]; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.
Gen 16:13 And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?
Gen 16:14 Wherefore the well was called Beerlahairoi [“well of the Living One seeing me”]; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.

The “wild man” is also referred to as a wild ass (the same Hebrew word is used: “pereh”) whom God has set free in the wilderness, and there He also provides for the “wild asses” (Job 39:5-6)

Job 24:5 Behold, as wild asses [Hebrew: “pereh”] in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children.

Jer 2:24 A wild ass [Hebrew: “pereh”] used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.

The flesh also has a well of water which God supplies for our temporary needs, even as we “eat…every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink…every one the waters of his own cistern” (2Ki 18:31; Pro 5:15). The well where the angel of the Lord spoke to Hagar was between Kadesh and Bered. Bered means “hail” and hail is a symbol of God’s judgment on all the lies and folly in our hearts (Isa 28:15-17). However, this judgment is only reserved for the true sons of God, the house of God, which Abram’s offspring through Isaac spiritually represented (Gal 3:29):

1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Kadesh (meaning “holy”) links with the name “Kadesh-barnea” which is significant in physical Israel’s wanderings in the wilderness (Deu 9:23-24; Num 13:26; Num 32:8; Num 20:1-16; Num 27:14; Num 33:1-49). Miriam died here, and it is also the place where the impatience and folly of Moses was displayed to the whole nation when he hit the rock twice instead of speaking to it, which action prevented him from entering the promised land (Num 20:1-12; Psa 106:32). Kadesh is also where the report of Joshua and Caleb was different from that of the other ten spies about the land which they were to enter (Num 13:1-33; Num 32:8). It was at Kadesh where the separation came between those whom God ordained to enter the land and those who died in the wilderness because of unbelief and foolish rebelling against God (Num 13-14). This split is very significant in terms of Sarai and Hagar and our own distinction between what is of faith and what is of folly in our own walk (Psa 29:8):

Gal 4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.

Gal 4:30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

Abram’s firstborn is the type of our own “wild man” who thinks he has a free will. Our flesh with its carnal mind is also representing “the abomination of desolation” who sits in the temple of God thinking he is God (Mat 24:15; 2Th 2:3-4). That is the man of sin who lives in the wilderness in a house which is built on sand and will indeed fall during the judgment of God (Mat 7:26-27; 2Th 2:7-8):

Gen 16:15 And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son’s name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael.
Gen 16:16 And Abram was fourscore and six [eighty six] years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.

To obey God has nothing to do with our clever and intelligent ideas, but everything to do with keeping His commandments according to our level of faith in God’s provisions and timing at all times. God willing, we will receive the faith to see that it is our own pride and lusts which are the driving forces when we want to show God and others our commitment to fulfill His plan long before it is ordained to take place (Isa 40:30-31). Before that happens we will follow the devastating route of folly, and we will indeed reap what we sow (Gal 6:7-9):

Mat 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

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Detailed studies and emails relating to these foundational themes in Scripture are available on the iswasandwillbe.com website, including these topics and links:

Numbers in Scripture
Job 24:1-13 “Yet God Layeth Not Folly To Them”
Ecclesiastes 10:11-20 “The Labour of The Foolish Wearieth Every One of Them”
Is Christ an Angel of God?
Revelation 7:9-17
Why Are the Multitudes Not Given to Understand?
Christ is Preached Even in Babylon