There are 2 or 3 Genesis studies; the Dispensations study, and the Life of Abraham. At this point, I do not know from which these notes were taken.

Genesis 1

Chapter 1

Genesis is the seed plant for the Bible. It presents in embryonic form all of the great doctrines of scripture—the origin of man, sin, marriage, death, redemption, civilisation, nationalism, and so on. In the first eleven chapters we have the first dispensation. But it must be remembered that the history given in the first eleven chapters was man on the earth without the canon of scripture. Everything given in these 11 chapters was written by Moses quite a few thousand years after it happened, therefore it is completely dictation except for a few records to which Moses had access. Genesis introduces the great subject of the grace of God—God providing for man in love what man cannot earn or deserve. Every failure of man is met by a fresh manifestation of grace. When man fails God comes up with grace, on and on, and so it will always be until the last judgment.

The first five books of the Bible are called the Pentateuch, and they have a relationship. Genesis is the book of beginnings, and this is man’s failure before God. Exodus is the book of deliverance—God delivers. Leviticus is the book of worship. Numbers, the book of wanderings—service to God. Deuteronomy, the book of discourses—God’s command for obedience among believers.

Genesis 1-11, the human race. Genesis 12-50, one family out of the human race—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. Genesis is the divine eye-witness account of the beginning of the human race—Job 38:1-9; Proverbs 8:22-31.

Verse 1 – one verse on creation. The rest of Genesis chapter one does not deal with creation, except in the case of man. The creation of the universe is confined to one verse and in this first verse we have eight different factors. First, we have the existence of God, and this Genesis 1:1 opposes atheism. We have the affirmation of an eternal creator and thus this verse opposes polytheism. We have a reference to the creation of matter and thus this verse alone opposes philosophical materialism. The verse declares God as one and before all things, and thus it opposes pantheism. It reveals the freedom of God and therefore opposes fatalism. It gives us the necessity for a supernatural revelation and thus opposes naturalism. It appeals to faith rather than reason, and thus opposes rationalism. The verse indicates man’s utter helplessness and thus opposes legalism. In many ways verse one is one of the most attacked verses in the Bible because every system of false doctrine that has ever existed is opposed by some phrase or statement in this verse.

“In the beginning God” – God is the Hebrew word Elohim. The im is plural, but we do not translate this word “Gods.” It means that there is more than one person in the Godhead. The reason is that Elohim is the name of God in the Hebrew for essence, and since the three persons in the Godhead have identical essence we have “In the beginning Elohim,” showing that all three members of the Trinity were involved in creation. The Father panned it; the Son executed it; the Spirit revealed it. The Father, the Son and the Spirit are three different persons although they have the same essence. But there is also a second word—LORD, which we simply translate Jehovah. Jehovah is in the singular and it always refers only to one person—sometimes to the Father, sometimes to the Son, and sometimes to the Holy Spirit. Elohim is a plural word used here because all of the members of the Trinity were involved in the creation. The phrase “in the beginning,” bereshith, means that time actually began when creation began.

“created” – there are three different Hebrew words for create or make. a) Bara, which means to create something out of nothing. The word occurs three times in this chapter—verse 1, verse 21, verse 27. In verse 1 God created the universe out of nothing; in verse 21 God created the immaterial inner life of the animals; in verse 27 God created the inner immaterial part of man, the soul and spirit of man. b) Asah, which means to make or construct something out of existing materials. This is used in verse 7 which is talking about the restoration of the earth, and God made the firmament. The word made means to make something out of materials already in existence. It is also used in verse 17, 26. c) Jatsar, which means to fashion or to mould. It also means to sculptor. This is used in Genesis 2:7.

Creation occurred instantly—Psalm 33:6; Hebrews 11:3; 2 Peter 3:5. Psalm 19:1 tells us that it occurred more rapidly than you can snap your finger. How long ago was the universe created? Unknown. There is nothing in the Bible to indicate the exact time of creation. The object of creation is said to be “the heavens [pl] and the earth.” Heavens include all of the stellar space.

Verse 2 – “And the earth.” This is the history of man, the history of the earth. The heavens will be brought in as they relate to man and the earth but there is nothing more about the heavens at this moment. Next we have a threefold description of the earth.

“was” is literally became. In other words, the earth was perfect and became something else. There are three words to describe what the earth became. The first one is tohu, translated in the KJV “without form.” It means literally, a waste. Cf. Isaiah 45:18, “For thus saith the Lord who created [out of nothing, bara] the heavens, God himself who formed the earth [shaped it] and made it [out of existing materials]; he hath established it [the earth], he created it not a tohu [not a waste] …”

“and void” – the word void is waw bohu in the Hebrew and it means barren. This means that the original animal and vegetable life on the earth was destroyed.

“and darkness was upon the face of the deep” – the earth became darkness. The Hebrew word means thick darkness in which there was no light. There are several words for darkness in the Hebrew language. There is a word for darkness which has light in it and there is a word for darkness where there is no light in it. So the earth is three things, according to verse 2: a) the earth is a dump, waste; b) the earth is barren; c) the earth is enshrouded in a darkness which has no light in it at all. Why? There was a cataclysm caused by the angelic conflict.[1]

God the Son is going to create man on the earth, and He can’t bring man onto the earth under the conditions which are described in the first part of this verse where there is no life or any way to sustain life. So there has to be some changes. The earth has to be perfect environment to make volition a bona fide issue in the resolving of the angelic conflict. So God’s grace can demand nothing less than perfect environment for man to begin his career of resolving the angelic conflict.

“and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” The earth was completely covered with water. The Spirit of God is the third person of the Trinity, and the Holy Spirit is the one who reconstructed the earth in six literal days. Remember, we do not have six days of original creation. The six days are reconstruction. The earth must be restored for man to dwell upon it. The Holy Spirit is the author of restoration.

The Hebrew word bara is used for creating something out of nothing. Twice more in this chapter bara is going to be used. First of all the animals; there is a new animal kingdom. Secondly, man. And whenever we have bara it is the work of Christ. The rest of the time in the chapter we are going to have asah and jatsar which will be used for restoration of the earth, except for animals and people. Since man is going to be created on the sixth day by the Lord Jesus Christ there must be five days of preparation, of restoration before man can occupy perfect environment which will be his home.

There is a principle of doctrine behind this. It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to restore life. That is why the Holy Spirit is the agent of regeneration. Jesus Christ provides life, eternal life for the believer by His death on the cross, but it is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to restore this life. He is the agent of regeneration.

Psalm 104:30—we will change one word in the middle of the verse; the word “and” should be “because.” “Thou [God the Father, the planner] sendest forth thy Spirit [Holy Spirit], they [mankind] are created [by the Son]; because thou [Holy Spirit] renewest the face of the earth.” The Holy Spirit is sent forth to renew the face of the earth so that man can live on the surface of the earth.

The principle of reconstruction is found in Exodus 20:11—“For in six days the Lord [Jehovah—the Holy Spirit] made”—the word made is asah, made from existing materials. This is reconstruction—“the heavens [pl] and earth [sing.], the sea, and all that in them, and rested [because everything was provided] the seventh day…”

The mechanics of restoration: 1:3—2:3. The word “day.”[2] Day is used three ways in scripture. First of all, for minus 24 hours—less than 24 hours. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 1 Corinthians—the day of Christ. 2 Thessalonians 2:2 in the Greek does not say the day of the Lord but the day of Christ. The day of Christ is an instantaneous moment. It is a reference to the Rapture of the Church. The word day in the day of Christ is the word used with a modifying phrase to indicate less than a 24-hour period. Another way in which day is used is for more than 24 hours. The day of the Lord is the illustration of this. It covers 1007 years—the Tribulation, Second Advent and the Millennium, or any part thereof. But whenever it is so used it has a modifying or what is called a qualifying phrase. The word day in Genesis chapter one is never used with a qualifying phrase. In other words the six days in Genesis do not justify the principle of historical geology. These are 6 literal 24-hour days. The Hebrew word yom is used for a 24-hour day, and that is the use in Genesis chapters 1 & 2.

Note that each day is divided into day and night. Solar days are all so divided. In the Hebrew the night comes before the day; with us we think of the day and then the night. Vegetation is restored on the third day and it could not have survived in total darkness, therefore vegetation could only survive on the basis of a solar day and not an historical geological era.

The fourth commandment of Exodus 20:11 talks about 6 days. The word there is for six literal days, referring to restoration—the ministry of the Spirit.

A point of Hebrew syntax. When the Hebrew word yom is qualified by a cardinal or an ordinal numeral it always refers to a 24-hour day, without exception. In Genesis 1:5 a 24-hour day is specified by that language. “And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were day one,” literally.

Verse 3 – an identification of personalities. “God said” refers to the Father. Whenever it says, “God said let something be done” it is the Father, He is always the author of the plan, the initiator of the plan. (Verse 4 – “and God divided.” That is the Holy Spirit, the author of reconstruction. Verse 21 – “And God created” is the Son—John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:10.) “Let there be light: and light came to pass.” There are two words for light in this context: or—light as a substance, the word used in this verse. This light comes to solve the problem of darkness. This light differs from the fourth day, where the second word is used: maor, which means light in a container, a light bearer. Light containers throw off light. The purpose of this light in verse 3 is to solve the problem of darkness, and the light does not absorb the darkness—both light and darkness then exist.

Verse 4 – for these two to exist they must be separated. “And God [the Father] saw the light, that is was good: and God [the Spirit] divided the light from the darkness.” The light was good because it came from God. The light is separated from the darkness, it does not absorb the darkness but the darkness continues to exist. The light is concentrated above the earth until it is placed in its light bearers. Darkness has the connotation of evil in the scripture—John 3:19. Light has the connotation of good—1 John 1:5. After separation there has to be nomenclature to distinguish. God always does us the favour of naming things and describing things so that we can know that one is good and one is not. Nomenclature is absolutely necessary to think, to describe, to go into the mechanics of anything. Analogy: You must know doctrine before you know what you are doing in the Christian life. Remember again, the production of light was not the annihilation of darkness nor the transformation of darkness into light. Both continued to exist. This is a separation of the two.

Verse 5 – the declaration of the first solar day. “And the evening and the morning were day one” – literally. This indicates it was a 24-hour day. Darkness is an analogy to man’s spiritual condition as an unbeliever—2 Corinthians 4:3,4. Man needs light. Light is the Lord Jesus Christ—John 8:12.

Verses 6-8, the second day of restoration. Covering the earth is a tremendous mass of water of unknown depth. In the second day this great mass of water is going to be divided into two segments by gas, atmosphere, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, etc. Then there will be an area called “firmament.” The Hebrew says “atmosphere,” as mass of gases. There is going to be water below and water above. Eventually water will be separated and dry land will appear. Then we have atmosphere, a band of gases, and then water above it.

Verse 6 – “And God [the Father] said, Let there be atmosphere.” This atmosphere (not firmament) is actually described in four other passages: Psalm 104:2, the atmosphere is called a carpet; Isaiah 40:22, it is called a curtain made of gauze; Exodus 24:10, it is described as a transparent work of sapphire—the concept of the blue sky; Job 37:18 describes this atmosphere as a looking glass—the concept of transparency. So by the descriptions of the Word itself the word “firmament” does not mean land, it means transparent atmosphere, and yet atmosphere that has substance.

Verse 7 – “And God made” – reference to the Holy Spirit. The word made is asah: He made out of existing materials; “and it was so”—it came to pass.

Verse 8 – “And God called the atmosphere Heaven (singular)” – the atmosphere, the first heaven. He gave it nomenclature to distinguish it from water. “…and the evening and the morning were day two.” Analogy: Just as the atmosphere divides the waters so the cross divides the human race. The atmosphere becomes analogous to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, and it divides people. John 3:36.

Verses 9-13, the third day of restoration. The earth is covered with water but a very interesting thing is going to happen to this water. Most of it is going to be hauled in under the earth, except in certain places where there are seas and oceans. But the seas and oceans are just a small part of this great band of water. The rest of it will be pulled under the earth and when Noah’s flood comes most of the water did not come from above, it came from below the earth. The Hebrew will say the water came up from under the earth. Noah’s ark could not have survived the rain necessary to cover the earth, the pressure of that amount of rain would have destroyed Noah’s ship. Furthermore, until the time of Noah there was no rain on the earth because God had a system whereby all of the earth was watered by water which came up from the earth. In verses 9-13 we have the land and the sea appointed on the earth and vegetable life is restored to the earth.

Verse 9 – “Let the waters under the Heaven [atmosphere] be gathered together unto one place.” In other words, they are pulled back into a reservoir under the earth.

“and let the dryness appear: and it was so” – the land was not called firmament, it was called dryness. In other words, Let the land appear. Now the surface of the earth is partially cleared. This is described in detail in Psalm 104:5-10.

Verse 10 – “And God called the dryness Earth; and the gathering together of the waters he called Seas: and God saw that it was good.” Good means that He is moving toward His goal, and His goal is to provide perfect environment for Adam and his wife.

Verse 11-13, note the recurring phrase “after its kind.” This is a law which God has never violated.

Verses 14-19, the fourth day of restoration.

Verse 14 – “And God said.” Every time we see these words, as in verse 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, this is always a reference to God the Father. The Father is the author of restoration, the planner. The Holy Spirit is the executor of restoration, verse 2.

“let there be lights (plural)” – we have seen up to this point that light was in one concentrated form, called in the Hebrew or. But now we have maor which means the light is scattered and distributed. The word actually comes to mean light bearers. “Let there be different things to hold the light” is perhaps a better translation. Up until now the light has been concentrated over the earth, but now the concentration will be broken up. Light has to be decentralised so that it will be beneficial to man. As long as it was concentrated it would burn man up.

“in the firmament” – atmosphere; “to divide the day from the night …” By decentralising light it becomes beneficial. But things cannot beneficial to man in concentrated form. Notice that too much of anything becomes bad for man, no matter how good it is—health food, responsibility, sun, etc. Everything must be decentralised and man must take everything in small doses.

The five reasons for decentralisation of light

1. To provide light for both day and night, and to make a division between day and night. There is an analogy: Believers are also said to be light bearers; they bear the gospel light. They make the issue clear just as day and night are clear. The gospel is the basis of clarifying the issue of eternal life.

2. “Signs” – verse 14. Generally the word signs refers to a miraculous activity, which designates something as coming from God, or designates something about God. Where we run into trouble is the fact that there are true signs and false signs. There is a true delineation of events through astronomy (not astrology). The most obvious biblical illustration was the star over Bethlehem which was the announcing of an unusual event. Stars are used also in another field: the ability to prognosticate changes in the weather—Matthew 16:1-4. If stars and celestial bodies can be used to determine weather, and if they are used to announce unusual events such as the first advent of Christ, such as the second advent of Christ when stars are said to fall from heaven, then we have an analogy: believers can discern the signs of the times and orient themselves to life by the light, the bible.

3. “Seasons” – verse 14, the establishing of a season by virtue of the periodic influence on agriculture, navigation, and other human occupations. The stars are used to establish seasons. Analogy: the testimony of the believer and the declaration of the gospel becomes the means of stabilising and establishing society.

4. “Days and years” – verse 14. Celestial bodies are used in the calculation of days and years. In other words, the setting up of a calendar. We orient ourselves with regard to years and months, and so on.

5. “Lights in the atmosphere” – verse 15. Light in the atmosphere is absolutely necessary for human life, for growth, and for the welfare and happiness of the human race.

Verse 16 – a threefold classification of these light containers or light bearers. The greater light and the lesser light deal with the solar system. The third

category is the stars. The greater light is the sun; the lesser is the moon. Then we have the celestial bodies a great distance from the earth—the stars.

Verses 17, 18 – “And God [the Holy Spirit] placed them in the firmament … and God saw that it was good.” So it is now restored to its proper place.

Verses 20-23, the fifth day. The creation of aquatic and aerial life.

Verse 20, corrected translation: “And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms [or beings, creatures], with living beings, and let the birds fly above the earth in the face of the atmosphere [off the surface of the earth].”

Verse 21 – “God created long, stretched creatures [can refer to many things], and every living creature, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind …”

Verses 24-31, the sixth day of restoration. Verses 24 & 25, the creation of animal life. Verses 26 & 27, the creation of man.

Verse 26 – “And God said, Let us [pl. Trinity] make” – the word make is asah, the creation of something from something that already exists. Part of man came from things already in existence.

“in our image” – what are these materials already in existence? Three things: God is self-conscious; He has moral reasoning power; He has self-determination/sovereignty. The words “in our image” does not mean that we look like God. a) Self-consciousness: God is aware of His won existence. So when man was made in the image of God he was made self-conscious. He is aware that he is alive: I am, or I exist. b) Moral reasoning power: I ought—to do this, to do that; c) self-determination: I will. This is the introduction to divine institution #1. From this comes volition, free will which is independent of divine sovereignty.

The image of God was distorted and destroyed when man first sinned. His self-consciousness was cut off from God, he was spiritually dead. His self-consciousness was limited to other creatures, he no longer had any consciousness of God. His moral reasoning power was reduced to human conscience whereby norms can become distorted—white can become black, black can become white, or everything some shade of grey. His self-determination was limited because he was spiritually dead. There was only one decision that could ever bring him out of it, the decision to accept the gospel which is first declared in Genesis 3:15.

Verse 27 – “So God created man in his own image.” In other words, the self-consciousness, moral reasoning power and self-determination have a source in an invisible, immaterial part of man. The real you lives inside of you and cannot be seen.

“male and female created he them” – God divided male and female, but before He did both were in one package. When they were divided they had certain characteristics which were different. One was like the sun and the other was like the moon. Later on in scripture sun and moon are used to define male and female. The moon is a reflector of light and the sun is a container of light. There are vast differences between male and female. The man is an initiator and the female is a responder.

Verse 28 – man’s domination over the earth is authorised. “Be fruitful, and multiply, and control it [rule it] …” Man had the ability to run the earth.

Verse 29 – God provides food for man and for lower creation. When Christ returns to the earth the order of nature will be restored—Romans 8:19-22; Isaiah 35:1-7. The animals will stop being carnivorous – Isaiah 11:6-9; 65:25. Until then we have the law of mutual destruction and survival. Animals live off of their own kind and man lives of anything he can get his hands on.

Verse 14 — “And God said” is the qal imperfect of amar. Elohim refers to all members of the Godhead with the Father being the spokesman. Amar means here to decree. God decrees this and it comes to pass. This is the power of the Word. God simply speaks with His voice and these things come into existence. He uses His voice and things happen. The same power also resides in the Word of God today in its written form. God expresses His grace through His voice before the canon was completed. Now God expresses His grace through the written Word with the completion of the canon.

“let there be” is incorrect. It is the qal imperfect of hajah, and the imperfect tense is in the jussive form which is used to express a command. It is “whatever it is as the subject be.” In verse 3 we have “Light be, and light was.” That was the word or for concentrated light. The subject this time is different. The word is in the plural and it is “lights be.” However, the word is maor which refers to light bearers, light containers. The concentration of light is now dispersed. The concentration of light which was used to melt the ice pack now must be scattered and as of this point we are going to have light bearers. Maor refers to our solar system. We have the creation of the solar system to decentralise and scatter light among the planets so that life — plant, animal and human — can actually exist on this earth.

The solar system

1. The solar system of which we are a part has only one star, and that is the sun. It also has revolving around that one star, nine planets. The one star came from “Light be, and light was.” The sun was originally one consolidated chunk of light. There is no other system within the universe that has only one star.

2. A full 99.86% of the solar system’s substance is tied up in the sun.

3. The word “planet” comes from the Greek, the nominative plural planhtai. It comes from the vocabulary form planhthj which means a wanderer in the Greek. It is in the plural, so planets are wanderers. Everything else in the universe is fixed within its area, only the planets have an unusual wandering cycle.

4. The name is derived from the manner in which planets seem to drift among the fixed stars. Our whole solar system drifts and it is in a very interesting drifting process.

5. Planet earth in the solar system both rotates and revolves. It rotates on its axis every 24 hours. It revolves around the sun every 365 days.

6. Because of the rotation and the revolution of the earth the stars all seem to move in unison in regular daily and annual cycles. While the planets share in this motion they also have their own real motion around the sun.

7. For example, Venus takes 224 days to go around the sun.

8. Mercury has an elliptical orbit around the sun. During every rotation around the sun Mercury only rotates on its axis once. That means that a day on mercury is 88 days. This means that one side of Mercury is frozen and the other side has a temperature of about 650 degrees Fahrenheit.

“Elohim said, Light bearers be” — light bearers refers to our solar system. Maor includes the sun, planets, comets, meteors.

“in the firmament of the heavens” — ‘the expanse of the heavens.’ Here we have raqija which refers to space. The purpose of them is then given. The light bearers or luminaries have five purposes: a) “to divide the day from the night,” to divide is the hiphil infinitive construct of badal which means to cause to divide; day from night is it literally, ‘between the day and between the night.’ The word ‘between’ occurs twice. The sun is a light bearer, the only star in our system, and it provides brighter light for the day. It is the only created star in our system at this time. The rest of the universe was already in existence. Basically, light by night will come from planets. b) “and let them be for signs” — let them be is a qal perfect of hajah, with a waw conversive which changes the perfect into an imperfect and makes it a jussive and a command — “signs be.” The word for signs is the plural of oth plus the preposition. It means a sign, and ensign, a flag, a token or a monument. Where it is connected with stars it is used for the discerning of times. Stars have been used for the discerning of times for many centuries — Matthew 2:2; 24:29; Luke 21:25; Jeremiah 10:2; Joel 2:30. c) “and for seasons” — the word for seasons is moedh. It is related to the divisions of the year according to weather changes. d) “for days and, years” — the rotation of the earth was the sole standard for determining time.

Translation: “And Elohim said, Light bearers be in the expanse of the heavens to cause to divide between the day and night, to become for signs, to become seasons, for days and years.”

Verse 15 — the fifth purpose: “And let them be,” the qal perfect of hajah with a waw conversive used as a jussive means “let them become”; “for light bearers” — maor, “in the expanse of the heavens.” The words “to give light” are incorrect — hiphil infinitive construct of the verb or means to cause to give life, “to cause to give light on the planet earth.”

“and it was so” — the qal imperfect of hajah plus the adverb ken which is an idiom which means “it came to pass [or occurred] as described.”

Verse 16 — we have had the decree, now we have the fulfillment. “And God made” — qal imperfect of asah. Why asah? Asah does not mean to create out of nothing but to manufacture something out of something. The subject of Elohim (plural). The command is given in the previous verse from Elohim the Father. The execution of the command is from Elohim the Son who is said to be the creator of the world. The principle of making something out of something: the light was already in existence. Therefore He manufactured the solar system out of a concentrated body of light. Asah is used because the material out of which the solar system was manufactured was already in concentrated form.

“two great lights” — literally, ‘two great light bearers.’ The word ‘two’ here means two categories. “So the Elohim [Jesus Christ] manufactured out of light the two great categories of light bearers.” One category is the sun, and that is a star. The other category are the planets, and these are also called great. Everything else is small by comparison, including satellites which are not light bearers at all but light reflectors, e.g. the moon.

“the greater light” is the sun; “to rule” — memashalah is a noun, not a verb, and it should be called ‘the ruler’ — “the ruler of the day.”

“the lesser light” — the planets of the solar system.

“the stars also” — this is incorrect, there is no ‘also.’ “And the stars” indicates that the stars are used also to supply light for night, but they are not in the system.

Translation: “And Elohim constructed the two great categories of light bearers, namely the greater light [the only star, the sun] for the dominion of the day, and both the lesser light [planets] and the already-existing stars for the dominion of the night.”

Verse 17 — “And God set” is the qal imperfect of nathan which means to give; “them” — the sun as a star and the planets as a lesser light category; “to the atmosphere of the heavens to provide light on planet earth.” The word ‘firmament’ is the atmosphere or the expanse, the space of the heavens.

Verse 18 — “And to rule.” Now we have the verb, the qal infinitive construct of mashal; “over the day” is literally, “in the day,” and [other category] to rule in the night.”

The word to “divide” is a hiphil infinitive construct of badal and should be translated to “cause to divide.”

“between the light and the darkness” — it is important to understand that we have every 24 hours a certain amount of daylight and a certain amount of darkness with light in it. This division will continue throughout human history with one exception, the second advent of Jesus Christ. On the day before Jesus Christ returns to the earth all of the luminaries are going to be blotted out and the earth will be completely covered with darkness and when Jesus Christ arrives He will be the light on the earth for the Millennium.

“and Elohim saw that it was good” — Why? Because it came from the perfect God. It was decreed by God the Father who is perfect. It was executed by God the Son who is perfect. It is revealed by God the Holy Spirit.

Translation: “And to rule in the day and in the night, and to cause to divide between the light and the darkness: and Elohim saw that it was good.”

Verse 19 — “And the evening.” The noun eber does not mean evening, it means getting darker. That means the earth is rotating now away from the sun.

Translation: “So it became darker and it became brighter; day four.”

This verse indicates the rotation of the earth once every 24 hours, this is the fourth day of restoration.

[1] See the Doctrine of the angelic conflict.

[2] See the Doctrine of days.

Genesis 2

Chapter 2

Verses 1-3, the Sabbath.

Verse 1 – a summary of chapter one.

Verse 2 – three words need underlining: “ended his work.” This is the true meaning of Sabbath: God ended His work, and having ended His work He rested. God rested because there wasn’t anything else He could do for man in innocence. Everything that could be provided for man in status quo innocence was provided and there wasn’t another thing to be added to it. God will rest until man sins. Once man sins then God works again—salvation. Sabbath means God rests because He has provided everything necessary for man. It did not mean originally that man does any resting; that isn’t the idea at all. The idea of the Sabbath is a memorial to and a recognition of the fact that God provided everything for man and that man can add nothing to it. That is the principle of salvation. The principle is grace: God does all of the providing; man simply rests in what God provides. From Genesis 2:2 to Exodus 16:23 there is no reference to the Sabbath—over a period of 2,500 years or more.

In Exodus 16 we have another reference to the Sabbath, and we have Sabbath under the Mosaic law. There were three Sabbaths under the Mosaic law: a) Every seventh day, which is Saturday; b) Every seventh year the Jews were to rest and not work; c) Every fiftieth year there was a super Sabbath called the year of Jubilee. (All of the holy days were also called Sabbaths: the Passover, unleavened bread, first-fruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Tabernacles. Most of them occurred on Sunday or some other day of the week).

Why were the Jews required on Saturday to cease from work? The Jews were required to observe the Sabbath every Saturday so that they would remember grace. When you sit down and do nothing it reminds you of grace. The “no work” concept was to remind them to keep jogging their memories, that they could do nothing for salvation, that they could only rest in what God had provided. The Sabbath was a way of preaching the gospel to them. The Jews failed in all of their Sabbaths because many of them were not born again. They missed the boat of the Sabbath and, as a matter of fact, they turned the Sabbath which was the memorial to the grace of God into a totem pole for legalism. When the Mosaic law was abrogated by the death of Christ in the bringing in of a better covenant [Epistle to the Hebrews] the Sabbath went right out the window. So that today there are only two Sabbaths left. Both of them existed before the Mosaic law; both of them existed during the period when the Mosaic law was in action; both of these Sabbaths continue to exist at the present time. The first of these two Sabbaths is found in Matthew 11:28 (remember that Sabbath means rest). That rest is that God has provided everything in salvation and we simply rest in what He has provided. Our resting is very simple: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” This is a once-and-for-all rest, the rest that will last forever—eternal life. Then there is a second rest for those who believe. This is a perpetual rest in time—Hebrews 4:1-3, a rest for every moment of phase two. It is the faith-rest technique. God has provided promises; we rest in them. God has provided doctrine; we rest in it. Always the Sabbath is a memorial to the grace of God and only Satanic doctrine will distort it into something else. The distortions continue to the present time through series of confusions and false teaching. Matthew 11:28 is the eternal Sabbath; Hebrews 4:1-3 is the temporal Sabbath, the moment-by-moment Sabbath.

Verse 3 – the sanctification of the Sabbath. The word sanctified means to set it apart. We have to understand to what it was set apart. It is was set apart to the principle and the doctrine of grace. The principle of grace in the Sabbath is: only God can work for man’s benefit. Man can never work for his own benefit and achieve lasting results. Only what God provides is eternal; only what God does is eternal. Therefore anything that man provides or does is temporal and does not survive. The Sabbath, then, is a reminder that what God does is perfect and permanent. What does God do? Salvation, and this is also permanent: doctrine of eternal security applied.

Verse 4 – this particular context, Genesis chapter two, describes the beginning of the history of the human race. We are going to have a complete account of man, his creation, and the separating of the woman from the man. They came into the world in one package and God performed an operation which separated the two of them. The separation of the two of them was necessary for perfect environment. They could not be in one package because man was lonely and not aware of the existence of the woman until she was separated from him. She was separated from him so that he could become aware of her and therefore could be joined to him. As long as man was lonely he didn’t have perfect environment, but once the woman is taken from him and separated from him then no man is complete without the woman. The woman completes as well as compliments the man.

We should be aware of the fact that even as then so now angels watch the human race because angels learn the grace of God from the human race, and fallen angels also learn their doom from the human race—1 Corinthians 4:9; 6:3; 11:10; Ephesians 3:10; 1 Timothy 5:21; 1 Peter 1:12. All of these passages tell us that angels are watching us today and angels were watching our first two parents in the garden.

Question: Did God create sin?

1. No. God is not the author of sin and God is not the author of temptation—James 1:13. Not only does the scripture directly state that God did not create sin, and that God cannot tempt to sin, but take a look at divine essence. God is sovereign: He wills not to sin. He is absolute righteousness; He can’t sin. Absolute righteousness plus omnipotence means that God doesn’t even have the ability to sin. Justice: He cannot sin by being unfair. Immutability: He can’t change and become a sinner. Eternal life: He will always be sinless and perfect and never could be anything else. God did not and could not create anything that was evil. Everything that God created in its initial stage was perfect and wonderful. Therefore, if man sins he must do so from his own volition. It is incompatible with the nature or essence of God to have anything to do with sin. When man came from the hand of the creator he did not have an old sin nature. Man acquired the old sin nature through negative volition.

2. Man was free moral agent, he had absolute free will. When God created man He created him with an independent volition. He could exercise his volition independently of God or he could choose the will of God. Why did He do so? To resolve the angelic conflict. The angelic conflict started over the free will of Satan—Isaiah 14, Satan said five times, “I will.” When he finished he had acted independently of God. The first sin in the universe was committed by Satan, the sin of negative volition. The only sin that man could commit in innocence was negative volition; he could not commit any of the sins that we can commit today, except one—negative volition.

3. So far as man is concerned sin came from outside of man. Sin originated with Satan and Satan passed it on to man through the same thing that man had—free will or volition.

4. Just as Satan was a free moral agent so Adam was a free moral agent, created in innocence. Innocence means he was neither holy nor sinful.

5. There are two co-existent forces which started the civilisation bowl: the essence of God and the essence of God. God is sovereign; man has volition with a positive and a negative pole. These are co-existent forces that began when the civilisation bowl began. When God breathed into man the breath of lives [pl] immediately there were two factors co-existing on the earth and they still co-exist—the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. The only place where the sovereignty of God and the free will of man can meet and be compatible is at the cross. From that point on man enters into phase two or the Christian life whereby the issue is always, ‘Am I doing the will of God?’ The whole Bible is written so that we might know and understand when we are in the will of God and when we are not, and if not in the will of God how to get back into the will of God. The will of God is determined by the Word of God, but the will of God starts in 1 John 3:23. The doctrines of the sovereignty of God and the free will of man are wheels that interpret but never collide. Both exist.

6. The sovereignty of God gave man free will. God sovereignly bestowed this independent volition on man—because of the angelic conflict. This freedom of will and/or divine institution #1 gave man the right to choose for himself even in contradiction to the will of God.

7. Such a choice as Adam made is against God’s will. God is against sin, it is not His will for man to sin. The choice was made against God’s will and the emphasis of this context is to present in detail the environment, the essence of man, the test of man, and why God rested. In other words, from verse 4 to the end of the chapter the question: Why did God rest? Because everything was provided, and what does man do with having everything?

Notice the reversal in verse 4—“heavens and the earth” is the first part of the verse, but in the last part of the verse “earth” comes before “heavens.” This

verse contains an official Hebrew title, and chapter two should actually begin here. The word generations means posterity or the development of generations. The subject now: the history of posterity. This title does not describe the origins of the earth but it is a title that introduces what happens after the heavens and the earth were restored.

“when they were created” – create something out of nothing; “in the day that the Lord God made” – our second word, asah, means made something out of something that already existed. So we have original creation here and restoration.

“Lord God” refers to Jesus Christ. Lord is a Hebrew word, Jehovah; God is Elohim, a plural word. Lord always refers to personality in the Godhead—there are three. Sometimes Lord refers to the Father, sometimes to the Son, and sometimes to the Holy Spirit. God always refers to essence. There are three persons in one essence.

Verses 5-15, God’s provision for man in innocence. Verses 5 & 6, God’s provision for man’s food. The first principle of the civilisation bowl is grace. Man did nothing to earn his food; man did not deserve his food; man did not have to work for his food, everything was provided by God. Food was provided on the 3rd day of restoration—Genesis 1:11, so that three days later when man became a living soul he could start eating immediately. The original food of man did not depend upon rain or human agriculture or any human activity.

Verse 6 – only after man sinned did it become necessary for man to work for his food. The means of preservation of vegetation before man sinned was mist which was entirely provided by God and it came from inside of the earth. Analogy: Just as man receives his physical food from God, so he receives his spiritual food from God—grace.

Verse 7 – when man came on the earth he was called a trichotomous being: body soul and spirit. “And the Lord God formed man” – jatsar, which means outward form, moulding.

“of the dust of the ground” – dust is not dirt or solid clods of earth but the immaterial, the unseen part of the ground. In other words, the chemicals in the soil. Upon death the soil receives the chemicals back. The word for ground here is adamah, and it means the red earth. This is why Adam received the name Adam, because it means taken from the earth. The body which God provided was a tent, a shelter for the soul and the spirit.

“and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives [pl.]” – the word lives in the plural refers to the soul and the spirit.

“and man became a living soul” – he became self-conscious. Self-consciousness is a factor of the soul.

Verses 8-15 – man’s environment. The word Eden means the garden of delight. It was the sum total of perfect environment. Note: As long as man has volition perfect environment can never be the solution to man’s problems.

Verse 9 – “every tree that is pleasant to the sight,” those which provide aesthetic response, stimulation by looking at a tree, by scenery. Perfect environment includes perfect scenery, and these trees that were pleasant to the sight stimulated man in the realm of his soul. He appreciated them and enjoyed them.

“and good for food” – for the physical part of man.

“and a tree of life” – Mentioned again in Revelation 22:2,14; and finally, “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” At the time that Adam was on the earth the tree of life was God’s provision for man’s perpetuation—not living forever but perpetuation of perfect environment and innocence. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a test of volition. There was only one way in which man could sin in perfect environment and that was through his volition by partaking of one tree. There must be a test for volition and this can be correlated with the angelic conflict.

Verse 10 – “and became four heads.” In other words, it became four great rivers.

Verse 11 – “The name of the first is Pishon,” which is the Hebrew word now for canal, “that which surrounds the whole land of Havilah where there is gold.”

Verse 14 – “Hiddekel” is the Tigris.

Verse 15 – “to dress it” means to dominate it and to guard it. Man is not working yet for food. That word tells us that there is an enemy in the earth. The word means to guard it from hostile forces—Satan and his angels. Man had responsibility to guard this perfect environment and the enemy of perfect environment is Satan.

In verses 16 & 17 we have divine institution #1 which is the basis of all human freedom, volition, brought to our attention. This tells us that man could eat if he wanted to. But here is a commandment to test man’s volition: “Thou shalt not eat of it.” There was only one way that Adam could sin in the garden. It was impossible for him to sin in any way except to eat from this tree, and even that would not have been a sin without this statement: “thou shalt not eat of it.”

“for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” – four words erroneously translated here. The Hebrew says, “dying thou shalt die.” There are two words, the first is a participle which should be translated “dying.” Then it has a finite verb, “dying thou shalt die.” The word death is repeated. The participle refers to spiritual death; the finite verb refers to physical death. Spiritual death is the basis of destroying fellowship with God; physical death is a result of spiritual death. Man is perpetuated by eating of the tree of life which perpetuates him in innocence but once he disobeys God—negative volition—and sins the tree of life will be shut off to him, he will not be perpetuated because he cannot be perpetuated in status quo spiritual death and have fellowship with God. In the day that Adam eats of the tree he is dead then—spiritually. “The wages of sin is death” does not mean physical death, it means spiritual death.

Verse 18 – “not good that man should live alone.” Man’s loneliness is not in the realm of fellowship with God. God says he needs fellowship of a like kind, and this anticipates the woman.

“I will make him an help meet for him.” The words “help meet” in the Hebrew means a helper of the same species. Someone of the same species who compliments you, who compliments you, who implements you and therefore helps you.

In verses 19 & 20 there is a little parenthesis to indicate that man dominated the lower creation but did not find his fellowship from lower creation. The fact that man named all of the animals and species indicates that he had a perfect vocabulary.

Verse 21 – introduction to the second divine institution. “And the Lord God” is a reference to Jesus Christ; “caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her to the man.”

Man has something missing: the rib. He gets the rib back through marriage, through fellowship with the woman. Note that the woman came into existence while man was asleep. The woman was not created from the dust of the earth as Adam was but she was built from Adam’s rib. The principle is carried out in marriage that the woman is a part of man and only completed in him.

Verse 22 – “… he built a woman, and brought her to the man.” This was so that he could name her. The woman was built to respond, she is the responder of the human race.

Verse 23 – “This is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh”—this is part of me. He recognised his wife right away.

“she shall be called Woman”—ishah, which means part of man, belongs to man, implements the man, and so on; “Because she was taken out of Man [ish].”

Verse 24 – “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother.” There were no fathers and mothers when this was said. So why was it put in before there were in-laws? Because the greatest danger to a marriage is that the marriage will depend upon or allow the in-laws to interfere. One the children get married the parents must stay out of it, despite any troubles. No in-law has ever straightened out anything, they only make matters worse. Once the children get married the parents have done all they can for them. The greatest attack on the divine institution is still the in-laws.

“and cleave” – the word means to cling. But you cling mentally before you cling physically; “unto his wife” – the man clings to the woman. This means the man initiates the love in the home; “and they shall be one flesh” – marriage.

Verse 25 – “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed” – ‘not ashamed’ is confused or disappointed.

Genesis 3

Genesis chapter 3

Verse 1 – a member of the lower creation is used as Satan’s agent. Satan indwelt the serpent. The serpent was not like the snakes of today. Apparently it was the most beautiful of all of the creatures in lower creation, and apparently a pet of the woman. Satan uses agencies. The word subtle is not really a good translation; it was the smartest of all the animals.

“the Lord God” – Jehovah Elohim. Jehovah refers to the persons in he Godhead; Elohim refers to transcendence, essence.

“And he said to the woman” – as soon as we read “he said” we know that Satan is talking. All of a sudden the serpent begins to talk in the language of the woman. This is not unusual and has happened many times in history.

“Yea, hath God said” – Elohim, the name of the supreme being. The words Lord God through the second chapter refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity. But notice what Satan says in his approach here: “Yea, hath Elohim said.” Nothing about Jehovah Elohim. In other words, Satan recognises a supreme being but he does not recognise the saviour. This has been his policy since the beginning. Satan is the author of all religious systems. Not all of them recognise God but many of them do, and Satan is great at promoting belief in God or trusting God, or any kind of man’s works in connection with God. What Satan hates and cannot stand is when people make it personal—the Lord Jesus Christ. And the woman fell right into the trap because she does not recognise the personal relationship which she has enjoyed, she does not say Lord God, she says God [Elohim]. Satan calls Him God and she repeats what Satan says. (2 Chron. 18:31—Jehoshaphat, a believer, has a relationship with God—Jehovah; the Syrians are unbelievers and have no relationship with God—Elohim moved them. This verse shows a very important distinction in scripture. The titles of God in scripture are important.) The woman recognises God as the supreme Being but she ignores any concept of relationship to man. This woman is in innocence and yet she adopts the principle of religion. When she does, she has had it because religion always hates, rejects, despises Jesus Christ and the principle: “the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses from all sin.” There is another principle here. Satan attacks through loved ones. Adam loves the woman. So the principle is that Satan attacks us through loved ones. We are influenced by those whom we love.

“Ye shall not eat of every tree” – ye shall not eat is actually an imperative mood in the Hebrew. It should be translated, “Yea hath God said, ‘Thou shalt not eat’.” In other words, he is making God look bad now. It is subtle innuendo here: Here are all these lovely thing and God won’t let you have them. It is an attempt to malign God. Satan maligns and seeks to discredit the grace of God. We know from chapter two that there was only one tree which was prohibited, and that was simply as a test for volition. Free will is not free will without a test. There must be an object for the exercise of volition and that object was the forbidding of one tree. The innuendo here is that God was forbidding all of the trees and therefore God is very unkind, unfair. Satan is attacking the person of God, saying that He is unfair, unkind, and this helps to prepare the mental attitude of the woman for the sin. And the mental attitude preparation is resentment, bitterness toward God. One of the great enemies of mankind still is resentment and bitterness. This is why the Bible always emphasises that the mental sins are the worst sins.

Verse 2 – “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden.” Satan knew that before she did. He wants her to say this because he is going to catch here with the next phrase.

Verse 3 – “But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden”—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—“God.” And when she says God she has taken her lesson from Satan. Not Lord God, but God hath said.

“Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, let ye die.” What did God say actually? Genesis 2:17 –“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof dying thou shalt die.” The woman added “neither shall ye touch it.” God didn’t say anything about touching the tree. Why did the woman add to what God said? Why did she add to the Word of God? The most obvious reason is because she did not interpret the Word properly.

Death does not lie in the tree. Death is in the woman, in her volition. Death is in the act of negative volition, the act of disobedience. Consequently the woman is now thoroughly confused; she doesn’t have her doctrine straight. She can only think in terms of the physical, that death is in the tree. But death isn’t in the tree, death is in her. Gen. 2:17: Dying (a participle), thou shalt die. Dying is mentioned twice because the first is spiritual death and the second is physical death which is the result. When the woman repeats this phrase she not only adds “neither shall ye touch it,” but she also only mentions physical death. She left out the participle which refers to spiritual death—the key to the whole thing.

Verse 4 – Satan utters the first lie. He puts it all in” “Dying thou shalt not die”—exactly what Jesus said in Genesis 2:17, but he adds the negative “not.” In other words, he distorted and contradicted what God had said. So the whole issue in the garden with this woman was, ‘Are you going to believe what God says in the realm of your human spirit, or are you going to believe in the realm of your soul what Satan said?’ The issue: Satan’s lie; God’s truth. Which will it be? This, again, puts volition right on the line. If you believe God’s truth it means the mental will dominate the emotional and the volitional will stay in line, you will refuse to take of the tree. But if you believe what Satan says the emotion of the soul will dominate the mental and therefore your volition will go negative instead of positive.

Verse 5 – the appeal to the ego. “For God doeth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes will be opened and ye shall be as God [as Elohim].” In other words, just like God. He arouses the ego of the woman. One of Satan’s great pushes in religion is the deification of man, the dignity of man, the greatness of man. The result of this is not that man will become like God, but that God will become man to provide eternal salvation, to get man out of the jamb which was started by the fall.

Verses 6-13, the fall of man.

Verse 6 – the act of sin, operation negative volition. “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food.” This was a rationalisation. Every temptation when one begins to succumb always has the principle of rationalisation. You can always talk yourself into it on the basis of the fact that there is some justification for it.

“and that is was pleasant to the eyes” – this comes closer to the reality of her temptation. The word pleasant means literally delight. It was a delight to the eyes. Consequently, it became “a tree being desired.” The desire was already there, it was planted by a rationalisation. The desire was to be wise—“to make one wise” is the hiphil infinitive: to cause one to become wise. The principle being to become as wise as God and therefore wiser than man.

The next two verbs are very important: “she took; she did eat.” Literally from the Hebrew, “she took and she ate.” This is the same principle. This is the same procedure which is now followed in the principle of another tree. The moment the woman took and ate she died. Ever since that time eating has been one of the five great biblical illustrations for faith. The reason that eating is always a great illustration for faith is because all kinds of people eat—good, bad, immoral, moral, etc. All human beings have the ability to eat. So there is no particular merit in eating; no one is great because he eats. It required no effort on the part of the woman to eat in disobedience. Now there is another tree, and that tree is the cross. It is mentioned as such in 1 Peter 2:24. Eating of this tree in the garden was disobedience and it resulted in death. Eating of the other tree [the cross] which is faith is obedience to the will of God and it results in eternal life. In each case it was a non-meritorious procedure, in the garden and at the cross (salvation); it is the object that becomes important. In the garden the object was forbidden; now in life the object, which is the cross, is enjoined on the entire human race.

“and gave to her husband with her and he did eat” – the man looked upon the first sinner in the human race and immediately faced a great issue: fellowship with God in the garden or fellowship with the woman outside of the garden. He chose the woman outside of the garden. He knew exactly what he was doing; the woman was deceived. The man deliberately sinned. Cf. 1 Timothy 2:9-15.

Verse 7 – “And the eyes of them both were opened.” The moment they ate they died spiritually. Now they faced reality, their eyes were opened.

“they knew they were naked” – they are now naked but they were not naked before. “They knew they were naked” indicates they now have a conscience; they can distinguish between good and evil, and their conscience is a witness to them at this point that they are sinful and in a fallen condition. Their conscience is now going to be their judge and their tormentor. Notice, however, that their conscience does not bring them to God. Only the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ awakens them to their need of God. So if they weren’t naked, what did they wear? There are some verses which seem to imply the type of covering or clothing they had. First of all, “God is light” – 1 John 1:5; God clothes Himself in light – Psalm 104:2; Psalm 36:9, God’s light is identified with regenerate man. This means the concept of man being clothed in light is not foreign to the Word of God. 1 Timothy 6:16, God dwells in light which no man can approach; Romans 13:12, the believer is told to put on the armour of light. Putting all of these things together the implication is that man apparently was dressed in light—beautiful transparent light which made man a very beautiful translucent creature. This is so startling when we stop to remember that the Hebrew word for serpent—Genesis 3:1—is nachash, which means to be clothed with light. Apparently at least one member of lower creation was clothed with light up to this point. So when it says they knew they were naked apparently one of the immediate exterior manifestations of sin was the fact that they became naked and were no longer clothed with light.

It is very interesting at this point to follow the thought pattern of the first parents whose IQ was much higher than ours. Notice what conscience did for them. It caused them to recognise that they were in status quo evil. They were naked, and as far as they could tell this was not good for immediately they tried to do something about it. They are in this status quo because they have disobeyed God, but once they receive the knowledge of good and evil they do not think about God. The reason they do not think about God is because they are incapable of thinking about God. It was not that they had forgotten God, it was that they were incapable of thinking about God. In innocence every day Jesus Christ came in the garden and they had conversation with Him; now they are spiritually dead and they can’t even think about God. But they still have their souls and they can think about each other, and that is exactly what they did. They tried to adjust to each other, and this is man’s philosophy which has come down from the beginning—if I am right with my fellow man then I’m right with the supreme Being, if there is one! This is where internationalism and universalism is born. As far as the first parents are concerned they must solve man’s problems. Man tries to solve man’s problems by man’s ingenuity, and he fails. How are they going to solve this problem? How can they become properly adjusted again?

Their solution is clothing: “and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.” The word sew means basically to take two things that are apart and put them together. In fact, this word sew is sometimes translated heal—“By His bruise we are healed,” Isaiah 53. The idea here was that they were to take these fig leaves and bring them together. We do not know that they actually sewed them. The word means they simply took these leaves and pulled them together. Apparently they tied them together. But the principle is the act of legalism. Here is an attempt to solve a problem by something you do [legalism] rather than by something that God does [grace]. Grace and legalism are always antithetical.

The word aprons is better translated loin cloths. The Hebrew says they made something which covered the loins. Wearing clothes does not make a person respectable, though it helps! It is what you think. The Bible does not emphasise the external, it emphasises the internal—what you think, how you are motivated. If your thinking is correct and if your motivation is proper then the externals will take care of themselves.

Verse 8 – “And they heard the voice of the Lord God [Jesus Christ] walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” They heard the sound of the voice of the Lord. Customarily they would come and fellowship with Him, but on this occasion: “Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” Now for the first time trees become a hiding place. Why did they hide? Because, again, they are soulish. The human soul is incapable of fellowship with God. Internally something is wrong, and that internal wrong [spiritual death] makes it impossible for them to have fellowship with God. They hide but you can’t hide from omniscience and omnipresence. Their hiding indicates spiritual death. Spiritual death means no fellowship with God; it means being incapable of having fellowship with God.

Verse 9 – the first act of grace. The good news is that Christ broke the silence and spoke to them. That is grace, they didn’t earn or deserve it. “And the Lord God [Jesus Christ] called.”

Notice that Jesus Christ mentions the one who is responsible for the human race—Adam. He is the federal head of the human race, the responsible one. He didn’t call Eve. “Where thou?” The verb is not found in the original. The word thou is the second masculine singular personal pronoun—Where are you specifically, Adam. The implication of this question is, Why are you where you are?

Verse 10 – the response of Adam. “I naked,” literally; no verb. In other words, he is speaking in great shame. He is ashamed of himself. Notice also that he was afraid. Adam did not know fear of any kind until he sinned. There is a very definite correlation between sin and fear. Fear will always exist in the human race until one is properly related to God through regeneration. The place where you stop being afraid is not with the details of life but when you are no longer afraid of death—then you stop being afraid. The believer has no excuse for being afraid of death. Once you have no fear of death, which comes through knowledge of phase three, then you have confidence.

Notice a principle. Adam is first investigated. Adam passes the buck to the woman, and the woman passes the buck down to the serpent. When we get to the serpent the sequence of investigation stops and the judgment begins. There is the opposite sequence in judgment: He judged the serpent, then the woman, and finally the man. In between the judgment of the serpent and the woman we have the plan of salvation declared. This is because the serpent is not involved in the plan of salvation.

Verse 11 – “Who told thee that thou wast naked?” What do you know about such things? Then He asks the question.

Verse 12 – Adam blames it on God. “The woman thou gavest to be with me…” She gave him the fruit but he didn’t have to eat. It was his own volition, his own choice.

Verse 13 – the woman is not going to take the blame for this either and she passes the buck: “The serpent beguiled.” The Hebrew says the serpent deceived me…”

Now we have a principle: the serpent is judged in verse 14; salvation is promised in verse 15; the woman is judged in verse 16; man is judged in verses 17-19. God uses the opposite sequence. When Jesus Christ investigated the situation He started with the man; now he begins with the serpent. The serpent is cursed and then the plan of salvation is given because the plan of salvation belongs only to man and woman. There is a separation between the serpent and mankind because the serpent and Satan are not involved in the plan of salvation.

Verses 14-24, the results of the fall.

Verse 14 – the curse of the serpent. The serpent was the agent of Satan in deceiving the woman and the serpent, therefore, must be judged.

“thou cursed” – no verb here. The serpent must now move along the ground and they must eat off of the ground. The curse of the serpent is brought in for another reason at this point. Out of the curse of the serpent will come the first declaration of the gospel. Since the serpent is on the ground it is impossible for him to get up very high. There are some exceptions, of course. The serpent is vulnerable by being struck on the head. He can’t get his head very high off the ground and is very vulnerable to the attack of man. However, the serpent can also cause man death in some cases by striking the foot. Both of these similes are used now in verse 15.

Verse 15 – the first biblical declaration of the gospel. The gospel is absolutely necessary because of man’s fall. Jesus Christ is speaking” “I will put enmity between thee [Satan] and the woman.” Remember that Satan used the woman in the garden. Later on in Revelation 12 Satan is called the serpent. So we have a separation now between the woman on the one hand and Satan or the serpent’s seed on the other. Man is left out of it because man wilfully sinned. Both the woman and the man sinned and both are in the transgression but the difference in their sin forms the pattern and the basis of this verse.

“and between thy seed and her seed” – thy seed refers to every person coming into the human race; her seed refers to Jesus Christ. The principle: All members of the human race, because of Adam’s sin, are born in the slave market of sin. We are born sinners. We are sinners not because of personal acts of sin but we are sinners because we are born with an old sin nature and the imputation of Adam’s sin. That is why Ephesians 2:1 says we are born dead. We are born in the slave market of sin; we are slaves to sin by birth. The fact that we commit personal acts of sin is simply because we have an old sin nature. All sin comes from the old sin nature—as well, all good which comes from the natural man comes from the old sin nature. The sin nature is passed down through the male. If a virgin can become pregnant and not have a male being involved in the procreation then the result will be a person who comes into the world without the old sin nature, without the imputation of Adam’s sin. What this means is that there is no salvation without the virgin birth. The seed of the woman is the first title of Jesus Christ given to the human race. The first announcement of salvation emphasises the virgin birth and not the blood. Why? Adam brought the entire human race into sin—Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” That is aorist tense: in a point of time, when Adam sinned. The words “thy seed” refers to man in his unregenerate state; “her seed” is Jesus Christ born of a virgin.

“he [the Lord Jesus Christ] shall bruise thy head” – the word bruise is the Hebrew word which means to crush. Jesus Christ would crush the head. The serpent is vulnerable in the head and Jesus Christ will crush the head of Satan at the Second Advent. This is when Satan is imprisoned for 1000 years.

“and thou [Satan] shalt bruise [crush] his heel” – just as the serpent strikes the heel of man. The second bruise here has to do with the first advent, the cross. As the venom of the serpent spreads throughout the human body after he strikes, so sin spread throughout the entire human race. Christ, as it were, withdrew all the venom. “Thou shalt bruise his heel” was fulfilled—1 Peter 2:24; 2 Corinthians 5:21.

Notice the principle: salvation is promised before judgment is given. That is the principle that is found throughout the Bible: grace always precedes judgment. God never judges the human race without first of all offering the opportunity of grace, and remember that judgment is always the alternative of grace. In effect, judgment is always a rejection of grace. The principle behind this is that man is always given a chance by God and any man who is judged by God has it coming to him!

Verse 16 – the judgment of the woman. The woman was deceived in the fall, she did not deliberately sin and the sin nature was passed down through the man—Psalm 51:5.

“I will greatly multiply thy sorrow” –literally, thy pain; “and thy conception” should be even thy conception or pregnancy. So the woman is to have pain in pregnancy and in birth and this is a part of the woman’s discipline and a part of the woman’s curse.

“in sorrow [pain] thou shalt bring forth children” – the woman becomes a child-bearer. This is the first part of her discipline. This was the means of perpetuating the human race but it was also the means of bringing the saviour into the world and therefore the cursing is turned to blessing. Remember that Jesus Christ as God cannot save the human race because to save the human race you have to die for the human race and as God He cannot die.

“and they desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee” – the Hebrew word for desire means a craving, a strong craving. So since the woman had broken the divinely-appointed subordination to man God gives her a physiological subordination. No matter how a woman tries to be independent of man she can’t make it. Her desire for man will be insatiable and will be perpetuated to the human race as a judgment. The woman, therefore, is constructed as a responder to man. The cursing is turned to blessing by human love.

Verse 17-19, the judgment of the man. “Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife.” Here is part of his problem. Adam should have been ruling and he obeyed his wife. He was led when he should have been leading. At that point Adam lost control over the rest of creation. God gave him back control over the woman—physiological control. But Adam lost his domination of the animal creation, the lower creation.

The cursing of the ground brings up everything that had previously been under Adam’s domination was lost to him. The curse of the earth is on and therefore man must now work in order to bring food from the ground. The ground will now only bring forth food when man works for it, cultivates it. Otherwise if the ground is not worked, tilled, it will bring forth thorns and briars, etc. The curse upon the ground will only be removed at the Second Advent of Christ—Romans 8:19-22. Then Isaiah 35:1,2 says that the desert will blossom like a crocus. The curse of the ground is manifest by thorns, and remember that just before the cross Jesus Christ wore a crown of thorns. He was made a curse for us. There is a second phase to the curse on lower creation and that is, animals starting to have ferocity. Until the fall of man animals were not ferocious. Once man fell animals became carnivorous and wild. The wild animals will only be tamed again by the Second Advent of Christ—Isaiah 11:6-9; 65:25. Man’s physical deterioration will be removed—Isaiah 65:20.

“in sorrow [pain] shalt thou eat” – the pain is the pain that comes from labour; “all of the days of thy life” – in other words, Adam is going to live for a certain amount of time and then he will die physically.

“in the sweat of thy face” – the second phase of man’s punishment is physical death. He has to work for a living and then die: “till thou return unto the ground.”

“out of it wast thou taken” – this is a reference to the body. The soul and the spirit came directly from God—“the breath of lives [pl],” Genesis 2.

Six comparisons between man’s curse and the work of Christ on the cross

1. The ground was cursed, though innocent.

2. The earth brings forth thorns.

3. Man earns by the sweat of his face—Gen. 3:19.

4. Man returns to dust.

5. Man by sin died spiritually.

6. Man died twice: spiritually immediately, Gen. 3:6; physically later, Gen. 5:5

It was Christ who was cursed for us, though innocent--Gal. 3:13

Christ wore a crown of thorns—John 18:8.

Before the cross Christ sweat great drops of blood—Luke 22:44.

Christ is said to be brought out of the dust—Psalm 22:15.

Christ by bearing our sins died spiritually.

Jesus Christ died spiritually—Ps. 22:1; 2 Cor. 5:21; He died physically—John 19:30.

Verse 20 – the salvation testimony. “Adam called his wife Eve,” which means giver of life. Even though the penalty of sin is death Adam called his wife’s name Giver-of-life. Why? Because Adam had received the seed of the woman as his saviour. The seed of the woman is Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ is the giver of life. Because the giver of life would come into the world and die for Adam, Adam received Him and therefore called his wife Giver-of-life because He would come through the woman. In other words, the first person who was ever saved was Adam and his salvation was based upon believing the virgin birth. This was the emphasis in the first declaration of salvation. The seed of the woman emphasises the virgin birth.

“because she was the mother of all living” – the human race was to be perpetuated through the woman. Adam is the father of all dead. All members of the human race are born into this world dead because they get Adam’s nature which is the old sin nature—Romans 5:12. This is why in Isaiah 9:6 Jesus Christ is not called the everlasting Father, He is called the Father of eternal life or the author of eternal life because He is the provider of it.

Verse 21 – the coats of skins indicated that the first parents were born again. They accepted the coats of skins. These skins were taken by the shedding of blood—1 John 1:7; Hebrews 9:22; 1 Peter 1:18,19.

The expulsion from the garden. Man and woman were kicked out of the garden, verses 22-24. Man, after he had sinned, did not go to the tree of life. If man had eaten of the tree of life he would have been perpetuated in a sinful state and could not have been saved. There would be no salvation issue at all.

Verse 22 – “the man is become as one of us.” This means having one characteristic that God has, knowing good from evil.

“and now … lest he take – if man takes of the tree of life in a sinful state he is then perpetuated in a sinful state and volition no longer becomes an issue in the human race. After sin volition must be the issue to resolve the angelic conflict, and the only way to make volition the issue is to get man out of the garden and to give him another tree on which he can exercise his volition. That tree is the tree of death, the cross. But first of all he had to be cut off from the tree of life, and he was. Calvary’s cross is only an issue as long as man does not possess eternal life. If man possesses eternal life in a sinful status then the cross is not an issue. So by remaining in the garden and being perpetuated by the tree of life the salvation issue of man would be destroyed. Man would depend upon the tree of life rather than on the tree of Calvary.

If man had been perpetuated in a sinful state, what would God’s attitude be toward him forever? Judgment! Hence, the tree of life must be put out of man’s reach and the tree of death must be put into man’s reach so that man can exercise his volition on the tree of death. Adam had already made his choice but this precaution pertains to the progeny.

Verse 23 – “… the Lord God sent him forth from the garden.” He drove him out, piel stem. It was intensive, indicating man’s reluctance to go. In order to turn cursing into blessing man must be removed from the place where he can perpetuate the curse. If man remains in the garden the curing is perpetuated. Man must leave the garden in order that cursing can be turned to blessing by means of the tree of death, the cross. As a result of regeneration man will occupy a position higher and better than anything he possessed in innocence in the garden when he was perpetuated by the tree of life in status quo innocence. This is the subject of Hebrews chapters one and two. But before this will be realised in a resurrection body all vestiges of sin and the curse must be removed. This will ultimately be accomplished in resurrection. So the principle: Man becomes a gainer through grace. It was God’s grace that threw him out of the garden.

Genesis 4

Chapter 4

The way of Cain: religion versus regeneration. Cf. Jude 11—“Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.” The way of Cain is religion; the error of Balaam is the love of money and commercialism in spiritual things; the gainsaying of Korah is denying the authority of the Word of God.

The rise of religion in world history. We come to divine institution #4. History goes from personal to family life. We have as a point of introduction standard operating procedure to the approach of God in worship. The only way to approach God in worship is through the blood of Jesus Christ—Hebrews 9:22. The way of Cain is the way of religion—no blood, no regeneration, so salvation by faith in Christ. It was the way of works, the way of good deeds, the way of ritualism, the way of a lot of empty phrases, but no salvation, no reality, no relationship with God.

The first thing that Adam and his wife taught the children was how to approach God, how to have salvation. They taught the gospel. There were apparently three things that were taught the children. Genesis 4:3, 16, they were taught there was a place to worship. Since Cain and Abel both brought their offerings to a specified place we assume that there was an official place for worship and it had been carefully designated to them in their childhood. From Genesis 3:24 we assume that this place was at the entrance to the garden of Eden. Apparently at the entrance to the garden of Eden there was also a mercy seat to indicate the doctrine of propitiation. The doctrine of propitiation is the basic concept in approaching God for worship. The blood of an animal must be sprinkled over that mercy seat. We are going to notice that Cain did not sprinkle any blood on the mercy seat. Abel came by the blood of an animal. So one approached by blood because he was born again, he was saved. The other approached by good deeds.

Not only was there a place but there was a time—Genesis 4:3, “in the process of time” is literally, at the proper time, or at the end of certain specified days. We do not know what this time was, it could have been the Sabbath.

There is also a means of worship and this is specified by Genesis 11:4. God could only be approached and could only be worshipped by means of sacrifice—the shedding of blood again.

Verses 1-7, the attack of religion. In verses 1 & 2 we have the progeny of Adam who are involved.

Verse 1 – “And Adam knew his wife.” This is an old English way of trying to hide the facts. The word knew in the Hebrew means to have sexual relationship, the means of perpetuating the human race. Principle: Volition involves the choice of a partner for life and marriage is the basis for procreation. Note: Even procreation is not to be a blind impulse. It is an act of mutual response: the man initiates love and the woman responds to him. It is an act of moral self-determination and it is an act which is only meaningful when there is true love. Mental attitude must precede relationship. If there is no mental attitude love the sexual relationship becomes mechanical and animal. The relationship is for recreation, it is not necessary to have sexual relationship only for the purpose of having children. It is for the purpose of expression of love between partners in marriage and not just for the purpose of perpetuating the race. It is also for the purpose of perpetuating the human race.

“and she conceived, and bore Cain” – they had many children, Genesis 5:4.

Cain: His name means “acquired” – acquisition. Cain was actually religious and was the first of the seed of Satan. By the time that her second son was born she saw what Cain was really like and was discouraged, so she called her second son Abel.

Abel: His name means “nothingness.” And that is just what he turned out to be: grace. Nothingness turns out to be grace. Abel was the first in the line of grace, he was born again.

Cain was religious but not saved; Abel was regenerate but not religious. Cain was a farmer; Abel was a shepherd. In verses 3 and 4 the two brothers approach God.

Verse 3 – “And in the process of time.” There was always a time to worship. Cains approach: the fruit of the ground means produce. He brought of the best vegetables and fruit. First of all, it was bloodless. What he offered was a beautiful display but there was no shedding of blood. Hebrews 9:22.

The second thing about his offering. Note 3:19, “in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.” On other words, how did Cain get all those vegetables and fruit, etc.? He cultivated, he worked he planted, he harvested—work, work, work, work. Cain’s approach was by human works, the product of his own sweat. The offering was produced by the effort and the energy and the planning of the flesh, and the energy of the flesh is not pleasing to God—Isaiah 64:6.

Third point: Cain’s offering was cursed. The ground had been cursed in Genesis 3:17.

Fourth: Cain’s offering was no acceptable to God. God will never accept human righteousness as a substitute for divine righteousness.

This is what religion does, it ignores the blood of Christ. Religion is characterised by good deeds, good works. Man’s works are cursed. The offering of the curse is not acceptable to God.

The implications of this offering

1. Cain failed to recognise sin and the penalty of sin. He failed to recognise his own need. He failed to recognise the righteousness and justice of God.

2. He denied the curse of man, the fact that man was under a curse. That is what religion is always doing.

3. Cain rejected God’s help and God’s provision. God provided help for both Cain and Abel. Abel accepted God’s help and Cain rejected it. The implication of Cain’s offering was that he wasn’t going to need any help from God, he would do it himself.

4. The implication of the offering is operation ego. Ego demands that he show what he has done.

5. Cain wanted a front, a cover, not a cure. This is always true of religion. Matthew 23:27,28—whitewashed tombstones, beautiful on the outside but on the inside full of dead men’s bones. Cain brings this beautiful production of the earth, but it is nothing.

6. Cain preferred human viewpoint to divine viewpoint. Cain refused indoctrination; he rejected the divine viewpoint. Both Cain and Abel heard the divine viewpoint but Cain rejected it.

So the way of Cain is the way of human opinion. Human opinion is perpetuated through rationalism or empiricism mentally, or human opinion is perpetuated

through emotionalism combined with rationalism. Often human opinion has high ideals, urging people to do good, looking for a better world, and it is a flop because its man’s plan and the plan is no stronger than man. Man isn’t strong enough and therefore the plan is no good. Only God’s plan can solve the situation.

Secondly, it is the way of self-righteousness.

Thirdly, it is the way of egocentricity.

Fourth, Cain’s way is the way of salvation by works.

Verse 4 – Abel’s approach. “And Abel also brought of the firstlings of the flock and of the fat thereof.” How can you bring fat? You have to kill the animal. In other words, he didn’t bring them alive, he brought them dead. He killed them first, sacrificed them.

And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.” Abel’s offering was acceptable.

Verse 5 – “But unto Cain and his offering he had not respect.” What was Abel’s approach—Hebrews 11:4; 1 John 3:12. It is the grace principle, approach through the blood of an innocent victim, the blood sacrifice approach. The fat indicates that the animals were slain.

Notice that one received approbation and one rejection. The difference was not in personality. The issue is never personality but divine truth. The difference between Cain and Abel was not a way of expression, vocabulary, and so on. One came through the blood and one did not. One came through human works and one came through divine work, and so the great issue of good versus good—man’s good works versus the work of God. One came trusting in another. Abel came by faith. Cain came in unbelief. Abel’s offering acknowledged the fall, the sin, the curse and man’s helplessness. There was no ego involved. Abel’s offering was accepted on the basis of the blood and the sacrifice but God rejected the offering of Cain.

“he had not respect” – divine rejection. Human rejection of the plan of salvation means divine rejection of that individual. Cain had the opportunity of exercising his own volition and it was wrong, negative. The result was his judgment in eternity and in time. Cain’s offering reflected tremendous human effort and expense but it was not acceptable to God. No one can approach God on the basis of human effort and self-righteousness.

“And Cain was very wrath [very angry]” – he was angry to the point of a tantrum; “and his face fell” – he showed how he felt. The Hebrew says Cain was “burned up” – inner anger. He had an inner mental anger, and he has angry with God, therefore he was guilty of the sin of judging God, maligning God. His anger suggested that God was unfair for not accepting what he had done.

Besides Cain’s anger there were three things in his mind that ruined him. His ruin was not in what he did but in what he thought. He did certain things because of what he thought. Cain’s downfall was in his thought pattern, as with every member of the human race. What you do depends on what you think. There were three areas in his though pattern: pride—he wanted to outdo Abel; jealousy—Abel had been accepted and he was not, therefore jealousy moved in; lust—his desire for precedence in the second generation. These three formed his great anger.

“his countenance fell” – his face demonstrated how he felt. It came out; he couldn’t hide it.

Verse 6 ,7 – “And if thou doest not well, a sin [offering] lieth at the door.” The Hebrew says a sin offering. The only way in which Cain could do well was to believe in Jesus Christ, to receive Him as saviour, to accept God’s solution. All he has to do is to bring a lamb slain as his parents had taught him. There is no doing well with God apart from the shedding of blood. “…if thou does not well” – in other words, if you do not do well you can still accept Christ, a sin offering lieth [or crouches] at the door. Cain can still be saved. The sin offering is Jesus Christ and the door is still open as long as Cain lives.

“And unto thee shall be desire” – literally, “unto thee its desire,” i.e. you can still make the decision. It is God’s desire that Cain accept Christ as saviour. “Its” refers to God the Son specifically. Jesus Christ desires you to accept Him.

“and thou shalt rule over him [Abel]” – the issue: the eldest son is to be the ruler in the family. The eldest son has three privileges: rulership, priesthood, and double portion—all the family assets when father dies. Cain is about to lose this because he is not acceptable to God. He is about to be disinherited but he can still rule over Abel by accepting Christ as saviour. But Cain’s failure to find acceptance with God would eliminate this completely and therefore his brother will rule him, his brother will become the priest, and will retain all of the family heritage. Therefore he must eliminate his brother. So his jealousy leads to hatred and his hatred leads to murder. Cain intended to be first regardless of the cost, even if it meant killing his brother.

Principle: The desires of the old sin nature are much stronger than family ties. There are two things stronger than family ties: a) the old sin nature; b) the doctrine of the Word of God.

Verses 8-16, the result of religion.

Verse 8 – “and slew him.” We don’t know how he did it, according to this. But we know from 1 John 3:12 exactly how he did it. The Greek word for slew here means to cut a person’s throat with a sacrificial knife. This tells us something. Cain actually watched his brother at worship. Cain said to himself that if that knife will kill an animal by cutting its throat it will kill my brother by cutting his throat. The very means of expressing worship became the means of the first murder. This shows us something of the genius of Satanic distortion. In this passage Cain will be both a murderer and a liar. He killed his brother and then lied about it. Cain is an unbeliever. Principle: All maladjustment between man and man results from maladjustment between man and God. Because Cain was not related to God through regeneration he was maladjusted to members of the human race.

Verse 9 – there were no human observers of the murder. The Lord is omniscient and omnipresent, therefore He knew of the murder and was witness to it.

“I know not” – this is a lie. And then he added: “I my brothers keeper?” There is no verb here. This is much stronger, it is elliptical indicating that he is faking all the way. The question was developed to administer justice. The first purpose of questions is to learn. The second purpose is to examine. We ask questions to determine content of learning. The third purpose is to administer justice. Never make a judgment unless you have all the facts. God has all the facts because He is omniscient and omnipresent but He asks questions to give Cain the opportunity of defending himself. This, again, demonstrates the activity of religion. Religion tries to cover up.

Justice demands that the Lord seek out Cain, since he is the first criminal, and that justice be administered. So the divine questions seeks to awaken Cain to the reality of his sin and the first murderer in the human race followed it up with a lie. There is a principle here, for a religious person especially: Sins are used to cover up sins. Not only did Cain lie but he came up with an evasion of responsibility to others. He said, “I my brother’s keeper?” as if to say in effect that the human race does not have responsibility for the human race. This is contradictory to the principle of doctrine, divine institutions numbers 2, 3 & 4.

Verses 10-12, the judgment is administered.

Verse 10 – “What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.” Nothing can be hidden from omniscience and there would have been a great advance for Cain if he had just admitted his sin. Murder is one of the seven greatest sins. So Cain must have been shocked to discover that he neither defend nor excuse with God. His judgment puts him under a double curse with regard to the earth. Even though he is a farmer the earth will no longer yield its strength to him or even respond to his severest efforts to plant, to sow, to reap. Because the earth has been made to drink innocent blood Cain himself will no longer be successful as a farmer. He has to live by killing and therefore has to become a hunter. In addition to that he is also sentenced to be separated from the rest of the human race. Capital punishment has not been instituted yet or he would have been executed. Capital punishment will not be instituted until we come to divine institution #4, nationalism, in Genesis chapter 9. So in one day Adam and Eve lose two sons.

Verse 12 – a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.”

Verse 13 – Cain appeals his case. In this verse and the next Cain is more occupied with the consequences of the sin than the sin itself. This is typical of religious people. He is more concerned about what is going to happen to him than the fact that he is a sinner. Religion has blinded him because it has a distorted sense of values.

Verse 15 – there is a principle: The citizens of the human race are not authorised to take judgment into their own hands, there are to be administrative procedures for handling crime. Here in verse 15 is God’s grace to the unbeliever. His grace is manifested in several places, first of all the cross. God is gracious to all unbelievers because when Christ died on the cross He bore the sins of all unbelievers, all members of the human race. This doesn’t mean that all unbelievers are saved, it means that sin is no longer the issue. Christ is the issue and they must believe in Him. Secondly, Christ preserves the unbelievers alive on the earth so that they will have every opportunity to be saved forever.

He does this in several ways. First of all He does this through the divine institutions which are organised to preserve the human race and to give the human race maximum freedom within the law. Divine institution #1 is the basis of human freedom. Divine institution #2 is marriage—the use of volition in selecting a life-time partner. Divine institution #3 is family, whereby members of the human race are trained to use their freedom to make good decisions, to have good judgment, and to learn to respect the freedom of others and the rights of others and the property of others. This is the basis of discipline in the home. Divine institution #4 is nationalism. The human race would be destroyed without nationalism. If internationalism ever succeeds in controlling the greater portion of the earth it means the destruction of the human race. Any system of internationalism causes millions of people to die. When Romanism became a system of internationalism in a period of 500 years millions of people died because of it. The reason we are here today is because there are still nations all over the earth. And within these nations we survive as members of the human race because of the existence of, for example, capital punishment, and because we have court-rooms and the judge sitting on the bench.

God’s grace to the unbeliever comes in another way—nature. If this earth should stop spinning right now what would happen to all of us? We would fall off! If the earth was all level we would drown. If we were all at high altitude there wouldn’t be any water and we would die of thirst. There are so many factors in life that keep us alive. This is the grace of God.

The mark of Cain has two purposes. It is to avoid warfare in the world and further killing. It permits Cain to remain alive so that he can still be saved. The principle is, God’s grace permits the unbeliever to live on the earth even in direct defiance of God. Cain always defied God. But as long as he lives he can always be saved by believing in Jesus Christ, and it is his own volition that keeps him from having eternal salvation—John 3:18. So God in righteousness gives the unbeliever every chance to be saved. Another principle is that God took punishment into His own hands and protected the human race from further violence at this time. By God administering the punishment the punishment is correct because God is perfect. A perfect God can only administer perfect punishment, and His punishment comes through His justice, which is perfect. By doing the punishment Himself He keeps the human race from entering into a warfare over whether the justice is correct or not.

What is the mark of Cain? Whatever the mark of Cain was it is the principle that is important here, not the actual mark. Whatever it was it indicated to people that he was a murderer.

Verse 16 – Cain goes to jail! “…the land of Nod on the east of Eden.” Nod in the Hebrew means flight or banishment—the land of banishment. The principle is that the murderer, the criminal, is isolated from society. The results of living in the land of Nod are many to the human race. We are going to find restlessness, unhappiness, instability, trying to find pleasure in many different things but never finding pleasure because of the absence of fellowship with God.

Beginning in verse 17 and going through the 5th chapter we go from the Cain and Abel situation to the seventh generation. We take a quick study of the first generation after Adam. Then we go from the first to the seventh, and by the seventh generation the traits of the two lines (there will be someone to replace Abel) will be taken down to where all of the characteristics will be developed. We will notice the contrast in the way these two lines develop and this is the history of the human race for 2000 years after the creation of man. In this particular part we will skip over 1700 years of history because the trends are noted rather than a detailed history.

Verse 17 – from Genesis 5:4 we understand that Adam had many more children for a period of 800 years, but for the moment we will follow the line of Cain. We see first of all that he builds a city, and the building of the city is an attempt on the part of Cain to neutralise the effects of his banishment. In other words, he is isolated from society so he tries to build a society. The problem is that he builds a society on human viewpoint. He tries to build it as a compensation for having fellowship with God and as a compensation for the tremendous punishment he faces. Many people follow in the line of Cain today. They try to build a life on this earth by finding happiness in something they can do or build.

Principle: You cannot as a member of the human race have happiness apart from relationship and fellowship with God. Human relationship does not provide happiness. When there is no relationship with the Lord all of the pleasant things in life are out of perspective and they do not provide happiness. But if one is related to the Lord then all of these things can become wonderful.

Verses 18-24, we have the statement of the genealogy which brings us down to the seventh generation from Adam through Cain. Here is the line: Adam, Cain, Enoch, Irad. Enoch means consecration, dedication. This sounds like a spiritual word. It can be, but it can’t be here because Cain was an unbeliever. This line of Cain is a religious line and they are dedicated to what they can do for themselves. So Enoch in Cain’s line refers to dedicating one’s self to self-gratification. We are going to see that there is an Enoch in the other line, too, and his is a spiritual dedication. Irad means townsman. He was so named because his father Enoch thought that living in a nice, wonderful town brought happiness. So Irad stands for human viewpoint.

Mahujael means smitten of God. This brings out the characteristic of legalism in religion. Religion is dedicated; religion has human viewpoint; religion has legalism. Legalism receives the wrath of God.

Then we have Methusael, which means man of God. And this brings out religion.

Lamech means powerful or energetic, and it stands for energy of the flesh. Lamech is the case history. He is number seven from Adam through Cain. He will demonstrate the characteristics of Cain’s line.

Verse 19 – “two wives.” First of all we see that he was polygamous and violated divine institution #2 which says that you can have one wife. He took two. The concept here is that man in his attempt to find happiness apart from God always comes into conflict with or violation of divine laws. These wives of Lamech’s have interesting names. First is Adah, which in the Hebrew means beautiful. The second one is Zillah. Her name means tinkling, ornament, shadow, and some times even means flighty. We will see that Lamech substitutes for divine relationship (fellowship with God) art, sciences, intellectual persuit, amusement, and so on. He is a very cultured person and this comes out in his children—vv. 20-23.

Verse 20 – “Adah bore Jabal.” Jabal means production. He made a fortune in cattle, so Jabal stands for wealth. Principle: wealth as a substitute for fellowship with God does not work.

Four children are mentioned. The second one is Jubal which means sound. He is the inventor of stringed and wind instruments, the inventor of music; there is culture involved here. Culture can be a wonderful thing provided the Lord is first and one has the doctrinal perspective but it is no substitute for fellowship with God.

Verse 22 – “Tubal-cain” means metal-smith. He invented weapons; he was a scientist. But science is no substitute for fellowship with God. The daughter’s name is Na’amah which means graceful, graceful beauty. Sometimes the word means pleasure. There again we have the principle that pleasure is no substitute for fellowship with God. These names give us the principle in the Cainite line: they were always looking for a substitute for fellowship with God, they were always looking for some way of happiness. Often these things are fine in themselves but they are dead ends when it comes to fellowship with God.

Verses 23 & 24, Lamech sings his favourite song. Apparently he wrote a poem which contained six lines. He sang unto his wives:

Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken to what I say;

And give attention to my word; (idiomatic for an expression of ego)

A man I slew because he wounded me,

A young powerful man because he attacked me.

And then to show that he was a chip off of the old block of Cain:

If indeed Cain be avenged seven times,

Then Lamech seventy times seven.

About this poem. First it demands human attention and praise from others. In the first two lines of the poem he demanded that his wives give him attention. In the third line he expressed his ego. But in the last two lines he expressed jealousy. He was jealous of Cain and was trying to out-do Cain. The whole poem expresses the principle of dog-eat-dog or the principle of solving one’s problems by violence.

A quick summary: First of all, human power and violence as a substitute for justice and grace. We have religion. We have attempts to find happiness apart from God. We have the manifestations of these attempts in polygamy, murder, pride, violence, boasting, jealousy, and so on. We have an emphasis on science, learning and culture. But no emphasis on God at all.

Now by way of contrast in verse 25 and going through chapter five we have the line of Seth. “Seth” means seedling or little seed, or appointed one. Eve knew that this wasn’t the seed of the woman, Jesus Christ, but she knew that this was the line of the seed of the woman, so she called him “little seed.”

“for God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel whom Cain slew.” So we have substitution, replacement.

Verse 26, the second in the line is Enosh “…there then began to be men to call upon the name of the Lord.” So this is the line of regeneration, people were born again in this family because the gospel was passed down from family to family. Enosh means weak. The reason that Seth called his son Enosh is because of the grace of God. He recognised that all blessing comes through grace. Man in himself is weak and helpless and needs God.

Genesis 5

Chapter 5

Verses 1&2, following the line of Adam down through Seth—a genealogy. First of all there is a summary of the first few chapters, verse 2, man and woman. In verse 3, the principle that Adam begat in his image one called Seth. But notice in verse 1 that God made man in the image of God, soul and spirit gave him inner life. But now we find that Seth is the image of Adam, which means all members of the human race, after Adam sinned, who are born into the world are born with a sin nature.

Verse 4 – “…and he begat sons and daughters.” This is where Cain got his wife, and where they all got their wives to begin with.

Starting in verse 6 we have a genealogy which is very important, for without this genealogy we have no salvation. The line of true humanity which takes us down to the virgin birth comes through this genealogy, through the line of Seth. Notice a principle in all of the verses through this chapter. We see with each one the words, “they lived” and “they died.” Notice that in the line of Cain you don’t have this phraseology—no mention was ever made of their living because they were always seeking to find a substitute for fellowship with God. The unbeliever is always looking for happiness, and even if he finds it, it never satisfies him. So in the true sense they do not live because all of these people in the line of Seth because they were born again, they were regenerate. Death is never mentioned in Cain’s line because it was taboo—never talk about death. They were afraid of death because after death the judgment. So in the line of Cain there is nothing to face after death but judgment, but in the line of Seth they talked about death because they were born again and prepared for it, and death meant something wonderful to them. It mean absent from the body and face to face with the Lord. So all the way through this chapter “they lived, they died,” their life was filled with wonderful things because they accepted Christ as saviour and because God provided many wonderful assets for them in time; therefore their lives were filled with thrilling things, with things that added up to happiness.

The names:

“Kenan” means deplorable in the sense that man himself is deplorable; this is the opposite of energy of the flesh. He only becomes dependable when he uses what God provides.

“Mahalalel” means praise of God. This line praised God.

“Jared” means descent. This is the descent of the seed of the woman.

“Enoch” again, which means consecrated or dedicated. This time it is a spiritual dedication which becomes a source of blessing.

There are several things that need pointing out in this chapter. Note verse 21—Methuselah is the oldest person who ever lived. His name means when he is dead it shall be sent. The day that Methuselah died was the last day on the earth for the unbeliever. It was the day the flood began. As long as he lived judgment was being held up. This is an illustration by antithesis of the fact that the day Christ returns judgment begins for the human race.

Verse 22 – Enoch walked with God; Verse 24—“and he was not for God took him.” Enoch was translated before the flood came. It is an illustration of the Church which is translated before the Tribulation comes. “Enoch walked with God” means he had marvellous fellowship with God. He is cited in Hebrews 11:5,6 as one of the greatest people of all time for fellowship with God. He walked with God—Genesis 5:22; he pleased God—Hebrews 11:5,6; he proclaimed God—Jude 14 & 15. Enoch was the first prophet of the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.

There are two types of typology to be noticed. The typology between Cain and Abel and then the typology between Abel and Seth. Cain and Abel stand as representatives of the human race. Every member of the human race falls into one category or the other. Cain represents the unbeliever, religious type; Abel represents the believer. All of the human race is divided by Cain and Abel. They form the categories for the human race, and the categories are set up by John 3:36. We also have a typology between Abel and Seth. Abel died and is a picture of Christ dying on the cross; Seth took his place and was alive, and this is a picture of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are many analogies here:

Abel died childless; the Lord Jesus Christ dwelt alone during His earthly ministry. Christ is the last Adam in that sense.

Abel died a violent death at the hands of his brother; Jesus Christ was crucified by His brethren the Jews.

Seth was raised to take Abel’s place; Jesus Christ rose from the dead to become the firstfruits of them that slept.

Sons and daughters came through Seth, not Abel; regeneration comes as a result …

Genesis 6

Chapter 6

In the first declaration of the gospel in the scripture remember that Jesus Christ as saviour is “seed of the woman.” This is a title for the humanity of Christ with special emphasis on the virgin birth. Christ had to be born of a virgin in order to be qualified in His humanity to die for our sins and to bear our sins.

It is true that most believers have no clue as to the significance of the humanity of Christ and why Christ had to become a man. But the very first gospel message in the Bible places the emphasis on His humanity and on the virgin birth. While most Christians do not understand the importance of the humanity of Christ, Satan does and Satan has. He has understood so thoroughly that one of the great subjects of the Old Testament are the tremendous number of attacks upon the line of the Lord Jesus Christ as the seed of the woman—Genesis 3:15. This means that somewhere between Adam and the virgin birth there must be a line of genealogy which must go specifically through families. For example, it was apparently originally intended that the line would go through Abel, the first child of Adam and Eve who was born again. The murder of Abel made that impossible and so in all of the genealogies of Christ they are always traced through Seth. So first of all, the seed of the woman was to be Adam’s seed. Then the seed of the woman was to be Abraham’s seed. Eventually we come to that point in the genealogies where the line of Christ is traced through Abraham. Before that time, of course, very important is the line of Christ traced through Noah. Eventually in the line of Abraham it comes through Jacob, and from Jacob the line goes through Judah, and through David. Christ is the son of David, through Nathan, and the Lord Jesus Christ comes into the world through the Davidic line. This means that at certain points Satan tried to hinder the humanity of Christ. He made specific attacks on the humanity of Christ in order to keep Jesus Christ from coming into the world, for if Jesus Christ is in any way frustrated from coming into the world then there is no salvation.

The doctrine of the humanity of Christ is a part of the doctrine of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. In essence, Jesus Christ is God. He is also true humanity. In His deity Jesus Christ is eternal life, and eternal life cannot die. He is immutability, and immutability can’t change. He is sovereignty, and divine sovereignty is not subject to death. And yet the only way for man’s salvation is the cross, and so Christ had to become true humanity for it is the humanity of Christ which died. Only the humanity of Christ could bear the sins of the world. Hebrews 2:9-14; Philippians 2:5-8. No true humanity; no saviourhood.

Also involved are some other principles. Christ had to be true humanity to be our mediator. The mediation is between God and man and a mediator must be equal with both parties. Jesus Christ is deity, in His essence He is equal with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. In His humanity He is equal and superior to all members of the human race. And since the mediation is between God and the human race He is equal with both parties in the mediation by virtue of the fact that he is God and at the same time humanity. That is why there is only one mediator between God and man—1 Timothy 2:5,6. Then, in order to be the high priest Jesus Christ had to become a man also, for a priest must be a member of the human race representing the human race before God. So Jesus Christ became true humanity so that He might be our high priest forever. Then in order for Jesus Christ to reign as the son of David He also had to become true humanity.

Satan understood all of this doctrine and consequently he made every attempt in Old Testament times to frustrate the virgin birth, to keep Jesus Christ from becoming true humanity. When it became apparent that the seed of the woman would come through Abel Satan inspired Cain, the first religious man, to murder his brother Abel. Consequently, the line had to go down through another born again child of Adam and Eve, Seth. From the point of Seth there were a number of attacks to keep the promise of Genesis 3:15, the seed of the woman, from being fulfilled. The second attack is the attack of Genesis chapter six, an angelic infiltration into the human race attempting to destroy true humanity. This is the greatest attack ever made upon our salvation. It was so successful that the line by which Jesus Christ could come into the world was narrowed down to one family, the family of Noah. Had it not been for the flood the attack would have been entirely successful for there would have been no true humanity left in the human race. All of the human race would have been part human and part angelic.

The next series of attacks came upon the line of Abraham. First of all, Sarah wound up in the harem of an Egyptian king—Genesis 12. Pharaoh in the time of Moses commanded to kill the male line of Israel. This was an attack upon the virgin birth and the true humanity of Christ, an attempt to frustrate the coming of Christ in the flesh—Exodus chapter 1. Then, in Exodus 14, Pharaoh’s attempt to kill Israel immediately after the Exodus is the third attack upon Abraham’s seed.

When it became apparent that in the line of Abraham this promise would be fulfilled through David the rest of the Old Testament records numerous attacks upon the line of David. For example, Jehoshaphat had one son left. All the rest had been mysteriously killed. He arranged the marriage of his son with the daughter of Jezebel, a woman by the name of Athaliah—2 Chronicles 18, the story of how all of their children were killed by the Arabians, but one was miraculously preserved. Athaliah herself attempted to kill the final one, Jehoahaz, and did not succeed. If she had succeeded there could be no promise fulfilled in the line of David that David would have a son who would reign forever. But God intervened.

There is the case of Hezekiah. When he was about to die through discipline, he was childless, and God preserved him until he could have a progeny to perpetuate his line and the Lord Jesus Christ came in that way. Haman’s plot to annihilate the Jews was another attempt—the story of the book of Esther. In the time of David there were many attempts, such as every attempt on his life personally. Back in the time of Joshua the possibility of Rahab being killed in two ways—by the king of Jericho because she aided the spies from Israel, and again in the fall of Jericho if she had been killed the same thing would have been true because Rahab is an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ. So there were many attacks, even down to the point of the virgin birth. There were attacks upon Joseph’s line himself. When Joseph found that Mary was pregnant, before he knew of the virgin birth, it was customary to have his fiance killed, as per the Mosaic law—they were not married as yet—but he refused to do so. Herod’s order to kill all of the male line of Judah in Matthew 2:13-18 is another attempt at the same.

This all adds up to the principle that throughout the Old Testament times one of the great subjects is the story of how Satan tried to frustrate the true humanity of Christ. Once Jesus Christ is born of a virgin the whole principle changes. No longer does Satan try to attack the seed by which Christ would come into the world, the seed of the woman, because Christ has already come. Now the attempt is to distort the fact, to ignore the fact, or to somehow discredit the fact concerning the virgin birth and the cross. The virgin birth and the cross form the central principles of salvation. It is now Satan’s attempt today to do everything possible to discredit these doctrines so that people will not be concerned about receiving Jesus Christ as saviour.

In Genesis chapter six we have the greatest attempt to frustrate the plan of God in the virgin birth and in the cross. There are two great principles in this chapter: a) Satan’s great attempt to destroy true humanity; b) How culture, art, music, science, pleasure, and so on, were used as substitutes for fellowship with God, and how none of them succeeded.

Verse 1 – the antediluvian population ratio. There were more women than men. “And it came to pass when men began to multiply”—this is a generic term for men, not male but mankind, people in general. There was a great antediluvian population explosion.

“and daughters were born unto them” – this means literal females were born, but it is an idiom meaning there was an excess of women in the population.

Verse 2 – “That the sons of God.” The phrase in the Hebrew is used four times in the scriptures. There is another word for “sons of God” but this particular one is only used four times. This is beni ha Elohim. This word is invariably, without exception, used for angels, never men—Job 1:6; 2:1, 38:7. Son of God in the New Testament is used as a designation for Jesus Christ, and sons of God in the New Testament is used for believers—“Beloved, now are ye the sons of God.” Remember, that is Greek, this is Hebrew.

But sons of God is used for all kinds of angels, and the big problem here is what kind of angels are involved here. There are several kinds of fallen angels and we will see that these here are fallen angels. First, there are fallen angels today called demons. Then there are fallen angels which are bound. All fallen angels are under the control of Satan or Lucifer. The bound angels are the sons of God of Genesis 6:2. Cf. 2 Peter 2:4, which tells us that a time came when some of Satan’s angels were bound, put in prison. The Greek word “hell” in that verse is literally, Tartarus, which is a pit in the underworld where super beings were cast. When did these angels sin—see 2 Peter 2:5. Cf. also, Jude 6—“angels which kept not their first estate.” The first estate of angels means that it is not an area but a principle. Angels were prohibited from cohabiting, copulating with mankind, just as mankind is forbidden copulation with animals. In other words, God never mixes His creatures. They “left their own habitation” – the second heaven.

There is also another category of fallen angels known as demons. A demon is an angel under Satan which is still operational. Apparently there are millions of them and they are well organised and have tremendous functions.

“they were fair” – extremely beautiful.

“and they took them wives of all whom they chose” – this means cohabitation; copulation was specifically involved between angels and females of mankind. We understand from the end of verse 2 that we actually have the beginning of a super race because angels stepped out of line, left their habitation, and copulated with the women of mankind.

Verse 3 – while this was going on the Holy Spirit makes a comment. There would come a time when the Holy Spirit would stop striving with man. From the end of the verse we know it will be 120 years from the time this message was given to the human race. Before the flood the Holy Spirit retrained sin. If there had not been a restraint of sin on the human race at that time then Noah and his family would have been slain. The human race would not have survived on the earth and no one would have been saved—Noah and his family. The second ministry of the Holy Spirit is the ministry of conviction. Since the beginning of time the Holy Spirit has been convincing unbelievers with regard to the gospel—specifically sin, righteousness and judgment. The sin is rejection of Christ. Righteousness is imputed to those who believe, and judgment for those who reject Christ—they stand on their own good works and their own works will condemn them to the eternal lake of fire. Cf. John 16:7-11. Then finally, we have the regeneration ministry of the Holy Spirit—John 3:5; Titus 3:5. In this ministry God the Holy Spirit takes every believer and brings him into the family of God. The Holy Spirit is the agent of the new birth.

“for that he also flesh” – this phrase means that by the elapse of 120 years there will no longer be flesh upon the earth, with the exception of Noah. Flesh here means true humanity. So we now know that this Satanic attack took place and occurred within a period of 120 years.

Verse 4 – “There were giants in the earth in those days.” The Hebrew word Nephalim means fallen ones. It means, therefore, more than giants. It means giants who had fallen from the human race in that they were no longer true humanity.

“also after that” – four words which stand for a Hebrew idiom. It should be translated, this was the cause. Why were there Nephalim? Why was there a super race of heroes on the earth in those days? Because “the sons of God came into the daughters of men.”

“and they bore to them [these angels], the same [fallen ones] who became mighty mean which were of old, men of renown.” The reason that Noah and his family did not get involved is because they were born again, because they were not only true humanity but had personally accepted Christ as saviour. They were protected physically from the people of the super race who, by the way, were very warlike and brutal.

Verses 5-7, the divine attitude toward the antediluvian civilisation, and the super race in particular.

Verse 5 – The “wickedness was great” because of the involvement of fallen angels. Wickedness is always, first of all, what you think, not what you do.

“that every imagination of the thoughts of his mind was only evil continually” – the wickedness of the human race is first of all in mental attitude.

Verse 6 – “And it repented the Lord.” Repent means to change the mind. The translators knew that God doesn’t change His mind and that since God is immutable, and since this therefore was an anthropopathism, and since it must be made clear to future generations that this was an anthropopathism, they took the subject (the Lord) and translated it, “it repented the Lord.” But the Hebrew says, “the Lord repented.” Here it means to change the attitude. The Lord changed His mental attitude that He had made man on the earth.

“and it grieved him in his heart” – this is describing a divine attitude which is indescribable in terms of human attitude.

Verse 8 – “But.” There is an exception. “Noah found grace” – the word found means discovered. This means he discovered salvation and he responded to it. Noah believed in Jesus Christ.

Verse 9 – “These are the generations of Noah” emphasises again his regeneration. Noah was a just man—Hebrews says justified. “Perfect in his generations” means his humanity was still true humanity all the way through. The word perfect means complete.

“walked with the Lord” – Noah had a spiritual life.

Verse 10 – to perpetuate the pure line, “Noah begot three sons, Shem, Ham, Japheth.”

Verse 11 – but the rest of the earth “was corrupt.” Corrupt means humanity was no longer true humanity, it was tainted. It was corrupted with angelic infiltration.

“and the earth was filled with violence” – lots of fighting. Apart from the Tribulation this was the greatest period of wickedness the world will ever encounter.

Verse 12 – the corruption is amplified: “for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth.” The only exception is Noah.

Verse 13 –“And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them [the super race]; and, behold, I will destroy them [the super race] with the earth.”

Verse 14 – “Make thee an ark.” You are going to survive. There are three arks in the Bible: Noah’s ark; the ark in which Moses was placed as a baby—Exodus 2:3. It protected the child from the wrath of Pharaoh; the ark of the covenant whose location was in the holy of holies, except at certain times when it was moved from one place to another. Each one of these arks has special significance as the place of protection from judgment. Moses’ ark, the place of divine provision in protection from difficulties in life. The ark of the covenant, the doctrine of propitiation correlated with atonement.

In the last half of the sixth chapter we have a picture of divine judgment on the human race and the half human-half angelic race. There is one other commentary on this passage found in Hebrews 11:7. The basis of Noah’s faith: he was warned of God. Noah being warned of God started to build.

Characteristics of the ark

1) The ark was made of one material—gopher wood, which is a picture of the humanity of Christ. The principle of the material used is the fact that Jesus Christ had to be true humanity to provide salvation for us. Cf. Philippians 2:5-8; Hebrews 2:9-15.

In order for Noah to build this ark out of wood, the wood had to be cut down. Trees had to be cut down. The growing tree is a picture of the life of Christ, and every time Noah cut a tree down he was illustrating salvation. There is nothing in the life of Christ that can save the human race. The cutting down of the tree is a picture of the cross.

The ark is an illustration of Christ. Noah and his family were in the ark and this represents positional truth, people in union with Christ. There were eight people in the human race who were born again. They were inside of the ark and therefore protected from judgment. The rest of the human race was destroyed and the story of the ark is the story of Romans chapter eight, verse one: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” The ark is an illustration of positional truth. For the person who has accepted Christ as saviour he is in union with Christ, and therefore it is impossible for God to judge anyone who is in union with Christ. The world outside of the ark was destroyed but the world inside of the ark was delivered.

2) The ark was also waterproof—“pitch.” This was a type of tar which was used to seal up the wood in the ship. The Hebrew word which is translated “pitch” is the Hebrew word kaphar, which means covering or atonement. The principle is that it is the atonement of Christ which makes the ship safe, judgment is kept out by the blood of Christ—“The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses from all sin. Cf. Hebrews 9:22.

3) There was one set of plans, verse 15. All the specifications are given. There are specific dimensions and these are given to be followed very carefully. The reason for these dimensions is because they set up a ratio between the length and the beam of the ship. In order to have a seaworthy vessel in every way the ratio is extremely important. This makes it stable, gives it good balance and seaworthiness in the worst possible type of a storm. This ark was the production of divine revelation and there was no human speculation in the design. The principle behind it is this. Salvation is God’s design, God’s execution, God’s work, and there is no place for human speculation or human works. God has laid down all of the specifications in connection with salvation, including the fact that the only way to appropriate is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have in the plan of salvation exact specifications to meet every problem which keeps man from having fellowship with God. There can be and there is no deviation from these specifications. The work is all accomplished and man’s appropriation is apart from human works, nothing can be added to it.

4) There was one door. There is only one way of salvation. John 14:6; Acts 4:12. Only one way to enter the ark, only one way to have fellowship with God.

5) There was one window. There is only one way of having fellowship with God—1 John 1:9. The window was built on the top side, it looked toward heaven.

The Holy Spirit must control the life.

6) There were three floors [decks]. These represent the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

7) The storm fell upon the ark but not upon Noah and his family. When the storm hit it came from two directions. It came from above the earth and it came

from beneath the earth. It was a vice, as it were, squeezing the ark. There has to be in any deliverance a supernatural element. What device was used to keep air in the proper proportions? i.e. keep the air in a stabilized form where there was enough oxygen to offset the hydrogen and nitrogen in the air. The Lord provided it. It is that simple. The judgment that would have fallen on Noah and his family fell on the ark. This is a picture of the judgment that fell the Lord Jesus Christ in the three hours on the cross, instead of on us.

8) In the realm of the human race there was one category of survivors—believers. When the world is destroyed, along with the entire universe, there will be

one category of survivors, those who are born again.

Twice in the history of the human race we have a judgment which takes all unbelievers off the earth and believers remain on the earth: once in the days of Noah and once in the Tribulation/Second Advent—the flood and the baptism of fire.

Verses 17-22, the proclamation of judgment. We have the detailed description of which will be allowed in and in what numbers. Unclean animals: 2; clean animals: 7. The clean animals are the animals used in sacrifice. One animals would be sacrificed of each type of clean animal once the ark returns safely to the earth, and then there will be three pairs left so that they will multiply more rapidly.

Genesis 7

Chapter 7

Verses 1-9, Noah’s obedience. He is willing to follow the Lord’s instructions.

Verse 1 – “Come into the ark” is a picture of salvation. Cf. Matthew 6:33. After they are in there is the elapse of seven days and then judgment hits. There is an analogy here. People in union with Christ are the Church. The Church will be removed from the world, then we have the seven years of the Tribulation followed by the judgment of the second advent.

Notice that obedience is based upon divine invitation.

Verses 2 & 3, obedience is based on divine instructions. There are specific instructions with regard to the animals.

Verse 4 , obedience is based on the divine warning. And here we have the seven days mentioned.

Verses 5-9, obedience based on faith. Noah believed what God said.

Verses 10-12, the certainty of divine judgment. One of the verses which should get some special attention is verse 11 where we have the mechanics of the flood. In Genesis chapter one we had the words, “Let the firmament [atmosphere] appear.” A tremendous mass of water covered the earth. When the atmosphere appeared it divided the waters above from the waters below. The waters below were stored up. So in verse 11, the “fountains of the deep” refer to the storage of water below; “the windows of heaven opened” refers to the water stored over the earth.

The flood was always ridiculed by scholars until 1872 when George Smith of the British Museum, a famous archaeologist, discovered part of the library of Asher-bani-pal, king of Assyria. In this library there was part of a book which had not been destroyed and was 185 lines of cuneiform containing some very significant information which confirms the validity of the Word of God. For example, we have the Sumerian king list, a list of seven kings, and then it mentions the eighth king. And then it says, “and then the world flood came,” indicating the cutting off of these kings.

Verses, 18, 19, 20, 24 – “the waters prevailed.” The entire world was completely flooded.

Verse 16, notice that “the Lord shut him in.” He was sealed in, and this should be translated, “the Lord sealed him in.” This was the place of safety.

Verse 21 – the destruction of all flesh.

Genesis 8

Chapter 8

Verse 1 – “And God remembered Noah.” This is the faithfulness of the Lord. God always takes care of His own in any crisis in life.

Verse 2 – He stopped the fountains of the deep as well as the windows of heaven.

Verse 4 – the ark rested on Mount Ararat, a range on the edge of Armenia, the highest mountain being 16, 946 feet. This range is strategically located so that people leaving the ark could move in various compass directions and settle eventually on continents.

Noah used a procedure—two birds, the raven and the dove. The raven, verses 6,7. The raven did not come back. A raven is an unclean bird, it feeds upon carrion, the carcases of the dead. This was the first indication to Noah not to get out of the ark yet, the water was still everywhere, the bodies of the dead are still about in great numbers. If the raven had come back it would have meant there was no food on the outside and would have come back for food.

There is also a spiritual significance to the raven. The raven is a picture of the ruler of this world at the present time, feeding on the dead [spiritually dead], and that is Satan, the prince of the power of the air, going about seeking whom he may devour.

The second bird is the dove, verses 8-12. The dove has three flights. Verses 9 – “no place to rest.” The dove will not eat the carcases of the ground and will not even put its feet down upon the dead. Consequently, the dove came back to the ark after the first flight. Analogy: the dove is a picture of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. The Holy Spirit did not rest and abide in the Old Testament; He indwelt very few for a special job.

Verses 10-11, the second flight of the dove, “an olive leaf plucked.” This indicated that the water was removed from off the earth but the earth was not completely dry. This is a picture of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Church Age. The dove came back with production. The purpose of the Holy Spirit in the Church Age is to produce in the believer what the believer cannot produce himself, works satisfying to God. The source of all is the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Then in verse 12 the dove went out a third time and did not return, a sign that the waters had completely receded. Analogy: the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Millennium when the third person of the Trinity will be poured out upon all flesh—Joel 2:28-32.

Verses 13-22, the removal of the signs of judgment, God’s command to repopulate the earth.

Verse 20 – “Noah builded an altar unto the Lord.” The altar speaks of the cross, and man cannot have fellowship with God apart from the cross. Noah took one of every clean animal and offered it to God.

Verse 21 – the offering was acceptable to God. Noah’s first thought and action after leaving the ark was to build an altar, not a house; not shelter for himself but fellowship with God. Here, then, Noah starts out with the right perspective, the right scale of values. This time his scale of values is good, the Lord is first.

Then we have the promise that the earth will never again be destroyed by flood.

Genesis 9

Chapter 9

There are four civilisations:

1. The antediluvian [ante = before] civilisation means before the flood—from Adam to the flood. This is the civilisation where the Bible emphasises that man was in innocence and how he became a sinner. This is the civilisation which develops all but one of the divine institutions. It begins with man in innocence and having fellowship with God and it terminated with judgment, the judgment of the flood whereby all unbelievers were taken out of the world. When the new civilisation began it began with believers only.

2. The postdiluvian civilisation, which runs all of the way from Noah to the second advent of Christ.

3. The Millennium. It begins with believers only and there is a great judgment right at the end.

4. The Eternal civilisation begins after the Millennium and the judgment at the great white throne.

In chapter 8:22 there was a change in climate—heat and cold, summer and winter. Before the judgment of the flood the climate of the world was perpetual

spring. There were no seasons. In 9:14 there was the addition of clouds and winds. There is a reason for that due to the type of water storage that existed before the flood.

The basis of divine blessing to the individual is found 8:20,21 where the altar is mentioned. Noah gave his testimony to the fact that the altar was the most important factor of all. It was the place of sacrifice. The animal sacrifices were performed in order to indicate the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ at a future date when He would die on the cross for the sins of the world.

In 9:1 we have the first of two commands to repopulate the earth. “And God blessed Noah and his sons” – He provided everything that they needed.

Verse 2 – reference to the lower creation, the animal kingdom. This is a new command because there is a new relationship. In the original situation of man’s innocence man clearly dominated all of the animal creation. Animals did not have ferocity and man was clearly the ruler. When man sinned he not only lost control over the animal kingdom but over nature as well. Not only would nature provide for him, he would have to cultivate the ground, and so on. Now we have the subjection of lower creation. It is based upon fear, upon man’s superior intellect and ability to conquer animals by his thought process, and so on. The sin in man destroyed lower creation’s voluntary subjection and now he must control through violence, through weapons which he devises. Through his ingenuity he must be able to control the animal kingdom. Therefore the animal kingdom is still inferior and subject to man but on a different basis. Fear and dread are the basis mentioned here whereby he will dominate lower creation.

Verses 3 & 4, a new set of dietary laws. These dietary laws are very important. In the antediluvian civilisation meat was forbidden. There was a violation of that principle because Cain and his progeny lived and subsisted on meat.

Verse 3 – “Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you; even as the green herb” – vegetables, which were previously in order in the earlier civilisation. But in addition to that “have I given you all things.” Everything is for food now, everything that moves.

Verse 4 is erroneously translated in the KJV. “But the flesh with the life thereof” is not correct. The Hebrew says, “Only flesh in its soul.” The word soul means life—only living flesh. In other words, you cannot eat a stake while it is still on the hoof and while the steer is still walking around.

“the blood” – we are forbidden as members of the human race to actually eat blood.

Lower creation is not only delivered into man’s hands but he becomes one of the primary sources of man’s food. Man is given permission to slaughter animals for food. But he is not given permission to slaughter man for any purpose. This doesn’t imply that man is only starting to eat meat now because there were outlaws before this time who subsisted on animal food, but God now authorises for the first time animal food. One of the factors in demon possession is vegetarianism. There is an aesthetic branch of legalism, and many of the cults and Satanic religions demand abstinence from meat. The theory that a vegetable diet is supposed to make man noble and deliver him from the lusts of the flesh is a part of demon doctrine. Cf. 1 Timothy 4:1-6.

There is one postdiluvian taboo in the realm of diet, stated in the last part of verse 4. “Only the flesh in its life [living animals] ye shall not eat, and the blood [of animals].” Before eating the blood should be properly drained from the animal.

Verses 5 & 6 – the beginning of divine institution #4. There is more about this in chapter 11, but here is the first concept. The fourth divine institution is nationalism. Internationalism is anti-Christian. The Bible says that internationalism is the way of destruction to the human race. This is because internationalism destroys divine institution #1, which is volition. Consequently, in order to protect the human race from self-destruction God has provided these four divine institutions, the last of which is nationalism.

Verse 5 – there are two forms of capital punishment. An animal which kills human beings must be destroyed—capital punishment in the realm of lower creation. The second phrase here says, “at the hand of man” – capital punishment is mentioned here for the first time. Cf. Romans 13:4.

Verse 6 – “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” The reason capital punishment is brought in here before the entire concept of nationalism is developed is this. Once you open the door and permit eating animal food, what is going to happen? Some are going to get a weapon and go out and kill an animal to eat. Then after killing animals they are going to do exactly what Cain discovered. He learned how to kill people by watching animals die. So the next thing some will do is to start hunting men. Here, “by man” means the proper constituted authority. Why? “For in the image of God made he man.” The image of God refers to three things—self-consciousness [I know that I exist], moral reasoning power [I ought to do this; I ought not to do that], self-determination [I will, or I will not]. Man has his own volition, he can choose for himself his course in life. And because man has the right to choose for himself you do not have the right to destroy his volition by destroying him. When it says that someone has the right to take life when man violates law [here it is murder] immediately we have authorisation for human government. The basic principle in human government is the courtroom [judge on the bench] and the policeman on the corner. The basic principle of government is common law, law enforcement, and the examination of those who appear to be criminals to determine the extent of their crime, if any, and to properly punish them. All government is built around common law and the courtroom.

There is only one way to put teeth in the law. No mater how good the law is that law is absolutely no good without capital punishment. No matter how good common law is it is no better than enforcement, and the ultimate in law enforcement is capital punishment.

In the antediluvian civilisation God Himself processed all criminal cases. But now the authority is given to man for the first time with this authority we have government.

In this verse the basis for capital punishment is said to be the image of God, and here it means volition, self-determination. Since man possesses self-determination he must take the consequences of his own decisions. If his decisions involve the transgression of law, if his decision involves murder, then he must take the consequence of his own volition. The right to kill animals does not give the right to kill man. But there are two exceptions. a) Capital punishment; b) Warfare.

Human government, therefore, is a national, geographical, ethnological or philological (all speak the same language) entity possessing common laws and government, which is on the one hand enforced (policeman on the beat), and on the other hand men are punished where violations exist (courtroom).

The fourth divine institution does not sanction personal revenge. There are two means of handling opposition against us. One is to commit it to the Lord, which is our spiritual operation, and the other is to commit is to the law of the land, which is our nationalistic operation. So the fourth divine institution does not sanction personal revenge but lays the foundation for judicial modus operandi. So the infliction of punishment or revenge is never left to the caprice of the individual, it is left to those who have authority in law. Law, of course, must be as objective as possible. The national entity, divine institution #4, is a human barrier against the supremacy of evil in the world controlled by Satan.

Verse 7 – the second command to repopulate the earth, to perpetuate the human race. This command is repeated because now the means of protecting the perpetuated human race has been established. Divine institution #4 is developed for the protection of the human race. Therefore in the human race there must be a number of national entities, governments. Each government must function over a segment of the human race. There must be no government that functions over the entire human race—internationalism. Any form of internationalism gives Satan direct and complete control of the earth. Satan will be the ruler of this world until the second advent of Christ. At the Second Advent of Christ the first form of bona fide internationalism will go into operation, Christ will rule the world. But until that time the devil is the ruler of the world and the devil is frustrated in his designs by a large number of national entities. By maintaining its own sovereignty as a government, when other governments try to take over control of the world because someone has power lust, there is warfare and balance of power is maintained. The only way we will ever have any measure of world peace is by a balance of power among national entities. There can never be world peace with any form of internationalism. Any form of internationalism, whether it is the United Nations or international communism, is the spawning ground for warfare and violence. The chief principle of the social gospel and the National Council of Churches today is to disarm. When you disarm a strong national entity that helps, or should help, to maintain peace then you destroy the peace.

Verses 8-17, the Noahic covenant. In effect, this is God’s covenant with the postdiluvian civilisation of which we are a part. This is the second half of the Noahic covenant. One part of it was found in 8:21, 22. There are two primary factors involved. God would never again judge the earth through a universal flood, and the token of this was the bow which we now call today the rainbow.

Verse 8 – the parties in the covenant are stated: God plus Noah, his sons, and the entire postdiluvian civilisation.

Verses 9-10, the scope of the covenant. It was with Noah, it was with the postdiluvian civilisation, and it was also with lower creation. The previous provisions of the covenant had been given in 8:21, 22, and the principle is that God will never again destroy the earth by flood. The human race will never be judged by water as an entity. There will be another judgment for the human race in the future, stated in 2 Peter 3:6,7, and is judgment by fire.

Verses 12-17, the sign of the covenant. No one ever saw a rainbow before the flood because in the antediluvian civilisation there was no rain. The water used to help the earth came from below the earth. The rainbow is nothing less than light broken down by refraction. This is a token of God’s promise that He will keep His word. We are guaranteed the perpetuation of the human race. In order for the human race to be perpetuated the divine institutions must be in operation as much as possible: volition, marriage, the family, nationalism.

Adam was the beginner of the antediluvian civilisation; Noah was the beginner of the postdiluvian civilisation.

A few points of analogy

1. Adam was placed on a planet which emerged from water—the water of the great deluge, Genesis 1:2, 12. In the analogy, Noah debarked from an ark from which the planet had been covered with water and the waters were now assuaged.

2. Adam was blessed by God and told to replenish the earth, Genesis 1:28. Noah was blessed by God and instructed to replenish the earth, Genesis 9:1.

3. Adam sinned by eating of the forbidden tree; Noah transgressed by drinking of the fruit of the vine.

4. Adam became naked and was covered by another—by God, Genesis 3:7, 21; Noah became naked and was covered by two of his sons.

5. Adam’s sin brought a curse upon his prosperity, Romans 5:12. Noah’s sin brought a curse upon one segment of his posterity, Genesis 9:24, 25.

6. Adam had three sons mentioned in the Bible—Cain, Abel and Seth, one of which became the line of Messiah. Noah has three sons—Shem, Ham and Japheth, one of which became the line of Messiah.

7. Adam after his fall received the prophecy of salvation, Genesis 3:15; Noah after his fall received the prophecy of human history, Genesis 9:24-26.

There are three great prophecies in Genesis: a) the prophecy of salvation, Genesis 3:15; b) the prophecy of the history of the postdiluvian civilisation, Genesis

9:25-26; c) the prophecy of the tribes of Israel, Genesis 49.

There are three points which come in the last half of Genesis 9. The first is drunkenness, followed by homosexuality, and then the prophecy of history.

Verse 20 – “And Noah began to be an husbandman [farmer]; and he planted a vineyard.”

Verse 21 – “And he drank of the wine,[1] and became drunk; and he was uncovered within his tent.” There is a homosexual act involved here with one of Ham’s sons, Canaan. Apparently Noah, sober, wouldn’t get into a jamb like this, but Noah drunk did exactly that. Cf. Habakkuk 2:15,16.

Verse 22 – apparently Ham, the youngest of the three sons of Noah, wanted to be sure that he became the heir rather than the oldest son. Consequently, apparently he set up a plot. He was involved in this apparently to the extent that he was under the curse. He attempted to discredit his father, or at least to blackmail his father. “And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father.” This simply means that he observed the homosexual act between Canaan, his son, and Noah, his father.

“and told his two brothers” – this amounts to maligning. The fact that the act had occurred is beside the point as far as Ham is concerned. He made it a point to be guilty of a very terrible sin himself, which is the sin of gossip and maligning.

Verse 23 – we notice the act of the two older brothers, Shem and Japheth, and this becomes the occasion for the prophecy. We have the courtesy and the thoughtfulness of the two older brothers and out of this comes the second great prophecy in Genesis. It concerns the activities and the historical trends right up to this time of the postdiluvian civilisation.

Verse 24 – “And Noah awoke from his win [drunkenness], and he realised what his younger son [Ham] had done unto him.

Verse 25 – the curse specifically is on Canaan, and Canaan is the son of Ham. Ham is a black-skinned man, he is Negroid, and he is the source of everything from Indians to the Negroes, and so on. We will see later that two of his sons are white and two of them are black. Notice that the curse is on Canaan, not on Ham directly. Canaan is a white son of Ham.

In order to understand the curse on Canaan the law of culpability must be understood. The second law that must be understood is the law of degeneracy.

The law of culpability is stated: Deuteronomy 24:16; Ezekiel 18:2; Jeremiah 31:29,30; Exodus 20:5. It is a law which says the sins of the parents are visited on the children down to the fourth generation. A person is only accountable for the sins he commits, but he inherits from his great grandfather, grandfather and father, certain weaknesses, areas of weakness in which he is prone to sin. Canaan being under this curse is simply a historical recognition of the fact that this area of weakness exists and that being prone in this area, and to sin and to fail, will come out in the line of Ham. It does, especially in Canaan. The people who lived in Palestine before the Jews were Canaanites. What kind of people were they? Why did God commend their complete extermination? Because they were a race of people who had gone completely mad. Just as you would kill a mad dog before it bit someone, so God ordered the complete extermination of the Canaanites. It wasn’t accomplished and that meant trouble for the human race. Cf. Leviticus 18:27, 28; 20:23.

Verse 25 – Canaan and his line are going to be completely enslaved or destroyed in the process of the postdiluvian civilisation. Remember that Ham is black but Canaan is white. The white Canaanitish race came under a special curse at this time, a curse which they tried to break by conquering the world. Satan tried to use them to conquer the world. The Hittites are a part of the Canaanites. Canaan is cursed with servitude. He is going to serve both Japheth and Shem. The whole line of Ham will always be under either Japheth or Shem.

The curse upon Canaan was fulfilled when the Jews crossed the Jordan and conquered the land. The Canaanites were almost completely exterminated, except for the Gibeonites and the Agagites. The Canaanites are characterised by child sacrifice, the phallic cult which involves all of the sexual abuses and degeneracy. “Canaan” means to stoop down, and his name means servitude and, of course, is involved with the homosexual problem there as well.

Verse 26 – “Blessed be the Lord God of Shem.” “Shem” means name. One branch of the Semitics, the Jews, would carry the name of God. That is why Shem is mentioned next, because Shem will have spiritual superiority in the postdiluvian civilisation. The “Lord God of Shem” is Jesus Christ, Jehovah Elohim. Shem is blessed, and from Shem comes Israel. Israel has the custodianship of the gospel; Israel has custodianship of divine truth. Every book in the Bible, except one instance, was written by a Jew—either a Jewish prophet (Old Testament) or an apostle/Jewish Christian (New Testament). The only exception is Luke. Noah praises the God of Shem, Jesus Christ, who is Noah’s saviour. The line of Shem will not only be the custodians of divine truth but they will have responsibility for the name and the revelation of Jesus Christ. This is brought out again in Exodus 3:13-15; 29:45.

The Canaanites are specifically to serve Shem. Notice in the curse of Canaan, verse 25, that wherever the Canaanites exist they are slaves or servants—“and Canaan shall be his servant.” That is, he shall be the servant of Shem. This is, again, the conquest of the land which took place in Joshua’s day.

Verse 27 – The blessing on Japheth. “God shall enlarge Japheth.” When God enlarged Japheth it means that every time Satan and demon possession were used to make Canaan powerful the sons of Japheth would rise up and smack them down. Always Satan is trying to build up the sons of Ham, and what is left of the sons of Canaan.

Each one of these lines has a predominant gene. Canaan = degeneracy; Shem = spiritual life, trend toward the consideration, thoughtfulness, and occupation with God; Japheth is a conqueror. He has the drive and the understanding to conquer. “God shall enlarge Japheth.” The word Japheth means expansion or enlargement. And yet Japheth is going to be subservient to Shem in one way: spiritually. “He shall dwell in the tents of Shem.” That is, believers who are Gentiles and becomes saved find salvation through Shem (the Jews). Salvation in the postdiluvian civilisation was declared and disseminated, and doctrine was protected, by the Jews. So Japheth is a conqueror, he goes out and conquers segments of the human race. But Japheth is always conquered by the Lord Jesus Christ—salvation. But all of the truth which we have about salvation came from the tents of Shem. The Bible came from the tents of Shem. The tents of Shem = the Old Testament and New Testament canon of scripture. The only thing that can conquer a conqueror is the gospel.

“and Canaan shall be his servant” – wherever Japheth goes Canaan runs. There is always an exception to the curse when people move into the tents of Shem and cursing is turned to blessing, that is, then they accept Christ and believe the Bible. God turns cursing into blessing through evangelism.

[1] See the Doctrine of drinking.

Genesis 10

Chapter 10

The index or guide to the prophecy of nations. In this index or guide we have some identification of the peoples involved so that generally speaking there would be some way of determining which are the descendents of Shem, Ham and Japheth. Starting with verse 1 we now have a breakdown of the various peoples involved so that it will be a little easier in order to work out and see how the prophecy is fulfilled.

Note verse 5 -- “By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.” The word “nation is used there for the first time, indicating divine institution #4. The Gentiles who are mentioned in the first five verses, and which are actually the sons of Japheth, are divided in two ways: geographically and linguistically. This also tells us something. Genesis 11:1—“And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.” The united nations development came very shortly after Noah arrived on the earth and people began to multiply. There was no linguistic division at first, the only division on the earth was geographical. The first eight or nine verses occurred before Genesis 9. Genesis 10:5 actually takes place after 11:1-9. This is typical of Hebrew writing. First of all they give an outline and then go back and fill in certain details not previously given.

Principle of God’s order: God’s order is divine institution #4, nationalism. The principle of nationalism is stated several times—10:5, “families in their nations.” Then 10:32—“in their nations.” God’s order for the postdiluvian civilisation is nationalism, and without nationalism the human race cannot survive. All forms of internationalism ate anti-God and anti-Christian.

What is the purpose of nationalism? Why isn’t God for the United Nations or any system of internationalism, whether modern or ancient? The answer is found in Acts 17:26—“And hath made of one [Noah] blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times [dispensations] before appointed, and the bounds [nationalism] of their habitation.” The word blood does not occur in the original. The word one is Noah. All nations came from Noah. The word times refers to dispensations. The bounds refers to nationalism.

Why? Verse 27 – “That they should seek the Lord.” Without nationalism there can be no world-wide evangelism. Nations divide people because internationalism is the great enemy of world-wide evangelism. All forms of internationalism advocate a world without God—perfect environment without God created by man’s activities. All forms of internationalism are anti-God, whether they are religious internationalism such as Gnosticism or Romanism, or whether they are political internationalism such as communism and the United Nations. All are anti-God and anti-evangelism.

There are four things necessary for personal or world-wide evangelism. They are four divine institutions provided for the human race, not believers. These are for believers and unbelievers alike, and this is the only way the human race can survive. Divine institution #1 is volition, the right to make certain choices for yourself. This is the basis of all human freedom. Divine institution #2 is marriage, the basis of keeping order in the human race. Divine institution #3 is family, the basis of rearing children in the human race so that they are oriented to God’s plan of the human race. Divine institution #4 is nationalism, not internationalism. Internationalism is Satanic right down to the core. There will always be international plots as long as Satan is the ruler of this world, the prince of the power of the air. They all have one purpose: anti-God, perfect environment created by man. Man cannot create perfect environment because of the nature of man but he keeps on trying. The devil, through man, has been trying to produce what man had in the garden ever since man lost it. That is where socialism comes in—a chicken in every pot is just the idea of perfect environment created by man’s activities. It will never happen. Freedom comes through national entities, and national entities must be strong in order to maintain the balance of power.

Notice that originally there were two geographical areas for nationalism. In this connection Japheth moved into an area north of a line formed by the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, and the Caspian Sea. Shem was in the centre and Ham in the south.

Verse 1 – this is simply a general statement to tell us what we are going to find in this chapter.

Verse 2 – the sons of Japheth. Gomer is the father of a group of people called the Camarians. They include the Celts and the Tutons and the Cythians. These also have various breakdowns into groups. Magog is the father of the Slavic peoples and the Cythians. “Gog and Magog” in the Armageddon campaign comes down from Russia, because Magog is a term for Slavic peoples. Madai refers to the Medes and some Persian tribes, and they are the Arians of India which are known today as the Parsees. Javan is the father of all Greeks and Romans. Tubal is a tough one about which virtually nothing is known, except references from ancient history which never explain who the people are. Meshech is the father of the Phrygian-type Greeks. Tiras is responsible for another Greek group called the Thracians and the Illyrians.

Verse 5 emphasises again divine institution #4, nationalism.

Verse 6, the four sons of Ham listed. Cash is a black son of Ham. These are the Ethiopians and the black people who settled in the southern part of Africa. Mizraim are white peoples descended from Ham. They are the Egyptians, generally speaking. Put is a black race of Ham that settled in the northern part of Africa and eventually moved across the Mediterranean into the various peninsulas—Spain, Italy, Greece, and so on. Canaan, which are the Amorites or the inhabitants of Palestine, the Hittites, and so on. They varied in that some of them were white, some yellow and some red.

Verse 7 – the sons of Cush were all black people.

Verse 8 – Nimrod is a son of Ham, a black man, the son of Cush. Nimrod was the first world dictator and this was Satan’s first attempt to break the prophecy of Genesis 9. In verses 8 & 9 we have a break-in as far as the index of nations is concerned.

“a mighty one in the earth” – mighty one is used specifically now with Nimrod and becomes a technical title of dictatorship. In Genesis 11 we have religious internationalism with its headquarters at Babylon, and now we have political internationalism with its headquarters at Babylon. Remember that Genesis 11 took place first. At this point we have a man who comes along with political internationalism, and this is Nimrod. This was the first attempt at world dictatorship and it is an attempt to break the prophecy, to prove God a liar. Nimrod means in the Hebrew, “We will revolt.” And this is a revolt against God. Under the dispensation of the Gentiles nationalism is established, God has ordained it, and Nimrod tries to break down this and to swallow up national entities and have one great empire ruled by Nimrod. He is the author, then, of one of the first political international conspiracies, and this one is against God as all of them are.

Verse 9 – “He was a mighty hunter before the Lord.” But the word hunter is actually a hunter of men, and before the Lord is literally, against the Lord. Four times in the scripture he is said to be mighty—Genesis 10:8, 9 (twice); 1 Chronicles 1:10.

“wherefore it is said”—this is a proverb which developed from his attempt at conquest—“Nimrod was a mighty hunter in opposition to/against the Lord.”

Verse 10 – “And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel,” the same place where religious internationalism held forth. He attempts an international system and Babel was his headquarters.

Verses 10-12, a description of his empire and it was generally an empire held throughout the Tigris-Euphrates valley all of the way to Syria.

Verse 15 – the people identified as the Canaanites, and these are all a white race.

Why did God cause the Canaanites to be destroyed? Because they went in for a system of international religion, and international religion goes hand in hand with degeneracy. There are three passages of scripture which describe in detail the degeneracy of the Canaanites, and had this degeneracy continued the human would have been destroyed. But God, taking cognisance of the advance of the Canaanites in religion and degeneracy ordered their complete destruction in the same way that you would isolate a dog suspected of hydrophobia, and when it was determined that he had it he would then be destroyed. The Canaanites became mad dogs. Cf. Leviticus 18, 19; Deuteronomy 12 describe in detail why the Canaanites were removed.

Verses 21-32, the ethnology of Shem. Shem is the father of the Jewish race and all of the Arabic peoples. He had five sons. Elam was aboriginal race of Persia before the Medes arrived. Asshur is Assyria. Arpachshad, from whom Abraham is descended. Lud, from whom the Lydians of Asia Minor are descended. Aram are the Syrians.

Then the Arabians who are not connected with Abraham are mentioned in verses 26-29.

Verse 30 – the original home of the Arabic peoples is given.

Genesis 11

Chapter 11

In the first nine verses we have a very important section. Here is the story of internationalism. This event is given for one reason. It actually precedes chronologically Genesis 10 where we have many languages. In Genesis 11:1-9 we have one language. God gave the command to scatter throughout the earth and form many nations. In Genesis 11:1 and following we have the disobedience to the divine command and Satan who is the ruler of the world attempting to destroy the divine order.

Verse 1—“And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.” Immediately this seems to be a very good idea. There is a great deal of modern emphasis on the importance of communication and how wonderful it would be if we all spoke the same language. There have been many attempts to get everyone to speak the same language. This is not God’s viewpoint this is not desirous at all. He has divided the human race for the purpose of giving everyone in the human race maximum freedom, but you cannot have maximum freedom if you have one world government of any type. The old sin nature cannot stand world rulership. The ego is always too great, the power lust is inherent in the old sin nature, and ego plus power lust makes any form of internationalism impossible. Plus one other factor: Satan is the ruler of this world. Whenever you have any one-worldism of any kind it simply means that Satan controls. And whatever the one-world system teaches and propagates as its doctrines and as its objectives, these are the objectives of Satan and it is the attempt of Satan to rule the world.

In 1 John 3:8; John 8:44 Satan is said to be a liar. This means that any propaganda Satan puts forth may have a lot of good sprinkled in it, a lot of wonderful phrases connected with brotherhood and the greatest good for the greatest number. And it may declare that man by man’s efforts will produce a golden age and perfect world, and so on. This always sounds good to the one who is not on the lookout and the one who has no understanding of scripture. But behind it all is Satan’s power lust and his attempt to overthrow God by the experiment of the human race. Satan is a liar and he will often mix truth with a lie, but if truth has a lie in it then it is no longer truth. Truth must be truth all of the way through to remain truth.

Satan is always looking for some way to gain the entire human race and to bring all into his fold and consequently he has developed certain strategies and systems. Religion is the primary system. Satan is the father of all religious systems. He is said to be the author of religion, according to 2 Corinthians 4:3,4. In Matthew 23 Jesus Christ condemns religion as Satanic in nature.

Satan is also the author of war and strife, according to Revelation 20:2, 7, 8.

As far as believers are concerned he has two campaigns, smear and fear. In his smear campaign he seeks to accuse believers before God the Father, and in his fear campaign he tries to get believers to be in a perpetual state of worry.

But the thing we are interested in is Satan’s great system of internationalism. Internationalism is any attempt to break down the barriers of nationalism, any attempt to control the world from one point by one government, by one system. Internationalism is mentioned in many passages of scripture. In many of these passages Satan is said to be deceiving the nations—Revelation 12:9,10; Isaiah 14—“I will ascend to the sides of the north”—the five “I will” of verses 14-19; Revelation 20:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:9,10. The reason for this is because Satan does rule the world.

4. Satan is said to be the god of this world—2 Corinthians 4:3,4. As the god of this world he is the father of religion. All religion has a common origin: Satan. Religion must be distinguished from Christianity. Christianity is not a religion—both because of origin and because of doctrine.

5. Satan is said to be the prince of this world in John 12:31; 14:30.

6. He is called the prince of the power of the air, which means that Satan not only rules the world but he also rules a certain segment of the angelic race—all fallen angels. Ephesians 2:2.

7. Satan is said to be the ruler of this world in Job 1:7; 2:2. “He walks to and fro, and up and down”—two idiomatic phrases to indicate rulership.

Matthew 4:3—it is impossible for any member of the human race to be tempted as Jesus Christ was tempted in Matthew chapter four.

Verses 8 & 9—“all the kingdoms of the world.” When the devil took Jesus to the high mountain he showed Him every kingdom. At that point Satan had never

succeeded in breaking down divine institution #4. Nationalism was still the rule of the day, the world was still divided into kingdoms and that is why the world still existed. Without the world divided into kingdoms there would be no human race. One-worldism eventuates in the destruction of the human race. “All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” Satan made a bona fide offer, he was the ruler of this world. This has tremendous implications. Satan was trying to bypass the cross. This must be bypassed as far as Satan is concerned because the cross is where Jesus Christ won the victory over Satan. So Satan’s philosophy is, Take the kingdom without the cross. Jesus Christ would have ruled the world without going to the cross but He would have bowed the knee to Satan who would still be the ruler.

If we put all of these things together we have something. Satan is the ruler of this world and is seeking today through many types of activity to gain control of the world that he rules. Satan’s problem is that he does not have control of his own domain, the reason being that the gospel is proclaimed and that even at this time nationalism still exists, though internationalism is being formed by many Satanic devices.

The whole earth being of one language turned out to be a curse because the system of communication resulted in the rise of internationalism. Having one international language does not solve the world’s problems through so-called mutual understanding. Even if everyone in the world today spoke the same language there still would not be world peace because man still possesses and old sin nature and neither environment nor law nor cultural exchange can solve man’s problems. The answer to man’s problems today and until Jesus comes is always personal and individual. The Bible stresses the importance of the individual. Even though socialism has a façade, the importance of the individual, it always merges the individual into a mass, and in the mass the greater good is accomplished. But the Bible is the only book that takes the individual out of the mass and makes him a real person through regeneration.

Verse 2 – when they began to spread out, “they found a plain in the land of Shinar [Chaldea]; and they dwelt there.” So we have the migration of the human race from the Mount of Ararat and moved to the south east to the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. Man’s descent from the mountains was not only physical but it was moral as well.

Verses 3 & 4, the philosophy of internationalism.

Verse 3 – “And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.”

Verse 4 – “And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”

Seven points in these two verses by which internationalism gets rolling

1. Idealism rebellion against God—“they said one to another.” The common language led to a mutual defiance of God. God commanded then to spread abroad, Genesis 9:1, 7. But instead of spreading abroad they built up. This is significant. In the Noahic covenant God promised that He would never again destroy the world by water, and therefore He said they could spread out, never having to be afraid. But what did they do? They all congregated in one spot and built upward because they did not believe God’s Word, they rejected the Noahic covenant. They decided that next time God tried something like that they would build something that would be above the waterline. This tells us something: they were familiar with the Word of God. But they defied the Word of God and set an antithetical idealism.

2. Volitional rebellion against God—“let us,” collective, man in mass. But the cure is not found in internationalism, the cure is personal rather than collective. God says “whosoever,” individual, personal.

3. Governmental rebellion against God—“let us build a city.” This city was built in defiance of God. There is nothing wrong with cities but the principle was that this was to be a city without any concept of nationalism.

4. Physical revolt against God—“and a tower,” a gigantic mountain of bricks, the concept of trying to build a flood-proof shelter, defying God. They didn’t believe what God said—“We’ll show you God, we’ll build something that will be high and try the next time you try that!”

5. Spirit rebellion—“a tower to reach to heaven.” Us plus the word heaven gives us the spiritual rebellion against God. Here is international brotherhood at work—one great brotherhood, man working his way to heaven by something he builds. This is man’s work getting him to heaven in contrast to God’s work getting him to heaven. This is grace versus legalism.

6. Personal revolt, the cult of egoism—“let us make a name,” let us have a reputation. They were going to make a reputation for themselves—self-exaltation. Under the principle of regeneration Christ receives the glory; under the cult of egoism man receives the glory, man exalts self. Man is stimulated by self-exaltation.

7. Structural revolt—“lest we be scattered abroad.” In other words, they refused the divine edict and divine institution.

Verses 5-8, the divine attitude.

Verse 5—“And the Lord came down.” This is an anthropomorphism.

Verse 6 – “Behold, the people one [internationalism] and they have all one language; and this they begin to do.” This was just the beginning of their

internationalism.

“and now nothing will restrain them from which they have imagined to do.” Connect this with Romans 1:18ff where the imagination of men’s minds

leads to their own degeneration; they develop it and perpetuate it in every way.

Verse 7 – “Come, let us [the Trinity] go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

Verse 8 – the Lord scattered them and they stopped building the city.

Verse 9 – “Therefore is the name called Babel.” This is Babylon.

“because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth … upon all the face of the earth.” So God’s attitude toward internationalism is negative. Now, Genesis chapter 10 is the story of how nationalism was developed, and that is the primary purpose of Genesis 10.

On of the forms of internationalism that has emerged in history was the Illuminati, begun in 1776. It had six principles:

1. It advocated the elimination of national governments and world government to take over.

2. The abolition of private property (which also destroys human enterprise).

3. The abolition of inheritance.

4. The abolition of marriage and family life. In other words, the state owns all babies and takes responsibility for their education from the cradle to the grave. They educate and place them in slots without regard to the individual’s volition.

5. The abolition of Bible Christianity.

6. The abolition of patriotism. Any form of patriotism is a great enemy of internationalism.

These were the six things that had to be abolished for the Illuminati to take over.

In 1932, when Joe Stalin wrote his thesis on how to conquer the United States of America without firing a shot, he took developed six points for conquest.

1. Use philosophy, mysticism and cults in order to discredit Christian doctrine.

2. The destruction of marriage and the advancement of theoretical racial practices—marriage between black and white, and so on.

3. In the realm of the cultural and the aesthetic cultivate the ugly, the futuristic, the abhorrent in art, literature, drama and music.

4. Create unrest, suspicion and revolt among working classes. Promote class warfare.

5. Standardise the cheap and the shoddy, advocate state ownership of property and

business, exchange all foreign currency at slight discount for US gold and gradually withdraw all gold from circulation.

7. Set up the idea of thinking internationally so as to undermine all national

patriotism. Undermine all preparation for defence and ridicule all patriotic effort.

Internationalism is a trend which we shall have right down to the Second Advent of Christ, and internationalism will only be destroyed by the Second Advent of Christ. So the Bible warns from cover to cover, from Genesis to Revelation, against internationalism and makes it very clear that to destroy nationalism is an attempt to destroy evangelism. It is an attack against the Word of God and, above all, is an attempt to keep people from finding Jesus Christ as saviour. For the god of this world is Satan, and the god of this world blinds the minds of those who believe not, let the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Genesis 12

Chapter 12

The Age of Israel is divided into several parts. First of all is the period of the patriarchs--everything from Abraham to the Exodus. Then, the period of the Exodus which starts with the 400 years of captivity in Egypt and forty years of wilderness wandering. Then finally the period of the law and the prophets, which starts from the time of the wilderness wanderings and goes down to the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the day of Pentecost. The third dispensation follows, which is the Church, and then we have the completion of the Age of Israel, which is the Tribulation.

The period of the patriarchs is the introduction to the Age of Israel. 1. Abraham is selected as the pattern for patriarchs, the reason being that Abraham is the pattern of salvation, he was saved by faith in Jesus Christ—Romans 4:1-16. 2. Abraham is also the pattern for Old Testament spirituality—Romans 4:17-21.

Now in order to establish some system of chronology with regard to Abraham’s migration we will look at a few points:

1. Abraham left Haran 645 years before the Exodus. This period is broken down into two increments. The period of the patriarchs is actually 215 years. Then the sojourn in Egypt is broken down into 430 years—30 years of prosperity in the wake of Joseph and 400 years of captivity. The Exodus took place in 1441 BC. If you add 645 years to that you have the time when Abraham left Haran—2086 BC.

2. How do we establish the 215 years? Genesis 12:4 tells us that Abraham was 75 when he left Haran. Genesis 21:5 tells us that he was about 100 years old when Isaac was born. So we know from that that from the time that Abraham left Haran until the time of the birth of Isaac was 25 years in Canaan, except for a few brief periods when he was out of Canaan. Genesis 25:26, the statement that Isaac was 60 yrs old when Jacob was born. The next one is Genesis 47:9 where we learn that Jacob was 130 years old when he stood before Pharaoh, which ended the patriarch period because he was now in Egypt. These all connect up and give us 215 for the period of the patriarchs.

3. We get the 430 years from Exodus 12:40, 41.

4. Conclusion: Abraham left Haran 645 years before the Exodus from Egypt which was 1441 BC. Add to that 645 and you get 2086 BC.

5. The date of the Exodus 1441 BC. The date of entering Egypt is 1871 BC. Again, adding 645 to 1441, the year that Abraham entered Canaan was 2086 BC, and therefore since Abraham when he entered Canaan was 75 Abraham was born in 2161 BC. The patriarchal period, then, goes from 2086 BC to 1971 BC. The sojourn in Egypt goes from 1871 to 1441 BC.

Acts 7:2-4—Abraham started out by being a total flop. “The God of glory [Jesus Christ] appeared unto our father Abraham in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in

Haran.” God told Abraham to dwell in Canaan, but between Ur of the Chaldees and Canaan is a desert where even the Arabs did not go. They were not to cross the desert, they were to go down the valley. When they got to Haran then they were to move from Syria into Canaan. God told Abraham to go to Canaan but he didn’t go to Canaan, he stayed in Haran. He didn’t want to go to Canaan, he was more interested in making money as a trader in Haran.

Verse 3—“…and get thee out of thy country” [Ur of the Chaldees]; “and from thy kindred”—sometimes kindred are the greatest hindrance in serving the Lord. He didn’t get away from his family, he took his nephew, Lot. Abraham is never going to have everything that God has for him until he quits the foot-dragging, until he separates from Lot. He was also to separate himself from his father, which he didn’t do.

Verse 4—“…and dwelt in Haran; and from there, when his father was dead, he removed into this land, in which ye now dwell.” Notice, he didn’t leave Haran until his father was dead. He had to have a jolt and his father had to die before he would come to Canaan where God wanted him to be.

When Abraham is in Canaan this is analogous to being in fellowship. But in the twelfth chapter of Genesis we are going to see him out of fellowship twice. First: Haran. Then when he was jolted into getting back in (rebound), he went to Canaan. This was the place of blessing, God has given him promises there, but as soon as the test came he took off for Egypt.

Genesis 11:26 – “Terah” means delay. He is the father of Abraham. “Nahor” means snoring. “Abram” means father of high and windy places. “Haran,” not to be confused with the town, means “dried up,” dead on the vine. Out of these four, father and three sons, one of them was saved—Abram.

Verse 27 – Haran has a son called Lot.

Verse 28—Haran died an unbeliever. Apparently Abram took in his nephew Lot.

Verse 29 – “the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai,” which means contentious.

Verse 30—“But Sarai was barren.” This was the great problem in the life of Abram up to the time he is100 years of age. It becomes a very difficult problem for him, as far as the Bible is concerned, for a period of 25 years. This is his great test and all of his faith must be built up so that he can face this problem.

But beside that there is a beautiful analogy here. Contentious Christians are always barren. This is a believer who has a contentious mental attitude, a mind full of sour grapes and envy and jealousy and hatred of others. Contentious believers are always troublemakers, egotistical, and insensitive. They also demand all of the time you will give them, they have a tremendous approbation lust. They are greedy for human attention and human approbation.

12:1 – “Now the Lord had said (past tense) … Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from they father’s house [Terah], unto a land that I will show thee.”

11:31 – “Terah took Abram.” Terah is the father, and instead of Abram separating himself the family he took Terah and Lot with him. Abram is a believer; Lot is a believer; Terah is not a believer. Terah is running the show and Abram is going to obey his father rather than obey God. Terah is also a famous idolater—Joshua 24:2. Abram’s disobedience changes his mental attitude and even though his intention is good he does not come to Canaan.

12:2 – the anti-Semitism clause which is so important.[1]

Verse 3 – the last phrase, “and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” Christ is of the seed of Abraham and is the basis of blessing all of the families of the earth.

Verse 4 – “And Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him” – so far, so good. But this is what happened that went wrong—“and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.” What is not told here is what is in Acts 7 and Genesis 11. He didn’t go straight to the land, he stopped in Haran for an indefinite period of time and we only know that he was 75 when he finally left Haran. All of the time that he was in Haran he was miserable because he was out of fellowship, not in the will of God. He had three things in Haran: Terah, his father. Terah means delay, and the plan of God was delayed in the life of Abram until he left Haran. He had Lot [means secret, and sometimes it has the connotation of secretly self-seeking]. Sarai, which means contentious. And he was in the dried-up place where he had delay, secret self-seeking, and contention. Abram did not leave Haran until the death of his father.

This is the grace of God in getting Abram out of Haran and into the place of blessing. There is a principle behind this. Often the greatest adversities become the means of our greatest blessing. God had to awaken Abram to the fact that he was in the dried up place, and in the dried up place he could never have that peace, blessing, which is the monopoly of the born-again believer, and consequently he had to be jolted by great adversity—loss of his father—into waking up.

Getting into Canaan is a picture of rebound.

Verse 5 –“and all their substance that they had gathered.” Where did he get it? In Haran, acquired through business enterprise.

“and all of the souls that they had gotten in Haran” – Abram became a slave owner in Haran.

In this introduction to the patriarchs we have Abram in Haran, 11:29-32; Abram in Canaan, 12:4-8.

Verses 6-9, notice 9 things that Abram had in Canaan.

1. Shechem, the Hebrew word for shoulder, but also the word for power. The believer in Canaan has Shechem—power. We have the power of the Holy Spirit when we are in fellowship. In fellowship [in Canaan] we take in the Word. We also have the power of the Son, as in Philippians 4:13.

2. Moreh means instruction or teaching. You really only take in the Word of God when you are in fellowship. This is the importance of being taught the Word.

3. “the Canaanite was then in the land.” This means challenge and opposition. First of all, the Canaanite is to be evangelised. Abram is actually going to lead many of them to the Lord. The believer is always challenged to evangelise. Evangelism is the ministry of every believer. There is also opposition. The Canaanite will be evangelised in part and in part he will form opposition. When you are in fellowship with the Lord you will be challenged to evangelise but you will also face Satanic type opposition.

4. Verse 7, a promise. The challenge to claim the promises of God—“Unto thy seed will I give the land.” The challenge to claim the faith-rest technique. Abram’s peace depended on how much he claimed and believed the promises of God. If this is the land that God gives him when there is a famine in the land he doesn’t have to get upset and go to Egypt. All he has to do is to claim the promise. The reason that Abram goes to Egypt is because he refuses to believe the faith-rest technique.

5. The altar. This speaks of occupation with Christ, both retrospective and anticipatory. Retrospective as far as we are concerned—the cross. The altar is a constant reminder of the cross. We do not have the altar today, we have the communion table which is a reminder of the cross. Anticipatory: the One who hung upon the cross is now at the right hand of the Father but He will return to the earth.

6. The tent. This speaks of total dependence upon the Lord. Abram was not going to depend upon the walls of the city, he was not going to build a home, a fortification. He had tremendous wealth but all of his life he lived in the tent.

To better understand the word tent we go to Hebrews 11. How can a man living in a tent be safe? The land of Canaan was a place where marauders were constantly passing through. Verse 13, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims [tent dwellers]on the earth. Verse 14, “For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.” Verse 16, “But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.” They were tent dwellers because God promised a city, and God told his wife and all of his family they would never dwell in a city until God provided the city which He promised. Abraham will receive that city in resurrection—Revelation 21:2, 10. So the tent speaks of depending on the power of the Lord, not upon human power. This doesn’t mean that Abram was stupid. He was a well-armed man and he trained his 218 male servants as soldiers. But the tent is Abram’s testimony that he can go to sleep at night and not be concerned about marauders attacking because there is a wall around him, and that wall is the Lord.

7. Verse 8, Bethel means house of God. When he is in fellowship he worships the Lord. Principle: You can only have Bethel when you are in Canaan; you

can only worship the Lord when you are in fellowship.

8. Hai was also in Canaan, it means heap of ruin and refers by analogy the old sin nature. He still has the old sin nature which is the source of all sin.

9. Verse 10 – the testing. “…and Abram went down into Egypt.” Now he is out of fellowship again. Everything in the land was to encourage him to stay

there. He had power—Shechem; he had instruction and teaching—Morah; he had the Canaanite—evangelising at home first; he has the promises of God

even though there is a famine in the land; he has the altar—occupation with Christ, and therefore he need not fear the famine; he has the tent—speaking

of total dependence upon the Lord; he has Bethel—worship; Hai is no help; he has the test, and the principle is this: When ever we have victory in our

lives, the victory of being in fellowship, then that victory will be tested. You will never have a spiritual success or a victory without that success being

tested. The purpose of the famine is to test Abram’s faith. Will he use these things which God has provided or not?

He went down to Egypt and failed the test because he didn’t utilise the things that he had—“to sojourn there.” He was only going to stay until the heat was

off. Going down to Egypt is escapism, the believer using human sublimation, human self-gratification as the basis of his happiness. It is the place of the human viewpoint as opposed to the divine viewpoint. In that sense, of course, Egypt is the world. The famine was a test. Can God meet the needs of Abram in the place where He wants him to be, even though there is a famine. Of course, the answer is yes. That is the answer of faith. But human viewpoint says no, I think I’ll go down to Egypt where there is a lot of food. Sojourn means to just stick around there temporarily until things get better. So Abram runs away, and as soon as you get out of fellowship you are in trouble again. Any believer in Egypt can work his way very rapidly into disaster.

Verse 11 – all the way down to Egypt he is looking at his wife. She is around 76 now but she is a beautiful woman. “…Behold now, I know that thou art a fair

woman to look upon.” The translation of this is pitiful in the KJV. The Hebrew word for fair is exceedingly beautiful. He is already thinking that the wretched old Pharaoh down in Egypt is going to want to add her to his harem—human viewpoint.

Verse 12 –“Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.” He has worked it all out.

Verse 13—he is out of fellowship, he wants her to lie. He wants to save his own skin: “that it may be well with me for thy sake,” the twisting of the ego: so that you will still have me!

Verse 14—no one notices Abram’s status symbols, they noticed Sarai.

Verse 15—She was taken into Pharaoh’s house. Abram wasn’t hurt because she lied and said she was his sister. Take a look at some of the things that comes to Abram when he is out of fellowship: ego, dishonesty, fear of man, divisiveness and lying. So the mother of a chosen race is found in the harem of a heathen king. Principle: The believer out of fellowship causes misery both to himself and those in his periphery.

Verse 16—instead of having his throat cut he became wealthier. “Treated” means he paid off Abram swell for her sake. In other words, Pharaoh has just bought the ‘sister.’

Verse 17 – the Lord intervened. It is God’s intention to bring Isaac into the world through Sarai. It can’t be done if she is going to remain in that harem.

Verse 18 – as soon as this illness hit the palace Pharaoh calls in Abram.

Verse 18 – Take her and get out! Notice: No testimony. In other words, it takes an unbeliever, a heathen king, to show Abram what a rat he is as a believer. At this point the heathen king is on a much higher plain than Abram. The heathen king deals with Abram in an honourable manner, tells him to take everything I have given you and get out. It is possible for a believer who is out of fellowship to behave in a manner much more unworthy than an unbeliever. Unbelievers often behave better than believers out of fellowship. There is a reason for it. The unbeliever only has one inner struggle—the old sin nature. But the believer out of fellowship is under pressure from the world, the flesh, and the devil. He has two struggles, one in the soul and one in the area of the old sin nature. The believer has no testimony out of fellowship.

[1] See the Doctrine of anti-Semitism.

Genesis 13

Chapter 13

Chapter 13:1-4 should go with the twelfth chapter.

Verse 1—“Abraham went up out of Egypt.” This is rebound.

Verse 3—he is back in fellowship, he has Bethel.

Verse 4—“Unto the place of the altar…and there Abram called on the name of the Lord.” He is back in fellowship. Principle: Never let your failures discourage you, use 1 John 1:9, and then forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forth to those things which are before, press toward the mark…” If Abraham had stopped and cried about his failures in Haran and Egypt he would never have moved into the great victory of chapter 14, the first if the great mountain-top experiences in his life. You never get to the mountain-top in spiritual experience by sitting down at the bottom of the hill and feeling sorry for yourself, or by sulking in the cave as Elijah did, by regretting and just thinking about your past failures and therefore eliminating yourself when the Lord hasn’t eliminated you at all. This is why Abraham was great, not because he didn’t fail. The greatest people in the Lord’s service are those people who get up and move on. They never look back and never feel sorry for themselves with regard to their failures.

Verse 5 – changes. There is going to be trouble, but Abraham is ready for the trouble now because he is in fellowship. Another test for Abraham now comes. Lot became wealthy in Egypt as well as Abraham.

Verse 6 – strife among believers, “…they could not dwell together.” The Bible never tells us to separate from unbelievers or we couldn’t witness. But the Bible tells us to separate ourselves from believers who are always out of fellowship. Abram is in fellowship and Lot is out. Believers out of fellowship can never get along with believers in fellowship. It never has worked and never will.

Verse 7 – a cattle war. “...and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt in the land.” This last phrase is no accident. These were unbelievers and they are watching believers fight back and forth and getting the wrong impression. In other words, when believers cannot resolve their difficulties by being together they should separate because the Canaanite and the Perizzite is in the land. This is always true, we are always surrounded by those who are unbelievers. Unbelievers always get the wrong impression and they make the most of it when they see believers at each others’ throats.

Verse 8 – the first thing Abram did was to get together with Lot. “… for we are brethren.” We are both saved. Abram recognises that they are both related to God forever, that they both have the same position in Christ, as it were. One thing that must be constantly remembered about believers who are offensive in any way: they are just as much in the family of God as you are and God the Father loves the next believer just as much as He loves you. When Abram broke off relationship with Lot, one whom he loved, he did it in the perfect way.

Verse 9 – “Is not the whole land before thee?” Abram is the eldest and therefore he has the final authority. He is the head of the tribe, as it were, and has the right of choice. The elder always has the right of choice, but Abram has done something. He has used the faith-rest technique and therefore he does not want to choose anything for himself, he has put his choice in the hands of God. He has put his life in God’s hands and has used the faith-rest technique. Therefore he allows Lot to make a choice, and Lot makes a human viewpoint choice because he is out of fellowship—therefore a wrong choice. Any decisions you make out of fellowship are no good. So Lot makes a human viewpoint choice, whereas Abram who is the eldest and has the right to choose first leaves his choice in God’s hands. So this is faith claiming the promises of God. Notice that Abram shows no fear that Lot will choose something and get something that is better than what Abram has. When you put your life in the hands of the Lord you also put the details in the hands of the Lord, and when you put the details in the hands of the Lord, now matter how much it appears on the surface, no one can cheat you, no one can hurt you, and you have that great virtue of never ever trying to build your happiness on someone else’s misery. Lot, in effect, by trying to grasp something that looks good is trying to build his happiness on someone else’s misery, and it can’t be done. You never ever build any happiness through selfishness. Lot is completely selfish, self-centred, humanistic, even though he is born again. And Lot who chooses and takes everything, as it were, and chooses by sight, is going to wind up miserable in a cave, and Abram is going to wind up the wealthiest man in the world. Why? Because Abram leaves everything in God’s hands.

How Lot chose, verses 10, 11.

Verse 10 – “Lot lifted up his eyes.” Human viewpoint. Lot has his eyes on things, he is out of fellowship and a carnal believer cannot make a good decision for the Lord. This is another reason for rebound: if you are going to make decisions, get in fellowship first.

Verse 11 – Lot chose what he could see with his eyes. Abram didn’t make a choice at all, he let God choose for him. The result was that Lot got a beautiful valley which was destroyed and became a desert, and God gave Abram everything. By choosing what he did Lot deprived himself of tremendous blessing and an inheritance in the land. The children of Lot never inherit the land. You never lose if you let God choose. In verse 13 we see what God’s view of the Jordan Valley was. “But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.” The word “exceedingly” is out of place: “they were wicked exceedingly before the Lord.” They were wicked in their mentality (mentioned in 2 Peter), in their overt activity (described in several passages of scripture). They expressed their mental attitude which reached the saturation point of wickedness by actually sacrificing their own children.

Verse 12 – “Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.” Because Sodom was so wicked and so evil Lot wouldn’t go in at first, but lived in a tent outside of the city. He was self-righteous. When people get out of line they usually do it by degrees. He was too self-righteous at this point, he has to get acquainted with the people. Eventually he is going to sit in the gate—be a judge and have a high and exalted position in the city. He didn’t start out that way, he was too good for them! Self-righteousness is our own great enemy because in status quo self-righteousness we fail to evaluate our lives properly and therefore fail to utilise rebound.

Verse 14 – Abram’s great victory. “…after that,” after the separation. Not until Lot was gone did God speak to Abram, and when He did He gave him great comfort. Here is blessing from the obedience of faith. Now God makes Abram’s choice. Abram doesn’t choose for himself; God chooses for him. This is what the faith-rest technique does. It is actually the surrender of your own volition to God. Whenever great blessing comes it is always connected with promises from the Word.

“Lift up now thine eyes”—Lot had lifted up his own eyes and looked, chose; now Abram is commanded to lift up his eyes and to look, but he is looking because God tells him to look. “and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward.” When he looks eastward, what is he going to see? He is going to see the plain of Jordan where Lot is moving out with all of his wealth.

Verse 15 – “For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it.” While he is standing there and looking, after Lot has departed, God tells him that everything that Lot chose is yours. Lot will never have it.

“and to thy seed for ever.” God will do better for those who trust Him than for those believers who choose for themselves. God does not help those who help themselves. Lot helped himself and God didn’t help him. God helps the helpless.

Verse 16 – the promise with no strings attached. This is the beginning of the Abrahamic covenant. It doesn’t depend on who and what Abram is, it depends on who and what God is. It says, “I will, I will.” When God says, “I will,” that is grace.

Verse 17 – “Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.” It’s all yours.

Verse 18 – “Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the LORD.” Mamre means prosperity; Hebron means fellowship. The altar speaks of fellowship with the Lord, occupation with Christ.

Genesis 14

Chapter 14

This is the chapter of victory. This is the pay-off when people keep on rebounding. In this passage there are found four of the greatest victories in the spiritual life. In verses 13 & 14 there is the victory of mental attitude. In verses 15 &16 there is a victory in battle. In verses 17 through 23 there is victory over motivation. And one of the greatest victories in the spiritual life is found in verse 24, victory over self-righteousness. The first part of the chapter is background. It shows how God disciplines one believer and provides the basis of victory for another believer.

Verse 1 – “Shinar” is Babylon; “nations” is simply a reference to what we know later on in history as the kingdom of Galilee. There are four kings in this verse who have formed an alliance. The objective of this alliance was against five kings who lived in the beautiful valley that Lot chose, and the area surrounding.

Verse 3 – the conflict takes place in southern Palestine. It will involve the area that Lot chose with his eyes: “which is now the salt sea.” At the time that Moses wrote this it was the Salt Sea. We know it as the Dead Sea. But at the time the vale of Siddim was simply the southern end of the Jordan Valley.

Verse 4 – “Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer.” This is the group of nations or fortified cities in the valley. “ … and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.”

Verse 5 – It took Chedorlaomer a year to organise an army. The Rephaim were a group of giants. Og, king of Bashan is said to be descended from them. He is mentioned in Deuteronomy chapters 2 &3, Joshua 12:4; ch. 13. The Zuzims are another tribe of giants.

Notice that extensive conquest went on around the area where Abram was living, but they didn’t touch him. God protected Abram in every possible way. No troops from this great organization came anywhere near him. God protects His own.

Verse 10 – “And the vale of Siddim was full of slimepits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there; [that is, their armies] and they that remained fled to the mountain”—including the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Verse 11 refers to Chedorlaomer and his great army.

Verse 12 – “And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.” Lot chose by sight; Lot was full of self-gratification; Lot did not have his eyes on the Lord, he is a carnal believer; and now Lot is paying. He finds himself in chains, along with his entire family, headed for slavery or something worse. All around him is this great army of Chedorlaomer and all of his great wealth is gone, completely plundered and removed from him, and the situation is utterly hopeless.

This is where we begin the story of Abram again. Remember that this is one of the consequences of Lot’s human viewpoint and one of the results of his carnality. What appeared to be a good thing as far as he was concerned, a human viewpoint solution to his problem, turned out to be a very bad thing for him. Abram’s choice of faith protected him completely from the invasion of Chedorlaomer whose armies had come through the land but had completely bypassed Abram. This is a perfect case of Romans 8:28.

So we have the four great victories. They are not inconsequential in any way. Three of them are spiritual victories and one is a physical victory based upon spiritual life and good common sense.

Victory # 1, the victory over mental attitude. One of the greatest battlegrounds for every believer is their own frontal lobe. Inside of it there is a constant warfare: divine versus human viewpoint. Some of the greatest victories in the Christian life are won there and also some of the greatest failures. The principle is, what you think is what you really are. What goes on up in the mind is the area of conflict; it is the area of defeat or victory, failure or success.

Verse 13 – “And there came one that had escaped.” Again, all things work together for good, a few people escaped. Picture Lot, miserable, carnal, self-gratifying, selfish, egotistical, full of human viewpoint but saved, in chains, in slavery with nothing to anticipate anymore. Up in the hills above this Jordan Valley there lives a man of God. Perhaps he is ridiculed, but when the pressure is on and there are great catastrophes and difficulties where does the man in disaster turn? He turns to the one who has stability, who has this inner peace, who has great spiritual power.

Now we have a man who was running from the soldiers of Chedorlaomer. When he ran in his desperation and catastrophe he remembered Abram. So he ran until he found Abram.

“and he told Abram, the Hebrew” – the word Hebrew means “the one who crossed over the river.” He crossed the Euphrates River to get into the land. In a sense it is the title for a missionary.

“for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre” – Mamre means wealth or strength; “the Amorite” – one of the first converts of Abram – “brother of Eschol,” another convert of Abram – “brother of Aner: and these were confederate [or, allied] with Abram.” They had an understanding. Abram doesn’t fellowship with unbelievers. These people are fellowshipping with him and in an alliance, they are neighbours and are the first converts of this great believer.
Lot and his entire family are prisoners. Some might say, Oh how sad. But inside they think he’s getting exactly what he deserves, he has it coming. One of the most marvellous characteristics of the spiritual believer is the relaxed mental attitude toward others—others who are obnoxious, who antagonise, who have been hostile, who have been unfair and unkind, who have tried to hurt you. Yet, when they find themselves in great catastrophe it is a wonderful and marvellous characteristic, when no matter what they have done to you there is no gloating on your part or rejoicing in their discomfort. This attitude is a by-product of the filling of the Spirit as well as an understanding of doctrine. It becomes also a by-product of occupation with Christ.

Verse 14 – a great victory for Abram. There is no gloating here. He is not happy about this situation and he looks at it from the divine viewpoint. He has a mental attitude love for Lot. “And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.” He gave them their arms; they were already trained. Lot did not earn or deserve any help from Abram. Abram intends to rescue Lot, even though the odds against him are hopeless, and the principle behind this is grace. Abram thinks grace. He is going to put his own life on the line to deliver his worthless, carnal nephew. This is a great victory of mental attitude.

Verses 15 & 16, victory in battle.

Verse 15 – the only way a small military force can effectively cope with a very large force is to do so by a night attack. When Gideon attacked the Midianites he did it at night. “And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.” Hobah is up in Syria, out of the land.

So first of all we have a small number. But that makes no difference when the force is trained. They were born in Abram’s house, which means not only had he been providing for them, but in addition, they were undoubtedly all believers. Abram’s pursuit is indicative of his character. He pursued to Dan which is in the northern boundary of the land. In other words, Abram went to the limits for a fellow believer who didn’t deserve it. “He smote them” means the weapons were used effectively. Then the pursuit, he followed up his victory.

Verse 16 – Lot is restored. Abram was able to recover a huge amount of materialistic things, whatever would be counted as wealth. It was not just Lot’s tremendous wealth but he recovered all of those who had been taken prisoner in the battle.

There is a third victory. What was Abram’s motivation in attacking Chedorlaomer? Did he do it for money or did he do it on the principle of grace–he loved Lot who didn’t deserve anything? This is God the Holy Spirit recording for us something that happened 2000 years BC.

Verse 17 – the third victory, a fight between two kings. Notice that there is another place here called Salem, not far from where Abram is holding out. We know it today as Jerusalem. Down there is also a king who is a believer, and we don’t know how this king became a believer—Melchizedek. This battle involves two kings, Melchizedek versus the king of Sodom. When all of this tremendous wealth was recovered, then Melchizedek comes to Abram’s rescue. It is time for reinforcements. In God’s timing it is always perfect. Melchizedek came after the battle, after the victory was won, but there is a greater fight going on, a spiritual battle that still in the process of being decided. It is in the spiritual battle where Melchizedek is badly needed. He comes to help Abram win the spiritual victory after the military victory. Satan’s representative, the king of Sodom, came to rob Abram of the victory of grace and faith. If the king of Sodom can make it appear as though the motive of Abram was simply the desire for the spoils and wealth of battle then Satan can still win the victory by obscuring the grace principle and the grace motivation which Abram had.

The king of Sodom is going to suggest that Abram take the spoils and he would take the people. There is something behind this. The king of Sodom doesn’t want God to get any credit in this. He wants the grace of God to be obscured. He wants it to appear that Abram is doing this simply to get wealthy. Principle: Our greatest counterattacks from Satan come after great victories and we are most vulnerable to defeat after a victory. So here is the grace of God. At this point Abram is in over his head, and probably doesn’t know it. So he receives reinforcements from Melchizedek who arrives on the scene—the timing of God is perfect. Melchizedek came just as the king of Sodom came up with his suggestion.

“And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale.”

Verse 18 – God sends Abram reinforcements. The king of Salem[1] comes, not with an army but with bread and wine. Melchizedek is not a theophany.

a) Theophanies are never given formal names. This person has a name—Melchizedek, which means king of righteousness.

b) Theophanies or Christophanies are never mentioned with specific geographical localities, and in v. 18 we have “king of Salem.”

c) Theophanies always disclose God as the messenger, and that is not the case here.

d) Melchizedek is called a priest, and the Christophanies never declare Christ as a priest. Jesus Christ did not become a priest until after His incarnation.

e) Psalm 110:4 is conclusive. Christ is addressed in this manner: “Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” If Jesus Christ had been Melchizedek Psalm 110:4 would say, “Thou art Melchizedek.”

“he the priest of the most high God” – he is a priest. He fights with spiritual weapons—bread and wine. This is not simply food, they have spiritual significance.

The spiritual significance of both is to get Abram with his eyes on the Lord at a critical attack. This critical attack is coming from the king of Sodom, and just as he comes Abram is fortified with the principle of occupation with Christ. The bread speaks of the humanity of Christ and therefore emphasises the principle of incarnation in salvation. The wine speaks of the blood of Christ which reminds us that the death of Christ was unique.

There were three factors in the spiritual strengthening of Abraham. The first factor is the bread, the second the wine, and the third is the blessing. Melchizedek blessed Abram. He gave Abram bread and Abram took it, indicating he was a believer. He gave Abram wine which he drank, indicating he was a believer and had personally trusted in the Lord. And then he received from Melchizedek a blessing because Melchizedek was a priest of the most High God and therefore it was a part of his functions to bless Abram.

Verse 19 – “And he [Melchizedek] blessed him [Abram], and said, Blessed Abram by [or, from] the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth.” Is Abram going to be blessed by taking all that money and property from the battle? No. He is going to be blessed from God who owns everything—“possessor of heaven and earth.” God owns everything, and God can give Abram much or God can give Abram little, and it makes no difference because all blessing is from God. Whether has much or little Abram will be blessed, and it will be on the basis of grace. He is going to be blessed because of the nature of God. The point is: Abram, don’t get your eyes on that pile of wealth. Don’t get your eyes on things, after all, the Lord owns everything. The difference here is taking it from God and taking it from the king of Sodom. If he takes it from the king of Sodom the whole point of his military victory is ruined because everyone will say Abram took small group of men and defeated Chedorlaomer because he wanted all of that wealth.

Verse 20 – the blessing. Notice what Abram did. He remunerated for spiritual counsel. He paid ten per cent of what was there to the man who provided the information. He gave a tenth from off the top of the pile. There is a principle here: Spiritual counsel requires remuneration, just like any kind of a service.

Verses 21-23, the victory.

“I have lifted up mine hand unto the Lord.” In other words, ‘I have saluted the Lord.’ This is idiomatic for occupation.

“the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth” – he got the point, even though it was a short sermon. Abraham is saying, ‘I have saluted God; I will not salute you.’ He has taken blessing from God; he will never take blessing from the king of Sodom. In other words, Abram isn’t going to touch any of that wealth. He takes his blessing from God but not from Satan’s man. Melchizedek got to Abram first, and through the ministry of Melchizedek he saluted the most high God. And having given his allegiance, as it were, to the most high God [saluted Him] he will not salute the king of Sodom. He will take nothing from the king of Sodom. Saluting means allegiance, recognition of authority.

Verse 23 – “That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich.”

Verse 24 – the victory over smug complacency, self-righteousness. Abram brought some allies along. They were new believers and had not achieved the maturity of Abram. Their standards are not the same. They have made tremendous sacrifices without understanding all that was involved. It wasn’t their fight in the first place and therefore this verse starts with the word save, which is simply the Hebrew word for except. He is going to provide rations for those who went along, Aner, Eshchol and Mamre—“let them take their portion.” They deserve money for their time. Abram is very thoughtful for these new converts. He would not make an issue out of that which was false to new believers.

[1] See the Doctrine of Melchizedek.

Genesis 15

Chapter 15

Subject: The worrying saint.

Verse 1 – “After these things.” This means after Abram has had four tremendous victories in the previous chapter. For example, the victory of mental attitude: how when he heard of Lot’s terrible catastrophe. He wasn’t full of I-told-you-so’s and he is getting what he deserves, and all the rest of it. Abraham understood some wonderful principles of doctrine and acted upon them. He understood that you never build your happiness on someone else’s unhappiness. Lot was in the status quo of terrible misery, a prisoner of Chedorlaomer and in a hopeless situation. However that was no cause for rejoicing on the part of Abram even though Abram had been hurt by Lot. So he won the great victory of mental attitude. Then he won the great military victory, and then a victory over motivation when he refused to become an extremely wealthy person by accepting from the king of Sodom all of the wealth of the Jordan Valley. Then finally in the last verse of chapter 14 the greatest victory of all, victory over smug self-righteousness. He refused to impose his high standards of maturity on believers who were very green and very new in the spiritual life. He did not make an issue out of things which they could not understand but he could. The principle behind this, now that Abram has won all of these victories in chapter 14, Satan is going to counter attack in chapter 15. We are most vulnerable to defeat after we have been victorious in our Christian experience because often pride comes in and we begin to congratulate ourselves as though we had “arrived.” The result is that we become vulnerable to various subtle attacks, one of which is pressure, and we react to that pressure by worrying.

What isn’t said but is implied throughout the entire chapter is, “After these things” Abram began to worry. So chapter 15 is a very practical one because it tells us something of the problems of worry and how to handle them. Worry set Abram back; he failed. One minute Abram is a great believer and the next minute he is a complete and total failure. All of his failure can be attributed to the fact that he began to worry. He followed that procedure to a disastrous ending in this chapter, and ending which was disaster but was rectified by the Word.

Now we have the three great problems in the life of Abram, the things that are causing him to worry.

a) Chedorlaomer was still the most powerful king in the Middle East, and even though his army had been destroyed most of that army would be recovered somewhere on the other side of the Euphrates river. There was still a great army at home and Chedorlaomer might just come back with a large army, and Abram still has 318 soldiers in his own household. So he started to worry about the possibility of Chedorlaomer taking vengeance.

b) He had insulted the king of Sodom by refusing to make a deal with him. So now there is the antagonism of the king of Sodom. Abram lived near the Jordan Valley and now there is the possibility that the king of Sodom will seek to take vengeance on him.

c) Abram does not have a son. Even though he has been promised that he would have a seed that would live forever and that from his loins would come several nations, at this point he no longer believes the promises. So he is worried about that.

This is more or less an outline of Abram’s problems when the 15th chapter opens. Worry is a system of legalism, and under the system of worrying you are

trying to solve your problems through anxiety instead of letting God solve them. If you are worried about your problems then that worry is human works attempting to solve a problem, and you have to decide who is going to solve the problems in your life, you or God. If God solves them you have no anxiety or worry, you have perfect peace, the battle is the Lord’s. But if you try to solve them then you are going to be constantly in a state of anxiety and be upset even as Abram was between chapters. So with all these problems it is time for Abram to hit the panic button and that is exactly what he does. He falls apart, and so when we open chapter 15 we are no longer looking at the victorious believer of the previous chapter, we are looking at a person who is out of fellowship through anxiety worry, and he needs help. And even though he has failed God at this point God has not failed him, and therefore in the first seven verses we have the first of three cures for worry, for anxiety. The cure which is given in these seven verses is the Word of God.

“After these things” reminds us of great victory followed by defeat.

“the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” The principle is that the Word of God is the solution to the anxiety problem. God has provided in His Word doctrines, promises and techniques whereby we may avoid any type of worry and anxiety in the life. The Word was the solution to the anxiety which was destroying his spiritual life and weakening him. “Fear not” is to stop Abram worrying. “I am thy shield” – he is worrying about Chedorlaomer coming back. It doesn’t matter how big an army Chedorlaomer has because the Lord is Abram’s shield. That is a promise! Then Abraham was thinking about the wealth he had refused from the king of Sodom and how fantastically rich he could be, and maybe he began to regret and worry a little about that decision. But now he has another promise, “I am thy exceeding great reward.” All of the reward that Abram will ever need will come from the God of the universe whose wealth is inexhaustible. Worry is simply a manifestation of the fact that you are not letting God solve your problems, you are working on them yourself.

Verses 2 & 3, Abram is satisfied on two points but the third point is still on his mind and we have his worried response.

Verse 2 – “And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?” This brings us back to Abram’s hopeless situation. His wife is barren, he has no children. So he complains. Wherever you find a person who worries you find a person who complains. Eliezer of Damascus is his heir at this point. He doesn’t have any children of his own. He and Lot are separated, and now his will is made out to Eliezer who is not related to him in any way.

Verse 3 – “And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.” Here is something else that comes out of worrying: It is all your fault God, you haven’t given me a son. In other words, there is no one he can really blame at this moment so he tries to blame it on God. So at this point he is pretty far gone.

Verse 4 – we have the Word coming to him a second time. God is gracious and patient so He gives Abram a promise with regard to his third worry. “And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This [one] shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels [being] shall be thine heir.” His own heir is going to be his own flesh and blood. This is a promise.

Now God is very patient and He demonstrates His patience not only by giving two promises but by illustrating them. So in verses 5-7 we have three divine illustrations to show that God keeps His word and that God will solve Abram’s problems. If Abram will just stop worrying long enough God will take over.

Verse 5 – illustration #1, the stars. This is both an illustration and an analogy. In the illustration making reference to the stars simply says, “Now look Abram, I hold all the stars in place. Look up there. If I can do this with the stars do you think I can handle your little old problems?” Then in addition to the illustration there is an analogy: ‘Abram, if you can count the stars up there you’ll have a pretty good idea of what is coming out of your loins.’ “So shall thy seed be.”

Verse 6 – 2nd illustration. Salvation! Corrected translation: “And he had believed in the Lord” – he didn’t believe at this point, he had believed in the Lord, past tense. This is the perfect tense in the Hebrew, which is an action that has already been completed. He believed many years before in Ur of the Chaldees, so this is an illustration of something he has done in the past, and he needs to learn a lesson from what he has done. He had believed in the Lord, at which point he was saved.

“and he [God the Father] credited it to him for righteousness.” Look Abram, if the Lord Jesus Christ died for you while you were His enemy and evil, what do you think He will do for you now that you are saved? In other words, Why are you worrying?

Verse 7 – 3rd illustration: past faithfulness. How did Abram ever get to Canaan? God’s faithfulness. He got tied up in Haran, the dead end, the dried up place. God brought him out. God’s faithfulness took him to the land. He slipped out and went to Egypt; God’s faithfulness brought him back. He has failed many times; God has always been faithful, and there he is right now after all of these tremendous experiences and adventures and all of the marvellous things that God has done. So take a look at your past Abram! Has God been faithful to you in the past?

The cure for worry is the Word of God. Twice in this passage, “the word of the Lord came unto Abram.” Twice in this passage we have promises. We have three illustrations of the faithfulness of God and the grace of God and the love of God.

Verses 8-11, the second cure for worry: doctrine. That is, doctrine that you already know, not doctrine you can dig out when you are upset.

Verse 8 – the problem of Abram’s ignorance of doctrine. “How shall I know that I shall inherit it?” He is questioning the promises of God.

Verse 9 – first of all the answer is Christ. We have types of Christ. There are five types of animal life in the sense of lower life than man here. The heifer comes first for one reason. Is Abram saved or not saved? He is already saved. So what does he need right now? He needs rebound and the heifer is the rebound offering. He needs to get back in fellowship. He needs to confess his worry—“whatever is not of faith is sin.” He has sinned in that he doesn’t believe; he is worrying. So take a heifer, the rebound offering. Once you cut that up it is the same as confessing your sins.

Now take a she-goat and a ram because one back in fellowship you now need occupation with Christ. That will fall into two categories. The she-goat and the ram speak of two different aspects of the work of Christ on the cross. The she-goat is the reconciliation offering—the doctrine of the removal of the barrier. You need to remember that Christ removed all of that barrier just as Christ will solve your problems now. Then the ram is the propitiation offering. God is not satisfied with you Abram, God is satisfied with the work of His Son—propitiation. Since you are related to God the Son through regeneration, now Abram, because you are seen as being in Christ God will still deal with you, so stop worrying.

Next is the turtledove and a young pigeon. While the goat and the ram speak of the work of Christ in application, now we have the person of Christ in the turtledove and the young pigeon. These, as noted in the next verse, are not divided. The reason is simple. The turtledove speaks of the deity of Christ in His person, and it is not divided because Christ cannot be divided in His deity, Christ can’t die in His deity, and so on. The young pigeon speaks of the resurrected humanity of Christ. The two together remind us of the uniqueness of Christ, as He is today at the right hand of the Father—the God-Man. These speak of the doctrine of the hypostatic union.

Verse 10 – operation phase one. “… and divided them in the midst.” The dividing of the first: rebound; the dividing of the next two: occupation with Christ, emphasis on His death where he did something for us—reconciliation and propitiation.

“…but the birds he divided not.” Because they speak of the person of Christ: the humanity of Christ in resurrection; the deity of Christ.

So once again, the Father’s plan begins with Christ. Along with Christ God the Father provides for every need that the believer has in time and everything the believer has in eternity, phase three.

Verse 11 – worry on the part of Abram or any believer is an attack on the Father’s plan for time, an attack on phase two. “And when the fowls came down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.” He drove them away because he has already rebounded—cut the heifer and in so doing declared his rebound. Now he drove away the vultures. They represent Satanic emissaries. Just like the birds that lodged in the tree in the parable. Satan always has his emissaries, his representatives, his disciples trying to get you to worry. Cf. 1 Peter 5:7-11. It is not in God’s plan for you to be in a state of anxiety about anything. When you cast your cares on the Lord you have mental stability.

Verses 12-21--the third cure for worrying: prophecy.

Verse 12 – Abram has nightmares. He had cast all his cares on the Lord and went to bed with perfect peace and then he woke up, as it were, in a cold sweat. Something is bothering him again, “an horror of great darkness.” This time God is going to cure his worry with prophecy. He is worried about the future of his progeny.

Verses 13-16, the prophecy of Israel’s [Abram’s progeny] future. This prophecy answers the question of verse 8. “How shall I know?”

Verse 13 – “Know of a surety.” He is going to know through prophecy. Knowledge of prophecy, knowledge of the future gives the believer assurance in time. In this verse is the prophecy of the Egyptian bondage. (Verses 14, the prophecy of the Exodus. Verse 15, the prophecy of Abram’s death and dying grace. Verse 16, the prophecy of the Jews returning to the land.)

The word surety means with assurance. Knowledge of doctrine produces assurance; knowledge of prophecy produces assurance, confidence. We have a wonderful pattern of this in 2 Corinthians 5—verse 1, “Know this”; verse 6, “Knowing with confidence”; verse 8, “we have confidence.” The more we know about the Word [doctrine] the more confidence we have in life. The more confidence we have the more worry is eliminated from the life.

“that thy seed [Israel] shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs [Egypt].” This is a prophecy of the Egyptian bondage.

“and [the Jews] shall serve them [the Egyptians]; and they [Egyptians] shall afflict them [the Jews] four hundred years.”

Verse 14 – the prophecy of the Exodus. “And also that nation [Egypt], whom they shall serve [bondage], will I judge” – the judgments that occurred in Moses’ time, culminating with the Passover judgment whereby the firstborn in every Egyptian family was destroyed.

“and afterward [the judgment of the Passover] shall they [the Jews] come out [exodus] with great substance”—they took the wealth of Egypt with them, Exodus 12:35,36.

Verse 15 – “Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace.” This is the doctrine of dying grace. Abraham is going to live a long time and die a painless, easy death: “thou shalt be buried in a good old age.” What is he worried about then? He is going to live a long time!

Verse 16 – the return of the Jews to Palestine. During that 400 years of Egyptian bondage the iniquity of the Amorites will reach its peak. But at this time “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.” This is because Abram’s missionary work resulted in the conversion of many of the Amorites and postponed their judgment for about 600 years.

This prophecy was the basis of peace and strength and hope and assurance; it was the basis of evangelism for the Jew during the Egyptian bondage. This was the prophecy that made Joseph take a promise from his brethren that they would not bury him in Egypt. Joseph knew that the children of Israel were going to leave Egypt, that God would bring them out; and this is how he knew. So not only is this prophecy a source of great blessing to Abram, and stops any further nightmare activity, but this promise was the whole Bible to the Jews in bondage.

Verse 17 – one more word about worrying. Abram, are you going to be a smudge-pot or a flaming torch? Are you going to be a smoky lamp or a lamp that shines brightly and sheds its light into the night?

“when the sun went down” – this is the day after the nightmare; “and it was dark” – speaks of pressure and adversity. When pressure an adversity comes to you it is dark. Do you shine, have a testimony? Or are you a smoking lamp, a smudge-pot?

“behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.” In other words, every believer in time of pressure is either one of two things, a smoking lamp or a bright and brilliant torch. If you worry, you are a smoking lamp. If you cast your cares on Him and operate under the faith-rest technique, then you are a bright and brilliant torch shedding light into the darkness of pressure and so on.

Notice it passed between the pieces, which is a reference to the experience of the believer. The believer has walked between the pieces—a declaration of appropriation of salvation.

Verses 18-21, the first statement of the Palestinian covenant. The Palestinian covenant tells about the inheritance of the land. It is given at this time when Abram least deserved it. There are four declarations of the Palestinian covenant in the Old Testament: here and to verse 21, Numbers 34; Deuteronomy 30; Joshua 1. These are four passages which give an unconditional covenant, no strings attached. Abraham and his progeny are going to have the land forever. Only those Jews who are born again will inherit. If you are going to have a forever covenant you have to have forever life.

Genesis 16

Chapter 16

Every time we have a problem or a difficulty, or an adverse situation, we have to sit down and face an issue: Who is best qualified to handle this problem? Generally there are one or two answers which make the choice. God is qualified to handle it, and He can solve it; or I am qualified to handle it and I don’t try to solve it.

This becomes a very practical and wonderful passage in the life of Abraham. With all of the wonderful information he has received from God he still has a tremendous lesson to learn, and then he is going to have 13 wonderful years of operating on the lesson. So this is the story of the saint who didn’t wait.

In verses 1-3 we have the operation of human viewpoint, or Abram, with a lot of help from Sarai, trying to solve his problems. It isn’t going to work very well. When God promised Abram that he would have a son from his own loins all Abram had to do was to wait. And that is the one thing he didn’t do. By waiting is meant that all he has to do is to believe the Word (today), the promise (tomorrow), believe the promise the next day, and if nothing happens the fourth day to keep on believing, knowing that the battle is the Lord’s and that the Lord will take care of the whole situation. When we become impatient we try to solve our own problems.

Cf. Isaiah 30:18, “And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.” The Lord is waiting to pour out His grace.

Isaiah 40:31, “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Keep on trusting (faith-rest) in a hopeless situation.

Psalm 37:34, “Wait on the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land.”

Psalm 62:5, “My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.”

Jeremiah 14:22, “Are there any among the vanities [idols] of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O LORD our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.”

Wherever this word wait is found it is referring to the faith-rest technique. This is Abram’s problem at this point: he didn’t wait. Instead of waiting for the Lord’s solution he jumped out ahead with his own. What does Abram need? A son from his own loins. God has promised him this in Genesis 13:14-17; 15:4,5. But Abram at this point is saying in effect, God needs some help!

Verse 1 – the barrenness of Sarai is a test to see whether Abram will believe the promises of God and wait on Him, or whether he will try to solve it himself. No matter how impossible the situation and how much pressure is on Abram in this situation all he has to do is to believe the Word of God. The real character of our faith in phase two is determined by how we wait on the Lord. In other words, by our patience. Patience is the ability, moment-by-moment and day-by-day, to know that the Lord is working on it and He will handle it in his way.

Verse 2 – “and Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.” When God says He is going to do something, God is going to do it—apart from human works. So many times believers are trying to help God! The person who came from the loins of Abram was to be the heir of Abram and the source of a great race. Such a person could not be born of a slave. This is one of the great points and analogies of Galatians. A slave girl cannot be the heir to the promises given by God. The son who was born of slavery will be the son of great nations, but not the nation that God has designated for the second dispensation.

There is another point: high motives do not justify wrong actions. Sarai was obviously motivated to help her husband, and to help God. You can be well motived as a believer and still, by legalism, be useless as far as God is concerned. The means does not justify the end. If the means is wrong the end is not right.

Another factor: In all of Sarai’s suggestion she did not once think of the character of God. Her suggestion shows failure to apply the doctrine of divine essence to the situation.

The word “hearkened” means he obeyed. Under divine institution #2 Abram is supposed to be the leader, and the leader is being led. He should have been listening to the promise of God instead of listening to the advice of his wife. So we know that Abram was looking at life from the human viewpoint—human activity and actions to solve the problem.

Verse 3 – “to be his wife.” Apparently there was a marriage. Now we have two wives, one was a slave and one was a free woman.

Verse 4 – she hated her mistress. She hasn’t been freed, she is still a slave, and that means that the free woman is still the head of the household as far as the women are concerned. But she despised in the sense of looking down on someone. She was a slave but she now looks at the free woman, Sarai, out of her pride.

Verse 5 – “My wrong be upon thee” …i.e. it is all your fault [Abram].

Abram’s first sin was unbelief and human expediency. Instead of waiting on the Lord he stopped trusting. So he is out of fellowship. The blessing of Isaac is going to be postponed now, it will be thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael before Isaac comes along. Abram suffered in another way, from which he never recovered apparently; he lost control of his household. Sarai ruled him. Later on he is going to suffer a broken heart because he loves Ishmael, and Ishmael is going to be rejected by the Lord. Sarai reaps in a very difficult way too. She has to take a lot of snobbery and hatred from her handmaid or slave girl. This arouses the antagonism of Sarai. She becomes miserable and in turn becomes jealous and envious of her handmaid. Now there is a strong antagonism between the two women.

That isn’t all. Sarai tries to justify herself. The only way she could think of doing this was to pass the blame on to Abram. Abram is to be blamed in part because he acquiesced to the whole situation but Sarai used operation patsy and blamed Abram. Then she lost the character of grace because that weak-kneed spineless Abram actually turned his second wife over to his first wife, and anyone with or without imagination knows that when the first wife had any control over the second wife the second wife has had it. This is exactly what happened. This “dealt hardly” is a pitiful translation. She bullied, she afflicted, she tortured, she made life miserable for the slave girl. So Sarai no longer operates under the principle of grace. Another principle: Sarai, you can’t solve a problem by adding sin to sin.

Verse 6 – Sarai isn’t going to be happy because she finally got rid of the slave girl. She drove her out, persecuted her, made life miserable for her. You don’t build happiness by making life miserable for other people.

Verses 7-16, God is going to remedy the situation in spite of all of the mistakes, failures and sins that are involved.

Verse 7 – introducing the Lord Jesus Christ. “The angel of the LORD[1] found Hagar…” She didn’t find Him; He went to her. That is grace. In grace God always comes to us; we don’t go to Him. That is the way it started in the garden. (Notice verse 13, “…she called the name of the LORD [Jehovah] that spoke unto her.” In other words, the angel of the Lord is Jehovah.) There are also many passages where the angel of Jehovah is distinct from Jehovah—Genesis 24:7; Zechariah 1:12,13; 1 Chronicles 21:15ff. This tells us that while the angel of Jehovah is God [the Son] He is sometimes distinguished from Jehovah, and when He is, Jehovah is the Father. The angel of Jehovah is the second person of the Trinity. There are two reasons for this. One is the distinction between Jehovah and the angel of Jehovah. The other is the fact that only the second person of the Trinity is the visible God.

“…near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur.” Hagar was trying to get to Egypt.

Verse 8 – if you are running away from some problem, where can you go to solve it? Nowhere. The only solution is to wait on the Lord, claim His promises, use His Word. If the Lord wants to change the situation, that’s in His hands. The Lord tells us to separate ourselves from certain things but He never tells us to run from anything.

Verse 9 – “Return.” That sounds cruel. “… to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands.” That just means more persecution, but when the Lord wants us to stay in a situation let Him handle the other people too. See what the Lord can do!

Verse 10 – “…I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.”

Verse 11 – “Ishmael” means ‘the Lord has heard.’

Verse 12 – “And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man.” This is till true. The Hebrew says literally, he shall be a wild ass of a man. One of the great signs of prophecy of coming things is, when the Arabs can get together we are close to the Tribulation. The Arabs are getting together today for the first time in their history, and so perhaps the Rapture of the Church is close.

Verse 13 – here is salvation. “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?” She is saved as of this moment: Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

“Have I also looked after him that seeth me?” The Hebrew says: “I have seen the one who saw me.” When she says I have seen, she means that she has received Him. She has responded; she has already called Him “Thou God.”

Verse 14 – “Beerlahairoi” simply means “the well of him who liveth and seeth me.”

So she went back. Sarai came to her sense and realised that you don’t solve a problem by adding sin to sin, so she received her back, apparently graciously. She did not persecute her any more. In other words, Hagar went back to what appeared to be “into the mess.” But she went back saved and believing that God would take care of the problem.

Verse 16 – Abram is now 86. There is a silence between this and the next chapter, between 86 and 99. What happened in the next 13 years? Peace reigned in the household of Abram. God had put all of the pieces back together.

[1] See the Doctrine of Christophanies/Theophanies.

Genesis 17

Chapter 17

For the next 13 years (after 16:16) peace reigned in the household of Abram. God had put all of the pieces back together. Abram knew that God solved all the problems and so there is nothing more in the Old Testament about what happened during these 13 years. But there is one passage in the New Testament that tells us what happened. It was a period of great prosperity and blessing because Abram did what he should have done in the first place: he waited on the Lord. He waited 13 years, and during that 13 years the situation became more and more hopeless because he was 99 when the next passage opens, and Sarai is 90. You couldn’t get a situation more hopeless than that. They couldn’t possibly have a child—but then, that is human viewpoint! God has still promised that they will have a child, and they will have a child. But in the meantime we have 13 years, and during those 13 years what does Abram do? Romans 4 tells us: “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.” In other words, he had 13 years of peace because he knew that the battle was the Lord’s, and even though there was no obvious solution in 13 years he just completely rested in the Lord.

In those 13 silent years Abram grew because he believed the Word of God. God’s revelation to him was more real than his circumstances. No one ever becomes a mature believer until they arrive at this point in the operation of the faith-rest technique. You can never say that you have arrived at the place of spiritual maturity until the doctrines of the Word of God are more real to you than the hopelessness of your circumstances. You can never go around and worry and ever be a mature believer.

In the next three chapters there are three factors; Genesis 17:1-8, revelation from God. In other words, the Word of God. Your life is not what it should be unless the Word of God is first in your life; in verses 9-27, Abram’s response to the Word; chapter 18, the characteristics of fellowship with God; chapter 19, characteristics of being out of fellowship.

Verse 1 – Abram is 99 years old and at the peak of the hopelessness of his situation. Almost 100 years old and still no child from his loins through Sarai. We have the essence factor in the verse: “I am the Almighty God.” The Hebrew is El Shaddai [El = God in omnipotence; Shaddai = many breasts]. This title for God is used for many sources of help. It has the concept that we as believers are babies and need nourishment and God provides it for us. El = God has the power; Shaddai = there is no problem in life that is too difficult for God. There is no problem which comes to the believer in phase two for which God does not have a perfect solution. There never has been or will be a problem in life for which God has not made provision. Every problem in life can be solved by God.

Then we have a command factor. To get to the solutions to Abram’s problem two factors are necessary. “Walk before me” – fellowship. Stay in the bottom circle; “be thou perfect” – there is no such thing as a perfect person outside of the humanity of Christ. Wherever you find the word perfect, either in the Hebrew of the Old Testament of the Greek of the New Testament, it doesn’t mean perfect. Here the Hebrew word means “be mature.” Grow up, in other words. How is Abram going to grow up? By means of the Word. Always the Word! In order to ensure that he will grow up the Lord is going to give him some additional information in this chapter.

Verse 2 – a confirmation of the Abrahamic covenant. “I will” means that God is going to do all of the work, this was a grace covenant and an unconditional covenant. The fulfilment of this covenant depends on who and what God is, never who and what man is.

“and [I] will multiply thee exceedingly” – thee is a singular pronoun and He is talking about Abram only. ‘I am going to multiply you, you are going to have nations that are coming from you.’ All of this is said at a time when the situation is hopeless.

Verse 3 – Abram’s reaction. “And Abram fell on his face.” An appropriate posture for having heard this. Falling down indicates his own helplessness.

“and God talked with him” – Now we have some information. Abram is going to listen to the Word of God now, and that is going to cause some experiential changes.

Verses 4 & 5, a new name for Abram.

“a father of many nations” – this is simply the word Abraham. “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.” Abram means father of high and windy places; Abraham means father of many nations. Notice that he gets the name, Abraham, before he ever gets the son, Isaac.

Verses 6-8, more provisions, amplification of the Abrahamic covenant.

“for an everlasting covenant” – who is in this covenant? The word everlasting betrays it. You have to be born again to be under this covenant. Who is going to be involved in this covenant? Any Jew in the line of Abraham who has everlasting life.

“and they seed” – this doesn’t mean that every Jew is in this covenant. Any Jew who wants to get into this covenant must be born again. Thy seed refers to the born again Jew, up to the Church Age; “in their generations” – there would be many generations of Jews after Abraham’s time, and those who were born again will have this everlasting covenant.

“to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee” – God the Son is only God to those who are born again Jews. He is not God to unbelieving Jews, the ones who have rejected Christ in the Old Testament.

Verse 8 – “And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee [the born again Jews of the Old Testament in their generations], the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” Once again God tells Abraham that those Jews who are born again will be the recipients of the Palestinian covenant—Genesis 15. In the Millennium when Christ has returned to the earth this promise will be fulfilled, all born again Jews of the Old Testament will be resurrected and will be given the land—forever: “for an everlasting possession.” To have something forever you have to have forever life.

Verses 9-27—Abraham’s response.

Verse 9 – the word keep here means to be guarding something: “Thou shalt guard my covenant.” It means to preserve it from the infiltration of false doctrine, to protect it from the infiltration of legalism. In other words, Abraham and his progeny would become the custodians of the covenants to Israel and, in effect, the entire Old Testament scriptures. They would protect the word of God and guard it, and the best way to protect the Word of God is to teach it. The best defence of the Word of God is the teaching of the Word of God. You don’t have to explain the Word of God in terms of scientific phenomena and historical speculation, and all of the other activities which attack the Word of God today, including liberalism. You don’t have to set up apologetics defending the Word, the best defence of the Word of God is the teaching of the Word. Let the Word speak for itself.

Verse 10 – circumcision was a dedication to teach the Word of God to the Jews. There are two kinds of circumcision: a) The circumcision of adults. This only happened once. Abraham was 99 when he was circumcised. How old was Ishmael when he was circumcised? Thirteen. b) But in this same chapter this is a command for circumcision of children, starting as of now—circumcision on the eighth day. These are two different circumcisions with two different concepts. The circumcision of Abraham is a picture of a ritual used to give testimony to one’s faith in Christ. So Abraham’s circumcision is comparable to water baptism today. It is a dedication to the perpetuation of Bible teaching, the teaching of doctrine.

Verse 15 – the principle behind this: People cannot change people. Abram has been married to Sarai for some 35 years. The day he married her, her name was Sarai and she was contentious. In 35 years he hadn’t changed his wife one bit. Any temporary changes people make on people are not only temporary but have no orientation to life. Sarai was Sarai until the Word of God changed her. Only the Word can change people. The changes are stable and permanent. There is a mechanic for changing people as far as the Word is concerned. No one is subject to changes which are described in the Word of God until first of all they are born again.

Verses 16 & 17, Sarai (contentious) becomes Sarah (princess). Verses 16 is a wonderful promise from God, but notice how Abraham responds. “Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed.” In other words, he laughed so loud he couldn’t stand up. There are two changes that are going to be made: 1. She is no longer going to be contentious; 2. She has been past the menopause for many years but God is going to allow her to have a child.

Part of this laughter is the laugh of relief. No longer is Abraham going to be nagged. More than that, Abraham has wanted more than anything else to have a son from his own loins by Sarai, now Sarah. Now this woman who is 90 years old is going to be in effect a young woman again. God is going to give her back her youth and the organs of reproduction even though she is of such an age. All of this causes Abraham to laugh.

“said in his heart” – the heart is the mind. This was not a laugh of mockery, not a cynical laugh. This was the laughter of great relief. God had made the promise clear and therefore, if anything, this might be called the laugh of faith in the sense that the laughter releases the tensions that have existed through the elapse of time and the fact that the promise has not been fulfilled. The Hebrew word for laughter is Isaac.

Verse 18 – Abraham’s prayer. Ishmael is now 13 years old and the apple of his father’s eye, and Abraham wants Ishmael to be that heir. This prayer is not according to the will of God and will not be answered as such. Prayers offered contrary to the Word of God are never answered.

Verse 19 – God’s answer. “…thou shalt call his name Isaac [laughter]: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant…” Ishmael could never be the heir, he will never be saved. God knew this in eternity past. The line must go down through Isaac.

Verse 20 – “…and I will make him a great nation.” He is the father of the Arabic nations, but he is not the heir of Abraham.

Verse 22 – this is God the Son who is always the manifest person of the Godhead. “… left off talking” means that there is a time for everything in life. There must be a time for the Word, a time for prayer, a time to look at life from the divine viewpoint. But notice that Jesus Christ did not stay with him every minute, there were times for other things as well.

Verses 23-27, the fulfilment of the rite of circumcision, or Abraham’s obedience.

Genesis 18

Chapter 18

In chapter 18 we have seven characteristics of a believer in fellowship; in chapter 19 we have seven characteristics of a believer out of fellowship. Both Abraham and Lot are believers. In chapter 18 we have a picture of Abraham in fellowship. Remember that Abraham was called the friend of God—2 Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 61:8; James 2:23—because from this point on, from the time of his prayer failure here, Abraham generally was in fellowship. What are the characteristics of e believer in fellowship in Old Testament times.

Verse 1—first characteristic. A believer in fellowship is the object and recipient of divine revelation. “And the LORD [Jesus Christ] appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day.” Mamre means wealth, prosperity. The tent door is the operation of the faith-rest technique. Abraham is in fellowship, he is operating under the faith-rest technique, he has come to the place of great spiritual prosperity. “And the Lord appeared” – principle: Only when we are in fellowship can we take in the Word of God for profit and benefit and application.

Verses 2-8, second characteristic. A believer in fellowship is friendly and hospitable. The Word changes believers and here is a friendly attitude toward strangers.

Verse 2 – “…and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground.” This indicates a mental attitude of grace.

Verse 3 – “And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant” – idiomatic for ‘Stay a while.’

Verse 4 – “Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet.” That means, Enter my house.

Verse 5 – this is filled with idiom but it means in effect, stop here for a while and I will provide food for you. And they agreed.

All of the things we see in verses 2-8 point to mental attitude—joy, inner happiness, inner beauty and power.

Verses 9-10, the third characteristic. A believer in fellowship is the recipient of promises from God. One of the three persons is Jesus Christ, the other two are angels, and they all appear as men.

Verse 10 – the Lord Jesus Christ speaking. “And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time [cycle] of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son.” When Sarah heard this she laughed, but she didn’t laugh out loud, it would have been impolite. She laughed inside.

“according to the time of life” is literally, ‘according to the norm or standard of human cycle’ – the fact that there will be procreation and nine months later there will be a child. That is all he is saying, though it isn’t clear in the English. This is a promise. Believers in fellowship are the recipients of promises from God.

Verse 11 -- The fourth characteristic: A believer in fellowship suffers for blessing. “Now Abraham and Sarah were old.” When the Bible says you are old, you are old. Sarah was past the menopause. For years now they have been in this state; their situation is hopeless, and this is the issue once again of human versus divine viewpoint. As far as Abraham and Sarah were concerned they were in the status quo of suffering for this reason. God had given them a promise that they would have a child, but humanly speaking they couldn’t have a child. The suffering was the fact that they were unable to have children. In this suffering situation comes great blessing to them because it was hopeless, there was no human solution. But Abraham “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.” Therefore he was blessed through suffering.

Verses 12-15 -- The fifth characteristic: A believer in fellowship does not resent the divine rebuke of loved ones. Abraham loves Sarah very much but he takes her rebuke without resentment.

Verse 12 – Sarah laughed [Isaaced] inwardly. And she is going to carry Isaac inside, and when Isaac is born he is going to be called Isaac. “After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure” is not what the Hebrew says at all. She says, “Shall I have sexual relationship, my lord being old also?”

Verse 13 – “Why is Sarah laughing?” There is no way she could hide this, she knows that this is the Lord. Only the Lord could know of this silent laughter.

Verse 14 – “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” We have to answer that question when we face hopeless situations. In other words, do we have a problem in life that the Lord cannot solve?

Verse 15 – Why did Sarah lie when Jesus Christ could read her mind? She is frightened, so she immediately wants to deny it all.

Verses 16-32, The sixth characteristic: The believer in fellowship has a prayer ministry for others.

Verse 16 – Abraham shows them the way to Sodom. What the Lord really wanted to do was get Abraham away from the tent so He could tell him what was going to happen in Sodom. The flowing verses indicate that the Lord is very longsuffering and goes to the greatest extent to keep from judging, and He is going down for the final trial of Sodom.

Verse 22 – the two angels departed for Sodom, “but Abraham stood yet before the Lord.” Here is Abraham the prayer warrior. He is going to make intercession.

Abraham understands doctrine, he is interceding on the basis of his understanding of the character of God. His intercession is bold but it is a boldness based upon doctrine. Principle: All boldness in prayer, all boldness in operation, is based upon the knowledge of doctrine. Abraham petitions to spare Sodom for fifty believers.

When the Lord agrees in the following verses the principle remains the same. Abraham understands the character of the Lord and he has a definite number in mind. Out of the whole city of Sodom, some quarter of a million people, Abraham knows of ten believers. He is sure that if he can get the Lord to agree to ten that Sodom will be saved for the sake of Lot, his nephew whom he loves.

Here is the power of persistent prayer, but the power and the courage and the faith of Abraham are based upon a knowledge of doctrine. Assurance, confidence, stability, power and faith all come from knowing and applying doctrine to experience.

Verse 32 – Abraham was sure after this that Sodom would be saved. But what Abraham did not say, the Lord knew because He reads minds. Abraham’s desire was that Lot might be saved, preserved physically. And that is exactly what is going to happen. Abraham’s petition has to do with saving Sodom but his petition will not be answered. However, behind the petition is a desire, the preservation of Lot, and Lot will be preserved.

Note chapter 19:27. Abraham gets a shock. This disillusioned him. He didn’t know at this time that Lot had been delivered and assumed that Lot was a part of the dust and ashes down in the valley. Because at this time he did not see the difference between petition and desire he became temporarily disillusioned. Chapter 20 tells us how Abraham got out of fellowship through the mental sin of disillusionment. God had given His word that if there were ten believers in Sodom He wouldn’t destroy the city and Abraham assumed that there were ten believers when he just didn’t know all the facts. God knew what Abraham was driving at in his prayer, He knew that he wanted Lot to be preserved. Lot and his two daughters were holed up in a cave and Abraham thought he was dead. Therefore Abraham became disillusioned.

Many times believers become disillusioned because they don’t understand the Word. They say that something doesn’t work, it doesn’t work for them. Really it is because they are misinformed, they do not have all the facts.

The seventh characteristic: A believer in fellowship has the right mental attitude toward those who wrong him—Genesis 19:27-29. Why did Abraham get up early? Because he was concerned about Lot. Abraham loved Lot, but what has Lot done for Abraham? He tried to cheat him in business, then he tried to cheat him out of the best part of the land.

Genesis 19

Chapter 19

In chapters 19 & 20 we have a good look at believers out of fellowship and the things that characterise their lives. In chapter 19: characteristics of a believer out of fellowship: operation Lot.

First characteristic: The believer out of fellowship emphasises time instead of eternity, reform instead of regeneration.

Verse 1 – “sat in the gate” is an idiom for a judge. Lot is a believer out of fellowship. Lot thought he could turn the tide. He thought that all he had to do was occupy a prominent position and things would change in Sodom. You cannot change the world by reform. This is the issue of the social gospel versus the Bible gospel—regeneration. Lot is like the breakers at the beach; he dissipated his life in trying to reform a city. He spent all of his time trying to change things through human reform. The changes that count are eternal changes and this refers to regeneration. Abraham is up in the mountains leading souls to the Lord, stressing regeneration. Up there he has tremendous impact. Lot is down in the cities of the plain trying to change everything. He is a judge. A believer out of fellowship always has the wrong scale of values.

Second characteristic: The believer out of fellowship has an unpleasant household and a poor domestic life—verses 2 & 3.

Verse 2 – “turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house.” These two angels stopped and spent the day with Abraham, and they enjoyed it.

“Nay; but we will abide in the street all night” – they would rather be in the street all night than to be in someone’s home where there is a lot of bickering and fighting. They don’t want to stay with Lot, he is a man out of fellowship. Lot’s wife is out of fellowship and Lot’s children are out of fellowship [the two who are believers; there are also three married daughters and they are not even saved]. A believer out of fellowship, if he happens to be a family man, has an unpleasant household and a miserable domestic life.

Verse 3 – Lot finally persuades them. But they didn’t want to. The believer out of fellowship does not having anything whereby people can come in and be at ease.

Third characteristic: The believer out of fellowship has no sense of responsibility to his family.

Verse 4 – “both old and young.” You can always tell when you have a really lecherous society, the old ones are there too. These people are homosexuals. They had seen these two men go in and they wanted the men for homosexual type operation.

Verse 5 – “that we may know them.” Literally, ‘that we may have sexual relationship with them.’

Verse 6 – Lot has had experience. He shuts the door behind him so that they can’t get in.

Verse 7 – notice, he calls these people brethren. Once you start reforming the world you get into this universal brotherhood thing. Here are these inflamed homosexuals and he calls them brethren.

Verse 8 – he tries to lead them off the track, to entice them with a couple of lovely girls: his own daughters! But they will not be drawn away from what they consider to be two beautiful men and even girls do not interest them. “I have two daughters.” Here is a man who has tremendous responsibility toward his family and he is going to throw his two daughters out in the street to these men, only they won’t take them.

“who have not known man” – this would make them highly desirable, they are virgins.

“bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.” In other words, if you do something to these two men I will lose face as a judge in this town but you can take my daughters and you can do anything you want with them. You begin to get the drift; this man is out of fellowship. He has no sense of responsibility.

Verse 11 – “so that they wearied themselves to find the door.” In other words, these lecherous individuals continued to try to find the door even though they had been smitten with blindness. They are so inflamed by a long malpractice without restraint of any kind that even though they were blinded and physically hindered they still tried. It can be seen why Sodom needed removing from the earth. But the point here is that we have a believer out of fellowship, and a believer out of fellowship has no sense of responsibility to his family.

Fourth characteristic: The believer out of fellowship has no testimony to the unbeliever—verses 12-14.

Verse 14 – Lot warns his sons-in-law. “But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law.” They didn’t pay any attention to him. This tells us that he has no influence, no testimony, no impact, and his word means nothing to the three men who married three of his daughters. This is because he has had the wrong scale of values, he has emphasised reform, and now reform has come back to slap him down. Even his relatives will not listen to him.

Fifth characteristic: The believer out of fellowship is disciplined but never judged—verses 15-17.

God had been spanking Lot for a long time. He is a miserable person and the Greek of 2 Peter 2 tells us that he was, all of this time that he was out of fellowship. While he was still being disciplined he was not going to be judged. Sodom was filled with unbelievers. Unbelievers will be judged and destroyed; Lot will be preserved and disciplined.

Sixth characteristic: The believer out of fellowship faints mentally with fear and worry—verses 18-19.

Here he has been delivered by the Lord and Lot is afraid that something is going to happen to him now and that he will die. The same thing is expressed again in verse 30—“he feared.” Even though the Lord had delivered him and had graciously cared for him and protected him in the most awful situation he is afraid. This is typical of a believer out of fellowship. God is faithful to believers out of fellowship and He delivers believers out of fellowship, and He cares for believers out of fellowship, yet always they are afraid. A believer out of fellowship is a frightened person, a worrying, anxious person.

Seventh characteristic: The believer out of fellowship has no resistance to any type of sin—verses 31-36.

As long as Lot lived in Sodom he deplored the phallic cult, the child sacrifice, all of the systems of degeneracy which were used, but as soon as he gets into a cave and away from all of those people he does exactly the same thing—incest. If you don’t live in the Word, if you don’t use the grace of God, you are just going to go right down the hill.

Verse 31 – “…Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth.” That is, there is no one to have sexual relationship with us so that the seed can be perpetuated.

Verse 32 – they rationalise.

From this incident with the two daughters we have a race which constantly cursed Israel and constantly caused them trouble, the Moabites and the Amonites.

Genesis 20

Chapter 20

The mature believer out of fellowship. After all of the wonderful things we have been saying about Abraham, he gets out of fellowship. And as mature believers often do it is through dome very subtle thing: Abraham becomes disillusioned. Three d’s: disillusion, verse 1; degradation, verse2; declaration, verses 3-13.

It is very embarrassing for any believer to be rightfully rebuked by an unbeliever, but it is terribly embarrassing for a mature believer like Abraham to be rebuked by an unbeliever like Abimelech.

Verse 1 – He got out of the land, which is always a picture of Abraham out of fellowship. We have a three-point location here. Kadesh, which means prostitution in the Hebrew. Spiritually this would be idolatry or getting your eyes on something else. We know that part of Abraham’s loss of perspective and disorientation is that he no longer puts the Lord first. He has turned his eyes to a situation or circumstance, the destruction of Sodom, and he has become disillusioned. Therefore now he is at Kadesh, whereas before he was at Hebron, which means fellowship. He is also said to be at Shur, which means to stir up dust or to get excited. Abraham has switched his criterion from the Word to emotion. He was ruled by his emotions in his disillusion. When there is an issue between what the Bible says and how you feel, this is one of the great dangers that the believer faces. How you feel is wrong; what the Bible says is right. Then Gerar, a word in the Hebrew which means sawing. From that the word finally developed into dragging away logs which were sawn, therefore it meant to drag away. That’s Abraham, he has dragged himself out of fellowship. So that locates Abraham and his sin: his disillusion. He is in Kadesh, his eyes are off the Lord. He is living by his emotions—Shur. He is dragged away from the Lord.

Verse 2 – as a result of a mental attitude sin he goes to an overt sin. He becomes concerned about his own miserable hide. One of the check points for finding out whether you are in fellowship or not: when you become overly concerned about your own safety you are probably out of fellowship. “And Abraham said of Sarah his wife…” Remember that now that she has recovered from sexual death she is a beauty queen again and young, just as Abraham is young again—old in age but young as far as physical appearance. Immediately Abraham becomes concerned because in those days if you were out of your own geographical area and you had a beautiful woman along it was a short cut to death. The only way to get out of this hole was to lie and say that this was his sister. So we have here a half truth. She is his half-sister but she is also his wife. Principle: A believer, even a mature believer, out of fellowship acts exactly like any unbeliever. All doctrine, promises and techniques are forgotten.

Verses 3-13, declaration. There are three declarations here. In verses 3-7, the declaration of God. Verses 8-10, the declaration of Abimelech. In verses 11-13, the declaration from Abraham.

Verse 3 – God has something to say: the declaration of sin. He tips Abimelech off as to exactly what is happening. “Behold thou a dead man.”

Verses 4-6, the declaration of providence.

Verse 7, the declaration of the solution.

Verse 8 – a declaration from Abimelech. He is a good king. He gets up early and passes on information from God. And they are all frightened because they are all in jeopardy.

Verse 9 – a mature believer out of fellowship and an unbeliever who is just a correct as he can be. Abraham out of fellowship is being rebuked by an unbeliever.

Verses 14-16, the dignity of Abimelech. Abimelech becomes a believer. In effect, Abimelech is saying he runs a law-abiding kingdom and as long as Abraham is Sarah’s husband she couldn’t be safer anywhere.

Verses 17-18, there is some dignity to Abraham. He has just had the most embarrassing situation that could ever occur to a mature believer. He has been rightfully rebuked by an unbeliever and he has tremendous poise in recovery. He doesn’t stand around and blush for the rest of his life.

Verse 17 – Abraham didn’t do any apologising. He said nothing to Abimelech, he prayed to God. Where was he when he got out of fellowship? He was praying for Sodom. Where is he when he gets back in fellowship? He is praying for Abimelech. Apparently God had put a ban on his family. Abraham’s dignity comes from rebound. Abimelech’s dignity comes from salvation.

Verse 18 – the dignity of God which comes from operation grace. God’s excercised grace and removed this ban. As is always the case, in the end it is always God who receives the glory. The only way by which God can receive glory is through grace whereby God does all of the work. He did the revealing through the dream. He was the one who removed the discipline after first putting the discipline upon Abimelech, and so it is the grace of God that ultimately triumphs in everything in life.

Genesis 21

Genesis 22

Chapter 22

Abraham’s spirituality and growth are two important factors in his life. He believed in Christ in Ur of the Chaldees. His spirituality was the faith-rest technique. His growth was his understanding, reception and application of doctrine. He is now both spiritual and mature and therefore ready for the greatest test of his life as this chapter opens.

Note 21:9 – Sarah was spying on the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, who was Ishmael. The word mocking means Isaacing, laughing. Isaac’s name is laughter. He is a young boy walking around the camp and a larger older boy, his half-brother, is walking around behind him and pointing to him, mimicking a laugh. This is actually what Sarah saw. She doesn’t think it is funny at all. Ishmael was trying to belittle Isaac. The word mocking is simply the participle form of laughter.

Verse 10 – Ishmael was disinherited at this particular point and other promises were given to him. Ishamel was loved by Abraham but Abraham loved Isaac even more than he did Ishmael. Even though it broke his heart to part with Ishmael his love for Isaac was so much greater that he was willing to break half a heart in order to have a whole heart. The love for Isaac became the greatest love in Abraham’s life—this was the promise, the fulfilment of the promise.

In chapter 22.

Testing. Abraham is going to be tested—verses 1 & 2.

Obeying—verses 3-10.

Providing—verses 11-14.

This is a mountain-top experience, one of the most difficult tests and one of the greatest spiritual heights to which any believer has ever risen. Abraham had an experience on a mountain-top that was also a mountain-top experience. He demonstrated the maturity, the tenacity, the dynamics and the stability of the faith-rest technique in three short days. All of his life he has been preparing for this moment.

Verse 1 – “And it came to pass” is an idiom which says in effect, that Abraham was prepared for the test, that he had been studying diligently for almost a half century. He had failed many times but he did not allow his failures to hold him back. If Abraham had been like many believers today he would never have come to this mountain-top experience and would never have faced such a test because many believers get discouraged, they allow their failures to keep them down, the fail to use 1 John 1:9, they fail to get up and to move on when they fail, and in addition to that they are constantly looking back at their failures.

“after these things” – after much testing, study, preparation, the use of the faith-rest technique; after many failures, successes, and after moving and arriving at maturity. “After these things” means a number of things. It means after every human prop has been removed Abraham received maximum testing. Like every believer Abraham had his human props and one by one God had to knock the props out from under him. It took nearly a half century. But when eventually all the props were knocked out from under him so that Abraham was leaning only upon God then Abraham was ready for the great test.

It means, first of all, separating from Ur of the Chaldees, the most advanced city of the ancient world in the time in which Abraham lived. Then God separated him from Terah, his father, and Haran, the dried up place where Abraham had made a fortune but his spiritual life had dried up. Then He separated him from Egypt, then from Lot, then Ishmael, then Gerar the place of compromise. God had to constantly separated him from props. And now that Abraham is leaning only on the Lord he is ready to be tested.

“that God did test Abraham” – this is going to test everything that Abraham has ever learned spiritually. He has been tested before. He has been tested by ties of nationality when he broke away from Ur of the Chaldees. He has been tested by ties of nature, but he broke away from his family as God gave him command. He was tested by ties of decay and he finally broke away from Haran. He was tested by circumstances, there was a famine in the land—he went to Egypt but he came back. He was tested by the threat on his life, and in both cases he failed by lying to Pharaoh and later on to Abimelech. He was tested by courage in battle. He was tested by the offer of being the wealthiest man in the world but he refused the offer of the king of Sodom. He was tested by Sarah’s barrenness, and sometimes he failed but eventually he succeeded—Roman 4:17-21. He was tested by disillusion and he went down to Gerar for a while, but he recovered. No believer can ever reach maturity and harbour disillusion or bitterness in his soul.

Verse 2 -- “Take now” – now doesn’t give time for excuse or substitution at this point; “thy son, thine only son Isaac.” Then to make it very clear and explicit, “whom thou lovest” – qal active participle, which means whom you continually love.

General observation about this verse: Notice that the instructions as to who is to be burned is very clear—“Isaac whom thou lovest.” But the place to go is rather obscure and it will only become clear as he starts to move out. So part of this is very specific and part of it is obscure. The point is that obedience will clarify the rest of it. God guides us through the Word and as we are obedient to the Word, then other things become obvious and eventually we learn guidance not only through the direct statement of the Word but we learn guidance through the application of doctrine to experience.

“Take now” means no time for preparation, no time to cook up a good excuse to get Isaac out of it. Abraham must take Isaac now.

“the land of Moriah” – In the Hebrew the “M” which begins this word is typical of nouns in the Hebrew as a rule, but in this case we have a participle. The vowel pointing indicates that we have a hophal participle and it, Moriah, is broken down into two words. The “ra” is the root for the word to see, ra’a; the “yh” is the root of the word Jehovah, translated LORD in the KJV Old Testament. When the two are put together we have “to cause to be seen of the Lord.” Eventually, Moriah comes to mean manifestation of Jehovah. This tells us where he was going. Where was Jehovah manifest? What hill? Calvary. The Bible calls it Golgotha. Three days later this is where Abraham is going to be. The place where the Lord is manifest is Golgotha.

What was Abraham to do with Isaac? He was to offer him as a burnt offering and this requires two things: a) He has to cut the throat of his son whom he loves more than anyone in the world; b) He must then burn the body. That is what it means to offer a burnt offering. This is all a part of the test.

Abraham obeyed the Lord. He didn’t sit down and try to figure it out. He depended upon the Lord and he trusted the Lord. He knew that if the Lord said to do this that it was the only answer. He knew there was a reason for it and the Lord didn’t share the reason with him. Note 21:12 – “…for in Isaac shall they seed be called.” That is a promise. Now he has orders to cut his throat and burn his body. But that doesn’t bother Abraham because the Word of God is more real to Abraham than anything else in life. “In Isaac shall they seed be called” is more real to him than the wonderful beloved son who walks beside him. Now he has to kill him, but that doesn’t bother him because he knows doctrine. A mature believer must come to the place where the statement of God’s Word is more real than anything in life. When it is he has inner resources that are fantastic beyond description and he is completely separated from slavery to circumstances for happiness and peace and blessing.

Verse 4 – three days of happiness and peace, and during those three days God showed Abraham the way. He didn’t tell him how to get there, He just showed him each day at a time. Here is a case of the inner resources in time of pressure being a source of great strength.

“the place afar off” – the place of a skull. Golgotha. Moriah.

Verse 5 – “I and the lad.” The Hebrew word indicates a teenager at least. The Hebrew says, “we [I and the lad] will go yonder and we will worship, and we will come again.” He said we [I and the lad] will come again.

Verse 7 – Isaac begins to wonder about some things. “Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

Verse 8 – “And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” That satisfied the son. The son has learned something from his father, something about trust.

Verse 9 – this is the place where we have a very wonderful illustration of submission to the will of God. After everything is in order the father has to tell the son he is the offering. Who carried the wood? The strongest of the two physically carried the wood—Isaac. Isaac has volition, and all he has to do is physically resist. Or he could say, yes I will get on that altar. Abraham does not have the physical strength to make his son get on that altar and be bound to it. The son had to agree to go along with it. That is a picture of what Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, did for us. Many hundreds of years later this same thing would happen. Jesus would say, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Jesus Christ in the realm of His humanity and His human volition agreed to go to the cross and be bound to the altar, just as Isaac as the picture and the type of this did so many years before. So Isaac was willing to go to the altar just as Jesus Christ was willing to obey the Father and go to the cross.

Verse 10 – now Abraham is getting ready to kill his son in obedience to what God has told him to do. At that moment we have an interruption.

Verse 11 – the angel of the Lord is Jesus Christ. In verse 16 He is called the LORD or Jehovah. Jehovah and the angel of the Lord are synonymous. Note Abraham’s name is repeated twice. A noun in the Hebrew repeated twice means perfect. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace” in Isaiah 26:3 is Shalom, shalom, the word is repeated twice. When He says “Abraham, Abraham, He is saying mature Abraham. Abraham you have arrived, you have demonstrated something that few human beings will ever demonstrate.

Verse 12 – “…that thou fearest God.” But the word is not fearest at all, it is “that thou trustest God.” This means complete trust. This means an advanced, mature operation of the faith-rest technique.

Verse 13 – “in the stead” indicates substitution. Jesus Christ, of course, died instead of us.

Verse 14 – “Jehovah-jireh.” This means “the Lord will provide.”

“In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen” is literally, In the mount of the Lord there is provision. The mount of the Lord is still Golgotha, and in the mount of the Lord there is provision—Jesus Christ dying for our sins, taking our place, becoming our substitute, being judged by God the Father for us.

The seven lessons that are found in this passage

1. Waiting on the Lord means testing—verse 1.

2. The Lord must always have first place on our scale of values—Hebrews 12:2; Colossians 3:1,2—not the things He gives us, verse 2. If the Lord does have first place then we can appreciate and enjoy the things He gives us. You can never appreciate any gift unless you appreciate the one who gave it.

3. The impossibility of happiness in time of suffering without the faith-rest technique.

4. It isn’t enough to know the Word, you must apply it to your experience as the situation demands.

5. God remains faithful regardless of our status, carnality of spirituality. He provides for the believer.

6. The principle of substitution. A ram was substituted for Isaac. Christ was substituted for us and therefore we are delivered.

7. We lose nothing by committing it to the Lord. What we commit to the Lord is never lost.

Genesis 23

Genesis 24

Genesis 25

Genesis 26

Genesis 27

Genesis 28

Genesis 29

Genesis 30

Genesis 31

Genesis 32

Genesis 33

Genesis 34

Genesis 35

Genesis 36

Genesis 37

Chapter 37

There are three introductory principles to this chapter.

a) God’s faithfulness to the believer at all times—in time of suffering; in time of prosperity, whether we are spiritual or carnal. The principle is grace, not how we are, not whether we earn it or deserve it. God blesses the believer on the basis of who and what He is, not who and what the believer is. The principle is found in Romans 8:32.

b) God always turns cursing into blessing. The believer has not had any extreme difficulty in life but that God has designed it to bless the believer. Not matter how terrible the situation may be every bit of suffering in life is designed to turn cursing into blessing. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10; 1 Peter 1:7, 8.

c) Romans 8:28—“All things work together for good.”

Verses 1-11, Joseph becomes the object of envy and jealousy, mental attitude sins.

Verse 1 – Jacob is in the land of promise. The patriarchs are in the land of promise. At the end of the life of Joseph they will be in Egypt, and we will see this as a principle of God’s overruling will. But generally they are told to stay away from Egypt.

Verse 2 – for a seventeen-year-old Joseph shows tremendous promise. There are some erroneous translation in this verse in the KJV. What is not seen in the English of this verse is that Joseph was in charge of his brethren, even though he was only seventeen years old. He has shown tremendous administrative ability, keen discernment, and show great promise. In 20 years he is running the Egyptian empire.

“their evil report” is literally from the Hebrew, “an evil report concerning them.” In other words, he had to report to his father who owned all of the sheep. The sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, these four, received a very low efficiency rating and they didn’t like it.

Jacob’s favouritism is another serious problem—verses 3 & 4.

Verse 3 – at this time there are eleven sons and Benjamin will be along shortly, making twelve sons altogether. Out of the twelve sons Jacob loved Joseph more than all the rest. That is not wrong. It is inevitable that even parents will love some more than others perhaps, but that does not give any parent the right to show favouritism. You may love one child more than another but you must be fair in your dealing with them and not give one more than the other of affection, of training, of everything that they need from a parent. Therefore Jacob failed as a parent. He didn’t fail because he loved Joseph more than the others, he failed because he showed favouritism toward Joseph to the exclusion of others. And he is going to pay for it. There never was or is a parent who is going to get away with showing favouritism. It comes back to hurt.

“son of his old age” – this is an idiom and it doesn’t mean what it appears to mean. It means a “wise son.” He loved Joseph because he was smarter than all the other brothers put together. Old age means wisdom here. He loved Joseph more than all the others because he was his wisest son. We should translate this “son of great wisdom.”

“coat of many colours” – literal translation: “a long coat with sleeves.” A long coat which went down to his ankles and with sleeves down to the wrists was a badge of authority. He was the one in charge. The rest of them had to wear short robes, down to just below the knees.

Verse 4 – “they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.” Verse 5 – “they hated him yet the more.” Verse 8 -- “they hated him yet the more.” Hatred is a mental attitude. They couldn’t speak peaceably to him means they couldn’t greet him in a friendly manner. Notice verse 11 – “his brethren envied him.” Verse 18 – “they conspired against him.” Verse 19 – they ridiculed him, “behold the dreamer cometh.” Verse 20 – they said, “let us slay him.” But although they do everything to destroy Joseph God is still faithful to that boy and His faithfulness carries him through. In every situation that Joseph faces the Lord has provided a solution.

Jacob shows some partiality at times and this is the basis for hurting himself and for many years of misery in his life. No matter how much Jacob loved Joseph more than the others it was wrong to show favouritism.

Joseph has two dreams, verses 5-10. In the first dream Joseph is supreme over his brothers. In the second dream Joseph is supreme over all Israel. There are four ways in which God revealed Himself in Old Testament times: dreams, visions, trances, and direct spoken conversation. But there is only one way that God reveals Himself today: the written Word.

First dream, verses 5-8, Joseph’s supremacy over his brothers.

“he told his brethren” – the reason he told his brethren is because this was divine revelation and he passed it on. When he passed it on they hated him yet the more.

Verse 7 – the brethren understood that. The sheaves in the field are Joseph’s brothers. “My sheaf” – Joseph. They all bowed down to Joseph, and you can imagine how they liked that! With a poisoned mental attitude full of envy, jealousy and hatred, they just didn’t like that at all. But the time would come when they would be down on their faces in the dust before the Prime Minister of Egypt who will be Joseph.

Verse 8 – “Shalt thou indeed reign over us?” They understood.

Verse 9 – the second dream, supremacy over Israel. Who is the sun and the moon? Verse 10 – “I and thy mother [Rachel].” The eleven stars? “and thy brethren.”

Verse 10 – “his father rebuked him.” Even Jacob didn’t like that. Joseph is just telling them what he has received in a bona fide manner for that day which constitutes divine revelation. Even his father didn’t like the idea of doing obeisance to his son.

Verse 11 – “but his father observed the saying,” is literally, he remembered it, he put it in his mind.

Verse 12-17, Joseph goes on a mission, his last mission for his father. He doesn’t return from this mission.

Verse 12 – “Shechem” means shoulder or strength.

Verse 13 – “So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.” He couldn’t find his brethren is Shechem, they weren’t where they were supposed to be. Joseph is now trying to find them.

Verse 17 – Dothan is a Hebrew word which means “gift.” He finds his brethren but he hasn’t come to them yet. In verse 18 he is still approaching.

Verse 18 -- the manner in which he found them is now related. We have a conspiracy.

Verse 20 – they thought they could get rid of the Word of God by removing Joseph.

Verse 21 – meet weak, unstable Reuben. He was against it. He loses his rulership later on because he is nobility plus instability. A noble character is no good without stability. Instability neutralises many of the good qualities of Reuben. Here Reuben is outvoted 9 to 1 and he will not assume the position of authority, he is too unstable, will not buck his brothers, but he is going to try to save the life of Joseph. “Let us not kill him.”

Verse 22 – “that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again.” His plan was to get his brothers away from that pit. In the meantime he goes off on his own and waits. It is a good idea but he is a coward and won’t buck the tiger here at all. Instead he suggests an alternative.

Note 42:21— this is many years later when they are reminded of Joseph again. “And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.” Joseph knew while down in that pit what his brothers’ intentions were, that he was to be left to die. So he begged for deliverance and they did not pay any attention to him. These men were tough. They could sit there and listen to the anguished cries of their brother and at the same time enjoy their food. In this verse the nine brothers admit three things: they saw the anguish of his soul, Joseph begged to be delivered, and the nine brothers would not listen.

At this point the cries of Joseph indicates failure to use the faith-rest technique. He has two visions, the Word of God. He has a future. The time will come when his nine brothers will do obeisance to him, when I all Israel will do obeisance to him. Does he believe the Word of God? Or does he look at his circumstances? He failed; he looked at his circumstances.

Verses 26 & 27 – Judah makes a suggestion. They could make a little money on the side here. Just at the right time—“All things work together for good.” Just as the nine brothers were sitting down to a meal, along came the caravan.

Verse 28 – the personnel of the caravan were Ishmaelites and Midianites. The Midianites were descended from Abraham through Keturah. The Ishmaelites were descendants of Abraham through Hagar. So these are all cousins to these nine men who are eating there. But the whole future of Joseph depends on whether he goes with the Ismaelites of the Midianites.

Verses 29-30, Reuben comes back and finds Joseph gone.

Verses 31-35, the sorrow of Jacob.

Verse 34, 35 – “And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning.”

Nine threads from Romans 8:28: All things are not good, but all things work together for good

1. Jacob’s favouritism toward his son Joseph was bad, but it works for good.

2. The hatred and the envy of the ten brothers was bad, but it works together for good.

3. The plot of the brothers to kill Joseph was bad, but it works together for good.

4. Reuben’s intervention which saved Joseph’s life was good, and it works together for good.

5. The coming of the caravan was good, and it works together for good.

6. Judas suggested selling Joseph into slavery and that is bad, but it works together for good.

7. There were Ishmaelites and Midianites in the caravan. That is bad but it works together for good.

8. Joseph is going to arrive in Egypt a slave in shackles, that’s bad but it works together for good.

9. Joseph is sold into the house of Potiphar, the chief nobleman in charge of all the ruler’s body guards and his executioners. That is bad. It is bad that he is in slavery but it is good that it is Potiphar.

It doesn’t make any difference whether a thing is good or bad, or bad and good, they all work in one direction. And that is the only way that anything can work for any believer at any time.

Genesis 38

Genesis 39

Chapter 39

Notice that all depends on who and what the Lord is, and the Lord is always faithful. Notice verse 2, “And the Lord was with Joseph.” Verse 3, “… his master saw that the Lord was with him.” Verse 21, “But the Lord was with Joseph.” Verse 23, “…the Lord was with him.” So this is the chapter of the faithfulness of God. And just as the Lord was with Joseph in all these situations, so the Lord is with the believer in every situation in life, and He is faithful, He is gracious, and even when we fail Him He never fails us. That is grace.

Verse 1 – the Ishmaelites were only half of the caravan but it so happened that the Ishmaelites gained control of Joseph. “Potiphar” means ‘devoted to the sun god.’ This is the title for a man who is very high in the nobility in the empire of Egypt. The word officer means a nobleman.

“an Egyptian” – this means that he came from an old line of Egyptian nobility.

Verse 2 – “And the Lord was with Joseph.” Even though he is suffering and has gone through all of these difficulties the Lord is faithful.

“and he was a prosperous man.” The Hebrew here says, “he [the Lord] caused him to be prosperous.” In other words, when Joseph came in as a slave immediately it became obvious to Potiphar that he had a gold mine in this man, he was a genius in the field of administration. Notice that he isn’t wearing his “coat of many colours” which was the badge of his authority. His badge has been taken from him but it is the same person. Even though he is stripped of his authority of ruling the flocks of Jacob, and even though a slave was made out of him, his character could not be taken away. Here is something about a stable person. You can take a person who has a stable character, a person who is stable in his mental attitude, stable in his motivation, stable in his behaviour pattern, he is till a great leader, administrative genius, a wonderful person. It comes out very shortly with Joseph and very shortly he is running the estate in Egypt. The Lord was with him, and the other part was his response to the Lord.

Verse 4 – “And Joseph found grace in his sight” is an idiom which means he promoted him. Joseph has a change of circumstances, but here is a man who has discovered something: your circumstances are not longer your master. Your circumstances are at one time good. They may be at another time bad, but this doesn’t make any difference because you have inner resources.

Verse 5 – Joseph’s promotion results in prosperity to Potiphar. There is a principle of prosperity: association with people who are honouring to the Lord brings prosperity.

Verse 6 – “And Joseph was a goodly person.” Bad translation. The Hebrew says literally, “Joseph had a beautiful body and a handsome face.” Notice here that Potiphar left everything in Joseph’s hands. Joseph was seventeen when he came to Potiphar. He served Potiphar for nine years. When Potiphar finally puts Joseph in prison he is twenty-seven. At twenty-eight Joseph interprets the dream of the other two noblemen, the chief butler and the chief baker, and at thirty he is the leading man in the world.

Verse 7 – Joseph’s extreme physical beauty caught the eye of Potiphar’s wife.

“cast her eyes upon Joseph” doesn’t mean that she was winking at him, it is simply an idiom which means she began to make advances. Finally, she went from a pass to a proposition. This doesn’t say “lie with me,” it says “cohabit with me.”

“But he refused … Behold, my master knoweth not what is with me in the house, and he hath trusted all that he hath to my hand; there is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”

He not only refused but he is occupied with the Lord—“sin against God.” The Lord was first.

Verse 10 – she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Verse 12 – “…and fled, and got out.” This is all to establish the point that Joseph is innocent. Yet she is going to frame him, but the frame should never have worked.

The woman claimed that her cries had frightened Joseph away, but no one ever heard her cry out. Furthermore, if her story had been true what would Joseph had done? He would still be running! But all he did was run out of the house and go to his quarters. Potiphar could have been a great man and gone all the way with Joseph and been second in the land, but he didn’t because he only listened to one side.

Verse 19 – Potiphar’s poor judgment. What has he heard? The words of his wife.

“that his wrath was kindled.” No interrogation of Joseph. Principle: You never solve anything by losing your temper, but losing one’s temper is only a part of emotionalism. Emotionalism never solves anything in life.

Verse 21 – “But the LORD was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” Joseph is dumped into a dungeon but the Lord is faithful.

Verse 22 – every time Joseph gets dumped somewhere it starts at the bottom and in a few days he is at the top. Joseph is occupied with Christ, he has his eyes on the Lord. He is just the same relaxed person because inside he has it: inner resources.

Verse 23 – the keeper of the prison was on holiday! Because—“the Lord was with him [Joseph], and that which he did, the Lord made to prosper.”

Genesis 40

Chapter 40

Verse 1 – “the butler of the king of Egypt.” This isn’t a butler, this is the chief cup-bearer, the high nobleman who stands at the right hand of the Pharaoh.

“and his baker, had offended.” One of them had offended. There were two suspects, and both were put in prison until it was found who was innocent and who was guilty.

Verse 4 – the captain of the guard makes Joseph a servant to these two noblemen. This is a terrible thing he has done to Joseph, but it was impossible to hurt Joseph. Joseph could hurt himself by his mental attitude, by his bitterness. But he isn’t bitter and his mental attitude is wonderful.

“and he served them” – literally, he became their slave.

Verse 5 – “And they dreamed a dream.” In the Old Testament God spoke to people in four ways, through dreams, visions, direct conversation, and through the prophetic messages of those who had the gift of prophecy.

“on one night” – they dreamed the dream on the same night.

Verse 6 – “behold, they were sad.” This is not strong enough: “they were depressed.” The Word of God coming to the unbeliever often causes him depression. This is their reaction to divine revelation. They are depressed because they are not born again and therefore do not understand anything of the purpose of God.

Verse 8 – “Do not interpretations belong to God?” This is a great victory of Joseph’s own mental attitude. In other words, God speaks through a dream; God makes the dream clear.

The comparable answer and analogy to our day is that dream is analogous to the written Word as we have it. Do not interpretations belong to God? is saying, in effect, if there is something in the Bible there is an interpretation of it and you can understand it. Does not God who gave us the Word make the Word clear? Hasn’t He provided the means of doing so? And today the answer is yes, even as then. In our day God the Holy Spirit indwells every believer for many purposes, and one purpose is to make the Word of God clear. Also, God has provided people to interpret the Bible just as God provided for those two men. They couldn’t understand the Word, they were unbelievers. 1 Corinthians 2:14. There is the gift of pastor and teacher. The third factor: the one who has the gift of pastor and teacher must study in the original languages the Word of God so as to provide categorical information which can be assimilated by any believer and applied, so that the individual believer can become spiritually self-sustaining by reading and studying for himself. Just because a person is a believer it does not follow that he can automatically understand the Word, he must first of all have doctrine categorically placed in his soul. There must be proper doctrinal inculcation and once the Word of God has been perceived and understood categorically then the believer can read for himself as much as he wants and understand as much as he reads. That is the description of a mature believer. But you do not start that way, the believer who is a baby can understand practically none of the scripture except certain salvation passages, a few security passages and a few promises.

Joseph is available for interpretation but his mental attitude must be right before he can do it. Joseph is a man who is free from operation ego. Joseph can be concerned about others even though his life is at its lowest ebb. He is now under adversity, pressure. Every time Joseph thinks of Potiphar’s wife, that’s pressure. Every time he thinks of unfair Potiphar, that’s pressure. Every time he thinks of his brothers throwing him into the pit, that’s pressure. Every time he thinks of being made a servant, that’s pressure. So he has all of this pressure around him, he has adversity all around him. But what he has on the outside doesn’t really determine what Joseph is. What does he have on the inside? He has joy, inner happiness, contentment, peace, longsuffering. So that no matter what the external pressures he is not going to collapse because of inner resources. He is now 27 and for ten years nothing has shaken Joseph. God has made it possible for every one of us as believers in Jesus Christ to stand up and face every pressure in life and have inner peace and happiness and power, and nothing can ever cause us to go on the panic button, nothing can shake us, no pressure in life can cause us to become despondent or discouraged. The testimony of Paul is the same as Joseph’s—Philippians 4:11,12. Note: No one can draw on the inner resources of grace without knowledge of these resources. Joseph knew doctrine; Paul knew doctrine. Contentment is the operation of inner resources in time of difficulty.

When these men had answered that they had dreamed a dream Joseph knew immediately that God had spoken to these two men, and immediately Joseph said, “Do not interpretations of scripture [which is what this amounts to] belong to God.”

“Tell me” – Joseph is ready to help them. Joseph leaves it up to them. He will help them if they are willing to tell him. Their volition must cooperate before Joseph will help. This is the principle of helping people. You cannot help people unless they are willing to be helped.

Verse 9 – “And the chief butler” is the chief cup-bearer. His dream is good news to him because when Joseph interprets his dream the chief cup-bearer is going to be restored. The chief baker’s news is bad, but Joseph will tell it to him. It is very difficult to tell a man that in three days he will be dead, but Joseph does it, he sticks with the Word of God his criterion. He sticks with the Word no matter where the chips may fall. Joseph at this point is a very stable person. He is honest and he levels with both. People may ridicule and laugh at you for your stand for Christ but when the chips are down and things fall apart, then they come around. They come to the honest person who will level with them.

Verse 10 – the vine is the symbol of the chief cup-bearer, the man who tasted the wine before the king tasted it. The three branches are going to represent three days. The vine budded, which indicates that he will be restored.

Verses 16 & 17, three baskets represent three days. The chief baker will hang.

Verse 14 &15 – this is explained by a couple of other passages: Jeremiah 17:5, “Cursed [unhappy, miserable] be the man that depends on man…” The man who is miserable is the one who depends on someone else to do something special for him to promote him. What is he like? Verses 6ff. A believer in Jesus Christ who depends upon man instead of upon the Lord is a tumbling weed—unstable. Whenever the wind blows the tumbleweed moves. Just like a person who bounces all over the place, unstable. An unstable believer does not recognise the good things that God brings into his life. “…but shall inhabit the parched places”—dried up Christians. “…in a salt land”—when you have salt in the ground nothing will grow. This type of believer is non-productive. Psalm 118:8,9—“It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes [VIPs, people of influence].”

Verse 14 – in three days the chief cup-bearer will be standing next to Pharaoh and therefore Joseph failed. Four words: “but think on me.” When Joseph said this to this man he was trusting in man.

Verse 15 – Joseph has been great, and then all of a sudden out of fellowship, and here we go: “I” and “me.” The believer can slip out of fellowship at any time and in one second can be thinking about “I” and “me.” It can happen to any of us, apart from the marvellous provision of the Lord. Joseph got his eyes on himself.

Verse 23 – “Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.” The chief butler’s main job was to remember names and make the presentations to Pharoah, yet he forgot Joseph. Here is God teaching Joseph a lesson. This “forgot” lesson went on long enough to teach Joseph a lesson before he could be Prime Minister of Egypt—two whole years. It’s just as though Joseph wrote on the black board for two years, “I will trust in the Lord, I will not put my trust in man.” When Joseph became Prime Minister on whom did he have to trust? He had to trust the Lord and not Pharaoh. Pharaoh will lean on Joseph but Joseph can only lean on the Lord. This is a lesson he had to learn and which every believer has to learn before he can become stabilised and using his inner resources, and before he can have genuine appreciation of the things that God provides.

Genesis 41

Chapter 41

Verse 1 – “…at the end of two full years.” Joseph stayed two full years in that dungeon in order to learn the faith-rest technique and in order to resupply his inner resources so that he would be productive for the rest of his life. In these two years Joseph went from a tumbling weed to a tree by the river. Jeremiah 17 gives the story about Joseph in those two years. He went from being an unstable believer to one of the most stable and dynamic believers of all time.

This is preparation for greatness, and preparation for greatness always involves suffering. No one can be great apart from suffering. It takes suffering to become great as a believer. No believer ever reaches maturity without suffering, but the suffering must fall into certain categories. It must result in the use of the faith-rest technique and no believer can mature until he goes through often long periods of suffering and perpetuates the inner happiness and peace and contentment.

1. This suffering (intense) demands faith-rest, leading to occupation with Christ, leading to the highest experience in the life of the believer. 1 Peter 1:7,8.

2. In preparation for greatness there must be power through suffering. 2 Corinthians 12:9,10.

3. Greatness demands maximum obedience to the Word of God. Maximum obedience comes through suffering. Hebrews 5:8.

4. Once this greatness is achieved, humanly speaking you become a crutch for the rest of the human race. This great ness achieved in this way becomes a means of helping others in time of adversity. 2 Corinthians 1:3,4.

Preparation for greatness involves discipline. Even in human life you can’t be great without discipline. Great people are people whose lives are well-ordered.

Take a child who has been properly disciplined. Greatness comes to him sooner or later because he has profited from the discipline and he has built the scale of values around it. Greatness in the sense of mentality comes from academic discipline. Very often there are academic subjects which are boring and difficult and require a tremendous scope of study, concentration and categorising. When one is able to put such a package together he develops his mind in the categorical concepts and out of it often comes greatness. Often such things can be built on discipline with regard to time, discipline with regard to difficult things in life. In every facet of life great people are disciplined people. Hebrews 12:6. We see the results of discipline in Hebrews 12:11-15.

When God gets ready to present a man and use an individual believer everything combined in the human race can’t stop it. Noting can promote an image if it is against God’s will, and yet when God is ready no one can stop it. David with the sheep is a perfect illustration.

“…that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river.” The river is the Nile.

Verse 8 – “his spirit” is his inner personality, his mind, was troubled. What Pharaoh has dreamed is that the Egyptian empire is going to undergo a terrible economic crisis. The reason he doesn’t know this is because of 1 Corinthians 2:14. So we have panic in the palace. God’s Word of ten troubles the unbeliever. Pharaoh is the greatest man of his day and yet he has no security in fantastic wealth. The things of this world do not give security.

Verse 9 – “…I do remember my faults this day.” God closed his mind until this time, of course. When Joseph gave him that request of self-pity he was not trusting the Lord, the Lord was the one who would get him out of the dungeon.

Verse 14 – “…they brought him hastily out of the dungeon.” Hastily is the key word here. But Joseph did a very wise thing. He stopped and had a shave and a bath and put on clean clothes. Joseph has lived 10 years in Egypt and he knows all about the Egyptians. The Egyptians were the cleanest people in the ancient world and they were very particular about their clothes. Joseph has been in a dungeon. The Hebrew word for dungeon means an underground dungeon. There were no sanitary facilities and Joseph has not had a bath for at least two years. Principle: A change in circumstances should never snow a believer into stopping his thought process. Joseph can think clearly. It looks as though he is about to get out of the dungeon. He doesn’t know why and has no information at this point. But he would not go into the presence of Pharaoh without a shave, a bath, and some new clothes.

Verse 15 – “…I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it.” Notice the emphasis: “that you can interpret it.”

Verse 16 – the greatness of Joseph. He has improved in two years. “It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” The words It is are not in the original. His first words were, “Not in me.” The first words Joseph uttered were not how great Joseph was, but “I do not have the ability to interpret a dream.” Joseph has learned some grace! The Hebrew here is very elliptical, which means that he not only spoke right up to Pharaoh but he spoke with confidence.

You can’t help other people if they think you can help them. God can help them! You can be the channel and the instrument but it is God who has the answers.

In verses 17-24, the reiteration of the dreams. In verse 25-32, the interpretation.

Verse 25 – “God hath shown Pharaoh.” The answer depends on who and what God is—grace, not on who and what Joseph is.

Verses 33-36, the application of divine revelation. Promises of the Word are no good to you unless you apply them. The doctrine of the Word is no good to you unless you apply it. The principle of knowledge is application.

Verse 37 -- Joseph only gives the information, he doesn’t ask for anything for himself. The man who stands before Pharaoh is a stable person. He doesn’t complain, though he has been wronged. When Joseph spoke he communicated, and Pharaoh understood that Joseph was the instrument and that God was the originator of grace.

Notice that Joseph didn’t ask for a thing. Verse 41 – “And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.” He makes Joseph the Prime Minister, he is to rule the Egyptian empire.

Verse 45 – Zaphnathpaaneah means interpreter of dreams, revealer of secrets, and it even means sustainer of life.

Verse 47 – in the seven years of prosperity Joseph made provision for the crisis. Application: the believer must prepare for the crisis or crises in life. Joseph stored grain. The believer prepares for crisis by storing doctrine.

Verse 50-51 – Joseph as two sons. The name of the first-born is Manasseh, which means Forgotten. Principle: You can never have prosperity or blessing as a believer unless you forget—Philippians 3:13. To he called his first-born Manasseh to demonstrate that all of this great prosperity that he has at this point of time all came on the basis of the grace of God. He didn’t try to avenge himself on anyone or try to hurt anyone, though many people had hurt him. The next son is Ephraim, and Ephraim means productive. Production can only come in the life of the believer by rebound, forgetting those things which are behind.

Verse 52 – “…For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.” This is a principle of grace. God made the difference, it wasn’t who and what Joseph was. This is the principle of grace, the principle of stability, tis is the power, the blessing and the inner happiness that came to Joseph and prepared him for the crisis.

Genesis 42

Chapter 42

There are four basic principles found in the next section (chapters 42-46).

a) The biblical principle of sowing and reaping. Galatians 6:7; Hosea 8:7.

b) The principle of cursing turned to blessing. This is accomplished by means of grace.

c) The principle of Romans 8:28.

d) The principle of the crisis. God’s man for any crisis is the man who lives in the Word and uses the Word.

We have seen the crisis which came not only to the Egyptian empire but to the entire world at that time. There are two analogies in the famine. The first is

evangelistic in nature. The famine and the resultant starvation is a picture of sin and its punishment: the wages of sin is death. Under this circumstance Joseph is a type of Christ. The storehouse from which Joseph distributed the grain is a picture of salvation, the imputation of divine righteousness and eternal life. The people coming to Joseph for food is a picture of coming to Christ for salvation. In addition there is also the Christian analogy. The famine is an adversity, a trial, a serious situation, and Joseph, again, is a type of Christ, a picture of the one who meets every need in life. Principle: There is no adversity, no trial, no difficulty in life for which there is not a perfect solution for the believer found in the Word of God. The storehouse is God’s provision in time of crisis, and coming to the storehouse would be the believer’s utilisation of same.

Chapter 42 opens with consternation, despondency, confusion, helplessness, as far as the ten brothers are concerned. In Genesis 37:4,8 the brothers hated Joseph because they had mental attitude jealousy. In verse 11 they envy him, in verse 18 they plotted against him, and in verse 19 they ridiculed him and it made them feel while he wasn’t there to ridicule him. In verse 20 they wanted to kill him and they cast him into a pit to starve in verse 24, and in verse 27 they sold him into slavery. Then in verse 33 they lied about him to their father. This is the sowing of the ten brothers. Chapter 42 is the reaping of the whirlwind. Between chapters 37 and 42 there was no confession of sin by the brothers.

Verses 1-6, the ten brothers go to Egypt, and in verse 6 they are bowing down to the brother that they threw into the pit and then sold into slavery.

Verse 9 – “And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them.” Joseph knew right then that the Word of God as being fulfilled. But in reaping the whirlwind these brethren received some rough treatment. This time they are telling the truth but whole Joseph knows it is the truth he pretends that it is a lie. He accuses them of being spies even though he knows they are not.

Verse 18 – “This do, and live; for I fear God.” I am a believer in Elohim. The word fear means to trust.

Verse 21 – “We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.” They began to remember. They have gone seventeen years without rebound! It took a situation where they were unjustly treated before they would wake up. There is a lesson here. The longer you prolong confession of your sin to the Lord and/or rebound the worse things are going to become for you. Sometimes you have to be brought to the most awful place before you will wake up and use the grace of God. That is what happened to these brothers, they are reaping the whirlwind. They recognised what had happened.

Verse 22 – Reuben says in effect, I told you so. This doesn’t make him any better. He told them but he was unstable and his instability cancelled out his nobility, and just to stand around and talk about it doesn’t add anything to his stature.

Note verse 36 – When they go home and report to Jacob. “And Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me.” Simeon the second brother was to be held as a hostage and the father has already counted him out. That is because at first he will not part with his youngest son Benjamin. This is Jacob’s reaping. He was a very poor father. He was a poor father because he showed favouritism. He was a poor father because he did not assume responsibility for his own business but put it in the hands of his youngest son, Joseph. So Jacob did some sowing and now he reaps—“all these things are against me.” Self-pity. The person who will not assume responsibility for his own actions always winds up a mental basket case—self pity.

Reuben had tremendous potential—Genesis 49:3, but here is what ruined him—49:4, “Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel …”

Verse 37 – “And Reuben spake unto his father, saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee: deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again.” In other words, Reuben’s nobility comes to the front. He is personally going to take responsibility for Benjamin. It is a noble offer, and also very stupid. A grandfather killing his grandsons isn’t going to solve anything. Two wrongs never make a right. Instability cannot see issues clearly. Once a person becomes unstable they can never see true issues clearly, even though they have nobility. This is an illustration of how nobility is neutralised.

Verse 38 – “And he said, My son shall not go down with you; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone: if mischief befall him by the way in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.” Who is Jacob thinking about? You can’t take my son away because if anything happens to him I’m going to feel worse than I do now! Well poor old Jacob! Instead of thinking about his whole family and all of the people around starving he says, in effect, I want what I want. Go ahead and starve the rest of you. He is a self-righteous, self-pitying, egocentric old man. Don’t take my boy. If anything happens to him think how I will feel. And yet there are seventy people there, starving. Selfishness, self gratification. People who seek to gratify themselves always do so at the expense of others, and instead of finding happiness at the end of the line they find nothing but misery.

By contrast, all of the way through Joseph was a man who used the Word of God. And Joseph reaps. Principle: No matter what your parents are like you make your own way in life. Notice the grace in Joseph. He was rough but he loved his brothers.

Verse 23 – Joseph spoke to them by an interpreter and when they were talking among themselves in Hebrew he understood every word that had been said.

Verse 24 – all of these years he still loved them. Here was a person who had more persons do things that were wrong to him, yet it never changed his mental attitude. He had mental attitude forgiveness, mental attitude love.

Verses 25-28, Joseph is a picture of mental attitude grace. These brothers were frightened by an act of grace. No one had ever treated them that way before. People with a bad mental attitude can’t understand it when someone treats them in grace. These brothers had thrown Joseph into a pit and sold him into slavery; Joseph treats them in grace. We as believers are a blessing to people because of what we think, not because of what we have.

Genesis 43

Chapter 43

Note 42:36 where Jacob said, “Me have ye bereaved of my children.” When he says that it is operation patsy. He is trying to blame it on someone else. If you want to be miserable as a believer for the rest of your life then take everything that you do and blame it on someone else, do not take any responsibility for your own actions. But the Bible says, no matter what happened or who else was involved, every believer must take responsibility for his own sins. That is why every believer has to confess his own sins. Jacob is blaming his sons.

43:6 – “And Israel said, Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me.” Judah has said that Benjamin is going to go. Jacob says in effect, “You didn’t have to tell him that my little pet was here. Why didn’t you lie to him?” If you want to be miserable try to solve everything by lying, by covering up. That was Jacob’s answer.

Verses 11 & 12 – human perspective. He is trying to solve the problem by bribing. In other words, solve everything with money. Add to this selfishness and indifference to the suffering of others. In other words, Jacob didn’t care who else got hurt but he didn’t want Benjamin to be hurt. Then there was self-pity and encouraging deceit to solve a problem—which doesn’t, solving a problem by appeasement rather than facing the issue and depending on the Lord.

Verse 14 – a problem of fatalism. What he is saying is, as a last resort maybe God will help us. That is not the faith-rest technique. In other words, after you have tried everything else boys, try God! “If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” In other words, ‘Well, if I lose the boy, I lose the boy.’ Fatalism.

Verse 15 – they armed themselves with human viewpoint.

In verses 3-5, Judah is the one who finally speaks up. He shows signs of the leadership that will eventually come out in his great, great, grandson, David. We look at Judah from the standpoint of a leader plus the concept of inner happiness. He emphasises the true issue. He answers to problem as to why they have to take Benjamin. He faces the reality of the situation and in doing so he also can see the true issue: We cannot go back without Benjamin. The reason why selfish, self-pitying Jacob finally let go of Benjamin was because Judah laid the issue on the line.

A believer who is oriented to grace and is stabilised, is maturing, and operating on divine operating assets always sees life in reality. He can face the issues of life, can see the issues of life, and make a proper decision. The believer who has inner happiness which comes from doctrine and the filling of the Spirit can make the true issues of life real to the rest of the world. He knows grace, he understands grace, and when he witnesses he doesn’t bring in false issues. He doesn’t make an issue out of anything but Christ.

Verse 8 – Judah sticks to the stand he took. He doesn’t back down when his father pours some propaganda on him, he sticks by his guns. He stays with the issue in spite of the pressure his father put on him.

Verse 9 – the result. He assumes responsibility for the whole trip. One of the signs of a believer beginning to mature: inner happiness crystallizing in maturity is when the believer begins to assume responsibility.

Verse 32–34, the Egyptians would never think of eating at the same table as Jews. But at this table were the ten Jews, and what really shook them up were the place cards. No one could ever know the order in which these ten brothers would be seated. The order of seating for the brothers: at the head of the table is the eldest, next to him the next eldest, and so on down the line to the youngest at the foot of the table. When these ten brothers came and looked at their place cards they found that they were seated according to their age. No one but Jacob at home actually had this information, or someone in the family, and here is a stranger who has it. They must almost have died of the shock.

Verse 34 – Joseph sent more and the best things to Benjamin to see if the brothers still had the jealousy whereby they through him in the pit and sold him into slavery. They didn’t get jealous at all.

Genesis 44

Chapter 44

The next time we see Judah is in Egypt before Joseph. Joseph has pulled a nice little plot. He took one of his drinking cups and put it in Benjamin’s sack when they left this time. So the soldiers of Joseph overtook the sons on their return from Egypt and in Benjamin’s sack they found this cup, claming he stole it. This was Joseph’s way of getting the eleven brothers back. It was Judah who steps in the breech at this point.

Verses 14-16, the stabilised believer. In a time of pressure in a crisis a believer who becomes hysterical, who throws a tantrum, who blames someone else, that believer is unstable and miserable and full of self-pity, thinking only of himself. Therefore, he is not cutting it at all in the Christian life. The other brothers are falling apart; Judah speaks right up. Judah sees now that Benjamin is going to be falsely accused of stealing and he didn’t do it, so he now speaks up and stands in the gap.

Verse 17 – Joseph answers right back and says he will make the person who is guilty of this is going to be made his slave. The rest of them can go. Joseph knows what is going on and that they can’t go back without Benjamin, and he knows that they won’t leave without him.

Verse 18 – Judah speaks up again. He is able to intervene to the point of 45:1 where Joseph revealed himself to his brothers.

Genesis 45

Chapter 45

Verse 1 – Joseph reveals himself. The brothers have been wined and dined. They have started back home but were overtaken by soldiers and brought back. When they were brought back one of them was accused of stealing. Now they are a little nervous. They are not quite sure of themselves. Believers who are not sure of themselves are that way because they are not sure of God’s Word. If you are sure of God’s Word you are always oriented. When Joseph reveals himself, are they happy?

Verse 3 – “And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence.” They tossed him down a pit and sold him into slavery, now here he is!

Verses 4 & 5 – Joseph has to reassure them. Here is a great man of grace. He doesn’t reprove or rebuke them. Here is the mental attitude of a great believer: “for God did send me before you to preserve life.” Romans 8:28. He doesn’t condone what they did. The whole principle: under grace God turns cursing into blessing.

Verses 6-9, Joseph gives all the credit to God. It is all because of who and what God is.

Verse 19 – he sent back wagons. They didn’t have wagons in Palestine, they had wagons in Egypt. Cf. verses 21, 27, 28. Notice that it is when Jacob saw the wagons. At first he was quite upset but when he saw the wagons he changed his mind.

Genesis 46

Chapter 46

Verse 5 – Typology: Pharaoh represents God the Father. God the Father has provided for believers in time. Notice the references to the wagons: 45:19, 21, 27; 46:5. The wagons represent God’s provision for believers. When the Jews left Palestine to come to Egypt they came in wagons, in the best system at that time for transportation. The believer can do it the hard way—walk, run, or crawl. Or he can do it the easy way and ride on the wagon—what God has provided. There is no difficulty or trial in this life for which God has not provided, and the Bible is filled with wagons, God’s provision for the believer in time. One of the great objectives is for us to discover and use the wagons. God intends, as it were, for us to ride, to be His guests, to allow Him to solve the problems.

Genesis 47

Chapter 47

Verse 1 – Joseph is a type of Jesus Christ. He came and told Pharaoh who is a picture and type of God the Father.

“my brethren” – represents believers. This is a picture of what Christ has done. He entered into the presence of the Father—doctrine of ascension. We are positionally in union with Christ and in order that we might have provision for phase two God has provided for all who are in union with Christ. The wagons are God’s provision, inner resources and divine operating assets for phase two.

All of the way through this chapter we find Joseph doing certain things:

Verse 6 – when a believer accepts Christ as saviour all heaven is before him. God the Father is going to make each believer a ruler in the future.

Verse 11 – Jesus Christ has provided possession for each one of us.

Verse 12 – “Joseph nourished his father.” Jesus Christ has provided for us in time.

Verse 14 – all of the wealth of the universe belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the Father.

Verse 16 – Christ is the provider for the believer in time.

Verse 20 – Jesus Christ has purchased humanity for god the Father. We will be in a kingdom which was designed by God the Father and which is ruled by God the Son because we have been bought with a price. 1 Peter 1:18,19.

Verse 23 – Jesus Christ speaking to us through the cross. He has purchased us.

Verse 25 – here are the ones who respond to the gospel, the work of Jesus Christ.

There are a few lessons to be learned from chapters 45, 46, and 47:

1. The compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ—45:1. Cf. Hebrews 1:1-3.

2. Joseph’s lack of bitterness reminds us of the importance of mental attitude in the Christian life. Negative mental attitudes perpetuate misery.

3. Joseph’s concern for his brothers (45:3)—Does my father live? His questions, and so on. This is a picture of our Lord’s concern for us.

4. Joseph’s grace. “Come near to me,” instead of commanding his brothers to be destroyed.

5. 45:16-18 gives us a beautiful picture of being accepted in the beloved. The brethren were acceptable to Pharaoh because of Joseph. They would never be accepted but for the fact that they were brothers of Joseph. We are born into acceptability by the new birth.

6. Joseph’s commission to his brethren (45:9, 13). The commission that we have as believers: Go and tell. Matthew 28:7.

7. The danger of failure among the brethren. 45:24, he warned them of one great danger. “See that you do not fall out by the way.” The Hebrew says, “Do not quarrel along the way.” Even though God’s provision is there for each one of us bickering and hostility among believers will keep the believer from using the wagons.

We have seen Jacob growing older and being a very selfish, evil, egotistical old man.

The restoration of Jacob with Joseph turned the tide, even in old age. Doctrine can even change people in their old age—but it is the only thing that can. Doctrine finally caught up with Jacob in the last seventeen years of his life and changed him. This man who was a rat all of his life finally understood and began to use the faith-rest technique. One of the most wonderful things in life is old age. It is often the real clear indication as to whether a person has gotten with doctrine or not. The finest people in the world are old people who have really understood grace, lived by it, and used it. The worst people in the world are believers in their old age who are legalistic, self-centred, vicious and implacable, and filled with envy and jealousy and pride and the other things that destroy inner beauty.

Jacob died when he was 147 years old. Up to age 130 we have thoroughly described Jacob. Now in the last 17 years Jacob is going to have a wonderful termination to his life. These years are going to be very wonderful and the thing that made the difference is one thing: doctrine, and specifically a technique.

Verse 27 – “And Israel dwelt.” The word dwell here means to dwell in great peace and happiness and blessing. For the first time in all of the 130 years of life on this earth Israel dwells some place in peace and blessing. This was not true of him before and the reason for this is the operation of the faith-rest technique. It is a matter of speculation but we will later see that the influence came from Joseph. Joseph learned the faith-rest technique. Because of the type of life that he lived he either had to depend upon the Lord or he was dead, and he learned to depend upon the Lord.

Jacob all of his life has been beating a dead horse and trying to make him go. He has had a most miserable experience. Now he finally gets with the only thing that can change a life and make old age much greater than youth could ever be. Doctrine makes the difference. The more the believer uses doctrine and orients to the grace of God the better his life becomes.

“they had possessions” – materialistically the progeny of Jacob were much better off than they had ever been.

“and grew and multiplied” – the word grew is a word for individual and personal maturity; multiplied is a word for the increase of family.

Verse 28 – the length of this faith-rest technique with Jacob. This started for him at age 130.

Verse 29 – Jacob takes three looks at life. He knows that he is going to die very shortly. The events that now occur are given in the last few days of his life. Now he takes a good look at death, and we see two factors in verses 29-31 and Israel or Jacob looks forward. First he is going to look forward, then he is going to look backward, and then he is going to look upward. Looking forward is anticipation of death. As of verse 29 Jacob knew that he was to die very soon. Knowing this, because of those 17 years of the faith-rest technique, he doesn’t miss a beat or stumble for a second. He moves right on and into that sphere called dying grace. Te principle here is that during the period that Jacob was dying he did more good as far as his progeny is concerned, he had more spiritual production, than he had in all of the rest of his life put together. Jacob could have remained as he had been through all of his life, but he didn’t. So as long as there is doctrine there is hope for the believer.

What is Jacob looking forward to?

1. He is looking forward to no condemnation—Romans 8:1 cf. Hebrews 9:27.

2. He is looking forward to living with God forever—John 10:28; 20:31.

3. He is looking forward to a new home—John 14:1-3.

4. He is looking forward to an eternal inheritance—1 Peter 1:4,5.

5. He is looking forward to being face to face with God—2 Corinthians 5:8.

6. He anticipated the time when there would be no more pain, sorrow, tears, death—Revelation 21:4.

7. He is anticipating a glorious resurrection—John 11:25; 1 John 3:1,2; Philippians 3:21; 1 Corinthians 15:51-58.

“And the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph.” The reason he called Joseph is because Joseph is the one who taught him the faith-

rest life.

“If now I have found grace in thy sight.” This is an idiom which means, “if you regard me with any love at all.” To find grace means that you are loved in spite of yourself.

“put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh.” This was the way in which in those days you swore a solemn oath. It is literally, ‘Put your hand on my thigh.” It means the same as, ‘Promise on a stack of Bibles.’

“and deal kindly and truly with me, bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt” – here is the promise he took from Joseph. Why doesn’t he want to be buried in Egypt? Because he is going to be resurrected. It wouldn’t make any difference actually where he was buried or how his body was disposed of, except for one thing. He knew all about the resurrection and he wanted to be on the spot that belonged to him at the moment of resurrection. The resurrection is real to him. He is looking forward—to being with the Lord, to the resurrection.

Verse 31 – “And Israel bowed himself upon the bed’s head.” It actually says, he bowed himself on the top of his staff. What is so important about that? The staff is more significant than just the staff in itself. Jacob had been using a staff for seventeen years. A staff is something you lean on to move, and for the last seventeen years Jacob/Israel had a wonderful, wonderful life because he leaned on a staff, the staff of the promises of God’s Word, the faith-rest technique.

Why does the Holy Spirit include this phrase? Bowing himself is worship; leaning on the top of the staff is the faith-rest technique. He used the staff for support. For the last seventeen years of his life he used the Bible for his support. If you want to save a lot of wear and tear in life start using the Bible for your support right now! God has given each one of us a staff. He has given us promises, He has given us doctrine, He has given us the categories—all of these factors found in the Word of God: this is our staff. And when we lean on it we have this wonderful peace and blessing that nothing can shake or change. When we ignore the staff, then we are just as miserable, if not more, than unbelievers—up and down, unstable, and so on.

Verses 27-31 indicates to us that even though Jacob was a rat most of his life you can teach an old dog new tricks. But it wasn’t done in a day, it took time to teach this old reprobate carnal believer the faith-rest technique, and it took this seventeen-year period to really get with it, but in that period of time it is beautiful to note that Jacob did not die without finding what true happiness is in life. The great tragedy is that many believers die without knowing what true happiness is in this life.

Genesis 48

Chapter 48

At some time in every person’s life they always take a look back. This is normal, and Jacob does it. He looks backward for our benefit and does it in the first seven verses of this chapter.

Verse 1 – Jacob had some pain in his death. Joseph immediately went to his father’s house and took his two sons, mentioned in the order of their birth, with him.

Verse 2 – “… and Israel strengthened himself, and sat upon the bed.” In other words, this is a death-bed visit.

Verse 3 – why do we have this verse? He is saying, Don’t worry about me, I’m saved. This is recounting the point of time in which he found Christ as saviour. The word Luz is simply the Canaanite word for Bethel. It actually became Bethel in the time of Moses. So we have a saved man looking back.

There are two recollections. The first one is found in verses 4-6 and in it Jacob recalls a blessing. The second one is found in verse 7 where he recalls one of the most sorrowful moments of his life. So he recalls a blessing and he recalls an adversity. Life is made up of blessing and adversity, success and failure. This is the pattern of any and every life. But the tragedy of human life is that we are influenced by these things to the point where we depend for our happiness on which circumstance we find ourselves in. If we find ourselves in a point of blessing and we are all happy about it, and if we find ourselves in a point of adversity we become miserable. Jacob is recalling the pattern of his life for 130 years. The bad thing about Jacob’s life was that he was a slave to his circumstances even as a believer. This is not what God intends for us and that is why he looks back; he looks back to teach us a great lesson: that while life is made up of both happiness and sorrow, blessing and misery, God has provided for the believer for both occasions and God’s provision (the inner resources) means that you can have happiness on the inside regardless of whether you are in a time of blessing or a time of adversity. Jacob didn’t discover that until the last 17 years of his life.

Verse 4 – this is what the Lord said to Jacob at Bethel. “And said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession.” This was something he recalled. Jesus Christ promised him after salvation, and He couldn’t make this promise unless Jacob had eternal life. Jacob must have eternal life to have possession of the land forever. So it wasn’t until after he was saved at Bethel that God could promise him the land forever and that he would have a progeny forever.

Verse 5 – “And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh.” Jacob mentions Ephraim first, even though Manasseh was the eldest. The eldest was always mentioned first because he is the heir. But Manasseh is going to be set aside, he will not be the heir. Ephraim will be the heir. So he prepares Joseph for this. Ephraim and Manasseh both became tribes of Israel, but Manasseh would die on the vine and become a shrivelled up, weak tribe. Ephraim would become a powerful and great tribe. That is the prophetical end, but there is something more important. Those two boys are as different as day and night, and the difference between them was a difference of the use of doctrine. Ephraim was a man who grew up to use the faith-rest technique. From his youth Ephraim was a man who was stabilised by doctrine. He didn’t wait until he was an old man like his father before he got with it, he got with doctrine from the start and became a great man who represents the productiveness when one uses the inner resources that come from doctrine. Manasseh was just the opposite. One would learn and one would not, and yet they were brothers.

Now Jacob looks upward, verses 8-22. In the rest of this chapter the whole thing is built around the fact the two grandsons now come forward for their blessing. As they approach Jacob is practically blind. He can see grey, he is shadow blind. Now, he knows what is being done and he crosses his hands so that the left hand drops on Manasseh’s head and the right hand drops on Ephraim’s head. Joseph intervenes and says, ‘You are making a mistake.’ But Jacob says, ‘Oh no, I know what I am doing.’ And he did. He knew a great deal about what he was doing. It was a wise switch because he knew that Ephraim was going to be the faith-rest man and Manasseh was going to be Jacob, the one who was doing the blessing, for the first 130 years.

But there are some other lessons here too. There is the lesson that God does not bless the line of natural birth. All of God’s blessing to the human race comes through regeneration, the new birth. God’s blessings of grace come through regeneration. It isn’t with what assets you are born, it is what assets you use after you are born again. A second lesson is the doctrine of substitution and imputation. Let’s let the elder represent the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and the younger represent any member of the human race who believes in Christ. At the moment we believe in Christ the righteousness which belongs to Christ is transferred to us and the double portion blessing is transferred back. Christ bears our sins and in the crossing of the hands we receive His righteousness. The third lesson is the importance of being guided by the Word of God. Jacob had revelation from God. He had prophecy and knew how these two boys were going to turn out and he could not take into consideration human tradition when he was facing the Word of God. The Word of God often runs contrary to human tradition and when there is a conflict Jacob went the right way in the conflict, he went with the Word. Application to us: we must do likewise.

Jacob also blesses Joseph in verses 15 & 16.

Verse 15 – “…the God which fed me all my life long unto this day.” In other words, “God took care of me.” The word fed here actually means to be shepherded. Most of Jacob’s life was as a carnal believer. For only 17 years, a small percentage of his saved life, was he a spiritual believer. But Jesus Christ shepherded him all of the time, carnal or spiritual—the faithfulness of the Lord.

“unto this day” – and Jacob is saying this while he is dying, while he is in pain. It doesn’t make any difference whether we are young and healthy or old and dying, the Lord is always faithful. Application: You can’t do anything to shake the faithfulness of God toward you, and you can’t think anything to shake the faithfulness of God toward you.

Verse 16 – he mentions again the fact that he is saved. The angel here refers to the angel of Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

“bless the lads” – they are adopted as tribes in Israel.

Genesis 49

Chapter 49

There are three great prophecies in Genesis which are doctrinally critical to the understanding of the Word of God. The first is the prophecy of salvation in Genesis 3:15 where the seed of the woman is the Lord Jesus Christ. The second is the prophecy of the origin and trend of the races—Genesis 9:25-chapter 10. Now, thirdly, we have the prophecy of one national entity, the prophecy of Israel—Genesis 49. There is an historical sequence to the prophecy as well as personal content.

The first three men who will be mentioned in the prophecy of this chapter are Reuben, Simeon, and Levi. They depict Israel from the time of Malachi to the time of Christ. The next person in the prophecy will be Judah, and Judah is a picture of Israel at the time of the Second Advent. The next two will be Zebulun and Issachar, and they picture Israel scattered among the nations during the Church Age. Then comes Dan, a picture of the apostate Jews in the Tribulation. The next three, Gad, Asher and Naphtali, depict the believing Jews during the Tribulation and how they become a source of blessing. Joseph is another picture of the second coming of Christ, specifically to Israel—what He will do for Israel when He returns. The last person mentioned is Benjamin, which means son of my right hand. The prophecy of Benjamin depicts something of the rule of Christ during the Millennium—His power, and so on. This is an historical sketch but it is not the interpretation of the passage.

Verse 1 – “the last days” refers specifically to the end of the Jewish Age. What he says here describes each tribe as they will exist in the Tribulation. Then it describes each person and the characteristics which he will pass on to his tribe, and in a sense describes the character of that tribe throughout the entire history of Israel. And this is addressed to the Jews, the sons of Jacob or Israel.

In verses 3-15 we have three men who are the sons of Leah, the first wife of Jacob.

Verse 3 – Reuben was a person who had the greatest possibilities of being one of the great leaders in Israel. He had all of the potential and natural ability. The word Reuben means see, a son. In other words, Reuben is an exclamation type word. The word excellency in this verse is used twice, a word which was used originally for having a whole lot of rope. Having a whole lot of rope meant that you could tie down the ends of all of your tents. In the ancient world a person who could tie down all of his tents was a rich man. Reuben had all of his tents tied down as far as his ability was concerned. He had an abundance, it says, in dignity and power. Dignity really means potential character, it doesn’t mean that he was dignified. He had great power and ability to persuade.

Verse 4 – Reuben’s failure: instability. You can have all of the great qualities in the world but if you have instability they are all neutralised—“thou shalt not excel.” That is the story of Reuben’s life. His potential was never realised. Potential can never be realised when there is instability. It takes doctrine to remove instability. Unstable people always make everyone else around them miserable. They change just as time changes. They change every hour on the hour.

“because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.” He was guilty of incest, he seduced one of his father’s concubines—Bilhah, Genesis 35:22, 23. No one from the tribe of Reuben ever ruled Israel or helped Israel in a crisis. No member of the tribe of Reuben ever did anything good for Israel. Dathan and Abiram came from the tribe of Reuben—Numbers 26:9. Reuben was one of the tribes that failed to cross the Jordan to live, they stayed on the other side and raised cattle. They were so fond of their cattle that in Judges 5:15, 16 an emergency came up and they needed the Reubenites to help them, and the Reubenites said they couldn’t come, they were taking care of their cattle. Numbers 32:1-7 tells how occupied they were with cattle they wouldn’t cross the Jordan.

One thing not mentioned here but is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 5:1,2, Reuben as the first-born had three things that belonged to him by right of birth: rulership of the tribe, he was to be the king. The priesthood of the tribe. The double portion, which means the money and the greatest tribe. The kingship went to Judah, the priesthood went to Levi, the double portion went to Joseph—Joseph had two sons who became tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh. So this is what instability did, he lost out on everything. Many people who start out with something wonderful lose it through instability.

Question: Could anyone in Reuben’s tribe come through and make it? Yes, through grace and doctrine. But here was a case of prophecy which proved to be true. God knew the volition of every person who would be in that tribe.

Principle

1. Instability neutralises human ability as well as divine operating assets and blessings of grace. The only cure for instability is doctrine. But most unstable people will not listen to doctrine, are not interested in doctrine, or if they are interested they are interested for a moment before they fizzle out. An unstable person is never consistent in interest in the Word and doctrine. But if a person is unstable and will stay with it instability can be turned into stability. Doctrine is the only cure.

2. Instability results in loss of spiritual focus. In other words, an unstable person cannot keep his eyes on Christ and stay oriented to the grace of God.

3. Human ability and talent is no guarantee for success, instability destroys it, but what God has provided for the believer in time is no guarantee of success

where instability exists. Instability rejects what God has provided.

Verses 5-7, Simeon and Levi.

Verse 5 – these are the second and third sons of Jacob by the same mother, Leah. They had the same parents and also exactly the same pattern and the same mental attitude. First of all, they were cruel—“instruments of cruelty.” This is a reference to Genesis 34 which is the Shechem incident, and specifically verse 25 where in their anger, their anger and their hatred they sought to destroy a tribe that lived in the same country. These two brothers had one thing in common. They were responsible for their own misery. When we fail to take the responsibility for our own actions we guarantee that we will be miserable for life, because by avoiding responsibility for our own actions we cannot come to the place of rebound, we cannot get back in fellowship with the Lord, and therefore the blessing and the happiness that belongs to us as a monopoly of our relationship with God eludes us constantly. It is always out of grasp, we are always off-balance, always unstable, and consequently we make ourselves miserable without help from anyone else.

Verse 6 – they are called plotters. The words “their secret” is literally, their counselling, their plotting. They were underhanded, always working behind someone’s back, and this is an expression of their mental attitude of cruelty and implacability and jealousy and hatred. They were always trying to make someone else miserable. They also worked each other up. This is another characteristic in the spiritual life. Believers who make themselves miserable for working each other up. They get together and talk about some bad thing. That reminds the other of a bad thing and pretty soon they have worked themselves up into a white-hot pitch, and when the object of their attention walked through the door they would probably mow them down.

“self-will” – they were full of self. This means they were full of ego. Everyone else was always wrong and they were always right.

Jacob himself was vicious in his younger days, but even so, he didn’t want anything to do with his two sons, Simeon and Levi. So he says, “O my soul,” a vocative referring to himself, “come not thou to their plotting”—don’t ever get involved with those two, no good will ever come of it. By the way, there is nothing in the Bible that you must hang around with every believer because the person is a believer. Many of us a better avoiding the Simeon-Levi combination.

“unto their assembly” – when they get together to plot; “mine honour” is a vocative, Jacob is still talking to himself. He is saying, “for the sake of my honour be not thou united.” Do not have fellowship with them.

“for in their anger,” and then he gives an illustration as to why he gives himself this good advice. Here is a father who will have nothing to do with two of his sons. And, by the way, this was a procedure which he generally followed. He would have absolutely nothing to do with these two sons. Reason:

“for in their anger they slew a man” – they were murderous—“and in their self-will”—combination of their ego, jealousy, hatred and implacability—“they digged down a wall” is literally, “they severed the tendons of oxen.” This refers to Genesis 34:28 where the Shechemites had cattle, and they stole their cattle in order to express their jealousy and hatred of the Shechemites, and they cut the tendons of all of the oxen. They did this so the Shechemites could come and find their cattle absolutely ruined. With them it was a matter of revenge, an expression of a mental attitude.

Verse 7 – they were totally devoid of mercy or grace. The word for cruel means implacable. If they were on top of a situation they were unmerciful and cruel.

“Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel.” “Wrath” means anger in the soul which comes from jealousy.

“I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.” Here is the discipline of Simeon and Levi in their progeny. These two brothers always worked together, so the first thing that happened to them was their separation. The children of Simeon and Levi inherited these areas of weakness and as a result they couldn’t be concentrated anywhere without being trouble-makers and causing a great deal of difficulty. So in Israel these two tribes had to be completely scattered among the Jews. None of the Levites or the Simeonites could ever be concentrated in one area. We know what happened. In Numbers 26:14 and Joshua 1-9 the tribe of Simeon did not receive a definite portion of the land. They were smallest of all the tribes and they never did receive a portion of the land. They received a few cities in the area of Judah. Judah was strong and a good leader and knew how to keep trouble-makers in line. Principle: When you have trouble-makers in any kind of an organization, if you retain them in the organization, you have to be tough on them whether you want to or not. Simeon is a picture of the believer who does not rebound.

Levi was just as bad, but with this difference: he was a beautiful picture of what happens when a believer confesses his sins. The cursing is turned to blessing. Levi eventually came back into fellowship. Moses was descended from Levi, but he utilised the grace of God. Levi did not inherit the land. In eternity Levi will not inherit the land but will act as the priesthood. Numbers 18:20, 21. The difference between Levi and Simeon, humanly speaking, was nothing; they were equally evil and carnal, and had the same area of weakness. But eventually a great difference came between them: one used the grace of God as a believer and one did not. One rebounded and one did not. For the believer who will use the grace of God in rebound the cursing is always turned to blessing.

Applications

1. Cursing is turned to blessing by the grace of God. In this case the mechanics of the grace of God, post-salvation—rebound.

2. The importance of orienting to the grace of God. If you do not understand pertinent doctrine for a situation and you understand the principle of the grace of God you can work it out. For every situation in life there is pertinent doctrine, but believers do not always learn the pertinent doctrine that meets a certain situation. But if you understand the principle of grace you have the slide rule whereby you can work it out.

3. Doctrine of eternal security. These men did terrible things but they were eternally saved.

4. Inspiration. Moses was not about to write these things except that God the Holy Spirit indicated what he was to write, therefore he wrote under the control of the Holy Spirit.

5. The problem of historical sequence. Reuben, Simeon and Levi depict the character of Israel during the 400 silent years between the Old Testament and the New Testament and the character of Israel during the incarnation of Christ. During the incarnation Israel, with the exception of a faithful remnant, was like Reuben, noble but unstable. They were like Simeon and Levi, religious and implacable and full of jealousy and hatred and all of these negative mental attitudes. These were the attitudes that the scribes and the Pharisees had when they were plotting to kill the Lord of glory.

Verses 8-12, Judah.

Verse 8 – the word Judah means he who shall be praised. It means that God would receive praise from Israel. Judah also is the ruling tribe of Israel, the tribe

from which David came and the tribe through which the humanity of Christ was brought into the world. “Thy brethren” refers to the Jews and the Jews would honour the tribe of Judah as the ruling tribe. This is brought out through the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel 7:8-16 and Psalm 89:20-37.

“thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies” – Judah was the conquering tribe.

“thy father's children shall bow down before thee” – the prophecy of the fact that Reuben lost the rulership, it was passed to Judah.

“Judah is a lion's whelp” – a young lion. A young lion has great power and vigour. In fact, one of the titles for the Lord Jesus Christ is “the Lion of the tribe of Judah”—Revelation 5:5.

“from the prey, my son, thou art gone up”—in other words, he always gets his prey.

“he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up?” The indication here is that there would be a period as a couched lion [lying down], as an old lion, there would be a time when the tribe of Judah would not rule in Israel. This is a prophecy of the fact that when the Babylonian captivity took place the last king in the family of David, Zedekiah, no longer ruled. When the Jews came back from the captivity they were ruled by a member of the tribe of Judah but not as king. From the beginning of the Babylonian captivity until the Second Advent of Jesus Christ no member of the tribe of Judah would ever sit on David’s throne. The old lion no longer going out to hunt is a picture of Judah no longer reigning. God said to David that he would have a son who would reign forever and ever and ever. That son is Jesus Christ. The Davidic covenant will be fulfilled and perpetuated into eternity.

“who shall rouse him up?” Who refers to Jesus Christ.

Verse 10 – “The sceptre” is the rulership; “shall not depart from Judah.” At the Second Advent the Lion of the Tribe of Judah will return to the earth to reign. Even though Judah is not actively on the throne today the rulership will not depart from this tribe.

“until Shiloh come” – Shiloh is Jesus Christ. Shiloh, the Hebrew word for peace [it comes from Shalom], refers to the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.

“and unto him shall the gathering of the people be” – a prophecy of how the Jews will be regathered at the Second Advent.

Verse 11 – what will the land be like when Jesus Christ returns? “Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine” – they are going to be so prosperous in that day that they can actually tie animals to vines and the animals can’t get loose. In other words, the land is so thick and the vines are so strong—an agricultural idiom of prosperity.

“he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes”—the wine is so plentiful it is like water. In other words, it is just an agricultural symbol for prosperity.

Verse 12 – this simply means there is an abundance of wine.

Verse 13 – Zebulun means dwelling or protective habitation, a haven. Zebulun is good to have around. He represents the type of person that you like to have around, a steady type of person, a person who is comforting, who can be helpful in time of stress and difficulty. He is actually the tenth son of Jacob, and we are not down to number ten yet, so we know from this point on the order in which the sons appear is significant because it is not chronological. Zebulun is placed here for this reason: During the first advent of Jesus Christ Satan sought to destroy Jesus Christ as a baby. Joseph had to flee to Egypt where he stayed until Jesus was twelve years old. Then he came back to the land but was warned not to go to Judea. All children were regarded with great suspicion because one of them was thought to be Messiah, and every attempt was being made by Herod to destroy Messiah. Instead, he was to go to Galilee which was the territory of Zebulon. Zebulon is mentioned next because Jesus Christ, from twelve to thirty-three, found His refuge in Galilee. He was protected there. By way of application, Zebulun speaks of the type of person who is thoughtful of others, the person who is capable of mental attitude love, the person who is a shelter for weaker people around, a shelter in a time of storm.

Judges 5:18; 1 Chronicles 12:33 – soldiers from Zebulun always stood in the ranks and did not give way. This means they were stable under pressure.

“Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.” Zebulun had the sea ports of the land which were havens from the great storms which occurred in the Mediterranean. There were many ports. This reminds us that there are many doctrines, promises, many things by which we can help people who are weak and helpless, and who need encouragement and need to lean upon us. Therefore to be a Zebulun there must be an overall understanding of doctrine and of the Word of God. Sidon was the Gentile, unregenerate, false religious group. Principle: A person who is a Zebulun is stabilised and does not fall apart in time of crisis, and he does not succumb to false doctrine.

Verse 14 – Issachar means He will bring reward. He is the ninth son of Jacob and the fifth one by Leah. He is listed last among the sons of Leah because of what is said right here. Issachar is a picture of a person who has great potential power and doesn’t use it.

“a strong ass” – the ass was a very honourable animal at the time of this writing, and also one of great strength and great usefulness. This is taught in Judges 10:4; 12:14.

“couching down” – the Hebrew word means reclining. In other words, he won’t carry his burdens. Issachar was a person who, first of all, had no sense of responsibility. A believer who has no sense of responsibility is a believer who is going to fail miserably. He had the strength to carry his burdens and wouldn’t do it. Reuben was noble but unstable; Issachar was strong but unstable. So we see again the principle that when a believer does not have a sense of responsibility it leads to great instability.

There is another principle here. The potential strength is not used. Issachar is a person who has great power but will not use it. This depicts the carnal believer today who has the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, but when he is not filled with the Spirit and in the carnal status he is not using the great power which he possesses.

“reclining between two burdens” – the purpose of the ass was to carry burdens, one of which was carried on each side. When a believer does not use the power which God has provided for him then he falls into the pattern of verse 15.

Verse 15 – “And he saw that rest was good” – rest means prosperity. The tribe of Issachar, by the way, became a very prosperous tribe. A person who will not utilise divine power has a false scale of values, and this was the third problem of Issachar. He put materialistic things first, success first. He suffered from approbation lust and from power lust. The principle is the substitution of natural power for divine power and the substitution of natural ability for divine provision.

“and the land that it was pleasant [prosperous” – i.e. the land that was occupied by Issachar.

“he bowed his shoulders to bear” – this means he became a slave. This is the history of the tribe as well as having a personal principle. Issachar is one of the most fertile areas in the land of Palestine, the land which they occupied. Under an agricultural economy they were very successful, and because they were very prosperous and very successful when the time came to resist the infiltration of the enemy they refused to do so. They didn’t want to fight or resist. They did not have the right scale of values and freedom wasn’t important to them. Prosperity was more important than freedom and consequently the tribe of Issachar bowed the neck to slavery. They made a deal with the invaders, whoever came in, and simply paid them off and became their slaves. This continued during the entire history of the tribe of Issachar. In other words, they loved prosperity more than they loved freedom. The application to the individual believer is obvious. If you have a false scale of values it destroys several things. First of all, it destroys the use of divine power. There is no appreciation of divine operating assets. He doesn’t use rebound, the faith-rest technique, the promises and the doctrines which provide inner happiness and power. Therefore, not using the inner resources and power he becomes one who is interested only in the superficial, one who is interested only in the materialistic, and therefore often one who suffers from materialism lust or approbation lust or power lust. Therefore the result is a very miserable creature.

So Issachar had all of this power and didn’t use it, just as every believer has tremendous potential power, and failure to use what God has provided through grace means that the believer will use the alternative. The alternatives are the superficial activities connected with this life and the result is a very miserable believer.

Now we move on to the sons of Bilhah. The first one who is mentioned in verses 16-18 and 21 is Dan.

Verse 16 – Dan is one of the worst of all the tribes. First of all we have the fact that Dan is going to rule in the future, and this has to do with the Tribulation. The word judge means to rule. Right up to the time that Israel was dispersed this is the history of Dan. He is described as a snake, and this is an adverse description even in the day in which this was written. Dan always brought up the rear in Israel—Numbers 10:25. Dan was the first tribe to go into idolatry—Judges 18:30. Dan was the last tribe to receive an inheritance in the land—Joshua 19:47-49. Dan is mentioned last on every list that involves merit. For example, in 1 Chronicles 27 we have a list of the tribes according to merit and Dan is last. Dan is not mentioned in the list of tribes in Revelation 7 in connection with evangelism in the Tribulation. There will be no evangelists from the tribe of Dan in the Tribulation. Dan is omitted from the genealogies of 1 Chronicles chapters 2-10. All of this adds up to the fact that Dan was a very poor tribe in Israel.

Jacob prophesied specifically with regard to the Tribulational dictatorship. The Antichrist or the dictator of Israel in the Tribulation comes from the tribe of Dan, which is why Dan is not mentioned in Revelation 7.

Verse 17 – “Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.” The horse refers to Israel in the Tribulation and Dan is the one who is going to destroy the Jews, the believing remnant, in the Tribulation, or seek to do so. The rider is the Jewish remnant of the Tribulation and the serpent is the false prophet, the beast out of the land of Revelation 13. So here we have the dictatorship of Dan and it does not occur until the Tribulation.

Verse 18 – the believers in Israel, the remnant, offer this cry when Dan starts to oppress them. “I have waited for thy salvation [deliverance], O LORD.” In other words, this is the cry of the remnant waiting for the second advent of Christ when the remnant will be delivered from the dictatorship of Dan.

So in the historical sequence Dan depicts apostate Israel under the Antichrist in the Tribulation. But there is an application and it has to do with religion. Religion is the worst persecutor of the truth. Satan is the author of religion, religion is his greatest weapon, it is his ace trump. Religion is used to seek to neutralise the effectiveness of a clear witness for Jesus Christ. All of this comes from Dan in the Tribulation.

Verse 21 – Naphtali. “Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.” Naphtali means my wrestling. He was the sixth son of Jacob and he was the second son of Bilhah, Jacob’s concubine. My wrestling is apparently a reference to Jacob’s wrestling with the Lord and the fact that he lost, and he named one of his sons after that event.

We have two fulfilments of the history of Naphtali. The word hind is a young deer, a deer that can move very fast. This word for hind is used as a synonym for swiftness in the Song of Solomon. To be let loose means to be sprung from a trap. So Naphtali is pictured as a deer caught in a trap and able to break loose and to move with great rapidity out of danger. This is a prophecy with regard to two things that would happen in the tribe of Naphtali. In Judges 4:6 Barak was from the tribe of Naphatali. He was trapped by the invaders and discouraged, and then Deborah came and gave him some information from the Word of God which encouraged him to fight Sisera and he was able to deliver Israel from the Canaanites at that time. So this is first of all a prophecy dealing with that event which occurred in Judges chapter four. Then it has a distant fulfilment—Revelation 7:6. Twelve thousand Jews from the tribe of Naphatali are trapped by sin. The Rapture of the Church so startles them and so shakes them that there are 12,000 Jews in the tribe of Naphtali who respond to the message of the gospel and become believers in Jesus Christ and become evangelists. They trusted in Christ and were spring from the trap of sin, and they began to declare the message of the gospel. There are other passage son this such as Matthew 24:14 which has, among others, the 12,000 from Naphtali in mind. Also the results of their message is found in Revelation 7:9 cf. 7:14, they will have a great host of converts.

The application to us is obvious: We have been released from the trap of sin and therefore we are to move for the Lord--the implication is in the field of witnessing.

In the historical sequence these three tribes—Gad, Asher and Naphtali—describe Jewish believers in the Tribulation; the remnant, the election according to grace in the Tribulation. Just as Dan describes the apostate Jew in the Tribulation, Gad, Asher and Naphtali describe the born again Jew in the Tribulation.

Verses 19-20, the two sons of Zilpah—Gad and Asher. Gad will teach us the principle of rebound and Asher will teach us the importance of knowing doctrine.

Verse 19 – “Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.” Gad is the 7th son of Jacob, the first son by Zilpah who was Leah’s maid and one of his concubines. His name means good fortune. Gad was first of all beaten down but he won in the end. Gad was whipped the first time. The application is wonderful: Gad was defeated but he didn’t allow his defeat to keep him down. The great believers in the Old Testament as well as the great believers today are believers who do not allow failure to discourage them. The big problem is failure to rebound. We are all going to get into carnality but it is what we do after the carnality that counts. Do we rebound or not?

Here is the beautiful thing about Gad and this was true of the whole history of the tribe of Gad. Although they were beaten once they got right up again. In other words, the tribe of Gad lost battles but they never lost a war. That is the way it has to be with us! God has provided so that we can always win the war. “He shall overcome at last” – he always bounced back. The principle is that believers should never allow failure to keep them down.

Verse 20 – Asher. “Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.” The word fat means rich or prosperous. His bread means his life, it means everything he touched turned to gold. It means that Asher couldn’t lose on a business deal. This has an application to us, a spiritual one. Our life can be measured in terms of prosperity as far as being a believer is concerned. Whether our life is one of prosperity depends upon our spiritual condition. It depends on the filling of the Spirit, the faith-rest technique, upon rebound and occupation with Christ and use of doctrine. But our prosperity before God is not measured in terms of money or land or whatever we use as a criterion for wealth today, our prosperity with God is determined by our spiritual production. So by way of application Asher speaks of believers who produce. Asher produces. A believer who is habitually productive “yields royal dainties.” If your life is right with the Lord your life in relationship to other people will be a blessing to them. A royal dainty is a pastry which you have for desert. In other words, there are some lives that can be classified as desert lives. You run through life and you bump into a lot of ordinary people and a lot of horrible people that you would like to omit—like some foods you do not like—but there are certain believers whose walk with the Lord is of such a nature that he is relaxed and has such a wonderful walk with the lord that it just overflows into the lives of others. That is what Asher stands for.

Verses 22-26, Joseph.

Verse 22—“Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall.” Joseph is the double portion tribe. He became two of the tribes of Israel, Ephraim and Manasseh. Possibly a better translation here is “a fruitful tree.” He is a tree by the rivers of water. The life of Joseph was characterised by using the Word of God. The well refers to water. Here is a tree planted by the rivers of water of Psalm one. The secret of the life of Joseph was the Word—the well of water, the water of the Word of God.

“whose branches run over the wall” – over the wall means over the wall from Israel. The wall separates Israel from the rest of the world. In his later years Joseph had a great impact with his own people. He was hated and despised and rejected by his own people but his great production was not with the Jews but with the Egyptians. Joseph reached an entire generation of Egyptians.

Verse 23 – “The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him.” Joseph was the object of operation sour grapes, the recipient of jealousy. And who was hurt by the jealousy? Those who were jealous, not Joseph. The archers who have shot at him were his ten brothers, and later Potiphar, and so on. So Joseph was the recipient of a great deal of pressure and persecution. He was hated because of his great ability.

Verse 24 – “But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.” The bow means the weapon which fires the arrow. The analogy is this: the bow is bent but when the string is released it always bounces back. Joseph was bent and bent and bent but he was never broken, and he always bounced back. No pressure in life ever broke Joseph. The bow was made strong. Every time the bow was bent and released it was stronger than before. In other words, persecution and suffering and trial and heartache and frustration and adversity just made Joseph stronger. Why? The answer is the well of water, the Word of God. He utilised the resources provided by God, “the mighty one of Jacob,” which is the God of grace. In other words, if God could put up with Jacob He could put up with anyone. Joseph appropriated under the system of grace, by means of faith-rest, whereas his brothers did not. He knew and understood the grace of God and appropriated it when he needed it in time of great stress.

Parenthesis: “(from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:) (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel)” -- from thence means from the mighty one of Jacob, not from the tribe of Joseph. From God the Father comes God the Son. Jesus Christ who founded the Jewish race is also the Shepherd of the Jewish race. Jesus Christ is called here “the stone of Israel.” That is the Rock of Israel. In other words, He is the saviour. He is the founder of the Jewish race, the Shepherd/Provider of the Jewish race, and He is the saviour of the Jews.

Verses 25 and 26 – the prophecy of when He will do this. “Even by the God of thy father,” who is Jesus Christ.

“who shall help thee” – this is the Second Advent of Christ when the unconditional covenants will be fulfilled.

“and by the Almighty [the omnipotent One], who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.” This is the declaration of the double portion.

The blessing of the life of Joseph is the reliance on the Word of God as it was given to him, verbally, through dreams and visions.

Verse 27 – Benjamin, who is called the son of my right hand. He is a beautiful illustration of the Lord Jesus Christ but personally he did not turn out too well. Probably Benjamin could be called the spoiled brat type. He was the twelfth and last son of Jacob and was spoiled by his father after Joseph disappeared.

“Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf” – the word ravin means to raid, to be fierce, to be rough and tough. The word is used in the Hebrew for tearing something in pieces.

“in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.” He attacks in the morning and is still eating at night. In other words, Benjamin is fierce and tough, and the tribe of Benjamin was the great tribe of soldiers.

Two people from the tribe of Benjamin: The worst king in many ways was King Saul who was from the tribe of Benjamin—1 Samuel 22:17-20; the worst sinner who ever lived in the history of the human race came from the tribe of Benjamin, Saul of Tarsus—1 Timothy 1:12-16. He was a self-righteous, moral, religious person. He was the perfect illustration of Benjamin tearing the flock to pieces.

This has an analogy to the Second Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ returns to the earth He will ravin, devour, and divide. This has to do with the judgment which follows the second advent of Christ and it is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ reigning in the Millennium, the Son of the right hand reigning over Israel forever and ever.

The historical sequence of this prophecy

1. The character of Israel up to the time of Christ: Reuben, Simeon, Levi.

2. The first reference to the second advent of Christ—the tribe of Judah, the Lion from the tribe of Judah.

3. Israel scattered among the nations, under the fifth cycle of discipline, during the Church Age—Zebulun and Issachar.

4. Apostate Israel during the Tribulation—Dan.

5. The believing Jewish remnant during the Tribulation—Gad, Asher, Naphtali.

6. The second coming of Christ to Israel—Joseph.

7. The rule of Christ during the Millennium—Benjamin.

Verse 28 – “All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he

blessed them.” This is a very strange phrase in view of the fact that he told them everything that was going to happen. Why does it say he blessed them? By prophesying the trend of each tribe whatever their failures are, by knowing ahead of time what these failures are they can avail themselves of the grace of God and avoid the trend that will characterise the unregenerate of the tribe. In other words, the more you know about the future the more you can be prepared to meet it. Prophecy prepares for the future. That preparation gives stability in time. So Jacob was giving them a blessing even though the blessing involved certain curses.

Verse 29 – his dying request. Why does he want to be buried with his fathers? His fathers refer to Abraham and Isaac. In the resurrection he wants to be with them. He knows that there is something special for all of them in the land—the promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—and therefore in his dying moments he is looking at the future. When he gets his resurrection body he wants to be standing with his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham. In dying he is perfectly relaxed. He knows where he is going and that in a few moments after he utters these things he will be in the presence of the Lord.

Genesis 50

Chapter 50

Verses 15-17: this is a lie. There was no such thing said by Jacob before he died, but the brothers were frightened out of their wits. The ten brothers look at life from the human viewpoint and they impugn Joseph’s motivation. They thought that Jacob’s death would remove any restraint that Joseph had and that the only reason Joseph was holding back vengeance was because of the fact that the father was still alive. So they come up with this thought pattern: “Joseph will hate us.”

There is a very important principle in this thought pattern. They judged Joseph by themselves instead of using the criterion of grace. They judged Joseph by themselves and whenever a person does this he simply reveals his own meanness of soul. These brothers are saying in effect that they would kill Joseph at this point. “Father is dead, we would kill him, so we assume that he would do that to us.” They do not understand the principle of grace, they have no nobility of character. They are judging Joseph, and they are judging him because this is what they would do. They are small, mean-souled, petty, carnal believers. But Joseph didn’t have this area of weakness, he was a strong believer, a mature believer, and they simply could not understand Joseph at all.

It should be noticed in all of this that Joseph kept his eyes on the Lord. He habitually looked at life from the divine viewpoint, he lived by doctrine, by the Word, and so his reaction is one of grace. It is characteristic of weak people to impugn the motivation of others and that is why the brothers were afraid. Weak people measure others by themselves and therefore weak people never find nobility in others. Because of their evil criticism and thinking that Joseph harboured resentment and had bitterness in his soul the ten brothers are now filled with fear.

“And Joseph wept” – he wept because he realised that here were ten of his brothers who were saved, but here were ten brothers who had not matured as believers. They were saved but they had human instead of divine viewpoint. Joseph was never as disturbed about his brothers when they were unsaved but when they are saved they are representing the Lord. Now that they belong to the Lord he sees something that the Egyptians cannot see. He can read their minds at this point. They have revealed it to him. And how did they reveal it? They sent a messenger, they didn’t come themselves, they were afraid they might be killed. “Dad said before he died, Don’t touch us.” Jacob didn’t say that at all. Jacob in the last 17 years of his life grew up spiritually, and he understood that his son Joseph was a strong man in grace, and he understood that Joseph was one person on the face of the earth who would not return evil for good. Joseph would only return good for evil under grace. Joseph was filled with nobility and his brothers were small, petty people. The tragedy of our day is that there are too many believers like the ten brothers. The lied, and Joseph knew they lied. Now Joseph must comfort them and take them like little children and show them not to be concerned.

Verse 18 – there is one thing the brothers haven’t met with and that is grace. They are about to learn the lesson of grace.

Verses 19-21, Joseph expresses grace.

Verse 19 – the concept of the faith-rest technique. “And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?” This means that Joseph has put the whole matter in the Lord’s hands. Principle: Don’t get in the Lord’s way. You can never do as good a job as the Lord can on someone who has wronged you.

When Jacob puts a matter in the Lord’s hands he forgets it. What is putting it in the Lord’s hands? True forgiveness. Colossians 3:13; Ephesians 4:32. Joseph directs the brothers’ attention to God, and then he expresses the divine viewpoint.

Verse 20 – “ye thought.” What was it they thought? Genesis 37:4—“they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him.” Verse 5—“they hated him yet the more.” Verse 8 – “and they hated him yet the more.” Verse 11 – “his brethren envied him.” Verse 18, 20 – “they conspired against him to slay him.”

“but” – here is what happens when you put your life in the Lord’s hands, when you operate on the basis of the faith-rest technique—“God meant it for good.” Cf. Romans 8:28. Who but God can turn cursing into blessing? Grace!

“but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” And who is He saving alive? Not only these ten brothers but their families, their children. He has delivered them from starvation, he has been able to put them in a place of prosperity, and there are actually about 72 people that were delivered. Did they deserve it? No. God worked all these things together through grace.

Verse 21 – God always treated Joseph in grace, and Joseph is a man who is mature and he treats others in grace.

Verse 22 – “And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house.” This implies that there was peace among the brothers. This was undoubtedly the tremendous accumulation of doctrine in the mind of Joseph. Occupation with Christ is the technique of spiritual maturity, and Joseph is not only mature from the human standpoint but he is mature spiritually. Therefore, not only is he ruling Egypt, and not only is Egypt prospering, but he is ruling his own family and they, too, are prospering. Now they are enjoying something that in all of their lives they have never known before. So it suggests to us that Joseph was not only ruling the empire of Egypt well, which was his secular responsibility, but he was fulfilling a marvellous spiritual responsibility. He was preparing Israel, the patriarchs, the family of some 72 people that came down from Palestine to Egypt, for the next step in their history—400 years of captivity. The period of the patriarchs was a very difficult time in the starting of a family but now at the end of the period, in the time that Joseph ruled after his father’s death, there is peace in the family, a peace that will last some 30 years after Joseph’s death, and then the catastrophe will come. Four generations of Jews will be in slavery but out of some 72 people who went into slavery will come 2-million people. Genesis 15:13—the prophecy to Abraham. Joseph had this prophecy in mind when he was about to die.

Verse 24 – “And Joseph said unto his brethren, I [am about to] die.” Now he gives them the message which in effect becomes the Word of God to the Jews during the 400 years of enslavement. “God will surely visit you” – at the time that Joseph said this the Jews were in great prosperity in Goshen, a province of Egypt. But 30 years afterward the new dynasty in Egypt would enslave these people. They are going into slavery but from this slavery “God will visit.” The word visit means to deliver. God will visit with deliverance “and bring you out of this land [Egypt], unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” The word sware means to make a solemn promise. God made a solemn promise to Abraham—Genesis 13:14,15; to Isaac—Genesis 26:3; to Jacob—Genesis 35:12. Notice the sustaining factors during the 400 years: promises, doctrine, and one other factor—Joseph’s strange request. He is going to say, “Do not bury me,” and in that way the bones of Joseph plus the doctrine that he passed on from Genesis 15, plus the promises starting in Genesis 13:14, are the sustaining factors through the time of slavery.

Here are four generations that never had relief from slavery but they had inner happiness, inner peace, inner power, inner blessing. The reason they had these things is because they had doctrine, promises, and the bones of Joseph.

Verse 25 – “And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you [deliverance], and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.” In other words, they were not to bury him. His bones were to remain in the coffin but he was not to be buried.

Verse 26 – “So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.” For 400 years the Jews were going to go to the place of that unburied coffin. Fathers would say to their sons, “Son, here are the bones of Joseph. Before Joseph died he spelled out the prophecy with regard to the fact that God is going to visit us, that we have a future, that we are not going to stay in slavery forever.” The bones of Joseph was the Bible long before the Bible was written. The promises of Genesis were passed on from generation to generation, the gospel was clearly declared, and in the Exodus generation every person who walked out of Egypt as a Jew was born again. Every Gentile who left with them were born again. It was a regenerate generation that left. The gospel message was perpetuated throughout 400 years of slavery, the doctrine of eschatology was perpetuated, the promises were passed on. For this reason Joseph was put in a coffin but he was not buried. Exodus 13:19—“And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he [Joseph] had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you.” During the 40 years of going through the desert the bones of Joseph were carried.

And after the 40 years when they crossed the Jordan river and encamped at Gilgal the bones of Joseph were kept at the encampment until the land was partially conquered. Then for a final disposition of the bones of Joseph, Joshua 24:32—“And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.” Shechem is the Hebrew word for shoulder and it means power. God’s Word is always powerful. God revealed Himself to these people in a powerful way, a doctrine of eschatology from Genesis 15, promises to the patriarchs, and the bones of Joseph never placed in a tomb until this moment.

There is one other principle in the bones of Joseph: the principle of resurrection, the principle of looking at the future, the principle of knowing what the future holds, the principle of living in the future while you are in time. This is what Joseph did. Joseph was buried in his own piece of property in his own land. He was buried near his great grandfather Abraham, and his grandfather Isaac, and his father Jacob. And in the resurrection the soul and spirit of these four generations of patriarchs will all rise from the same spot. The bones of Joseph will take on flesh, the flesh of the resurrection body, and he will see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob standing beside him. The four patriarchs spanning four generations in resurrection will see what God has promised and will rejoice in that which He has provided.