Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #45 of Genesis, chapter 24, and we are reading Genesis 24:49-50:

And now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me: and if not, tell me; that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left. Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing proceedeth from JEHOVAH: we cannot speak unto thee bad or good.

We looked at the first part of verse 49 in our last study, where this servant was laying things out and saying, “… if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master,” and we saw this language has to do with God’s salvation program.  It is to allow God to work by getting out out of our own way and being subservient to the will of God.  It is to assist in helping in some way, and this would be “dealing kindly and truly” with the Master concerning God’s overall salvation program.

In the deliverance of Rahab the harlot, we saw that the spies said they would deal kindly and truly with her, and they did, meaning she was spared from death.  She was delivered.  So, too, it is here.  But then the servant said, “And now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me: and if not, tell me, that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left.”  We are going to look at several verses that speak of “the right” and “the left,” in order to let God, through the Bible, define His own terms to get a good understanding of what it means.  As I mentioned in our last study, once we understand what it means, it will present a bit of a problem.  Then we will look at the problem and see a solution that I think is the only possible solution.  And then we will move on to the verse 50 where instead of speaking of “the right hand” or “the left,” it is talking about “bad” or “good.”

But let us look at verses that help us with “the right” and “the left,” by starting with Deuteronomy 5:32:

Ye shall observe to do therefore as JEHOVAH your God hath commanded you: ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

Do what God commands you – do not go to the right hand or to the left.  You must stay on that course regarding the things God commands.

It says in Deuteronomy 17:11:

According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.

It is the “sentence of the law,” and the Bible is the Law Book.  It is the Word of God.  The Scriptures are what is being referred to here which God is giving them.  They are not to “decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left.” 

You know, it is very helpful for us to see these verses because of man’s tendency when he hears what the Bible says.  For example, the Bible says that once we are married, there is not to be divorce, and the only thing that can break that marriage is the death of one of the spouses.  But what does man do?  Man looks for loopholes, and it is like mankind is like a crooked lawyer trying to get the guilty client off the hook.   And the Word of God says that this is the way it is, and man says, “Let us see if we can find a way out.”  It does not matter if it goes to the right hand or to the left, they just want another way or another option.  They do not like what the commandment says concerning Sunday the Sabbath, the qualifications for deacons and elders during the church age, or the fact that women should not teach or usurp authority over the man, and so forth.  And, again, just insert whatever right doctrine you want in the Bible, and man will work overtime not to go “that way,” but to go another way.  And it relates very much to what we were talking about earlier regarding “the right way.”  The Bible speaks of the broad way that leads to destruction or the narrow way.    In a world of broad pathways of philosophies, religions or anything else under the sun, there is the way of the Word of God, the Gospel, and it is the way of God’s commandments regarding the things He has spoken: “…thou shalt not decline from the sentence.”  And, yet, it is what man does decline from every time, if left to himself. 

It is only by God’s grace that there is a people, a remnant that God has redeemed for Himself and instilled within them an ongoing desire to do the will of God; that is, there is an ongoing desire to follow “that way” of what God has said, without going to the right or the left, but going straight on.

In the last verse of the chapter, it also says in Deuteronomy 17:20:

That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.

So far, we have seen this phrase three times.  Again of course, turning not aside from the commandment is referring to the Bible.  God has given His Word, and as part of that Word, God commands, “Do not pervert it.  Do not change it.  Do not take a detour from it and go off course.  Stay on the road that is lit before you.”  The Word itself is “a lamp unto our feet.”  It does not shine in other directions, but only in the direction we should travel, and that is what the Bible is telling us.

Let us look at one more verse in Deuteronomy 28.  The first fourteen verses of this chapter are the blessings of obedience and then from verse 15 to the end of the chapter, it is the curses of disobedience.  So verse 14 is the last verse before this change in direction as far as what God is talking about.  It says in Deuteronomy 28:14:

And thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

We must follow the Word of God.  Who is the Word?  Christ is the Word.  We are following the Word.  We desire to do things God’s way, and as we follow, we are worshipping the true God of the Bible.  But if we go to the right or to the left, we are not following the Word and we end up worshipping other gods.  This is where false doctrines and false gospels come in.  Remember, in the Bible, Christ and the Gospel are synonymous.  When the Bible says in Matthew 24 that there will be “false Christs” that will arise at the time of the end, it is not talking about people that are mentally insane and think or say they are Christ, but it talking about those that come looking like Christ and claiming, “This is the true Gospel.”  But it is not – it is a false gospel.  So they are saying, in effect, “I am Christ, or this is Christ and follow us.”  We are to follow Christ and the truth of the Word of God, but in that case, it turns out to be an idol or another god or gospel, and that is what God is warning us about.  That is why it is so important to stay on that (right) path, and only God can keep anyone on that path and going the right way that leads to the kingdom of God. 

In Joshua 1, we have another reference in Joshua 1:7:

Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.

It refers to all the Law.  Do all the Law, and we are able to do that through the new heart and spirit that God gives us, which perfectly obeys the whole Law of God.  Our new born-again soul is without sin, according to 1John 3.  There is no error, and we do follow God through the indwelling Holy Spirit and the new born-again soul within us that has the desire not to go to the right or to the left.

So at this time the church age is over, and where do God’s people want to be?  We want to be outside the churches.  If you are in a church (and it does not matter what church),  you have gone off course – you have gone right or left, and you are serving other gods.  The true God and the Word of God leads us out and forward: out of the churches and forward, pressing toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.  We walk, step by step, through this testing program, just as the Israelites walked in the wilderness for forty years.  So that is where God’s elect people will be found.  They will be found there, not turning to the right or to the left.

Now that does not mean there will not be sin on occasion.  We know when we read the Bible, God does not hide the fact that the elect will still sin at times, and even sin grievously like David did by committing adultery and murder.  But there will not be an ongoing, habitual course set on sin, like going back to the churches and taking your family with you, or whatever.  There will not be that kind of sinful activity.  There can be a lying thought, which would be an idolatrous thought.  There could be a moment of hatred or anger, and so forth.  We sin in the body.  The body has not been perfected and, yet, it is part of us, so we have to own it and admit our sin: “It is my sin.  I have sinned.”  So we are perfect in our soul, but not yet perfect in body and, yet, it is all about the road or pathway.  It is not something that an elect child of God is going to veer off from and start going away from God on the broad way that leads to destruction.

Let us look at one other verse in Joshua 23:6:

Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left;

This is at least five or six times that God has said the same thing: stay on the Word, with no deviation.  It does not matter what way you deviate, but there is to be no deviation from the Word of God; or to say it more clearly,  the truth of the Word of God, because every professed Christian thinks he is following the Word, but there is a responsibility and obligation to know the truth.  Christ is the truth and He does allow His people to hear His voice and to know His voice.  He is the Shepherd that goes ahead and leads us.  We follow Christ: “Take up your cross and follow me.”  We do not lead.  We are following.  We follow the Word.  That is what God’s people have always done, and it is what we are doing today.  And we follow what the Bible says, as God directs us. 

Remember, God has given us that wonderful methodology of comparing Scripture with Scripture, here a little, there a little.  And as we do that with the excellent Bible helps that God has provided for us in these last days, doctrine comes forth, and doctrine is then tested by the Biblical rule of there being “two or three witnesses” in agreement, or harmonization with all that the Bible says.  The “two or three witnesses” would be the Triune God (God the Father and God the Son, plus God the Holy Spirit).  When two or three witnesses agree together, then it was enough to put a man to death.  Their witness is true, and that is the principle we take from the Bible when we have done our homework, studying to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that needeth not to be ashamed.  We take a verse, look at the words and see where they are used elsewhere, just like we did when we looked at “right hand” or “left hand.”  We looked at five or six verses and we came to a conclusion, and it was not my conclusion, but it was God’s conclusion.  God defined what it means by not turning to the right hand or to the left.  I did not write these things and tie them to the Word of God, the commandments of God.   God wrote it, and God defined those terms.  Now we have the definition which will apply to the whole Bible and harmonize with everything, and there is nothing in the Bible that would not harmonize with the conclusion: To not “turn to the right hand, or to the left,” means to follow the Word of God, straight on.  And if you recall, we just did several Bible studies on “the right way” or the “narrow way,” which is the straight-on way, not deviating in any direction.

That leads us to Proverbs 4:25-27:

Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

God is talking about the right hand and the left, and then He also mentioned the foot.  Why did He do that?  It is because turning to the right hand or to the left would be committing evil, and the “foot,” as well as the “hand,” identifies with the will of an individual that would turn from going “right on,” as God said.  You are to look right on and straight before thee.  If anyone turns from that, he has given into his sinful will and he has done evil.  He has strayed and transgressed the Law.  You know, we always think of that boundary, the “ancient landmark” that the Bible speaks of as the boundary markers.  When we think of transgressions, the boundary is a very narrow boundary that God has set over every verse in the Bible.  And, more than that, He has set a boundary over every Word.  He has set a boundary upon every verse, every passage, every chapter and every book, and you and I are called upon to follow it “straight on,” and not error from the course that God has set.  And if only we would do it perfectly, we would find far greater blessings and far less turmoil and trouble that comes from our own sin.  But, again, no one does it perfectly while still in our bodies, but for the most part God’s elect stay on that path.  We can venture for a moment to the right or to the left, but then we get on “ground,” which is the picture we find in Exodus regarding the wall of water.  It says in Exodus 14:22:

And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.

And it is repeated in Exodus 14:29:

But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.

You see, it is the way of deliverance that we saw earlier.  The way to escape the enemy and to make it safely to the kingdom of heaven is a narrow way.  The sea was far wider and greater than that pathway that God opened up in the midst of it so the Israelites could travel over on dry ground.  So we can understand this much better, and if we go to the right or to the left, we are going off course from the Word of God.  And the Word of God is like the opening that God made in the midst of the sea, and He brings His people through and over to the other side, to the safety of the glorious kingdom of God, as long as we stay on that pathway.  That is the picture that is in view, and that is the understanding of (not turning to) the right hand or to the left.

Before we close this study, that presents a problem with what it said back in Genesis 24:49:

And now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me: and if not, tell me; that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left.

We just got done looking at several verses that indicate that we must stay right on the course, and you are commanded not to turn to the right hand or to the left.  So how can a faithful servant make the statement?  He wants to know if he can have Rebekah to take back to be a bride for Isaac.  “If you tell me you are not going to let her go (and they would, therefore, not be dealing kindly and truly with his master), then he is going to have the options of turning to his right hand, or to the left.”  What it would mean is that Rebekah was not the one – she was not the chosen bride for Isaac and that the servant had somehow gone off course in the mission and task he was sent to perform.  Therefore, he would have to recalibrate and say, “Now what am I going to do now, because I must do what my master commanded me to do?”  In other words, he is saying, “If this is not correct, I will make correction, and I will find that right way.”  However, it was correct.  Rebekah was the one, and his master had led him the right way, so there was no need to make correction in anything and, yet, he was open and willing to be corrected, if necessary.

We will have to stop here and, Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, we will look further at this interesting chapter in the book of Genesis and see what is in view as we go on to the next verse.