Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #35 of Genesis, chapter 28, and we are going to read Genesis 28:20-22:
And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall JEHOVAH be my God: And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
I mentioned last time that Jacob is not “striking a deal” or bargaining with God, saying, “Now, Lord, you do all these things for me – do not leave me, keep me in the way, give me bread and raiment, and bring me again to my father’s house –then you will be my God at that time I will serve you as God, once I have come back.” No – he is simply indicating that if God will be with him and keep him and provide bread and raiment for him and bring him back again in peace, it will be the evidence that God has favored him and blessed him and is His God, as He has been all along.
And it is similar to the Scripture that I also mentioned previously, in Matthew 24:13:
But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
And, again, we have to understand this verse in a similar way. It is not that our endurance will cause us to be saved at the end (in other words, because we endured), but it is the proof or evidence that we were saved all along, by God’s grace. It is all by His grace, if we continue to faithfully go through the Day of Judgment.
Of course, the question has to be asked: “What are we to endure?” And the answer the Bible gives is that we are to endure sound doctrine, the teachings of the Bible. We must abide in the doctrine of Christ. If we fail to abide in His doctrine, we are none of His, and it is proving that we were never His. We were not “gold, silver precious stones,” but we are “wood, hay, stubble,” which will burn. But if we do continue steadfastly in His Word, trusting in the things that God has revealed at the time of the end, and we follow the truth and abide in that doctrine, then we are proving to be “gold, silver, precious stones,” and it is proof that God did save us.
With Jacob, likewise, this is true. If he comes back again and God has kept him and been with him and fed him and clothed him, and he returns to the land in peace, then it was just evidence that God is His God and had always been His God.
Then verse 22 also goes along with this idea. If he goes and comes again, and we know that would be 40 years later when he was 100 years old. And we also know that this language fits in with the Biblical language of the end of time, the 40-year period from 1994 to 2033, inclusively. It is the time that we are presently going through, and if we make it to the conclusion of this period, and if we faithfully endure, it will be the evidence and manifestation that God had saved us and paid for our sins at the foundation of the world, and there is no sin in us.
Also, when we get to the last day, as it says here, Genesis 28:22: “ And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house,” we have to keep in mind that God has been building his house all through history, and that this point, the construction has been completed. It is a spiritual house built up of “living stones.” Everyone who God saved and had mercy upon was added as a “living stone” to that structure, until the last one became saved prior to May 21, 2011, the day in which God determined to finish things concerning the salvation of souls. So on that day, He did shut the door to heaven after having completed His salvation program and after having found the last of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now it is done. That part of His program is done, and all that remains is the salvation of our bodies.
But it is being emphasized here that when Jacob would come again after 40 years or after the completion of the prolonged judgment, this “stone” (which points to Christ) which was set for a “pillar” (which points to Christ) shall be God’s house. You see, we are built up in Him a spiritual house. He is that foundation stone. He is also the mixture, cement or glue that brings it all together, and that is because faith is mixed, if we go to Hebrews 4:2:
For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
And who is “faith” when it comes to saving faith? It is the Lord Jesus Christ. It was not tempered together with the faith of Christ. These who had the gospel preached to them – the Jews of old or the professed Christians of the New Testament churches – could not be added to the spiritual house of “living stones” because there was no mortar or mixture to hold it together. In order to hold, there had to be the mortar of “faith” or the mortar of Christ. And this is why the earthly house of this tabernacle, the corporate church, collapsed, and not one stone was left upon another. There was no “faith” in that mixture to support the “building” and hold everything together.
So when we finally get to the last day of the prolonged judgment (which the Biblical evidence is indicating will be in 2033, then that would be the 40th year, inclusively. Then the house of God will really come to the forefront in a way never seen before because it is the “house” or “city” that is in view in the new heaven and new earth, where the people of God will live for evermore with God dwelling in the midst. It is just like the ark was placed in the completed temple, which signified the indwelling presence of God.
It goes on to say at the end of the verse, in Genesis 28:22:
… and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
Here, the Hebrew word translated as “tenth” is Strong’s #6237, and it is found nine times in the Old Testament. For example, it is found twice in this verse, where it says, “…I will surely give the tenth unto thee.” The King James translators often treated the doubling of a word as a point of emphasis, so they translated it, “I will surely give the tenth unto thee.” But, literally, when we look at the Hebrew, this word would read this way:
…all which you give to me giving a tenth, I will give a tenth to you.
So Jacob is speaking to God, saying, literally, “All which you give to me, giving a tenth, I will give a tenth to you.” And it is really pointing to Jacob here as a type and figure of Christ, as God the Father gives Him a people – He gives them the elect. Then Christ, in turn, gives that which was given to him back to the Father. We can see that picture, especially in John 17:6:
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
Then it says in John 17:10:
And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
So the Father gives the chosen people to the Son, but then the Son says, “All that I have are thine,” and the Son gives them to the Father. That is the idea, and that would mean that the word “tenth” in Genesis 28:22 is a type and figure of the elect. Actually, that is the case if we go to Deuteronomy 14:22:
Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year.
The word “tithe” is this Hebrew word, #6237, that is also translated as “tenth.” And that is why many people in the churches talk about tithing as giving a tenth. And, again, the Hebrew word #6237 is found twice in this verse. Literally, this would read: “Giving the tithe (tenth), you shall tithe all the increase of thy seed.” The same word is found twice, and the word “seed” is the same word that is used repeatedly in the Bible regarding the elect children of God, as we see in Genesis 17:7-8:
And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
Clearly, the seed of Abraham mentioned here are those that were predestinated to receive God’s salvation. The land of Canaan is given to them for an everlasting possession. It is not possible concerning the literal land, but it is only possible to be the new earth, which Canaan represented, which was the kingdom of God. The elect will receive it in the form of the new heaven and new earth on the last day, after God destroys this cursed creation and re-creates a new, perfect and holy creation. We know from Galatians 3 that Christ is counted for the “seed.” That is why it is singular. And, yet, we are also told that all those in Christ are counted along with Him and reckoned to be the “seed of Abraham,” because we are in Him.
So when we read, “Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed,” or literally giving a tenth, you shall tithe all the increase of thy seed, the “tenth” or the “tithe” is connected to the seed. We can also find the word “tithe” connected to fruits with the word “increase” in Leviticus 23, speaking of when they would bring the fruits in, and that is the word translated as “increase” here in Deuteronomy 14:22, and in some other places.
So the tithe that Jacob is vowing to give to God…and, again, the historical parable here is painting Jacob as a type of Christ, so the tithe that God will first give to him, he will give back to God is a picture of all God would save in His salvation program.
In the New Testament, we read of the “tithe” in a few places, but the main passage can be found in Hebrews 7 where we read of Abraham giving a tithe to Melchisedec. I will read Hebrews 7:1-4:
For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually. Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils.
He gave to Melchisedec the tenth of the spoils of battle. We went through Genesis 14, and that is where we read about that battle. Let us turn back there, and I will read the verses that Hebrews 7 is referring to, in Genesis 14:18-20:
And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.
That is, Abraham gave to Melchizedek “tithes of all” after his enemies were delivered into his hand. We spent a good deal of time going through Genesis 14 and looking at the battle that took place there. Remember, Lot was taken captive along with others in Sodom and some of the cities of the plain, and Abraham armed his trained servants, of which there were 322 altogether, including Abraham. (And that number breaks down to “ 2 x 7 x 23.”) And he armed his servants and fought these kings and defeated them, and he delivered the captives. We saw how that relates to God’s salvation program of setting the captives free. When Jesus opened up the book of Isaiah in the temple and He read that passage regarding preaching deliverance to the captives, that was His mission and task and the thing that He accomplished. Of course, He had to fight Satan for that at the cross, and all throughout the New Testament church age and the Great Tribulation, it was a non-stop battle to deliver the captives. Yes – there had already been the deliverance of paying for their sins at the foundation of the world, which was through the atoning work of Christ. But throughout history from the beginning of time until God completed His salvation program, there had to be the application of the shed blood of Christ to each one of those elect in salvation, and Satan fought against that, but he was unable to prevent the deliverance of all those that were to be saved.
So the tithe of Abram in Genesis 14 was a picture of Christ delivering the captives – the tithe that Abram (or Christ) paid to Melchizedek, a type and figure of the Lord Jesus or eternal God. He was given deliverance by God. He was given the victory in that battle, and the spoils of the victory were given to him by God, and then he gave a tenth back to God, just as Jacob was saying in Genesis 28. And that “tenth,” the spoil of the battle, typifies all the elect that were delivered by the Lord Jesus Christ through the battle that raged all throughout earth’s history, up until Judgment Day. So that is the tithe that Jacob is referring to in this last verse of Genesis 28, in Genesis 28:22
…and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
It is fitting. Of course, it is very appropriate that when he comes again at the conclusion of the 40-year timeline (which would mean the Great Tribulation is over and Judgment Day is over), he is returning to the land of Canaan or the kingdom of God, and he is coming with the spoils of the victory from the battle with the enemy. He is coming with all His people and giving them to the Father. Then there will be the glorious eternal future that lies ahead for God and all His people.