Genesis 40 Series, Part 35, Verses 17-19
Hello, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Today is study #35 in Genesis 40. And I will read Genesis 40:17-19:
And in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of bakemeats for Pharaoh; and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head. And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation thereof: The three baskets are three days: Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.
>We have been looking at the dream and its interpretation for the baker. We have seen that the baker identifies with those that are involved with the Gospel, and that would mean those in the churches and congregations.
We also looked at Absolom’s rebellion which ended with him being hanged in a tree. Joab came and struck him with three darts in his heart, and Joab’s men killed him as he was hanging in the tree.
We also saw that the Bible says that he who is hanged in a tree is cursed. We saw that in Deuteronomy 21, and it is quoted in Galatians 3:13:
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
>Jesus hung on a tree, as the cross was made from the wood of a tree. We are told that Jesus was crucified on a tree in Acts 5:30:
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.
>It is significant that He was hanged on a tree because it means He was cursed, and that is the nature of the sinner who is under the wrath of God because of his sins. And Jesus bore our sins in His own body at the foundation of the world. We are told in 1Peter 2:24:
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
>Jesus bore our sins in His own body. There is no question about that. At what point in time did Christ bear our sins? The answer is that it was not in time, but in eternity past when He bore our sins in His body. Yes, God made Him a body at that time. God made Adam’s body from the dust of the ground because He is a Creator. It did not require that a person be born of a woman to have a genuine and legitimate human body. Adam was not born of a woman but was created as a man. Likewise, Jesus made Himself a body in eternity past to bear the sins of His people. Of course it was a legitimate body because God tells us that man was made in His image and likeness, and that is because the first man Adam was patterned after the body of Christ. Christ has the preeminence in all things – He is before all creation. He died and was resurrected, declared to be the Son of God as the “firstborn from the dead.” That is when He bore our sins in His body on a tree.
By the way, we do not have to understand it to have been a literal tree. Christ spoke in parables, so what would be the significance of a tree? It was to identify with being cursed. So we can ask the question, “Was Jesus cursed at the point that He was bearing the sins of His people?” Yes. As the Lamb of God, He was smitten (killed) for those sins at the foundation of the world. He became a curse for us. Therefore God can use the spiritual figure of a “tree” to identify with a curse. So He was hanged on a tree, and He bore our sins in His own body on the tree in the sense that He became a curse for us as He stood before the wrath of God in our place. Then we have perfect harmony with the whole Bible because Christ was not bearing our sins in 33 A. D. when He went to the cross, but He was demonstrating, or showing forth, what He had done in eternity past.
So we see that Christ figuratively hung on a tree at the foundation of the world, and then He was literally hanged on a tree in 33 A. D. to make manifest what He had done previously when there had been no human witnesses. It was only witnessed by the godhead.
There is another verse I want to go to because I think it will give us a better understanding of this. Isaiah 22 tells us of a man named Eliakim. That Hebrew name means “God rising.” This word either means “God raising,” or “God raising,” which points to the resurrection. So Eliakim is being used as a figure of Christ in this passage. It says in Isaiah 22:20-21:
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah: And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand…
>This reminds us of Isaiah 9:6-7:
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom…
>So concerning Eliakim, it goes on to say in Isaiah 22:21-22:
And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.
>Here is says the key will be laid upon His shoulder, and in Isaiah 9 it said the government shall be upon His shoulder. That is, He is the ruler and king of His people. This language of the “key” identifies with Christ, as we see in Revelation 1:18:
I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
>Christ has the keys of “hell,” which is synonymous with the grave, and of “death” because He was triumphant over death. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and He rose again. He is the “God of raising,” as we see in the name Eliakim. He arose and obtained the spiritual key to hell and death.
It also says in Revelation 3:7:
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;
>What does Christ open with the key to hell and death? He opens the grave of the sinner when He saves the sinner. He opens the gate of heaven so the sinner may ascend upon the Son of man, as we read in in John 1 that speaks of Him as the ladder with angels, or messengers, of God ascending and descending upon Him. Once the Lord saved us, we ascend up and take our seat with Christ Jesus at the right hand of the Father, spiritually speaking. We have entrance through that open door. But God also shuts the gate, and now there is no more salvation, and those that are in the condition of death will remain in the condition of death.
So getting back to Eliakim, it goes on to say in Isaiah 22:21-23:
… and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house.
>And this nail is “Eliakim,” the Lord Jesus Christ. Then it says in Isaiah 22:24:
And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons.
>These vessels would represent the elect of God, as we read in Romans 9:21-23:
Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
>The elect are the vessels of mercy, and that is the picture in Isaiah 22, and they are upon the “nail,” who is Christ, as pictured by Eliakim. And all these vessels will be hanged just like one would hang pots and pans upon the wall of a kitchen. And in this case, the “nail” holds the vessels. And that is because Christ was first hanged as He was made a curse for us, and through His being cursed He delivered His people so that we could be hanged upon Him. In that sense, as we live the Christian life in this world, we are viewed as a “curse” by the world itself, and as we are reproached for His sake. We develop a reputation as the world views us poorly, and so forth.
Then it says in Isaiah 22:25:
In that day, saith JEHOVAH of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for JEHOVAH hath spoken it.
>This statement gets into the judgment of God upon the corporate church. As far as the elect of God are concerned, the “sure place” is the eternal church of God, and that is where we are hanged upon the “nail.” But in a visible external sense regarding the corporate church, the nail was removed as the Spirit of Christ departed out of the midst of the churches. Then what happened to the vessel of the corporate church? They were cut down and fell. This figure is also seen when the Lord raised up King Nebuchadnezzar (whom He called His servant) and the Babylonians to bring them against historical Jerusalem. They captured the city and they took the vessels. I think we can understand this to a degree to be the elect, and the elect went into captivity in Babylon. That is the figure of the vessels of the temple that were taken into the house of the Babylonian god. Then at the end of the captivity the vessels were restored to their place by the king of the Medes and the Persians. So just as the Jews came out of Babylon, the vessels came out of Babylon. It is a consistent picture. The people typified God’s elect that went into the captivity in the sense that they left the churches and went into the world, and the vessels went into Babylonian captivity. It is the same figure.
Again, regarding being “hanged,” we saw that Ahithophel, counselor to Absalom, hanged himself, and we saw that Absalom was caught up in a tree, and was hanging there. And this all definitely points to being cursed and coming under the wrath of God. And Jesus was hanged on a tree, and He was crucified at the foundation of the world as He was bearing our sins and became a curse. In 33 A. D. He was hanged on a cross but He was not bearing our sins at that time. It was a demonstration of what He had done.
In our next study we are going to look at the spiritual meaning of what we read in Esther 2:21-23:
In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the king's chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus. And the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen; and Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai's name. And when inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out; therefore they were both hanged on a tree: and it was written in the book of the chronicles before the king.
>That is very interesting. It will prove important later on when the king could not sleep, and he asked one of his servants to read from the chronicles of the kingdom, and it was at a very appropriate point in time because Haman, the enemy of the Jews, was about to request of the king that Mordecai be hanged on a tree. So right before that, the king heard in the reading of the chronicles that Mordecai was the one who had revealed the plot against him that resulted in the king’s life being spared. And they hanged the two men, Bigthan and Teresh.
You know, the fact that God controls all events is undeniable. If you ever wonder about that, look at the life of Joseph, or look at what happened in the book of Esther at the precise time that Haman was about to come to request that Mordecai the Jew be hanged, and Haman had already built the gallows for the hanging. He was going to make it a public spectacle. But just as he was coming into the king, the king asked him, “What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour?” Haman was a man who was very proud, and as such he was an excellent figure of Satan, the enemy of God and His people. So Haman thought to himself, “To whom would the king delight to do honour more than to myself?”
We can see how well Haman portrays the devil because what he then requested would identify with something that should be done to honour the king himself. He wanted to be like the king and to receive glory like a king, and that has always been Satan’s problem. He wants to be God. That is why he wanted to rule over man who was made in the image and likeness of God, and that is why he took his seat in the temple showing himself that he is God.
Again, the king had just read that Mordecai had delivered him, and yet no honour had been done to him. So the king told Haman to do the things Haman had suggested for the one to be honoured, but he was to do those things to Mordecai the Jew. Haman was mortified! He was horrified because he must now go forth and honour the one that he had wanted to kill. As one of the king’s most noble servants, the king commanded Haman to be the one to lead the king’s horse with Mordecai seated upon it through the city, and to declare to all that Mordecai was the man the king delighted to honour. This was just tremendous public humiliation for Haman, which is part of the judgment of God. It is most often part of God’s judgment program as He makes the objects of His wrath a public spectacle, which is happening to the world today.
Lord willing, in our next study we will see how these two men, Bigthan and Teresh, are figures of the corporate church, and their hanging identifies with the end of the church age and Satan’s rising up. I hope you can join us in our next study.