Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #9 of Genesis, chapter 13 and we are going to be reading tonight in Genesis 13:14-16:

I will stop reading there. As I mentioned in our last Bible study, this passage is one of the proofs (and there are many in the Bible) that shows that you cannot properly accept the hermeneutic of reading a Bible verse and if you see a plain literal meaning, you are to seek no other meaning.

Here, Abram was told to look around and see the land of Canaan and then God said He would give the land to his seed forever. Genesis 17, verse 8 speaks of the land being given for an “everlasting possession,” which is an impossibility (when referring to the physical land of Canaan) because the Bible is full of Scriptural evidence that shows that this world will be destroyed, including the land of Canaan.

Therefore, it is imperative that we look at the deeper spiritual meaning in order to rightly understand the Word of God, the Bible. That is why God says, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” We must find the spiritual meaning; which man cannot do on his own apart from salvation and the help of the Spirit of God within us guiding us in to truth. Speaking to the elect, Jesus said, “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.” They have no guide. When Philip encountered the Ethiopian eunuch and asked him if he understood what he was reading in the Book of Isaiah, he responded, “How can I, except some man should guide me?” That is a statement that speaks volumes concerning the tremendous need for God to guide the reader of the Bible into truth. The Holy Spirit must direct us. He must be our guide, just as if we were venturing in some strange land that we have no knowledge of and we have no map. We need to get to a certain location, but we have no way of knowing how to get there, so a guide would direct us: “Come this way.” A native of the land can show us the way to go to get where we are going. God’s Spirit is that guide in the spiritual domain. He guides us step by step. He is our guide even unto death or even unto “hell” and the Spirit of God has guided us into the Day of Judgment and into the condition of hell during this time.

We desperately need the guidance of God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us the methodology. If we want His guidance and if we want to rightly understand the Word of God, here is what 1Corinthians, chapter 2 tells us to do: we are to compare spiritual things with spiritual (Scripture with Scripture) and the Holy Ghost teaches. We slowly read the verse and study the words. By God’s grace we have Strong’s Concordance and the interlinear Bible and other helps that are great assists in searching out a word and finding where it is used in the Bible. We compare how it is used in each place and a definition begins to form and understanding slowly begins to come. Then we look at a second word in that verse and maybe a third word. Then we may gain understanding of that verse and we can go to the next verse and passage, and so forth. That is how we must study the Bible – very methodically and very carefully and slowly. We are always looking for God to lead us through the comparison of Scripture with Scripture, so the Holy Ghost is the one teaching, not ourselves: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” The word “private” is the Greek word “id-ee-os,” meaning “one’s own.” It is not what I think or what any man thinks, no matter how renown that man may be, but it is what God thinks and what the Holy Ghost teaches. So, again, we must slowly follow the lead, comparing Scriptures and making sure all conclusions harmonize and we must always look for the “mystery” or the spiritual dimension that God has hidden in His Word. We must keep an eye out for the hidden truth.

For the child of God, these verses are not difficult, but these are the same verses that have confounded multitudes of Biblical scholars, theologians, denominations and churches. These are verses they have stumbled over and err in their understanding because they do not have the Holy Spirit guiding them. But we understand that the land of Canaan is a representation. It is a picture of the kingdom of God and the kingdom of God in eternity will be found in the new heavens and new earth. That is where God will dwell. The King dwells in His kingdom. We understand the “seed” is Christ, in the first instance, and all those saved by Him are counted for the seed. That is what God is talking about when He says, “For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.” So, now when we go to other places in the Bible we have harmony with these statements, as it says in Psalm 37:29:

The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever.

Here, we see the eternal aspect of that land. Notice it is the same word for “land.” It is telling us more specifically who the seed is – it is the righteous. Again, that is Christ, in the first instance: “…by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous.” It is the body of Christ, the elect, in the second instance. We are the ones that will inherit the land. Then it says in Psalm 37:34:

Wait on JEHOVAH, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.

By the way, that is a bit of comforting information because we are living in the day when the wicked have been cut off, beginning on May 21, 2011 when God shut the door of heaven. That served to cut off the wicked from the kingdom of God. It did not cut off those that had already been saved because we had citizenship in heavenly Jerusalem and we are seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. So, we were not cut off, but all those that were not found in Christ were cut off as He took His seat at the right hand of the Father. Their only hope was that God might save them in the future and, yet, May 21, 2011 ended that hope because it ended God’s salvation program. It was a determination by God or a judgment and judgment is a determination of God: “I have found everyone I determined to have mercy upon, the elect, and there will never again be any more.” Therefore, God shut the door and that was the judgment that cut off the wicked from the kingdom of heaven. The people of God are still living on the earth in the Day of Judgment and we have witnessed this. We have seen the fulfilment of Psalm 37:34 (or at least a portion of it). We have witnessed this, but the completion of the “cutting off” process will be the final end of the wicked and the destruction of this present cursed heaven and earth, but we have seen the beginning of this process and we have gone a period of time in it.

Also, it says in Psalm 37:9:

For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon JEHOVAH, they shall inherit the earth.

Notice the change. First, I read Psalm 29 and it said, “The righteous shall inherit the land,” and Psalm 34 said, “And he shall exalt thee to inherit the land.” But, in verse 9 it tells us, “For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon JEHOVAH, they shall inherit the earth.” It says “earth.” The next verse is important, too, because it says in Psalm 37:10:

For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.

We are not at that stage yet. They still exist and they still have physical life. They are still living on this earth and operating as though there is no God, let alone, a judgment of God. Yes, that is true. They are still all caught up in the little dramas of the world, esteeming everything else as much more important than God and His Word. Everything on earth is so incredibly important to them as they focus on this thing and that thing and, yet, it will be just a little while…even if it is sixteen years from now in 2033, how long is that in comparison to eternity? It is a “little while.” It is hardly any time at all and when the end does come and God does destroy this creation by burning it up along with the wicked, the people of God will “diligently consider his place, and it shall not be,” for they shall cease to be. The last day of earth’s existence will be the day of annihilation of everything sinful. God must remove everything sinful – everything and anything tainted by sin must be destroyed. It must be burned up and gone forever because it will never be heard of again. Is that not a lovely and wonderful thought? There will come a point in time when all that is “evil” will be gone. And, basically, all that we know in this world apart from the Bible is evil. All this world is contaminated and polluted by evil, but it will be gone forever and we will see it no more forever. Then God’s people can turn our attention to the things that are good and lovely and pure and holy and righteous, just like it says in Philippians 4, verse 8.

Of course, God will wonderfully assist us with that by wiping from our minds any memory of this life. None of this life will come to remembrance because those memories would be tainted with sin, so it must be wiped out of existence forever. Then the people of God, the kingdom of God and God Himself will move on into eternity future in glorious peace and happiness. We will know “goodness,” such as is not possible to know now. We will know all the wonderful attributes of God in tremendous fulness and we will experience the abundant riches of God’s blessing for “thousands and millions of years,” as I like to say, but there is no time in eternity, so there is no end point for what awaits just ahead for the child of God. There will be no death to stop it. There will not be calamities to ruin it. It will continue on, without end, as that verse says, “…world without end. Amen.”

There we will be in that new earth and we will have our new resurrected bodies and we will be one holy personality in both body and soul. It is just too glorious. It really is unimaginable for us as we live in our sin-cursed bodies on this sin-cursed earth. It is so difficult to maneuver, day by day, because of the evil that is in our bodies and all around us. We really cannot imagine it. It is an unspeakable gift. It is unspeakable because it is unimaginable how super-glorious it will be and, yet, these are the facts the Bible does lay out before us. This is God’s plan. This is His promise to Abram and to his seed that He will give us the land for evermore and that land is the new earth, as it says in Matthew 5:5:

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

We will inherit the earth. We are heirs. We are named in the will of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Testator. When He died at the foundation of the world He activated that will and all those that were named were thereby qualified to receive the inheritance, which began with the down payment of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit entered in to us and made our souls perfect, righteous and without sin while we live the rest of our time in this world. That is a tremendous down payment, but it comes with a future guarantee and promise that we will receive the completion of that salvation in the day of resurrection and rapture when we receive our new resurrected bodies and the new earth and new creation that is perfect and without sin.

There is also a further guarantee that the new earth will remain perfect. That is a very important guarantee. We had a perfect world to begin with when God created this present world, but it did not remain perfect for very long. It would be terrible if God created a new earth and placed us upon it (made new in Christ), but at some point, even if it were eons into eternity future when one of these creatures managed to sin. It would start all over would it not? The wages of sin is always death and if one of these new creatures managed to sin, they would die, bringing death into that world and God would have to curse the new creation. But that is not possible. God has guaranteed it when He said the new heaven and new earth will continue and it will have no end. Likewise, He has given all the people He has saved the gift of eternal life. If God gives the gift of eternal life to us, that means we can never lose that life. If we could lose it at some point, then it was never truly eternal life – it would have been limited and conditional life. God has made absolutely certain that when He places His people in the new creation and dwells among us, there will be no fault. There will be no transgression of any kind because we will live forever. This is what awaits us. This is what lies ahead for every true child of God. It says in Proverbs 2:21:

For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it.

The child of God is perfect through salvation. Presently we are perfect in our souls. There is no sin in our souls. We will be made perfect in our bodies at the last day: “And I will raise him up at the last day.” At that point we will be completely perfect and we will remain in the land or in the new earth. But it goes on to say in Proverbs 2:22:

But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.

God has already cut off the wicked, but there is just the matter of dispossessing them by rooting them out of it. This is the process we are currently in. Finally, there will be the complete removal of all unsaved people. They will have been destroyed and gone forever.

We read in Psalm 104:35:

Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou JEHOVAH, O my soul. Praise ye JEHOVAH.

They will be no more. They will be completely gone through annihilation. Only God has that kind of power to destroy an individual in both body and soul, so they cease to exist and they go to “nothing.” They are no more.