Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight, is study #41 of Genesis, chapter 14 and we are continuing to look at Genesis 14:20-24:

And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto JEHOVAH, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, 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: Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.

As we were discussing in our last study, the spiritual meaning of this historical parable ties in with the parable Christ spoke in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew regarding Judgment Day. God said, “There shall be two in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.”

Here, in Genesis 14 Melchizedek (who is Christ) took tithes of all except for anything that had to do with Sodom. Abram, a type of God, said directly to the king of Sodom, “I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine.” Melchizedek took tithes and Abram did deliver Lot and his goods, but he did not turn Lot’s goods over to the king of Sodom. It is a picture of those that are “taken” and those that are not “taken” or are left. We were going through the parable in Luke 17 and we looked at the word “taken,” Strong’s #3880, and I would pronounce it “par-al-lam-ban-o” and, so far, we saw this word in five verses: once in 1Corinthians 1:23; twice in 1Corinthians 15:1-3; and twice in Galatians 1:9-12. We saw that this word is translated as “received” in all these places, as in “receiving” the Word of God. When you have “received” the Word of God, you have been taught or instructed.

To be fair, this same word is found in a few places that does give a different idea than “instruction,” as in learning. For instance, in Matthew, chapter 1 God spoke to Joseph, husband of Mary, and it said in Matthew 1:20:

But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

The word “take” is from the same Greek word #3880 in Strong’s Concordance and it would seem to convey the idea of “taking” a wife or bringing her to yourself. Let us go on to see what it says in Matthew 1:21-24:

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:

Do you see how “instruction” or “revelation” from God was what led Joseph to “take” Mary to himself? Yes, it did have to do with taking her to himself as his wife and not putting her away, but it was also connected to God revealing truth or instruction through divine revelation. That is the same way Paul used this word in all those other verses: “For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you.” Joseph, too, “received” of the Lord and he then “received” or “took” his wife.

So, the word translated as “taken” in the parable of “one shall be taken, and the other left,” does not convey the idea of being “raptured” or “taken up” at all, but it more consistently conveys the idea of being taught divine revelation or the Word of God. But let us continue to prove this out. We have looked at five places, so far.

Here are a couple of other places this word is used, but I would not say that these prove the idea of being “instructed” in the Word of God, but they do go along with it and they do not disprove it. Let us start with Matthew 20:17:

And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them,

Here, our word is translated as “took,” but let us go on to see why Jesus took them apart in the way. It says in Matthew 20:18-19:

Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.

So, Jesus “took” them apart in the way to instruct them regarding things to come. He was teaching them. Do you see how this goes along with all the other verses we looked at?

Or, it says in Mark 7:3-4:

For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables.

Our word is translated here as “received” and it is a good way to say it, because “they have received to hold.” It is what they believed and had been taught and they “received” to hold it and it became their custom or teaching. It became their doctrine because they had “received” it.

It also says in Mark 10:32:

And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid. And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him,

This is a parallel verse to the passage in Matthew 20, where Jesus “took” them aside to teach them or instruct them and they are receiving it. He was teaching them the Word of God. It is extremely consistent.

It says in Philippians 4:9:

Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

It is very clear that this word translated here as “received” has to do with hearing the Gospel, the Word of God, and learning the Word of God and receiving revelation from the mouth of God, and so forth.

This will be the last verse we go to, but we could find more. It says in 1Thessalonians 2:13:

For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

The Greek word we are looking at is only the first word in this verse that is translated as “received,” not the second word.

Wow. I can say this because I have spent a lot of time studying the Bible, as many of you have also done. When you spend a lot of time studying the Bible, you spend a lot of time looking up words in the concordance and the English or Hebrew Lexicon. Sometimes the same Greek or Hebrew word can be found hundreds of times and you must look up every reference to see how it is used, as you look for something that is a “defining statement” of the word that can help assist you in the word and passage you are studying. Sometimes, there is one verse and at other times there are several verses. But in this case, there is an abundance of Biblical evidence that is helping us define the word “par-al-lam-ban-o,” #3880 in Strong’s Concordance. It means to “receive” the Word of God.

Let us go back to Matthew 24, where Jesus is talking about Judgment Day being as the days of Noah, as He said in Matthew 24:39:

And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

So, we see that what comes after this is connected to the statements about the flood of Noah’s day and, therefore, to Judgment Day. It goes on to say in Matthew 24:40:

Then shall two be in the field…

Remember that the number “two” has to do with the caretakers of the Gospel. Again, it says in Matthew 24:40:

Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

That is our word “taken,” the Greek word “par-al-lam-ban-o.” The one shall be received or instructed or taught of the Lord; that is, they will receive divine revelation from the Lord Jesus Christ, as they receive the Word of God. But, the other is left and we still need to define the word “left” from the Bible. However, so far, it is really amazing to be able to carry this definition over to this parable, because we know this parable is completely tied to Judgment Day. How can that be?

If we had looked at this prior to May 21, 2011 or any time in history before Judgment Day, we would just dismiss it and we might find a couple of verses like we saw in Matthew 1, where Joseph took Mary to himself, it seemed to indicate that it had to do with Joseph taking a wife and we would have overlooked the fact that the Lord had instructed Joseph before he “took” her. We would not have understood what all these references to receiving the Word of God, but now we can because of our vantage point.

You know, only the elect people of God understand this vantage point. It is one thing for the elect to be alive and living on the earth in the Day of Judgment and it is quite another thing to be unsaved and living on the earth in the Day of Judgment because you are not aware of it. Remember, what it said in 1Thessalonians, chapter 5? It said of the unsaved, “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them,” and the word “sudden” is translated as “unawares” in Luke 24. It is an “unaware” destruction that takes them as a thief. The entire unsaved population of the world, both inside and outside the churches, was caught in the trap of Judgment Day, but they are continuing. They may sense something is “off” as men marry men and women marry women and nothing seems to be going right anywhere in the world. There is a sense that something is not like it used to be, but they cannot put their finger upon it.

And, yet, the true believers have spiritual eyes and God has granted them understanding, as the Bible says, “A wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment.” We can discern the time, by the grace of God, and as we compare Scripture with Scripture the Holy Ghost teaches us and we discern the time for the Great Tribulation and we realize that May 21, 2011 was the conclusion of the Great Tribulation and, therefore, it was the beginning of Judgment Day. We discern spiritual things and, therefore, we realize that God brought spiritual judgment on the churches and then He gave the identical cup of wrath, according to Jeremiah 25, to the nations of the world and they are also experiencing spiritual judgment. The true believers understand and recognize spiritual judgment because we see with the eyes of faith, but all men cannot perceive because all men have not faith. Therefore, they cannot understand a judgment upon the churches unless a church building collapsed and they cannot discern judgment on the world and a “shut door” unless the ground literally quaked. They are unable to perceive the judgment of God and, therefore, the Bible says that evil men understand not judgment, but the wise understand all things. So, only God’s people have the vantage point of seeing where we are in history and seeing we are now beyond the days of the Great Tribulation and recognizing that it is now Judgment Day.

Because of our knowledge of where we are in the timeline, we realize that certain verses now make sense, like when the Bible says we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. We began to learn about our being made manifest before the judgment seat. We recognize that God will judge the “quick and the dead,” or the spiritually living and the spiritually dead that remain together on the earth. We realize that God is opening up many truths during this prolonged period of judgment, so we are able to receive verses like Romans 2, verse 5 that speaks of “the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” There is the conjunction “and,” which means the day of wrath will also have along with it “the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” There is the revelation of judgment and we recognize this, due to our vantage point and what we have been learning about spiritual judgments and the judgment of the elect in a tableau, and so forth. Everything we have been learning revolves around Judgment Day; it is the revelation of God’s judgment program. And we are “receiving” it and we are being “instructed” by these things.

In Luke 17, before telling us that one is taken and the other is left, notice what it says in Luke 17:26-27:

And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.

What also happened the day Noah entered the ark? God shut him in. Seven thousand years later (to the selfsame day), May 21, 2011 had the underlying Hebrew calendar date of the “seventeenth day of the second month,” the day in which God had shut the door of the ark; and on May 21, 2011 God closed the door of heaven.

Then it says in Luke 17:28-30:

Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

The Son of man is “revealed.” I hope you heard that word in the context of the example of Noah’s flood and the example of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and right before we read in verse 34 that two shall be in one bed and one will be “received” and one left: “Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” It is “the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” This word “revealed” is the same word found in 2Thessalonians 2 regarding the “man of sin” being revealed. And how was he revealed? Did something dramatic happen and everyone could physically see the “man of sin”? No – he was revealed on the pages of the Bible through an understanding of the Scriptures. That is “revelation” and that is how God reveals things to His people ever since the Bible was completed in the 1st century AD. God opens the understanding of our minds. He opens our eyes to spiritual truth, thus “revealing” the righteous judgment of God and “revealing” the Son of man coming in the clouds with power and great glory. According to Numbers, chapter 9, the clouds identify with the commandments or Word of God. Christ is revealed in the commandments as He came with power and great glory.

This is exactly what has been happening for a few years now. God has been revealing the judgment of God. He has been revealing the coming of the Son of man. Christ has been coming (continually) in the clouds or in the Bible, as the Bible has been testifying and declaring. Remember the “exclamation mark” of the proclamation of Judgment Day on May 21, 2011? The Bible has been revealing the judgment of God for several years. This is the time of “the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” It began at the end of the Great Tribulation on May 21, 2011 and it is ongoing. One was “taken” or one was instructed to receive the teachings of the Word of God, the Bible, and the other was left.