Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is study #9 of Genesis, chapter 16 and we are going to read Genesis 16:11-16:

And the angel of JEHOVAH said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because JEHOVAH hath heard thy affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. And she called the name of JEHOVAH that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me? Wherefore the well was called Beerlahairoi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered. And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son’s name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael. And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.

We have been going along in this chapter, verse by verse, as we have done thus far throughout the book of Genesis.

We have come to the point where Ishmael was given his name. The Lord gave him the name: “Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because JEHOVAH hath heard thy affliction.” And that is what the name “Ishmael” means. It means “God will hear.”

Then God continued to reveal information to Hagar. Hagar was not a saved woman, from all we can know in the Bible, but God spoke directly to her and told her about the nature of her son in Genesis 16:12:

And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him…

As I mentioned in our last study, Ishmael was the patriarch or father of many of the Arab nations that are connected to the religion of Islam or the Muslim religion. We are living in the time of the end in Judgment Day and we find that many of the world’s terrorists have come against practically every nation, causing havoc in many nations. And we cannot help but wonder if there is some relationship or connection between this state of the world and what the Lord said about Ishmael being a wild man and his hand would be against every man and every man’s hand would be against him. At the end of our last study, I said there is some aspect to it and I think I need to explain, but in order to explain what we are seeing in the world today regarding descendants of Ishmael and what God is saying here, we need to go carefully through the verse.

We must start with the word “wild,” where it says, “And he will be a wild man.” The Hebrew word translated as “wild” is Strong’s #6501 and it is only found 10 times in the Old Testament. In every other place, it is translated as “wild ass.” It is translated as “wild ass” in Job 6:5:

Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? or loweth the ox over his fodder?

This word is used in Job, more than in any other book. It says in Job 11:12:

For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass’s colt.

This verse is significant because it makes an identification or connection between the “wild ass” and the birth of man: “though man be born like a wild ass’s colt.” It helps us to begin to spiritually define what God has in view with the use of this word “wild ass.” It has to do with mankind. It says in Job 24:2-7:

Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof. They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together. Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children. They reap every one his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked. They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold.

It said, “Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work.” Here, the wicked are in view and they are likened to wild asses in a desert or wilderness. And that was where Hagar fled and where the angel of JEHOVAH met her.

Then it says in Job 39:5-8:

Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass? Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings. He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver. The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing.

Here, again, the wild ass is found in the wilderness and that is where God said its house was and that is where Ishmael would live. Who sent out the wild ass free? Who has loosed the bands of the wild ass? This reminds us of what the Lord Jesus Christ commanded in the New Testament in Matthew, chapter 21 when He was about to enter into Jerusalem. It says in Matthew 21:1-5:

And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.

This is a quote from a verse in the Old Testament, this word translated as “ass” in the New Testament is a different word, but it is the same idea because it was an ass that was tied or bound. Christ commanded that it be loosed and brought to Him, which is a picture of salvation – it is the loosing of that which is bound. Sinners are bound by sin and by Satan and we were like prisoners in a dungeon, wrapped about with the cords our of our iniquity. Loosing the ass and the colt is a picture of Christ setting the sinner free from the bondage of sin and Satan. Then the ass was brought to Christ. It was “clothed,” which points to Christ’s righteousness and then the Lord Jesus sat upon the ass and in the Bible “to sit” indicates “to rule” and Christ becomes the ruler of the life of the sinner who has been loosed from the bondage of iniquity.

That is the picture and it is also the picture in Jonah 39:5: “Who hath sent out the wild ass free? Or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?” Remember the other verse we read that said that God has made man born like a wild ass’s colt, so this is referring to man that dwells in the wilderness or the barren spiritual condition of this world. And God saves certain ones of mankind that are in the wilderness, so it is a picture of salvation, although it does not apply to Ishmael or those he represented that were children born of the flesh and whose mother is Hagar or mount Sinai, representing the law of God. But remember there is an additional picture that God keeps in reserve for the descendants of Ishmael at the time of the end, so God does speak of saving many of the descendants of Ishmael in regard to the great multitude that was saved out of Great Tribulation.

Let us go back to Genesis 16, verse 12, where God said Ishmael would be “wild man.” Since in all nine of the other places this Hebrew word is used it is translated as “wild ass,” literally it would state, “And he will be a wild ass of a man.” Again, we can see that God is making the link between “wild ass” and “man” and, in this case, it is a specific man, Ishmael. Ishmael will be like a wild ass because he will dwell in the wilderness and God does have another plan that will be worked out thousands of years later by saving certain descendants of Ishmael at the time of the end.

It goes on to say in Genesis 16:12:

And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

Literally, the Hebrew reads that his hand will be against all. (The word “man” is not in the text). It says, “His hand will be against all, and all’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.” I went through the Bible trying to find some similar statement where one’s hand is against another and the one it is against is also against him. The only thing I could find was in Zechariah 14:12-13:

And this shall be the plague wherewith JEHOVAH will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem…

I am going to stop here for a second because we have to understand the context of what is being said. The context is found in the first couple of verses of Zechariah, chapter 14, in Zechariah 14:1-2:

Behold, the day of JEHOVAH cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled…

It is the gathering of all nations or gentiles. The “nations” can also be translated as “Gentiles” and this took place when God loosed Satan to come against the camp of the saints. It is the same picture as the loosing of Satan in Revelation, chapter 20, verse 7 and the gathering together of Gog and Magog; that is, Satan and the “Gentiles” or the nations of the world that entered in to the churches and congregations. Here, God gathers the nations against Jerusalem to battle and we are told that the city was taken and, therefore, it has to be a picture of the judgment against the corporate church when judgment began at the house of God at the time of the Great Tribulation. The city was taken and defeated by “Gog and Magog” or Satan and his emissaries. That was the case for the entire 23 years (of the Great Tribulation).

Therefore, when it says in Zechariah 14:12, “And this shall be the plague wherewith JEHOVAH will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem,” this refers to the nations or Gentiles that were gathered together to fight against Jerusalem; it was Satan and his forces or “Gog and Magog.” This is what is in view in verse 12 and God is speaking of smiting them, but when does He smite them? This is important so we can know the timeline. Does He smite them for taking Jerusalem and fighting against them during the Great Tribulation? No – because they are doing God’s bidding. God is the one who loosed Satan for the purpose of fighting against the corporate church to destroy them and fulfill God’s plan of judgment on them. God loosed Satan and lifted His hand of restraint and the Holy Spirit left the churches, so they could not fight back and they were quickly and easily overcome by the dark kingdom. God did not fight against Satan during the Great Tribulation period. It was after the Great Tribulation. It was immediately afterwards, according to Matthew 24, verse 29. That is when God turned His attention to those that had brought the judgment, Satan and his emissaries. It was just as God allowed the Babylonians to overcome Jerusalem and the nation of the Judah for 70 years and God did not fight against the Babylonians during the 70 years, but immediately after the 70 years, which typified the Great Tribulation, then God raised up the Medes and the Persians, led by King Cyrus, and they took the kingdom of the Babylonians in one night as Cyrus came as a thief in the night. That is significant because we know that in verse 12 of Zechariah 14 God is speaking of smiting the people that fought against Jerusalem and it is no longer talking about the judgment on the churches, but it is speaking of Judgment Day, from May 21, 2011 and thereafter during the prolonged period of Judgment Day.

Then God goes on to say in Zechariah 14:12:

… Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

Three times the same word is used, translated as “consume away,” and it is a word that has to do with “famine.” It is translated as “pine away” or “consume away” or “dissolve,” and it has to do with a famine of “bread and water.” We see this in Ezekiel 4:16-17:

Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment: That they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity.

It is a word that identifies with the judgment and wrath of God, but in a very specific way. It has to do with God breaking the “staff of bread” or removing the blessing of “bread and water.” We know that “bread and water” identify with salvation or Gospel blessing. Remember the verse in Amos 8, where it speaks primarily of the Great Tribulation period and God says in Amos 8:11:

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord JEHOVAH, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of JEHOVAH:

When we read “bread and water” in Ezekiel 4, verses 16 and 17 it has to do with a famine of hearing the words of JEHOVAH and that was the characteristic of the churches throughout the 23-year Great Tribulation and now it is the characteristic of the entire world during the prolonged period of Judgment Day, which began May 21, 2011.

So, we see that as God is smiting all the people that fought against Jerusalem, which has to do with Judgment Day, where God says in Zechariah 14:12:

Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet…

Standing upon one’s feet is a phrase that has to do with the sending forth of the Gospel. You can read in Acts, chapter 26 to see that link, where the Apostle Paul is recounting the events that took place on the road to Damascus, in Acts 26:15-18:

And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

So, to stand upon one’s feet identifies with being sent forth with the Gospel that has the power to save. However, in Zechariah, chapter 14, it says, “Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet.” That is, they will experience a famine of hearing and since the Bible says, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” there can be no salvation. The churches act as if they are standing upon their feet and certain other ministries out there are acting as if they are standing upon their feet, as they use words that identify with sending forth the Gospel and they speak of salvation and encourage people to cry out and approach God for salvation in this Day of Judgment. But it is all a sham. It is all deception because they are “consuming away” while they are in the act of doing those things – there is a famine that God has sent in the place of the effectual word to save. It is a famine where there is a lack of “bread and water” or a lack of hearing the Word of the Lord. It takes the act of God to open the ears of a dead sinner and without that there can be no salvation.

So, these phrases in Zechariah 14, verse 12 all identify with this famine: “Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.” As they say these things with their mouths, they are really bringing forth that which is “pining away” in iniquity and that which cannot save.

Notice that the phrase “consumed away” is used three times. God’s purpose for the Day of Judgment is to feed His sheep, as He said three times in John, chapter 21. Conversely, for all those that are not sheep, God’s response is that they shall “consume away” while in the very act of speaking that which the Bible says.