Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis.  Tonight, is study #5 of Genesis, chapter 21.  We are reading Genesis 21:1-5:

And JEHOVAH visited Sarah as he had said, and JEHOVAH did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him. And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.

I will stop reading there.  We have been looking at this very interesting word in the New Testament that was translated as “conceive” in Hebrews 11:11, regarding Sarah and the conception and birth of her son Isaac.  We saw this word is the Greek word “kat-ab-ol-ay,” a word that is used eleven times in the New Testament.  It was translated ten times as “foundation” and only that one time as “conceived.”

We are not surprised by that because it is typical of how God has written the Bible, as He allowed the translators to translate various words – it is one of the ways God hid truth.  In our day, it has helped us in understanding a doctrine the Lord recently opened to our eyes.  It was a doctrine that had been sealed until the time of the end, the time in which we now live.  It is the doctrine of the Lord Jesus having made payment for sin at the foundation of the world.

This use of the word “kat-ab-ol-ay” (foundation) regarding Sarah’s conception of a son that was clearly a figure of the Lord Jesus Christ is a confirmation of the teaching or doctrine that Christ paid for sin at the point of the foundation of the world.  We can take the word “foundation” and apply it to Hebrews 11:11 as “foundation of seed,” which helps us understand that figure.  Or, we can take the word “conceive” or “conception” and apply it to the foundation; that is, Christ was the Lamb slain from the conception of the world. 

We understand that in our human experience, “to conceive” is that point in which God blesses a couple with a child.  There was no child previously, but through the marriage bed there are relations and God blesses the “seed” and there is conception and life begins to form.  A child begins to exist at that point and then to grow, and later a baby is born into the world. 

Jesus was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  Again, think of the word “foundation” in the sense of conception.  He was the Lamb slain from the conception of the world.  I have pointed this out before, but the sacrifice and atoning work of Christ was at the foundation of the world in eternity past, which formed the very basis of this world and the world to come.  Here we can see, as God would allow us to substitute the word “conception” for “foundation, that this is exactly what happened.  The world was conceived, especially God’s plan to save a people for Himself, through Christ’s death from the foundation of the world in past eternity.  It is an amazing thing for us to consider.

Of course, we are very limited in our ability to consider these things.  I do not know about you, but after a few minutes of trying to ponder such lofty things, my mind reaches its stretching point and I just cannot go beyond it.  But God gives us glimpses into these glorious mysteries that He has wrought in eternity past before this world was created.  And this is one of those things.  When Sarah conceived Isaac, it is a figure of Christ’s conception as Son of the Father.  Abraham was the historical father to Isaac, but it is pointing to God the Father.  So, God the Father had a Son at the foundation of the world in eternity past.

Of course, we know this because the Trinity teaches us these things.  The Trinity is another mystery that exceeds the ability of our finite minds to comprehend.  We cannot really grab hold of the idea of One God and, yet, three Persons, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but this is what the Bible teaches.  We believe it, but we cannot fully understand it.  The Triune God has always been a Triune God.  Be assured of that.  We are not saying that was not the case.  It was the case, but it is only the specific name of one Person of the Godhead, the Son.  What the Bible is revealing to us is that Christ existed as the Word.  He existed as One of the three Persons of the Trinity for ever and ever into eternity past – He has always been.  But at a point in eternity past, God developed His plan of salvation, the creation of this world and allowing sin in the world.  He also predestinated before the foundation of the world all the people He would save.  He would choose these out of the totality of mankind a people.  God could see in His brilliant mind the billions upon billions of people that would ever live, and out of that number He chose the elect.  The only number we are aware of is the 200 million people, and it is possible that is the actual number of the elect.  (Let us just use that number.)   So, God chose 200 million people to save before the foundation; He first selected those He would save.  Then at the point of the foundation, He laid the sins of that enormous multitude upon Christ, who is eternal God.  He had already existed from eternity past or He could not have bore those sins.  Then Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation or conception of the world.

Moses struck the rock twice.  He smote or killed the rock.  And, spiritually, that Rock is Christ, according to 1Corinthians 10.  The Lord Jesus died at the foundation of the world for the sins of the entire company of the elect, all those whose names were recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  He went down into the depths of death.  He died.  God slew God.  One of the things we marvel at is when Christ was at the cross, He said, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  That took place at the foundation of the world.  It was just as awful then as the demonstration of it was in 33 A.D.  God slew God, and Christ was in the “belly of hell,” according to the picture in Jonah 2:1-6:

Then Jonah prayed unto JEHOVAH his God out of the fish's belly, And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto JEHOVAH, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O JEHOVAH my God.

He was in the “belly of hell,” and, as I have mentioned before, the word “belly” in Jonah 2:2 is a word that is translated as “womb,” so it was out of the womb of “hell” or the grave.  Christ was dead.  He had been laden with the sins of an enormous number of people, with each of those persons having committed an enormous number of sins.  What an incredible burden of guilt was laid upon Him.  And the Father struck Him dead for those sins and He was in a place of death.

You know, we stand amazed that the Lord Jesus died on the cross in 33 A.D., but just imagine (if you can) that in eternity past all that had existed was as perfect as Holy God and all was pure.  Yes – God probably has a vast kingdom of other creations, but they were all holy and pure; there had been no sin.  There had been no death or rebellion anywhere, but there was absolute perfection with glorious peace and love and all the wonderful attributes of God’s holiness.  There is where Christ became laden with sin and it was at that point that He died. 

He was dead.  I do not know how to explain that.  I do not even know how God can be three Persons, but one God.  I do not know how the Father could slay the Son.  I do not know how all that was worked out, but I know the Bible tells us that Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  He died a real death and it was enough to satisfy the Law’s demand – “for the wages of sin is death” – for these 200 million people and the mountain of sins they had committed.  So, the belly of hell or the womb of the grave began to form the Son of God, because Christ was not the Son prior to that.  He was part of the Triune Godhead and He had always been, but then God was going to give Him a new name.  It would be a super-glorious title because it would speak to the fact that He had died and risen again, victoriously triumphing over sin and death.  He had won the ultimate battle and returned to life, as it says 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. 

He had the keys of hell and death because He had triumphed over death.  He can open what He chooses to open and He can shut what He chooses to shut.  He is the Supreme God that had gloriously triumphed.

This is something I never understood, and the truth is that no one understood this until the last decade or so, but God has finally revealed the incredible truth.  You know, if there is any incredible truth in the Bible, this certainly qualifies as incredible when we understand how Jesus became the Son of God the Father.  We read this in Colossians, chapter 1 last time, but when we are reading mysteries that are far above our minds to comprehend, it behooves us to read it and read it again.  It says in Colossians 1:13-15:

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:  In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

I have mentioned this before, but I will say it again.   The English word “every” is a Greek word that can be translated as “all” and the word “creature” can be properly translated as “creation,” so He is the firstborn of all creation.  He is the Lamb slain from the conception of the world.  Christ was slain and that formed the basis for the world’s conception.  The world would then come into existence because He was slain and rose from the dead at the foundation of the world.  Then it says in Colossians 1:16-17:

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

For people that think Christ only died on the cross as the first and only time, they have an insurmountable Biblical problem because it speaks of Christ as the firstborn of all creation.  But how could Christ be the firstborn of all creation and then as the firstborn create all things?  I could not even begin to come up with an explanation for that.  How is Christ the firstborn of all creation?  How did He create all things as the firstborn Son of God?  Is it because it is just a title?  No – it is not a meaningless name or title.  It is a name that was given for a very specific reason that is revealed in the next verse, in Colossians 1:18:

And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

You know what “preeminence” means.  It means that which is first or that which comes before all else.  This is a very important point to God, but it may not be important to some people that do not want to investigate these things.  In their hardheadedness, they have locked in the idea that Christ died for sins at the cross, and Christ rose from the dead, once and for all, at the cross and then rose again that Sunday morning.  They are saying, “We will not listen to anything else,” and then they stop their ears in their stubbornness and rebellion against God.  They are putting their fingers in their ears, so they will not hear these things, but, hopefully, God will have mercy (having had mercy) on some that have gone astray on this point of doctrine.  If they are saved, they do have spiritual ears and they will come to the truth.  But, in many cases, they are not saved and any truth they did understand is being taken from them. 

Christ is the firstborn from the dead.  That fact must be answered, because as the firstborn (from the dead) He created the world.  There is only one answer.  He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, we will continue looking at this very important doctrine and teaching that God has laid out, and we want to make sure we cover it as well as we can.