Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is study #29 of Genesis, chapter 21. We will be reading Genesis 21:20-21:
And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.
We took a bit of a detour to look at Israel’s sojourn in the wilderness regarding one of their encampments at Hazeroth. We looked at Hazeroth because they went from Hazeroth to the wilderness of Paran. We saw that in Numbers 12 and Numbers 13: It said in Numbers 12:16:
And afterward the people removed from Hazeroth, and pitched in the wilderness of Paran.
Later they sent the spies out from that location, as it says in Numbers 13:3:
And Moses by the commandment of JEHOVAH sent them from the wilderness of Paran: all those men were heads of the children of Israel.
Rithmah was the specific location within the wilderness of Paran and it was the fourteenth encampment, but the number “13” identifies with the end of the world and super-fulness. We saw that Hazeroth, the thirteenth encampment, tied in with the “court” or the outward representation of God’s kingdom on earth; this was the purpose of the New Testament corporate church for 1,955 years, until 1988 which was the 13,000th year of earth’s history. So, we saw the name “Hazeroth” identified with the “court” of the house of God, which was given to the Gentiles to be trodden under foot, as it says in Revelation 11. We also saw the tie-in with the number “13.”
Now we want to know about the wilderness of Paran. It is a Hebrew word, which is #6290 in Strong’s Concordance. It comes from the Hebrew word, #6286.
You know, this is where having a concordance is necessary. It is such a big help. You can hear me say these numbers, but I am making it easy for you. If you have a concordance, open it up and go to the back of the book and you will see the Greek and Hebrew in numerical order. Then you go to those two numbers. You do not need to know the Hebrew, but you can see the letters. So, go to Strong’s #6290 which is our word, and then go to Strong’s #6286 and look at this word and you will see the similarities. Strong’s Concordance assists us by informing us that our word is derived from the other word.
But before we look at this, let us look at a couple more places where the word “Paran” is used. We know it is used eleven times in the Old Testament, and six out of the eleven time it identifies with the wilderness sojourn of Israel after they came out of Egypt, but it is also used in Habakkuk 3:3:
God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.
God, who is the Holy One, came from mount Paran.
We can also go to Deuteronomy 33:1-2:
And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. And he said, JEHOVAH came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.
We understand that Habakkuk was saying that the Holy One came from mount Paran, and here we read that JEHOVAH shined forth from mount Paran and came with ten thousands of saints. You have heard of “word association,” and that is much of what Bible study is as we compare Scripture with Scripture. Where have we heard the term “ten thousands of saints” before? One place we find this is in Jude 1:14-15:
And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all…
God came to judge with “ten thousands of his saints,” and judgment began at the house of God. The Holy One came from mount Paran and “he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints.” It is language of judgment, and we are not surprised that Paran would relate to judgment because we learned it was the time period in view as we went through Genesis 21 when Isaac was weaned. It identifies with the time of the end, and the time of the end has to do with Judgment Day.
We have learned that Judgment Day is a prolonged period. We did not know that before. Well, actually, we thought the prolonged period would be a literal “five months” and Judgment Day would begin on May 21, 2011 and God would work out Judgment Day over the course of five months. So, He was already helping us with some concepts that it would be necessary for us to understand before we could get the proper view of the righteous judgment of God and the timeline for it and, yet, we made a mistake in thinking that the prolonged period of Judgment Day would be a literal five months. However, it was a parabolic “five months,” just as are many time periods given in the book of Revelation, like “three and one half days” and “forty and two months.” They are parabolic in nature, as far as we can understand. But we did learn that there is a prolonged judgment and, yet, we should have understood it much sooner. After all, what kind of judgment did God bring upon the corporate church? Was it a judgment that lasted one day? Judgment began at the house of God, and did God leave the church in one day and set up Satan in the churches for one day, and then that was it? No – it was a judgment that began on May 21, 1988 and continued for exactly 23 full years until May 21, 2011. It was a prolonged judgment on one body, the institution of the New Testament churches and congregations of the world. Judgment began on the house of God. Christ came as a thief in the night.
If we had more wisdom then and, of course, God is in control of what spiritual wisdom we have at any given time, and I know that. It was not possible for us to know any more than we did because God did not mete out the full understanding all at once. But as we look back, if we had more thoroughly analyzed the judgment upon the corporate church, we could have learned many things about the final judgment on the entire world. First, the judgment on the churches was spiritual in nature. Secondly, it was a prolonged period (23 years). Thirdly, it had to do with “no salvation,” as there was no one saved in the churches during that 23 years. So, there was much we could have learned. It was also stated in Jeremiah 25 that God would first give the cup of His wrath to the city called by His name. It is the same cup that would be given to the world, as God transitioned judgment to the nations. God was saying it was the “same cup.”
Well, there is no sense going back and trying to re-hash things and beat ourselves up for what we did not know. Either God is in control of all things in granting understanding to His people of truth, or He is not. And God has a timetable for revealing that truth. And the fact is He is in control and He does have a timetable for revealing truth, so He gave us the understanding He wanted us to have for that period and, therefore, it was not possible to have any more than that. It would be in “due time” that God would open up more understanding as we went along.
Getting back to Paran, we have seen in the two verses I read how it relates to God coming in judgment, just as in the historical setting of this parable in Genesis 21 where Hagar and her son Ishmael were cast out, God is letting it be known that the son of the bondwoman would not be heir with the son of promise, and so forth. We saw how this related to the end of the world and Judgment Day, so Paran comes into view with Judgment Day. However, Judgment Day is prolonged, and we can trace its beginning to the judgment on the churches. By the time it is complete, if we are correct regarding the Biblical evidence that points to 2033, it will be a judgment that lasted 45 actual years or 46 inclusive years. That is quite a long period of time.
Again, the word “Paran” is derived from is Strong’s #6286. It is used in several different places and we are going to look at a few of these. It says in Isaiah 55:5:
Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of JEHOVAH thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.
Here, it mentions the Holy One, just as we saw in Habakkuk where it said the Holy One would come from Paran. The Hebrew word we are looking at is translated here as “glorified,” which is Strong’s #6286. We do not have to understand immediately what the significance of this word might be, because when we are looking up a word in one place, we simply jot it down and look at the next place the word is found.
It is also found in Ezra 7 when Ezra was sent by King Artaxerxes to go to Jerusalem and establish the Law. He was given commandment by the king. It says in Ezra 7:11-14:
Now this is the copy of the letter that the king Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the priest, the scribe, even a scribe of the words of the commandments of JEHOVAH, and of his statutes to Israel. Artaxerxes, king of kings, unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law of the God of heaven, perfect peace, and at such a time. I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, which are minded of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with thee. Forasmuch as thou art sent of the king, and of his seven counsellors, to enquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of thy God which is in thine hand;
It continues, and it is a wonderful historical fact that God moved this king to command Ezra to go and establish the Law in Jerusalem. Then it says in Ezra 7:25:
And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God, that is in thine hand, set magistrates and judges, which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them not.
This is the reason I said that Ezra was sent to establish the Law. He was to be a teacher. Then it says in Ezra 7:26:
And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment. Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to beautify the house of JEHOVAH which is in Jerusalem:
The word translated here as “beautify” is the same word translated as “glorified” in Isaiah 55:5. He was to “beautify” the house. Was he sent to fix it or build it or decorate it? No – he was sent to teach the Law of God. Spiritually, how does teaching the Law beautify the house of God? For example, when the Law of God was taught during the time of Latter Rain, God saved the great multitude through the proclaiming of His truth over the airwaves and electronic medium. The teaching of the Word of God, the Bible, served to “beautify” the house because “living stones” were added unto the spiritual house. Remember the Bible says that Christ is a Son over His own house, whose house are we. We are “living stones” in the spiritual house, according to 1Peter. This is the idea of beautifying or glorifying the house of God.
We are running out of time in this study, but in our next study we will continue to look at several more places this word is used. We will see how it fits in with the time of the Latter Rain, the time after God ended the church age and called His people out. God had made it known that we are saved by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the Law, and so forth. We will see how the wilderness of Paran ties in with that judgment time period and the beautification or glorification of the spiritual house of God, which consists of His elect people.