Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #30 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 have been spending a lot of time covering this passage because we see how it relates to our time of the end and how Hagar and Ishmael were commanded to leave Abraham’s tent and were sent out to the wilderness of Paran.  Particularly, we saw that Paran came into view with the wilderness sojourn of the people of Israel.  Their thirteenth encampment was Hazeroth.  Again, the word “Hazeroth” means “court,” which identifies with the court of the house of God or the corporate church.  From their thirteenth encampment they went forth to the wilderness of Paran at Rithmah.  That would relate to God’s command to His people to leave the churches after 13,000 years of earth’s history; we were to go out into the world.

We started to look at the word “Paran” in our last study.  I think we ended the study as we were looking at Ezra 7 where Ezra was commanded by Artaxerxes, king of the Medes and the Persians, to go to Jerusalem to “beautify” the house of God through teaching the Law, as it said in Ezra 7:25-27:

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. 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 JEHOVAH 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: Blessed be JEHOVAH 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:

Spiritually, the command for Ezra the priest to go to Jerusalem to teach the Law and beautify the house of God points to the Word of God going forth and people becoming saved through the hearing of the Word of God, and thus beautifying the spiritual house of the kingdom of God. 

We know God refers to spiritual houses because it says in 1Peter 2:5:

Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

The “lively stones” or living stones are the spiritual house.  Spiritually, this is what is in view with Ezra’s return to Jerusalem to teach the Law.

The word “beautify” that was used in Ezra 7:27 is a word related to “Paran.”  The word “Paran” is Strong’s #6290 and the word “beautify” is the word #6286 in Strong’s Concordance.  (Please check it out and you will see the relationship between the two words.  You do not have to know Hebrew to do this.  Just look at the consonants that make up the word “Paran” and look at the consonants that make up the word “beautify” and you will see they are very similar.)  So, the wilderness of Paran was a place of “beautification,” and the word “beautify” has to do with salvation, as we saw in other Scriptures.  For example, it says in Psalm 149:4:

For JEHOVAH taketh pleasure in his people…

By the way, this is true, because God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.  Why did God determine to save a people for Himself?  Why did He have a plan of election to save certain ones out of the whole of mankind?  Was it because we were good or deserving in any way?  No – the only reason the Bible provides is found in Ephesians 1 where it says that God predestinated certain ones to receive salvation according to His good pleasure.  And that is what it says in Psalm 149:4:

For JEHOVAH taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.

There is our word “beautify” again.  He will beautify the meek.  Who are the meek?  The Bible says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”  When we search the Bible concerning that word “meek,” we see it refers to the same group of people.  It is God’s elect that were predestinated to obtain salvation based only on the faith and grace of Christ.  So, He beautifies the meek with salvation.  It is an obvious tie-in to that word, as we compare Scripture with Scripture and spiritual with spiritual.  The whole Bible is spiritual, and every verse is spiritual.  When we look at one spiritual verse and compare it to another spiritual verse in another place, God begins to supply the definition for what the word means in our “spiritual dictionary,” we could say. 

You know, we use Webster’s Dictionary to understand what words mean in the English language.  You can refer to it and look up a word and it will give you the meaning.  We do not have that kind of dictionary to use with the Bible, and it is probably not a good idea to try to to build one, although we are doing a similar thing in our program of “types and figures,” but we only list those words that have very definite spiritual meaning, because we do not want to make an error.  But we compare Scripture with Scripture to find God’s definition of a word in His heavenly language.  There is a language of the kingdom of God – it is a heavenly language that is much superior to any earthly language, like English or French or Spanish.  In our earthly languages, we understand earthly things and we can get definitions for what words mean.  But in the heavenly language, we find that a word like “beautify” does not conform to our earthly language, but it has to do with salvation, as it says, “He will beautify the meek with salvation.” 

And we would have to admit that before salvation, we are not very beautiful.  As a matter of fact, we are dirty, rotten, filthy sinners and as ugly as we can be.  We are dead in trespasses and sins.  Then the Word of God comes and washes away all that guilt and shame and spiritual filth, cleansing us.  Talk about a makeover!  It beautifies people that the Bible has nothing good to say about in their sins.  They are abhorrent to God.  It is a very ugly thing to be laden with sin and guilty of it.  God cannot stand to have anyone like that in His sight, so He must “beautify” them by cleansing their sin away and making them holy and pure.  He beautifies the meek with salvation.

It says in Isaiah 61:1:

The Spirit of the Lord JEHOVAH is upon me; because JEHOVAH hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

Here, it mentions the “meek” again and they are being preached good tidings.  Teaching and preaching are the same thing, as we declare the Word of God.  But we do not just read the Bible without comment; God does not expect us to do that.   In fact, it would go contrary to what He would have us to do.  If we just read the Bible without comment and without searching for the buried hidden treasure, we would basically just be delivering a parable to others: “Here is a parable.”  But what does the parable mean?  “I am not going to tell you.”  That is what people are doing when they say we must not listen to Bible teachers today.  Not every is qualified or able to dig into the Bible to find the spiritual meaning and the solution to the mystery or the hidden spiritual truth that God has hidden there.  So, it is not doing anyone a favor to share the Scriptures without comment, even though there is a time to read the Word of God, but there must also be time for teaching and instructing, as God opens our eyes to spiritual understanding when we follow the Bible’s methodology of comparing Scripture with Scripture and making sure our conclusions harmonize with the whole Bible.  Then it is the Holy Ghost that is ultimately teaching as He provides the spiritual definitions we were talking about earlier.  In other words, if I were just to read the Bible to you, I would be reading in a heavenly language that is not being translated for you.  It would be like if my Spanish-speaking wife only spoke Spanish to people that understood only English, or if a Chinese-speaking person spoke Chinese to people that did not understand Chinese.  

Obviously, there is purpose of God in giving us a heavenly language and then giving us direction in how to understand these things by breaking them down to find the spiritual meaning.  He tells us to search for His truths like we are searching for buried treasure.  We are told to search the Scriptures: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”  God gives us all these things and He expects us to follow His direction.  That is all we are doing when we are properly teaching.  We do not know anything of ourselves.  We certainly do not know how to decipher the heavenly language.  Who can understand the intimate mind of God as revealed on the pages of the Bible?  It is not me – I freely admit that I am ignorant in myself, but God sends us His Spirit to guide un into all truth as we compare Scripture with Scripture.  That is what we are doing here. 

Concerning the meek, we saw in Psalm 149:4:

For JEHOVAH taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.

We also saw that it said in Isaiah 61:1:

The Spirit of the Lord JEHOVAH is upon me; because JEHOVAH hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

Then it goes on to say in Isaiah 61:2-3:

To proclaim the acceptable year of JEHOVAH, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of JEHOVAH, that he might be glorified.

The word “glorified” is related to “Paran,” as well as the word translated as “beauty,” but the word translated here as “beauty” is a slightly different Hebrew word.  So, as God sent forth the Word of God to save His people, He found the whole company of the elect and we have all come together to form that one body of Christ.  This glorified God.  It beautified God, as well as glorifying us.  It is a wonderful thing that God has done in accomplishing His salvation program.

Let us go to another place back in Isaiah 60.  If you remember, when we first started talking about Ishmael, we saw that God spoke of saving the “sons of Ishmael” in Isaiah 60.  It says in Isaiah 60:1:

Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of JEHOVAH is risen upon thee.

Then it says in Isaiah 60:5-7:

Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of JEHOVAH. All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee: they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory.

Here is our word “glorify.”  It is the same word translated as “beautify.”  Now God is using it in connection with the flocks of Kedar and rams of Nebaioth, sons of Ishmael.

Ishmael and his mother Hagar had left the camp of Abraham and fled to the wilderness of Paran.  There God showed Hagar a well of water.  There God indicated, “I have heard thee.”  We know it had to do with the promise made to Abraham.  Abraham had beseeched God that Ishmael might live before Him, and God responded, “I have heard thee.”  So, the well identifies with salvation.  The fact that God heard him identifies with salvation.  And Israel went to Paran (the place of beautification) after the thirteenth encampment.  They went from Hazeroth, which means “court” and represents the corporate church, out to the wilderness of Paran.  Likewise, after the weaning of Isaac, which also identifies with the time of the end and the Great Tribulation and the sending forth of the Latter Rain to save the great multitude, we find Ishmael going to the wilderness of “beautification,” a place of salvation. 

It also says in Isaiah 60:9:

Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of JEHOVAH thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee.

The word “glorified” is the same word.

It says in Isaiah 60:13:

The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious.

The place of God’s heavenly sanctuary is in view, the spiritual Jerusalem or spiritual house.

Let us look at one last verse, in Isaiah 60:21:

Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.

We are running out of time in this study, but we saw that Ishmael dwelt in the wilderness of Paran and his mother took him a wife out of Egypt.  Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, we will think about what that means.  I am not sure I fully understand it.  There is a possibility, but I am not going to be too dogmatic about it.  We will look at Genesis 21:21 a little closer in our next Bible study.