Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #9 of Genesis, chapter 22.  We are continuing to read the first couple verses, in Genesis 22:1-2:

And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

I will stop reading there.  We have been looking at the word “tempt,” which is translated as “prove” in some places, and it identifies with the 40 years that God called the “day of temptation” in the wilderness.  The Lord brought Israel out of Egypt and then caused them to wander for 40 years.  Of course, it does not take 40 years to go from Egypt to the land of Canaan; they could have done that in just a couple months.  But it was God’s purpose, according to His own will and design, to lead them in a round-about way to try the people.  One of the main ways that He tried them was through the manna that fell from heaven.  This would be their food.  It was miraculous bread that God provided for them.  The Bible also speaks of giving them drink from water out of a rock.  God provided for their physical needs, pointing to the Lord’s provision for the spiritual needs of His people at the time of the end when God would, once again, pour out His Spirit and open up His Word to reveal much truth.  The truth comes forth in the form of doctrine.

You know, there are people that say, “Oh, just the Bible, just the Bible – that is all I want.”  Of course, we only want the Bible, but what they mean is that we are not to teach the Bible or try to say what the Bible means.  “I will just listen to the Bible, thank you.  I have had enough of teachers.”  There is good reason for saying that because we are living in a day when there are a huge number of false teachers that teach from the Bible falsely and erroneously, but that does not mean that all teaching is false.  No – God has reserved spiritual nourishment, the “bread from heaven” which He will bring forth.  How does He do it?  He reveals these truths or doctrines by moving in His people to compare spiritual with spiritual, and then the Holy Ghost teacheth.  And when the Holy Ghost teaches, that is from God.  The Holy Ghost is God, and He will teach His children doctrine as the people of God follow the proper methodology to bring it forth from the Bible. 

But when people say, “I refuse to listen to earthly teachers – just the Bible,” so they will listen to Bible reading.  That is all they want.   But the problem is that God has hidden truth in the Bible, and to discover the deeper spiritual meaning, we must compare one verse with another verse and another verse.  So, if someone says, “I just want Bible reading,” then they read this verse and that verse, and a conclusion may come to the surface as they read these verses.  There is information that comes to light that must be “stated,” and when you state what the verses are concluding, it is called “doctrine.”  This is what God is doing at the time of the end – He is bringing forth doctrines or conclusions that arise as we rightly compare spiritual with spiritual and make sure the conclusion harmonizes with all else the Bible has to say.  So, there is a conclusion, and the conclusion is doctrine or teaching that is coming from the Bible to reveal truth God has hidden there.  When someone insists, “Well, I am not going to do that.  I am not going to listen to someone teaching.”  They are not saying that they will not listen to someone teaching that reaches a conclusion in the wrong way and are not rightly dividing the Scripture.  They are not saying that, but they are just making a broad statement that they will not listen to anyone at all, no matter how that teacher arrives at their conclusion.  When doing so, they are cutting off the doctrine.  They are, in effect, cutting off the manna that comes down from heaven.  They are refusing the manna, the teachings that God has kept in reserve for this time period.

But this is how God has determined to test His people – it is through these doctrines.  We were reading in Numbers that there were people that despised these things, and we see that through the despising of the manna that fell from heaven historically, they were “downplaying” its importance.  It says in Numbers 11:4-6:

And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick: But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.

They were “lifting up” the food or meat or Egypt, and they looked with disdain at the manna.  First, they said, there was “nothing at all,” and then as an after-thought, they said, “beside this manna.”  It was the manna that was keeping them alive and it came directly from God.  Of course, we understand physically (because we have bodies of flesh) that we can get tired of eating the same thing every day for a week, and they ate the manna for 40 years.  So, on a natural level, we are very sympathetic to the complaint and murmuring of the Israelites, but we should not be – it is only in our flesh that we would extend sympathy to them.  God was providing for their needs.  He was sustaining their lives.  The God who gave them life was sustaining their lives, and it was His determination to do it in this way, and they should not have looked down upon the miraculous bread in the way they did.  But in their doing so, God is painting a picture and He is drawing it very vividly for us as a picture of the reaction of people at the time of the end when the Word that was sealed up would be unsealed and knowledge would increase.  Do we then say, “Where is our former meat?  Where are our former doctrines?”

Again, there are individuals that followed these things for whatever reason, but they are not truly saved, just like many of the Jews were not “true Jews,” they were not circumcised in heart, although they were circumcised in flesh.  So over the course of our time period, there are individuals that obeyed God on some points, at least temporarily.  They came out of the churches, but God’s testing program continued.  It did not end.  These people thought, “I must leave the church.”  Maybe they came out a couple of years before May 21, 2011, but they thought, “But it will not be long because I will be raptured then.”  But there was an error and we were incorrect about the rapture, and now they find themselves outside the churches in 2012, 2013 and 2014, and the time is getting long.  It is getting long.  And, again, they may be all alone in their home and they have little or no fellowship with others, or whatever it may be.  They are looking back to the former times when they would go to their church.  “Wow, that church had a nice building.  It was very comfortable, with air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter, and nice carpeting.  And, you know, there were some nice, friendly people there that would chat with me when I would go.  I enjoyed the lunches, and sometimes they had picnics and things to do.”  They are looking back, remembering the “meat” and their time in “Egypt.” 

By the way, remember that in Revelation 11 where the two witnesses were lying dead in the street, which spiritually is called “Sodom and Egypt,”  God identified the churches as “Egypt.”  But these people are looking back with fond memories, remembering it and, yet, it is looking back at a time when the church had been given over to Satan.  There was spiritual bondage in the congregations and God mercifully drew people out, even if they never did become saved, because He led them to a place where, perhaps,  they could become saved.  In leaving a place where there was no Holy Spirit and where Satan had been installed to rule for a 23-year period, it certainly was a blessing to that person who had come out, although it may not have been “unto salvation.”  And for them to despise it and to look back, desiring the things of the churches and the fellowship of the congregations is exactly like despising the manna, like the Jews did.  You know, we could not ask for a more exact historical parable to picture some people’s reaction to the goodness, graciousness and mercy of God in opening up these doctrines over the course of time since 1994.  On point, after point, after point, many people have gone back to Egypt spiritually, as they have despised the truths the Lord has revealed again, and again, and again.  It as if their “carcases” have been falling all around us in this “day of temptation” or Day of Judgment we are going through.

If we go to Numbers, chapter 21, concerning the reaction to the manna, it says in Numbers 21:4-6:

And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. And JEHOVAH sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

You see, every time they murmured and complained about the manna, God judged them.  God judged them because they were doing wrong.  They were thinking in a wrong way.  Their minds were not right concerning the manna.  They had it all wrong.  Instead of despising it, they should have been thanking God for it, and they should have had a positive mindset toward it: “Thank you, Lord, for this daily bread that you sent down from heaven for us to receive and to eat and that keeps us alive.”

Likewise, we should be thanking God for the doctrines He has revealed to us – these doctrines that He kept in reserve until our time to show us.  With each doctrine, we see the glory of God, so it should be a call for thanksgiving.

Notice that they were not only loathing the bread, but they were much discouraged “because of the way.”  And Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”   This is the way God had selected to lead to the Promised Land.  I think there were 42 encampments in the wilderness.  God would stop them, as God would let them know by stopping the movement of the cloud.  They were following the cloud in the day; they would set up camp and encamp for a time and then move on.  Yes – this was a “narrow way” and very few of those that came out of Egypt would make it through to the Promised Land, but it was the path God had selected.  It was according to His choosing.  “This is the path.” 

The Bible says, “…we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”  First, we had to go through the Great Tribulation, which was a judgment of God that fell upon the churches and congregations of the world for 23 years.  And, next, we must go through the tribulation upon the entire world for another 23 years, inclusively, before we can enter the new heaven and new earth as the people of God.  Of course, all though this “way,” some of God’s elect have died and gone to be with the Lord, but this is the way God determined that His people must go toward the new heaven and new earth. 

I think we all have to admit (every one of us) that we have been much discouraged, at times, because of the way that seems so long.  It seems so difficult.  The “sun” seems so hot.  Everything has changed.  The world has changed.  The churches have changed and fallen away.  The world has changed, as it has been given up to sin, in an unbelievable way.  Anyone that was alive in the decades leading up to the start of the Great Tribulation in 1988 realizes the tremendous changes that have taken place in the churches and the world.  The changes in the churches and the world have all been bad.  They have all been terrible changes that have impacted this world.  People are incredibly different than people used to be, even in their behavior.  Even from an earthly point of view, a natural kindness is lacking in the world.  Everything has made the way extremely difficult, and it is very easy to get discouraged, especially as the Lord has led us in a long way.  We had hope in 1994 that it may be the end.  Then we had hope, again, in 2011 that maybe that date would be it and we would enter the Promised Land.  And, yet, it continues, and continues, and now we are looking at a 40-year overall period.  It really makes sense, does it not?  It fits very well with what God has done in the past, and it fits very well for the final end of all things that God would make “a way” that is 40 years in length.  There would be 40 years in which His people would be tried and tested before there is finally entrance into the new heaven and new earth.

That is one more thing we are going to look at in this study regarding the 40-year period.  It says in Numbers 14:22-23:

Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice; Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:

This refers to the murmuring, complaining and the constant sinning of Israel as they despised the manna, committed idolatry, and so forth.  They did much that was against God and His Word.  Then it goes on to say in Numbers 14:32-34:

But as for you, your carcases, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

God said that they would bear their iniquities, even the children that had not sinned like their fathers.  And, yet, the children had to bear this 40-year period because of their fathers; that is, the children that were 20 years and under that had come out of Egypt.  They would picture God’s elect, and they had to bear that prolonged judgment upon Israel after they came out of Egypt because of the sins of their fathers in their murmuring, complaining, and so forth.  This language of  “bearing iniquities” is very interesting.  They would have to endure it for 40 years because God had assigned a year for each day they had searched out the land.  If we go to the book of Ezekiel, chapter 4, we see that the Lord commanded the prophet Ezekiel to lay on his side for a period of time, and then to lay on his other side for another period of time.  Let us read about that in Ezekiel 4:4:

Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity.

The term “bear their iniquity” reminds us of what we just read concerning the wilderness sojourn.  It says in Ezekiel 4:5-6:

For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.

This is very interesting.  I am going to refer to Mr. Camping’s study on this wherein he pointed out that when Jacob had his name changed to “Israel” in the year 1907 B. C., it would be an excellent year to start (counting) the 390 days.  That was really the beginning of Israel, when his name was changed.  If we go 3,900 years from 1907 B. C., it leads us to the year 1994 A. D.  Then regarding the 40 days, Mr. Camping backtracked from 1907 B. C. to 2007 B. C. to when Jacob was born.  He thought the 40 days identified with 4,000 years, which would fall on the same year of 1994.  So there were two time paths that fell on 1994.  However, when we read this language in Ezekiel 4, it indicates that he was to lay on his left side for 390 days, and then it says, “And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days.”  This language indicates that it should be “consecutive” in nature.  There were 390 days and when we add 40 years, it is 430, so we can see that these numbers should be added together.  The number “430” was significant because it was the number of years that Israel would be in Egypt, which was 430 years to the selfsame day.  It was 430 years, exactly.  Then we would tend to ask, “What if the years were consecutive?”  Of course, we cannot go to 1994 and then add 4,000 years because that would be way off base, as well as 400 years.  But what about 40 years?  As God said, “I have appointed thee each day for a year.”  So 40 days would equate to 40 years.  In addition, it was a time in which they would bear their iniquity, as it says: “…and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days.”   The 40 days would be 40 years, which fits perfectly with the 40-year wilderness sojourn, the “day of temptation” in which they bear their iniquities; and even the children did bear the iniquities of the sins of their fathers; that is, even God’s elect people are, in a sense, bearing the iniquities of their fathers because we must continue to endure this 40-year “day of temptation” and judgment period, for the sake of the fathers, including the sins of those in the churches.  In a way, we could go all the way back to the sins of all mankind and to “Adam,” our father, as God is judging mankind.  For the sakes of the sins of our fathers, we must bear the iniquities over the course of these 40 years as God carries out his final judgment program.

Lord willing, we will talk about this more in our next Bible study.