Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #24 of Genesis, chapter 22, and we are going to read Genesis 22:15-19:

And the angel of JEHOVAH called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, And said, By myself have I sworn, saith JEHOVAH, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:  That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.

I will stop reading there.  Again, we have been going carefully through this historical account, which is one of the biggest historical events recorded in the Bible.  God really highlights this event of Abraham taking Isaac to offer him up.  The obedience of Abraham was on display and now, a second time the angel of JEHOVAH has called onto Abraham out of heaven.  The first time it was in Genesis 22:11-12:

And the angel of JEHOVAH called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

The same statement was made in verses 15 and 16.  It is very similar.  When we search out that term “angel of JEHOVAH,” it proves to be God Himself.  The Lord Jesus Christ is the “angel of JEHOVAH.”  So the angel of JEHOVAH called unto Abraham out of heaven a second time, and a second time He said that he (Abraham) has not withheld his son, his only son. 

We wonder what the point is in God’s doing this a second time, calling out of heaven a second time and saying, “…seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.”  Certainly, it does serve to highlight it and to emphasize just how important a thing it was.  And, spiritually, it was an extremely important happening because it pointed to God the Father having not spared His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Yes – we know that.  But as far as it being “a second time,” we have seen in the Bible that it can spiritually point to the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  For example, it says in Isaiah 11:11:

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left…

Isaiah 11:11 is a verse pointing to the Latter Rain period that began in 1994, a Jubilee year, when the Lord did stretch forth His hand a second time to save.  That is what it means to recover the remnant of His people.

The first time would have been in 33 A. D. with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost when God recovered the first group of elect during the entire period of the church age.  Then He did so the second time in 1994, in the short little season which was the second part of the Great Tribulation period known as the Latter Rain.

We wonder if that could be in view, but I just cannot see it.  Maybe it is, but I cannot see it in Genesis 22, possibly because the two times the angel of JEHOVAH called from heaven are so close together in time, and the first time had to do with the fact that Abraham had not withheld His Son and the second time it is not another event, but it is a second statement having to do with the same situation, so it is hard for me to see it.  I looked for it, but I cannot see how two outpourings of the Holy Spirit are in view in these verses.  So I think it is just better to say that I do not know why God is stressing “a second time” of calling to Abraham out of heaven in verse 15.

Let us go on to what the angel of JEHOVAH (God Himself) said to Abraham when he called out of heaven, in Genesis 22:16-17:

And said, By myself have I sworn, saith JEHOVAH, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:  That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

Yes – that could identify with the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit because God did save the great multitude of elect that He had chosen before the foundation of the world and kept in reserve the application of the Word of God to their hearts until the time of the end when the population of earth mushroomed into the billions.  Then God saved a remnant out of the whole of mankind, which is called a great multitude of many scores of millions.  That does identify with “a second time,” but it just does not necessarily apply to the first time, as far as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  I think that would be a problem

But, again, God said to Abraham in Genesis 22:16-17:

And said, By myself have I sworn, saith JEHOVAH, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:  That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven…

God said He would bless and multiply Abraham’s seed as the stars of heaven because he had done this thing, and this is why it is so important that we always look for the deeper, spiritual meaning.  Is it true that God has blessed Abraham’s seed, which would be Christ (the seed) and all those chosen to be saved in Christ (the seed) because of what Abraham did in not sparing his son Isaac?  No – it is not related to this at all.  God had already worked out His salvation program before the foundation of the world, and He had already paid the penalty of death for the sins of all the elect that were counted for Abraham’s seed at the point of the foundation of the world.  It was long before the world was created and, therefore, it was very long before Abraham was even born, and long before he carried out that wonderful act of faith in obeying God.  You see, that is why the deeper, spiritual meaning is always more important than the surface command.  It is always more important.

This was true of the ten lepers when Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests.  They went, and as they went, all ten were cleansed.  One of the ten, a Samaritan, turned back and fell at Christ’s feet to give Him the glory.  Jesus pointed out that just this one glorified God, and then He asked the question, “Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?”  Anyone reading the account might wonder: “Why did Jesus ask that question?  He knew where they were going.”  He had told them in a (seemingly) direct, literal statement to go and show themselves to the priests, so they were on their way to Jerusalem to find a priest.  We also find that it says in Leviticus 14:2:

This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest:

Jesus was telling them the Law: “Go show yourself to the priest.”  He knew he was going to miraculously cleanse these 10 of their physical leprosy as they went.  The other nine (lepers) heard the same statement in Jesus’ words, and they continued on their way.  I am sure they were very happy and rejoicing along the way about how wonderful it was for the Lord Jesus Christ to cleanse them of their leprosy, and they were determined to do exactly what He told them to do.  “Can we do any less?  Let us go to Jerusalem and find a priest.”  Maybe one or two among that company may have been aware of that verse: “You know, it says in Leviticus that a leper in the day of his cleansing should go to the priest and the priest will offer a sacrifice for them.”  This would have confirmed that they were doing right, and they were doing the will of God and obeying the Law to the letter, because they did not want to “play around” with spiritualizing: “Oh, no, that is not for us! We take Jesus at His Word, the plain, literal word of Christ.  We will do exactly as He said.”  And so they did, and the nine went their way.  I am sure they found a priest.  I am sure the priest offered a sacrifice for them.  And I am sure they were very pleased with themselves because they had obeyed the Lord Jesus Christ.

However, there was no commendation, but rather there was condemnation from Christ’s Word.  Let me read from Luke 17:14-19:

And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

It does not use the term “condemnation,” but what do you think it means when Jesus said that only one gave glory to God.  The condemnation is certainly implied: “Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.   The Samaritan glorified dog and none of the other nine did.  Why not?  Actually, if you look at the surface, the Samaritan disobeyed the Word of Christ to go and show himself unto the priests.  And he was just so happy and overjoyed, he instinctively turned around and ran back to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The churches today and their pastors and theologians that hold to the historical, grammatical, literal interpretation would be so proud and pleased with those nine that literally obeyed the Word of Jesus, but what did it get them?  They failed to glorify God.  How can that be?  Jesus was teaching (anyone that had “ears” to hear) that when it comes to the Word of God, the Bible, you have to look for the deeper spiritual meaning, because that is where the real message lies – the more important message that has more power and value than the surface message.

The Samaritan did not obey the “surface” message.  He did not go to Jerusalem.  He did not find a priest of the Levitical priesthood.  Instead, he went to the Lord Jesus Christ, the great High Priest of His people, who is of the priesthood of Melchisedec.  You see, the Law in Leviticus that stipulated that a leper was to go show himself to a priest in the day of his cleansing had a spiritual meaning.  In the Bible, leprosy points to “sin,” so it is really talking about a sinner.  To be cleansed of leprosy was a picture of being cleansed from sin, which can only occur through salvation and, therefore, the Priest is Jesus, the only One who can save and cleanse from sin, and the only One who is qualified to cleanse the “spiritual leprosy” of sin. 

So the Samaritan showed forth the true meaning of Leviticus 14:2-3 and the true meaning of Christ’s words: “Go shew yourselves unto the priests.”   He fulfilled the deeper spiritual meaning, thereby glorifying God, whereas the other nine did not.  Yes – they could point to the literal command, if anyone asked: “We did everything we were told to do.”  Yes, they did.  “We went to Jerusalem.  We found a priest.  We offered sacrifice.  We did everything that Jesus told us to do, so that means we are blessed, and we glorified God.” 

No – they did not.  They obeyed everything but the most important thing.  They obeyed every point, but they failed to obey the most important point, which was the underlying, deeper spiritual meaning of the Word of Christ, and of the Law in Leviticus, and of the Bible.  In everything we read in the Bible, the deeper spiritual meaning carries the greater weight, and we can see that coming to the surface in Genesis 22 when God indicated to the man Abraham, “…for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:  That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven…”  In no way was that possible based on Abraham’s obedience to God’s command.  It is good and fine that Abraham obeyed God.  It is especially good for him, and it is good that God has written about it, and we can see a man that lived his life according to the will of God.  It is an excellent example, but the way theologians write of Abraham, one would think that he was the Messiah as you read their commentaries; they lift him up to such a high degree.  It is because of verses like these that they do so, because they read them with a natural mind.  You can see that if you read it superficially and you do not understand the way God wrote the Bible, and if you do not understand that the deeper spiritual meaning is the more weighty, important message of the Scriptures, then you will read these things and think, “Abraham is essential.  Abraham is key.  Abraham is so important to our salvation.”  No – he is important because he (was used) to play a role in the line of Christ that would enter history to demonstrate the things He had done from the foundation of the world.   And Abraham certainly was a beautiful illustration of the atonement and the Father sacrificing His only Son.  That was all beautifully and well done, but in no way did God save a great multitude and blessed us because of Abraham; in no way did God multiply Abraham’s seed as the stars of heaven for multitude because of Abraham’s actions.  The Bible tells us that no man is justified by the works of the Law.  Abraham’s obedience to the Father could not even save himself, so how could it save everyone else?

You see, even the Reformers were caught in some of these traps and snares that God set for natural-minded men that do not really understand the way the Bible is written.  We see this all over the place, with the churches and their theologians and their mistaken understanding of how God saves and the role that faith plays in God’s salvation program.  We do read of Abraham in James 2:21-24:

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

If the wording of Genesis 22 did not throw them off course, then James 2 certainly would.  You can really feel some empathy for some of these theologians.  If you come to the Bible and you have not been “born again,” then God the Holy Spirit is not your God and God the Holy Spirit is not protecting you and helping you in your understanding of how He has written the Bible, then I tell you the Bible is the most dangerous book you can imagine.  It is the most dangerous book, by far.  The Bible tells us it is full of buried treasure and just as in those accounts we hear of those looking for (physical) treasures, they must go through much danger, toils and snares in order to reach the treasure.  And that is how God has written the Scriptures, and He has hidden the buried nuggets of truth everywhere in the Bible, and you must dig for it by comparing Scripture with Scripture, and making sure that all conclusions harmonize with the whole of the Word of God, with the Holy Spirit guiding you through these dangers, toils and snares.  And, yet, after some hard work, you find a wonderful and beautiful hidden truth.

But if you do not have the Holy Spirit, you are already destroyed right there, but if you do not follow God’s method of comparing spiritual with spiritual and Scripture and Scripture, and if you are not careful to make sure your conclusions harmonize with the whole Bible, then how are you going to avoid dropping down into a deep pit?  It is impossible, for all intents and purposes.  It was God’s grace to limit the number of “high places” because there had been so many unsaved individuals that were tares entering into the congregations during the church age.  God protected the overall corporate church in a big way over the course of many centuries, given the degree of the traps and snares laid out in His Word.

And, here in James 2, is one of the biggest snares.  God says, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?”  you turn back to Genesis 22 and you see that wonderful language.  The angel of JEHOVAH called out to Abraham.  I am paraphrasing now, but God said, “Abraham, Abraham, you have done so well!  You have not held back your only son and because of this, blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying, I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven for multitude and as the sand of the seashore.”  Who can resist this kind of language?  Who could come up with any other idea than that was Abraham’s work?  It was such a good deed that God richly blessed him.  But they are all wrong, once again.  They are all wrong, once, again, because it was not Abraham’s work that justified him.  Galatians 2:16 insists that no man is justified by the works of the Law, and the Law is God’s Word or God’s command.  So if God told Abraham to go offer his son and Abraham proceeded to do so, that was a work of the Law.

We have come to the end of our time.  Lord willing, we will pick up where we left off in our next Bible study.