Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #5 of Genesis, chapter 24, and I am going to read Genesis 24:3-6:

And I will make thee swear by JEHOVAH, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac. And the servant said unto him, Peradventure the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land: must I needs bring thy son again unto the land from whence thou camest? And Abraham said unto him, Beware thou that thou bring not my son thither again.

I will stop reading there.  We have been looking at this historical situation where Abraham is sending his servant (probably Eliezer) to his homeland to find a wife for Isaac.  The first thing was that he warned the servant, “Do not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites.”  Then he gave direction, “…go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.”

We spent some time discussing this because it is important.  On the first level, the moral meaning is that God’s people are to marry God’s people.  An elect child of God should seek an elect child of God as a wife, as it says in 1Corinthians 7:39: “…only in the Lord.”  Of course, we should not marry people that are unsaved, whether they are secular or of other religions or most professed Christians today that are overwhelmingly false professors of Christianity.  They are not “true men” or God’s elect. 

We discussed how an elect believer must wait on the Lord and submit themselves to the will of God in this matter, as well as in all matters.  God’s will be done.  If it is His will that you find a wife or a husband, God will provide a person with all the qualifications – not just 99%, but all the qualifications will be met in this other person.  Then you can know.  If everything else is good, and there is attraction and a good relationship, and they are qualified on the spiritual level, then you can marry and have a good conscience about it.

The second level of meaning has to do with seeking the spiritual bride of the Lord Jesus Christ which is made up of the elect.  The whole company of the elect form the “bride.”  It is the same idea, and this is actually the reason God gave the Law not to be “unequally yoked,” because the marriage relationship is a picture of the spiritual marriage between Christ and His bride.  So, for an elect child of God, we are not to marry someone that is not a true believer.  We are to marry someone only in the Lord.  Who did Christ marry?  Yes – He first came to those that were ungodly, unsaved people and through the Word of God, He drew certain ones to Himself and they did become saved, but they had always been elect from before the foundation of the world.   He had already died for their sins at the point of the foundation of the world, so the sending forth of the Gospel out into the world was always designed by God to seek and to find the lost sheep of the house of Israel, the “bride” of Christ.  These would be the qualified brides that would come from God’s own country and God’s own kindred, the kingdom of God. 

So this is the important commandment that was being given to Abraham’s servant, and it really serves as a guidepost for the sending forth of the Gospel into the world throughout all history during the day of salvation.  It was basically the Great Commission in a historical parable.  Here, the servant represents all God’s people that are sent forth, and they are told where to go: “Go to my people, and do not go to those that are not my people.”  We see this very plainly in the New Testament from the Lord Jesus Christ, in Matthew 15:21-28:

Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.  And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

See the similarity we have here with Abraham telling his servant, “Go to my country and to my kindred to find a wife.  Do not go to the daughters of the land of Canaan.”  It is interesting that here in Matthew 15, Jesus encountered a woman of Canaan that was beseeching Him to heal her daughter.  And remember that in the Bible physical healings point to salvation.  When she cried after Him, Jesus said, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  He is giving the same answer that Eliezer would have given if he had encountered some man and his daughters along the way and the man offered one of his daughters for a wife.  He would have said, “No – I am not sent except to my master’s country and my master’s kindred.”

We have to understand that there is a distinction or difference in the historical parable we are reading in Genesis 24 where God uses the daughters of Canaan as a picture of the unsaved people of the world and Abraham’s family back in Haran as a picture of the family of God or the kingdom of God.  So, of course, Eliezer the servant did not encounter any Canaanites and this situation did not come up, but I am just trying to show how Christ is seeking the sheep of the lost house of Israel, His bride, and He is seeking that bride that is qualified.  And, seemingly, this woman that approached Christ was not qualified because she was a daughter of Canaan.  So Jesus said that, but there is also an undercurrent of spiritual meaning of the “house of Israel” that He is going to show us here. 

In the Bible, the “house of Israel” can mean a few things.  The “house of Israel” can refer to literal, physical Israel.  The “house of Israel” can refer to the corporate church, or the “house of Israel” can refer to the eternal church which is made up of all God has saved and whom He has circumcised in heart.  And these latter people can be a Jew in the flesh or a Gentile in the flesh.  It does not matter because at the moment of salvation, it is as though their heart has been circumcised and they have now become a “spiritual Jew” or “true Jew” in God’s sight, and someone in whom there is no guile.

And this is what is going on here with this woman, as Jesus tells her, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  In reality, she was one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, even though she was a Syrophenician by birth, a woman of Canaan of the world, outwardly, but God is trying to help us understand this. 

We also read back in Matthew 10:5-7:

These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

This was the Great Commission.  Some people may think that the Great Commission was modified in Matthew 28 to include the Gentiles, but this is the Great Commission – it is the same sending forth.  Here, the twelve represent the fulness of the people of God, and they are sent.  Notice, again, that there is first the negative command being stressed: “Go not into the way of the Gentiles.”  And the word “Gentiles” is also translated as nations.  And He added not to go into any city of the Samaritans.  As Abraham told his servant, “Do not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan, but go to my country and my kindred.”  That is the Great Commission: “But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” 

But where did we find the lost sheep of the house of Israel?  It was out in the world among the nations.  But, you see, it is an important point that the Great Commission was the sending forth of the Gospel to find the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and in order to find them, we had to send the Gospel to all the physical nations.  The Word of God had to go out, and we did not know who was an elect and who was not an elect, so we had to send it to China, India, Vietnam, Africa, South America, the United States, and all over the earth.  We were not to think that we knew where they were.  We were not to say, “We are not going to go there, but we are going to go here.”  The task was to go forth and teach all nations.  However, the command was actually to go specifically to the lost sheep of the house of Israel – those were the nations that were to be taught.  We have talked about this, but before we discuss this a little further, I will read Matthew 28:19-20:

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

So the Great Commission was to go and teach all nations, baptizing them.  Who was to be baptized?  All nations.  If this Great Commission was to go to the physical nations and to teach all the physical nations of the world and to baptize all the people within all the nations, then the Great Commission was a miserable failure because many nations were not baptized.  Even many within the nations where the Gospel went were not taught and they were not baptized.  You see, God did not command that all nations were to be taught and baptized to accomplish it to a “small percentage.”  When God said to teach all nations and to baptize all nations, that is exactly what He meant, but the definition of “nations” is the important thing.  It is not the physical nations of the world, as it said in Matthew 10:5-6, it was not to go to the Gentiles or the nations.  It flatly appears to contradict Matthew 28:19 where it says, “Go…and teach all nations,” until we rightly define “nations.”  In Revelation 21, which is speaking of the new heavens and new earth, or all those that are saved, it says in Revelation 21:22-24:

And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

Here is the definition of “nations.”  It is “the nations of them which are saved.”  Were all those nations that were saved taught?  Yes – they were taught the Bible.  Were they baptized?  Yes – they were baptized by the Spirit of God when they became saved.  The salvation experience is the “washing away” of sin, and 100% of the nations of the elect were taught and baptized.  It was perfect and total success.  There was perfect obedience to the command and the outworking of it when God completed His salvation program.  All nations were taught, and all nations were baptized.  The importance of the distinction between “all nations of them that are saved” and “all nations of the world” can be seen.  If the Great Commission was meant to go to all the physical nations of the world and to teach and baptize them, not only would it have been a failure, but it would still be unfinished, which means we should still be going forth to try to teach and baptize all nations.  But, no, when God completed the salvation of His elect and the last individual whose name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life was found and saved, then all the lost sheep of the house of Israel had been found by the date of May 21, 2011, and the Great Commission was complete.  The sending forth of the Gospel into the physical nations was only done to seek the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  And once all the sheep of the house of Israel, God’s elect, had been found by the Word, then there was no longer any need to send forth the Gospel (unto salvation).  That is why the evangelization program of God has ended, and we are not sending forth the Gospel for that purpose any longer.  Again, this is why it needs to be pointed out just who the “nations” are, in this context.

So the woman of Canaan who Jesus encountered was an elect and, therefore, she belonged to spiritual Israel, as it says in Romans 11:25:

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery…

Just a reminder that a “mystery” in the Bible is a parable: “It is given unto you to know the mystery of the kingdom of heaven.”  It is a parable.  The language referring to “Israel” is a parable.  The “lost sheep of the house of Israel” is parabolic language referring to the elect.  Again, it says in Romans 11:25-26:

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved…

The phrase “and so” means “in this manner.”  And in this manner all Israel shall be saved.  It is really rock-solid and Biblical teaching that when Gentiles are saved, they are part of spiritual Israel.  You can go to Romans 2:28-29:

For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart…

If you go back to the Old Testament, God says that He will circumcise the heart.  Of course, it has to be understood spiritually because it is an impossibility to understand it literally.  As we look at everything the Bible says, we know that when Jesus said, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” it meant the elect, and that woman was one of the elect.  Therefore, Christ was sent for her and every other Gentile that would be part of the salvation of all Israel.

Let us also look at Ephesians 2:11-13:

Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

Here, it is saying that when we were without Christ, we were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.  Many states use that kind of language, like the “citizens of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”  It means the “government of,” and without Christ, we are aliens and we are not a part of the government of Israel or the kingdom of God.  “But now in Christ Jesus ye…are made nigh by the blood of Christ.”  We have become citizens of the heavenly kingdom.

Lord willing, we will look at this a little bit further when we get together in our next Bible study.