Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #25 of Genesis, chapter 24, and we are going to read Genesis 24:26-28:

And the man bowed down his head, and worshipped JEHOVAH. And he said, Blessed be JEHOVAH God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth: I being in the way, JEHOVAH led me to the house of my master's brethren. And the damsel ran, and told them of her mother's house these things.

We saw in our last study that the word “master” is found three times here,  and I will read it again, in Genesis 24:27:

And the man bowed down his head, and worshipped JEHOVAH. And he said, Blessed be JEHOVAH God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth: I being in the way, JEHOVAH led me to the house of my master's brethren.

It is referring to Abraham, as Abraham had sent his servant, but the word “master” can also point to God Himself, and it does in Malachi 1:6:

A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith JEHOVAH of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?

God is indicating that a servant honors his master and fears his master.  Obviously, God is putting Himself in the position of being the Master and all mankind, created in His image, were to serve Him, but due to the fall into sin, none did.  Man rebelled and went away from God until God sent forth His Gospel or His Word to recover a people for Himself.  He “broke” those individuals and gave them new hearts and new spirits that desired to do the will of God.  To do the will of God is really a recognition that we are not our own.  We have been bought, and we do not own ourselves, but God owns us, and He is our Master, just as Abraham owned Eliezer his servant.  We serve our Master, the Lord God.  Abraham is a type of God the father, and he is mentioned  three times in verse 27.

But as I said in our last study, the word “master” is used 23 times, and 24 times it is the same Hebrew word, but once it was translated as “lord.”  We talked about how the number “23” ties in with the Great Tribulation.  We also went to 1Corinthians 10 where God spoke of 23,000 dying due to their spiritual fornication, which typifies the corporate church during the time of its judgment, the time of the Great Tribulation; they committed spiritual fornication, so God “slew” them, and the Lord worked out a time of judgment of 23 exact years or 8,400 days, and on the 8,400^th day, it transitioned to the Day of Judgment, the period in which we are currently living at the time of the end.  So we wonder why God is using this word “master” 23 times.  In certain chapters, there is an emphasis on the number “23.”  For example, in Daniel 3 musical instruments were listed in four different verses, with six musical instruments listed, but one of the four times God listed only five of the musical instruments and not six, totaling “23,” but we know that since there were six musical instruments, it really would add up to “24.”  And Daniel 3 is clearly a chapter that identifies with the Great Tribulation, as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were captives in Babylon under the rule of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonians.  So it is very clear why God would emphasize the number “23.”  But why here in Genesis 24?  I am not too sure, but remember that this was the time when the servant Eliezer is a type of Christ, as well as a type of the body of Christ, the elect children of God, and he is being sent forth to seek the bride.  He was sent forth to bring the bride back to Abraham’s son Isaac.  Abraham is a type of God and Isaac is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in this chapter the bride will go with him and leave Haran, which we saw typifies the corporate church.  And Rebekah is a picture of the elect within the churches and congregations, and they were to stay there for a time, just as God said that the wheat and tares were to stay there and grow together until the harvest.  Then at the time of harvest, He would send the reapers to bring about the separation.  So Rebekah is typifying the elect that are going to come out of the land of Abraham’s brethren and go to Isaac, a clear type of Christ. 

Remember that in Matthew 25 where the virgins that are typifying the bride of Christ, and they are called.  I will read Matthew 25:1:

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

There is the bridegroom.  If you have a groom, you need a bride, and the virgins are the bride.  Then it says in Matthew 25:2-5:

And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.

“They all slumbered and slept,” and that is significant because in that parable of the wheat and the tares, there was also a mention of “sleeping.”  Let us just turn there quickly, in Matthew 13:24:

Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

Men “slept,” and in Matthew 25 it says that while the bridegroom tarried, they all “slumbered and slept,” and that is the same situation with the wheat and the tares.  Christ was tarrying, as it were, and He did not come to the churches in the year 500 A. D. or 1000 A. D. or 1500 A. D.  He was tarrying, and that was the period when the tares were sown among the wheat, and both were growing together.  Both were waiting upon the bridegroom to come.  These virgins were set apart (like wheat and tares) and there were five “wise” and five “foolish,” and all slumbered and slept because that is language that identifies with the entire period of the church age. 

Then it says in Matthew 25:6:

And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

And this is going to cause a division among the ten virgins.  Prior to this, you could not tell which were “wise” and which were “foolish,” because they all slumbered and slept.  Then it refers to “midnight,” a time which typically ties in with judgment.  It depends on the context regarding which judgment is in view.  In this case, it is the judgment on the churches.  And it was during that judgment on the churches that God opened up additional information revealing the coming of the Lord, so it says, “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh.”  We can understand this to relate to the declaration that May 21, 2011 would be Judgment Day.  Christ is coming was what was to be understood in that, and He was coming as a thief in the night.  Then there was the command, “…go ye out to meet him.”  So it was simultaneous occurrence within the churches.  There was the end of the church age and God opened the Scriptures to reveal that we were to “depart out of the midst” and “flee to the mountains.”  This verse in Matthew 25:6 is another Scripture that can be added to those that were a command to leave the churches: “Go ye out to meet Him.  Go out of the churches.  You cannot meet Him within.”  Anyone left within the churches and congregations would be tares bundled for the burning.  They would not be in the proper location to meet the bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then it goes on to say in Matthew 25:7:

Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.

Remember, the Bible says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,” and the lamp is the Word, the Bible.  To trim or light your lamp, you need oil.  If you do not have oil, you lamp cannot be lit, and you will be in the dark.  The “oil” identifies with the Holy Spirit.

So when the cry was made “at midnight,” during the Great Tribulation, of the approaching Day of Judgment and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, then all the virgins “went to the Bible.”  They all “trimmed” their lamps.  The Presbyterians did so.  The Catholics did.  The Episcopalians did.  The Congregationalists did.  Everyone was going to the Bible because the Lord had opened up the Scriptures to reveal so many things, including the end of the church age and a date for the coming of Christ, and the fact that the people of God must get out of the churches.  Everyone was going to the Bible, but the foolish virgins had no oil.  They lacked the Holy Spirit, and that is why they are identified as foolish virgins.  When they heard these things, they turned to the Bible and, yet, they were “in the dark.”  They could not see.  They cannot perceive or discern “time and judgment.”  They are the wicked, and only the wise would understand – none of the wicked would understand.  And because they cannot perceive, they turned to the wise virgins and they said, “Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.”  That is, they were saying, “Show me in the Bible where it says this because I do not see it.”  Then they were directed by the wise to go to those that “buy and sell.” 

The elect were the wise virgins and they were directing the professed Christians to go to God.  God likens Himself to a merchantman in Isaiah 55 and in other places.  They were told to go to “them”  because God is a triune God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  That is, we were saying, “I cannot open up your eyes.  I cannot cause you to see these things.  I can only share with you what the Bible says, using the proper Biblical hermeneutic and methodology of comparing Scripture with Scripture and then the Holy Ghost must teach.  I am trying to do that as I share these things with you, but your lamp is not working because you do not have oil or the Holy Spirit and, therefore, you must go to God to get the oil.  You have to go God directly.  He is the only one that can have mercy upon you and fill you with His Spirit or give oil to your lamp; and, perhaps, He will.  I pray that He will, so go there.” (We could pray this at that time.)

Then it says in Matthew 25:10:

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.

You see, they went to buy, but the problem is that God’s elect would have directed them to God Himself, which would mean that we directed them to the Bible, but as was often the case, in their spiritual darkened position, they would go to their pastors instead, because the unsaved tend to think of God in terms of the leaders of their churches and they went to their pastors and they said, “Pastor, have you heard about this end of the church age and the coming of Christ on May 21, 2011?”  And he would have replied, “Do not worry about what Family Radio and Harold Camping say – it is all heresy.  Remember that Jesus said He would build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”  They would dispute.  They would gainsay.  They would murmur against these things, and they would misapply the Scripture that says, “But of that day and hour knoweth no man,” and so forth.

Maybe this individual had some respect for a faithful man like Mr. Camping.  You know, people in the churches knew (for the most part) that Mr. Camping was a true man of God.  At least, anyone that had any real understanding of the Bible would have known he was a true man of God, and that is why some of them were troubled.  And, yet, when they put everything together, they thought, “My friends are in the churches.  It is a comfortable place to be.  It is where my social life is, for the most part, and my wife loves it there and does not want to come out.  My children have grown up there, and they have all kinds of friends.  We have the children in a Christian school.”  They had all these things, and then the pastors, elders and deacons and many others in the congregation were telling them, “No man knows the day or hour.  Do not listen to Camping or Family Radio.  They are heretics.”  Then they saw that all churches were joining in unison in saying the same things, and they may have concluded, “It is true that there are only a few of them (Family Radio) and maybe they are a cult.  And, really, it is so oddball.  It would be really a big thing to come out of the churches, and it will cause trouble in my marriage, so I better just stay here.” 

And that would only be the ones that were more serious about it.  For the most part, the rest of those in the churches just “rolled their eyes,” and said, “Let us talk about the barbeque we are having next Sunday,” and they would forget all about it.

But for God’s elect, they were taken out of the churches and, again, it says in Matthew 25:10:

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.

The Lord did send His servants to those within the corporate church, did He not?  He sent them to the “bride” within the church with the sound of the trumpet and the news that the church age had come to an end and they must come out.  Where were they going to go when they came out?  They were to go to the Lord  (flee to the mountains), but, ultimately, the ideal destination and only safe destination was to enter into the marriage relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.  But, of course, He must be the one who chooses His bride and who takes you into the condition or situation of being married to Him.  And that is what God did for every one of His elect on the face of the earth by the date of May 21, 2011.

But Matthew 25 and the parable of the ten virgins is looking at the coming of the Lord from the perspective of those within the churches and congregations, and how only the wise, finally, would come out: “Go ye out to meet him.”  They came out and entered into the marriage.  You know, the word “marriage” is also the word for “wedding.”  We should not think that this takes place when we get to heaven because that is not how it happened.  God’s people went to the wedding, and there was a feast being held wherein there is a sacrifice of the wicked being made, in Revelation 19.  But, first let me read, again, Matthew 25:10:

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage…

Then it says in Revelation 19:7-9:

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

And when you read the rest of the chapter, you find out that the “marriage of the Lamb” is Judgment Day when Christ is ruling with a rod of iron, treading the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, which would produce a “wine” that is really the wine of the blood of the wicked because they are being sacrificed.  Their death is being carried out in a spiritual way over the course of this prolonged judgment period and, finally, they will be destroyed and annihilated on the last day.

After we read that the Lord is treading the winepress in verse 15, it says in Revelation 19:17:

And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;

What is for dinner or supper?  It must be quite a delicious feast that is being held for the glorious marriage between Christ and His bride, the eternal church, consisting of everyone that was saved.  But here is what is for dinner in the marriage supper of the Lamb, as it goes on to say in Revelation 19:18:

That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.

That is, in order to be eaten, they must be dead.  By the way, we are not the ones eating their flesh.  It is the fowls.  The fowls identify with the unsaved that were under the power of Satan because we have learned that in the Day of Judgment, Satan’s kingdom is divided and the unsaved over here are fighting with the unsaved over there.  They are devouring and destroying one another. And this is the marriage supper of the Lamb for our marriage.  This is the marriage feast that is being carried out to celebrate the marriage of Christ and His elect.

We will have to talk more about this, Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study.