Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #44 of Genesis, chapter 24, and we are reading Genesis 24:48-50:

And I bowed down my head, and worshipped JEHOVAH, and blessed JEHOVAH God of my master Abraham, which had led me in the right way to take my master's brother's daughter unto his son. And now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me: and if not, tell me; that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left. Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing proceedeth from JEHOVAH: we cannot speak unto thee bad or good.

I will stop reading there.  We have spent a good deal of time looking at the reference to “the right way,” and how the Bible speaks of that narrow way (who is Christ) that leads to eternal life.

But now we are going to move on to Genesis 24:49, where the servant (who was likely Eliezer) was speaking to Rebekah’s family.  We know in verse 50 that Laban and Bethuel answered, so he was speaking to them.  It says in Genesis 24:49:

And now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me: and if not, tell me; that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left.

You know, it tends to be these types of verses that can be difficult to understand what God is saying.  Some of the larger pictures tend to become clearer as we follow Biblical principles and methodologies that God has given us.  But in a statement like this, what is God really saying here when the servant speaks to the family and says, “Tell me; that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left”?  Then in verse 50, there is a similar statement where Laban and Bethuel answered and said, “The thing proceedeth from JEHOVAH: we cannot speak unto thee bad or good.”  But why can they not speak “bad or good?”  We could understand it if they said, “We cannot speak to thee bad,” but why did they say “good”?  It almost gives the idea that they do not know what to do.  But that is not what is in view, as they had said before, “The thing proceedeth from JEHOVAH.”  So since that was the case, they did know it was from God, should they not have simply spoken “good” and held back from speaking “bad”?  So this is another difficult statement to understand, but I think we may be able to get some understanding about the reference to “the right hand, or to the left,” and the reference to not being able to “speak unto thee bad or good.”

But, first, we want to look at the first part of Genesis 24:49:

And now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master…

We know his master was Abraham, a type and figure of God the Father.  That is why he is often called “Father Abraham.”  So this is dealing kindly and truly with God, spiritually.  So the servant is saying, “If ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me,” so he could turn to the right hand, or to the left. 

When we look at dealing kindly and truly, it leads us to a couple of interesting places.  One is in Genesis 47:27-31:

And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years. And the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt: But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their buryingplace. And he said, I will do as thou hast said. And he said, Swear unto me. And he sware unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head.

In verse 29, you probably noticed the same wording.  First, he said, “Put I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh,” and we saw similar language in our chapter in Genesis 24.  Remember, Abraham called his servant before sending him on this errand to find a wife for his son Isaac, and it had said in Genesis 24:1-2:

And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and JEHOVAH had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh:

I think this putting of the hand under the thigh is not all that common.  These may be the only two places we read about this, in Genesis 24 and in Genesis 47.  (I cannot think of another place right now.)  So we also have that in common between these two chapters, and we also have the common language of  “dealing kindly and truly.”  In the case of Jacob, dealing kindly and truly had to do with his burial.  He did not want to be buried in Egypt.  He wanted to be buried in the family buryingplace where Abraham, Sarah and Isaac were buried in the land of Canaan.  So we can see in Genesis 24 that the servant being sent to find a wife for Abraham’s son Isaac, a great type of Christ, has to do with finding the bride of Christ and saving the elect that would come together in that spiritual marriage with the Lord Jesus Christ.  So that is what Eliezer the servant was saying to Rebekah’s family: “If you will deal kindly and truly with my master Abraham regarding a bride for his son.”  Therefore, “dealing kindly and truly” has everything to do with God’s salvation program.  We can see that without any problem in Genesis 24.  But in Genesis 47, Jacob had been living in Egypt for seventeen years.  He entered Egypt when he was 130 and he was now 147, and he was about to die very shortly.  But when he died, he did not want to be buried there in Egypt, but in the land of Canaan.  Since in Genesis 24 “dealing kindly and truly” has to do with God’s salvation program, could this also have to do with God’s salvation program?  And the answer is, “Yes.”  We cannot see it so well here in Genesis 47, but we do see it in Acts 7 where we read about Jacob being carried over into the land of Canaan.  It says in Acts 7:15-16:

So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers, And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.

Here in Acts 7, we have a record of what we read in Genesis 47 where Jacob requested that they not bury him in Egypt, but bury him in the buryingplace of Abraham and Isaac and his own.  We also saw that he said, “If you will deal kindly and truly with me,” and in Genesis 24 the language of dealing kindly and truly had to do with the bride the servant wanted to bring back to Isaac, which spiritually points to the Gospel of salvation regarding the bride of Christ.  So how does Jacob’s death and his being carried over into Canaan picture the Gospel, if the phrase, “deal kindly and truly” does identify with the Gospel.  And, here, we see how it connects.  We do not see it so much in the English word “carried over” in Acts 7:16, but when we look up the Greek word that was translated as “carried over,” it is Strong’s #3346 and it is the same word as found in Hebrews 11:5:

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

The word “translated” is the word translated as “carried over,” and we know that since it is being used concerning Enoch, that when Enoch was 365 years old, God took him; that is, Enoch did not die.  He did not live out the rest of his days on earth, but God took him into heaven.  He took him in body and soul.   As you know, when we are saved, we are saved in our soul and we are seated in  heavenly places in Christ in our soul existence.  Then if we die in our bodies, our souls are prepared to go and enter into heaven, but our bodies cannot do so until they are changed on that last day.  But that was not so with Enoch and Elijah.  God changed their bodies.  He changed Enoch’s body and translated him in both body and soul into the spiritual kingdom of God in heaven.  And that is the word being used concerning Jacob after he went down into Egypt, died, and was “carried over” into Sychem.  And where is Sychem?  It is in the land of Canaan.  What does the land of Canaan represent, spiritually?  Remember, it was the land of Canaan that was given to Abraham as an everlasting inheritance, and it cannot be part of this present earth because this earth will not last forever.  It will not be an everlasting inheritance.  Only the ”new heaven and new earth” will be an everlasting inheritance.  So Jacob’s would be “carried over” or “translated” out of Egypt.  And what does Egypt often represent?  It represents the world in that historical account because Jacob was living in Canaan, as his father had done before him for a couple of centuries.  But God came to him after Joseph revealed himself to his brethren during the famine that typified the Great Tribulation.  Two years had passed and then Joseph revealed himself to his brethren, and his brethren went back to his father Jacob and said, “Joseph is alive.”   So Joseph arranged for Jacob and all Israel to enter into Egypt.  And at that point, we know that Canaan is a representation of the corporate church, and the seven-year famine typifies the Great Tribulation when there was judgment on the churches.  That is why there was such a grievous famine in Canaan.  They were to come out of Canaan (or come out of the churches) and go to Egypt (the world), just as God called His people out of the churches and congregations to go into the world and worship God outside of all the churches and congregations of the world. 

So Jacob spent seventeen years in Egypt or in the world, and then at the age of 137 he died in Egypt, but then he was “translated” back into the land of Canaan to Sychem.  We can clearly see the spiritual picture, as it does relate to the time of the end, with the famine of the Great Tribulation.  The seven-year famine finally ended, and Jacob would have lived the last five years of that famine under the protection of Joseph in Egypt.  Then he stayed 12 more years.  You know, the timeline is not exact, but at least we can see that the number “12” has to do with the fulness of time.  In the fulness of time after the Great Tribulation, Jacob was still living in the land of Egypt, and he did not go back to the land of Canaan while he was alive after the famine had ended.  But he stayed 12 more years in Egypt.  Why did he not go back?  It was because God did not call him to go back, just like God did not call any of us that came out of the churches during the 23-year Great Tribulation to now return to the churches, since the Great Tribulation period is over.  God has not done that.  Instead, God’s people are to stay outside of the churches and congregations until we die or until the world comes to an end.  I think that Jacob’s “translation” after the 12 years (and the completion of the remaining five years of famine) points to the fulness of God’s elect spending the rest of our days outside the churches in the world until the last day, when we will be translated (into heaven), as it says in 1Thessalonians 4 where it says that those that are alive and remaining when Christ comes will meet the Lord in the air, and He will change us at that point. 

So all that is in view, and all of it ties in with God’s salvation program – it is the completion of His salvation program regarding His elect people.  That is why it says, “…if ye will deal kindly and truly,” and we saw it in Genesis 24 with the account of the servant that wishes to return with Rebekah, the bride for his master’s son Isaac, and we saw it in Genesis 47 where Jacob said to Joseph to “deal kindly and truly” with him in returning him to the land of Canaan.

There is one other reference I want to look at regarding “dealing kindly and truly” in Joshua 2:12-15:

Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by JEHOVAH, since I have shewed you kindness, that ye will also shew kindness unto my father's house, and give me a true token: And that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death. And the men answered her, Our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business. And it shall be, when JEHOVAH hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee. Then she let them down by a cord through the window: for her house was upon the town wall, and she dwelt upon the wall.

This is referring to Rahab the harlot in the city of Jericho when she received the two spies and hid them, so they were not caught by the soldiers of the city that somehow knew they had entered their city.  And because she had hidden them, she was saying, “This is what I would have you do for me.  Deliver my family and me that we would not die.”  So the spies answered, “Our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business. And it shall be, when JEHOVAH hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee.”  You see, it has everything to do with salvation.  The deliverance of Rahab and her family meant that out of all the inhabitants of Jericho, only they were spared death and destruction.  Everyone else – man, woman and child – were all slain by the sword.  So Rahab and her family, indeed, were dealt with in a kind and true way.  So “dealing kindly and truly” relates to God’s salvation program.

We will continue looking at this, Lord willing, in our next Bible study as we continue to look at verse 39 where the servant said, “And now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me: and if not, tell me; that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left.”  We are going to look at what it means in the Bible when it speaks of turning to the right or to the left, and we will look at the interesting problem that develops when we do find out what that means.  We will also look at the solution to that problem.  We will look at all these things when we get together in our next Bible study in the book of Genesis.