Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #51 of Genesis, chapter 24, and we are reading Genesis 24:58-60:

And they called Rebekah, and said unto her, Wilt thou go with this man? And she said, I will go. And they sent away Rebekah their sister, and her nurse, and Abraham's servant, and his men. And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.

I will stop reading there.  They sent Rebekah away, and this would refer to her mother, her brother Laban and the family.  Those that are not truly God’s people sometimes send away the people of God.  For example, we saw back in Genesis 12 when Pharaoh had taken Sarah, God plagued his house because of it and, finally, Pharaoh sent Sarah away.  It says in Genesis 12:17-20:

And JEHOVAH plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife.  And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way. And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.

Of course, that was a different situation.  We know Pharaoh was a picture of Satan, and it really prefigured the exodus when Israel would be slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and Pharaoh sent them away, but only when he was forced to do so.

And, here, we do not see anything negative happening to Laban’s household, but it was the circumstances that God had arranged and ordered that brought the family to this point of sending her away.  So Rebekah went away with her nurse with Abraham’s servant and men.  It was both Rebekah and her nurse, and God made a point to let us know that her nurse went with Rebekah.

The word “nurse” is Strong’s #3243 is translated as “suck” in some places, including where it speaks of Hannah, in 1Samuel 1:23:

And Elkanah her husband said unto her, Do what seemeth thee good; tarry until thou have weaned him; only JEHOVAH establish his word. So the woman abode, and gave her son suck until she weaned him.

So, “to wean” has to do with coming off the milk, and God does use the drinking of milk to refer to “babes,” and when you are newly born again, you are expected to start with drinking of the milk of the Word.  And God does identify His Word with “milk” in 1Peter 2:2-3:

As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

So there an appropriate time for those that become saved to drink of the “milk of the word” and to begin to learn the things of the Bible.  When God saved a person, they did not instantaneously know all the Bible’s truths.  God does not work that way.  It is just like when we are born into the world.  We are born knowing nothing, and we have to learn by being taught.  We have to learn the language, and then there are many years of school where we will learn various things and, of course, we are always learning as we experience things in the world.  So, too, when someone became saved, they were, hopefully, under the hearing of the Word of God, although that was not the situation for the majority of the great multitude that God saved out of the Great Tribulation, due to the circumstances of how He saved them.  It was primarily though that worldwide broadcast through the ministry of  Family Radio.  God saved the great multitude through what was sometimes through the hearing of just a little bit of His Word, but God’s Word is so quick and powerful, it was able to save through a Scripture verse, or through a faithful tract that included His Word.  They heard the message of Judgment Day, and God saved them through His Word, but then that worldwide outreach that had spread into all the nations of the world ended as God saved the last of His elect.  Suddenly, that outreach was cut off, as Family Radio had to pull back, at first due to financial problems.  They had to attempt to manage their overall network of stations, so they ceased to broadcast through Radio Taiwan, for example, to reach the people of China.  And, certainly, of that great multitude, there had been millions saved in China.  Then they had the shortwave facility in Okeechobee, Florida that had broadcast to various nations and various language through shortwave, but then they sold it.  Of course, Mr. Camping became physically unable to serve as he had before, and then the Lord took him.  And God has been shortening the reach of Family Radio ever since that time, as they have had to sell stations, and so forth.  And we can only be thankful at this point, as God knew the direction Family Radio would go when He took Mr. Camping from them.  So we can thank the Lord that they do not have that great outreach to the nations that they had previously, or they would be confusing those people that had become saved.

Instead, we had the situation where there were many newborn “babes” that were born again, but there was no follow-up and a limited ability to grow in knowledge and understanding of the Word of God because the teachings they had heard over the airwaves stopped, for the most part.  That is why the command from the Lord Jesus Christ for our time is, “Feed my sheep.  Feed my sheep.”   We want to bring them the whole Gospel.  They need to grow to be spiritually nourished and fed, so that is our task at this time.  It is an important task.  This was the point of failure with the churches and congregations because God likens the entire church age to a period of youth or being a child, and He likens the end of the church age, the time of the Great Tribulation and Judgment Day, to a time of maturity.   For example, He says in 1Corinthians 13:9-10:

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

Knowing and prophesying in part had to do with the 1,955 years of the church age.  The “perfect” is the Holy Spirit as He came the second time to guide into all truth., and He is currently doing this.  So that which we knew in part were things like our partial understanding of the atoning work of Christ when we assumed He paid for sins at the cross, but we were wrong; our partial understanding of hell when we assumed it was a place of eternal suffering where the wicked would be tormented forever and ever, but we were wrong.  And there were many other things.  Then it goes on to say in 1Corinthians 13:11:

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

The church age was a time of “childish things,” and we are in essence becoming a man as the body of Christ as we are growing into the stature of the “perfect man” in understanding.  Then it goes on to say in 1Corinthians 13:12:

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face…

The “now” refers to the church age, and the “then” refers to our time at the end of time.  We talked about that phrase before regarding God speaking “face to face,” and it is language indicating that He will speak plainly; that is, not in a parable.  So, you see, we were “as a child” because God did not reveal the meanings of many parables in the Bible, which caused us to be a child in understanding.   But at the time of the end, He speaks face to face, revealing the meaning of the parables, and that is what we are currently experiencing.

We also have this statement in 1Corinthians 14:20:

Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.

The word translated as “men” in that verse is actually not the word for “men.”  It is the word that is normally translated as “perfect.”  So, it is saying that in evil, be children, but in understanding, be perfect.  And, again, if you lack understanding, you are a “child.”  When understanding grows, you become a “man.”  You become perfect in that sense. 

It is the same thing in the world with the learning and wisdom of the world.  You do not put an eight-year-old to work unless they are a genius-level IQ.  But you do not put them in positions like architects and scientists that require a certain level of skill and understanding because they do not have that yet.  They have not gone through the necessary steps in education to prepare them with that level of knowledge.  God had His program and He would not reveal these things to those in the churches, but they would be as children.

We read in Hebrews 5:12-14:

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age…

The word translated as “full age” is the same word in 1Corinthians 13:10 that was translated “perfect.”  Strong meat belongs to them that are perfect, and then it goes on to say in Hebrews 5:14:

even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Of course, you first have to be “born.”  You cannot grow as a child of God unless you have first been born into the spiritual eternal kingdom of God.  It is not possible.  You do not have “life” to grow.  But if someone is born again, then they can grow.  They should grow.  It is necessary to grow from a “child” to a “man.”  The way to do so spiritually is to exercise your senses, and that is done by “reason of use,” here a little and there a little, comparing spiritual with spiritual and Scripture with Scripture.  Then doctrine begins to form.  And God the Holy Spirit has led and directed His people carefully, safeguarding us and leading us on that lighted path that leads to truth and the perfection or fullness of the degree of truth that God intended to mete out to His people on this earth.  And we do know that there is a certain amount of truth that God does intend to mete out to His people.  Obviously, when the world ends, then God will no longer give further truth to His people in this world, but we will move on to be with Him in His very presence, and we will grow in unfathomable ways in grace, knowledge and understanding into eternity future.  We are not talking about that future because there is always more and more that we will learn, but in the limited amount of time God has allotted to this world and His intention to impart understanding to that certain degree – that is what we are talking about.  And He has been carrying that out over the course of the Great Tribulation and into this Day of Judgment, as He has been increasing our understanding by opening the Scriptures to reveal many things that had been sealed up until the time of the end. 

Relating back to everyone that uses milk being unskillful in the word of righteousness, being a babe, after it said that strong meat belongs to them that are of full age or perfect, it says in Hebrews 16:1:

Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection…

Do you see how that relates?  It is not so much “sinless perfection,” as that cannot be obtained as long as we are in our sinful bodies.  (And we already have perfection in our souls.)  But it is the perfection of the information God would have us to know while we live in this world.  And when God says to leave the principles of the doctrine of Christ, and to go on unto perfection, this would mean to leave the “basics” or the “milk,” and this could only apply to this time of the end, as it goes on to say in Hebrews 6:1-4:

… not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift…

And as it says in the verse I read earlier in 1Peter 2:3:

If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

That is what it is referring to regarding “those that were once enlightened, have tasted of the heavenly gift.”  They have drunk of the milk.  They have tasted at least that much – that God is gracious and kind and loving and great, and all the wonderful truths the Bible speaks of Him. 

Then it goes on to say in Hebrews 6:4-5:

… and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

You drank of the milk of the Word, and now it is time to grow up, and one of the big doctrines that was necessary for anyone to grow up that was within the churches and congregations was that they accept the hard truth that the church age was over and it was time to come out of the churches.  They must flee the churches and congregations and go to the mountains, spiritually, and the “mountain” is God and God is identified with His Word.  They were to go to His Word, the Bible, outside of the churches.  Do not stay in the churches that had been as a “child” or “babe” and administered “milk,” because it would continue to administer “milk.”  But it was the time of growth and the time to become a man, perfect in understanding and doctrine and, therefore, it was necessary to flee the churches and congregations of the world, if you have tasted the good Word of God.  And now it was necessary to taste the “meat,” and it is not always pleasant and easy to grow up, but it must be one.  You cannot be on the milk and a babe in understanding any longer.  So, again, it said in Hebrews 6:5-6:

And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

This identifies and ties in with the refusal of many to humble themselves and to submit to the Word – to grow up in the Word and to feed upon the meat of the Word.  “We reject this whole idea,” the churches and congregations said through their pastors, elders, deacons and teachers.  They could not reject it Biblically, but they just rejected it on the basis of their misapplication of verses like Matthew 16:8 that says the gates of hell will not prevail against the church.  They did not even realize (because of their childish understanding) that the church that is in view in that verse is not the outward corporate churches found on street corners, but it refers to the eternal church.  If they had grown in the Word, they would have understood that because they would have had much better understanding than they previously had.  They would have understood that when Christ taught in parables, He was teaching that we are to look for the deeper spiritual meaning.  They would have understood Matthew 24 and who the “abomination of desolation” is and where the “holy place” was where he was standing.  They would have understood that Judaea was a figure of the churches and congregations.   But because they insisted on remaining on the milk of the Word, refusing to grow and mature, it left them in a situation where it became impossible for them to be renewed unto repentance.  The Holy Spirit had departed out of the midst of the congregations, and the church age was ended.  God was no longer saving within any congregation.

So it is a very serious thing that we help those (outside the churches) that are on the milk to mature and progress.  That is our desire, and that is why we want to feed sheep at this time.