Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #17 of Genesis, chapter 26, and we are going to read Genesis 26:17-22:

And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there. And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them. And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water. And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him. And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah. And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now JEHOVAH hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.

As I mentioned in our last study, we read the word “herdmen” in verses 18 through 20, where Isaac’s servants digged a well and they found a well of springing water, and the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac’s herdmen.  And the Hebrew word translated as “herdmen” is #7462 in Strong’s Concordance, and it is a word that is translated as “feeding,” as in feeding animals, and it also relates to “shepherding,” because a shepherd feeds and cares for the animals.  The word “shepherd” is used in Psalm 23: “The Lord is my Shepherd.”  It is also used in Ezekiel 34:1-4:

And the word of JEHOVAH came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.

I will stop reading there.  We could keep reading, but God is basically faulting the shepherds of Israel and, no, he is not talking about literal shepherds that are out in the fields with their animals – they are undoubtedly taking good care of them.  But this is a figure of a shepherd that should be feeding the sheep and watching over them, but they are not.  They are doing everything but that – they are not taking care of them, as verse 4 reveals: “The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.”  Now being diseased, sick, bound, broken and lost are all figures of speech that identify with those in their sins.  The last example is maybe the clearest.  Remember Christ came to find the lost sheep of the house of Israel, the sinners that were chosen before the foundation of the world to become the people of God.  And the Gospel was to go forth to find them, and the shepherds of Israel of old, as well as shepherds of the New Testament age, were to teach the Word of God faithfully.  They were to teach it rightly, and teach it in truth, and God would take care of the rest.  He would use the faithful, truthful proclamation of the Word to provide spiritual nourishment, and to bring salvation to the lost, and so on.  But they did none of that.  Instead, they were involved with selfishly feeding themselves.  They wanted the titles of shepherds, pastors, deacons, bishops or popes, but they refused the task of being a servant, which anyone in positions of feeding the sheep would have to take.  Remember Jesus said not to be like the Gentiles and the nations of the world, the people of the world that seek to be the greatest.  But the one who would be greatest would be minister of all, serving the sheep of God.  If God placed you in a position of some authority having to do with His Word, you would use that position to serve the flock and to feed the flock, not to serve yourself. 

We find the same condemnation in Jeremiah 23.  We could read the whole chapter, but I will just read the first couple of verses where it uses the word “pastors,” which is the same word translated as “shepherds” or “herdmen.”  It says in Jeremiah 23:1-2:

Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith JEHOVAH. Therefore thus saith JEHOVAH God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith JEHOVAH.

God takes very seriously the whole matter of the oversight (of His sheep), especially in relationship to teaching His Word to others, and that is what finding and feeding sheep has to do with, as well as teaching truth to the hearers.  That is basically what that entails, if we were to try to spiritually define it.  Teach the Word of God truthfully to the people of God, and send the Gospel forth faithfully to find the lost sheep within the boundaries of the day of salvation. 

You know, there are many verses that use this same word translated as “herdmen” in this way, so, again, let us go back to Genesis 26:19:

And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.

Isaac is a type of Christ, and his servants are a type of the servants of Christ.  They are true servants that are going about their proper duty to search the Scriptures to find truth.  And when they find truth, it is a “well of springing water,” and people can drink.  They are serving the people that come to the well.

However, the herdmen of Gerar or the “pastors” or “shepherds” were under the power and authority of the king of Gerar, who was Abimelech, the “father king” that typified Satan.  So these herdmen (pastors and shepherds) were of Satan.  Let us go to the New Testament and take a look at the book of 2Corinthians, early in the chapter it says in 2Corinthians 11:3-4:

But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

This is setting the context.  It has to do with those that come preaching “another Jesus, spirit or gospel,” which are all synonyms for those who misuse and pervert the truth of the Bible.  They change the truth of God into a lie.  They pervert God’s grace to works, and their mission is to lead (people) off course, as Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and they will mix some truth with some falsehood to lead people off the narrow path that leads to life, and send them a little to the left or a little to the right, which is the broad way that leads to destruction – any   way but the proper way.  That has always been Satan’s assault against the true teachings of the Bible, and his emissaries carry it out.  It is his wish that they are fulfilling.

Further on, it says in 2Corinthians 11:13-15:

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

They transform themselves.  In salvation, God transforms the sinner in a real way and genuine way.  He translates the sinner out of darkness and into the light.  He transforms the inner being and gives him a new spirit and a new heart and renews his mind.  He becomes a new creature.

Then there are the imposters, the ones that for whatever reason are drawn to the Gospel in whatever time and season.  If the true Gospel was in the churches, which was where it was for almost two thousand years, that is where they would go.  If the true Gospel was outside the churches – and it was for a short period of time, with the teaching of Mr. Camping and the teaching of Family Radio over the course of the Great Tribulation and, especially, over the second part of the Great Tribulation – then that is where they would go.  They transformed themselves.  They read the Bible and they heard the Bible taught.  They understood that you cannot be like the people of the world in your language.  You cannot curse, and you cannot drink, if you want to give the appearance of a true believer.  So they pick up on these things and, yet, it is all an outward transformation because there has been no change of the heart, and Satan is not coming against them in any areas to highlight that they are not saved (at least not at that point), because he is attempting to present a “counterfeit.”  So these people get involved with the true Gospel and can have the appearance of the elect.  And their understanding of the Gospel can almost be “right on the money,” as long as they are not tried.  You see, that is when we really know if someone believes and truly trusts in the Word of God and the doctrines of Christ.  When fire is put to it or a fiery trial comes upon them, then we will see.  Were they really understanding and believing these things?  Or, was it just convenient when it was not too difficult to do?  Yes – there was some backlash and some people may have said some things, but there was nothing too harsh until the “true fire” was lit. 

And, by the way, we can see these things because we (now) have the perspective of having witnessed them taking place over the course of the Great Tribulation and, now, in Judgment Day.  We can look back on some that felt those “flames,” as it were, when they left the church and it caused trouble in their home; or some that felt what it was like to suffer tribulation for the Word’s sake after May 21, 201.  Out of love and a desire to obey God’s command to sound the trumpet and warn the people, God’s people proclaimed Judgment Day as May 21, 2011.  And, of course, God developed it so that this would come to pass, but in a spiritual way, and when it comes to the spiritual fulfilment of something, it is very easy to say that nothing happened since you cannot physically see spiritual things.  So God fulfilled what He had declared to the whole world, but it gave the appearance of “failure” when the next day came.  Also, there was some error or misunderstanding that God permitted concerning a physical, literal earthquake and the five-month judgment period, so that just strengthened the perception that the date of May 21, 2011 was an error because there was no physical damage whatsoever.  And the five-month period also should have been understood spiritually, but we understood it to be a literally five months, and that did not happen.  So these emboldened some who had been “put in a wringer” because they had told their families, friend, coworkers and everyone that it would be Judgment Day, and now the world was turning and laughing, and the churches were turning and laughing and mocking.

We had been holding onto this information and understanding and all these things, and now we had to say, “To be honest, I do not know what happened, so now I am going to go back to the Bible to see.”  But some people could not wait for that – they could not wait on the Lord.  They had to get rid of the “hot potato” and denounce it, and turn away from it.  And not only that, but many of them realized how unpleasant it was to be on this side of the “bony finger” that points at you and says, “You are the scum of the earth because you set a date, and you scared people.”  There were all these fingers pointing at them, so they learned quickly: “I better get over to the other side,” and they turned in an instant, it appears, and they themselves began pointing the finger.  What better way to align themselves, once again, with the world and the churches than to get right in line with them and stick their index finger at God’s elect?  And so they did.  You see, that is what the “fire” is able to do.

But God’s people did wait on the Lord.  We did wait on the Lord.  We did go back to the Bible and search the Scriptures, and pray earnestly.  As we diligently searched the Scriptures, we were asking, “What happened, O, Lord?  What is going on?  Were those things true that we were teaching?”  Then we searched the Bible, checking it out and looking at the Biblical calendar and looking at the information we had.  Check.  Check.  Check.  It was still checking it out.  It is still faithful.  It is still true.  Then we looked over here and over there in the Bible.  Let us analyze it.  This was done, and there was no change – there was no error found.  The enemies and critics can rail all day about “date setting,” but they cannot prove from the Bible that the information is wrong regarding the Biblical calendar of history and the timelines.   And, certainly, they cannot deny the circumstances within the churches and in the world that strongly support the idea that we are at the end of the world.  That is, the churches are all apostate, and the world is mad.  These things are exactly what the Bible said would happen at the time of the end.  They cannot argue against it.  And here we have the Biblical calendar laid out as a map right over top of it.   Have ever seen how you can have a page, and then you have a clear plastic page with some other items on it, and you put that right over the top of the first page, and both go together to give more information?  Well, that is what we do with the Biblical calendar, and it “goes over” the insane situation the world is in today, which it has never been in before in so many different ways.  And it is a red flag or a proof that we are on the right track.  This is not the world of a hundred years ago, and this world in its current situation and its utter chaos cannot continue another hundred years.  This is the end of the world.

So God’s people were encouraged by the Word of God, and then we realized that the Bible had locked in the date of May 21, 2011.  That is what we believed before that date came, and afterwards, we have reexamined it, and all we can say is that the Bible continues to lock in the date of May 21, 2011 as Judgment Day.  There has been no change, in other words.  It is the same.  You see, this is the fault that some find with EBible Fellowship, and some of these people are the very same people who believed it absolutely and who declared, “The Bible guarantees it.”  They told person after person that May 21, 2011 will be Judgment Day, and some of these very same people now despise EBible Fellowship for maintaining that same truth.  That is our crime and that is our fault, in their eyes. 

I guess now that we are so many years from May 21, 2011, at least it should be acknowledged that we at EBible Fellowship did believe (in the days leading up to it) that May 21, 2011 would be Judgment Day.   And we have not wavered, by God’s grace, and it is not out of stubbornness, out of pride, or out of a fear of failure.  We have received correction before – and we know what that is. 

For example, we knew when the Bible said the church age is over, but we were in a church and we had every motivation at that time to continue being a church because we had just started a church back in 2001.  And there were people that were part of our new congregation that were saying, “We cannot step down from being a church.  If we step down, then we are going to leave.”  And they did leave, and others were sending us messages: “Stand firm.  Do not disband.  Do not stop being a church.”  And, yet, we did a study, and after several weeks we got together and we said, “You know, it is clear from the Bible, because our only question was that when God brings judgment upon a church, like he did to Israel of old, was it 100%?”  And when we read the book of Jeremiah, we saw that it was 100% , and it was a total judgment upon Judah and the Jews who remained in the land.  They had to get out and go into captivity – no exceptions.  Those that remained behind were cursed.  We read of nothing good that happened to them.  They were either killed or they fled to Egypt, but those that fled to Egypt were killed.  There was none that should have remained in the land (of Judah).

As soon as we saw that, we stopped being a church.  And we received correction in other matters, too, like the doctrine of the atonement having taken place at the foundation of the world, and not at the cross.  Nobody knew that.  I did not know it.  I do not think anyone ever taught that, and then we heard Mr. Camping teaching it and we checked it out, and there it was.  You know, Mr. Camping is gone, and there was no reason for us to continue that teaching.  We could have continued with ninety-nine teachings, but if we did not like one or two teachings, we could have said, “Well, I do not know about this one,” and then we could have quietly put it away.  That would have been easy, and almost everybody out there does that, do they not?  You can manipulate the Bible in certain ways to make it say something it is not saying.  But, no.  Today, we at EBible Fellowship, are the ones that are most insistent that Christ paid for sins at the foundation of the world, and not at the cross.  And it is not just because Mr. Camping taught it, and we followed him, because he is no longer around.  But we teach it because the Bible teaches it.  That is why we continue (in that doctrine) and we are so insistent upon that, as well as any other doctrine, whether small or great.  You know, we are not the determiners of the Gospel or what the Bible teaches.  God is, and our duty is to be a faithful steward of the mysteries He reveals.