Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #24 of Genesis, chapter 26, and we are going to read Genesis 26:30-33:

And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink. And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water. And he called it Shebah: therefore the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day.

I will stop reading there.  We have been looking at this in a spiritual way.  And, we should say, “Of course we are.  That is what we should be doing.”  The historical information can be learned quickly, (but that is only one aspect).  You know, it is one of the reasons why the churches and their theologians and pastors come to the Bible, but rarely do verse-by-verse studies of the books of the Bible.  As they follow their historical, grammatical, literal method of interpretation, it does not produce that much material, and the material it does produce reads like a book of history, like taking a history course in school.  There may be some interesting things, and you have to remember some dates, and many times the dates the churches put forth are incorrect.  But, overall, the information is “dry,” and it does not have the depth of information that God has hidden in His Word, so it is really just a vain activity, and I think that is the reason that they do not go through the Bible verse by verse.  But when you are looking for a deeper understanding, when you find it, there is much to talk about.  You can say, “OK, here is a (spiritual) picture that I think is in view, so now let us see if that is the case.”  So maybe one part of a passage is opening up in a spiritual way, but you still have to keep asking questions.

And that is what we are doing here.  We have seen that, in general, Isaac is a type of Christ and Abimelech is a picture of Satan.  We have seen that Abimelech coming to Isaac is like Satan coming to Christ.  And Abimelech is desiring a covenant and peace, which has led us to the understanding that this takes place in Judgment Day, the time when the warfare over souls and deliverance of the captives has finally come to an end.  Then, as far as that battleground goes, there is peace between Christ and his kingdom and Satan and his forces.  And that is why Abimelech came with Phichol (“the mouth of all”) and his friend Ahuzzath (“possession” or “lay hold of”).  You see, Isaac does not want anything further from the possessions of Abimelech.  In other words, Christ does not want anything more from Satan’s kingdom regarding his captives, so they could strike this covenant.

We also saw, as Abimelech constantly pointed out, “We have not touched thee,” and that fits in with 1John 5:18: 

…and that wicked one toucheth him not.

This regards God’s elect.  Satan cannot touch us or harm us in any way, ultimately, because we have eternal life.

If that is the case, spiritually, then we have to ask the next question when we read the next verse, in Genesis 26:30:

And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink.

This is Isaac, because he is the host that is making his guests a feast.  And, again, remember we are looking at this in the context of Judgment Day that began on May 21, 2011 and has been continuing up until now, and it will be continuing, according to Biblical evidence, to the year of 2033.  Is Judgment Day likened to a feast?  And the answer is, “Yes.”  We see this in a few places in the Bible.  For example, we know that Revelation 19 is a chapter that begins with the fall of Babylon, and this was the reason for the praising of God and the proclamation, “Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”  And the “wife” of Christ, the bride of the eternal church, has made herself ready, indicating that all to be saved have been saved.  And that would match the context we are understanding in our passage – Rebekah was not taken, and she was not delivered.  There was no more need for deliverance of the captives, and that is why they are making this pact and taking an oath of peace between one another.  And verse 9 of Revelation 19 refers us to those that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.  Who is called to the marriage supper of the Lamb?  It says in Revelation 19:17-18:

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; 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 the meal.  It is the “flesh” of the enemies of God.  And back in Genesis 26:30, it said, “And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink.”  The fowls in Revelation would identify also with the wicked, and they are consuming (themselves), the enemies of God, because it is God’s plan in the Day of Judgment for the wicked to devour one another.  There is “division” that God instigates and sets in motion, and He is controlling these things as the Lord Jesus is the Judge and the Divider of the peoples of the earth.  The dividing of Satan’s kingdom is evidence of its fall, so they are destroying one another, spiritually, by coming against each other.  And this is the idea of “eating” at the feast, and the feast would be Judgment Day.

I mentioned before that the Hebrew word translated as “feast” in Genesis 26:30 is Strong’s #4960, and it is found forty-six times in the Old Testament.  It is translated ten times as “banquet,” and five times as “drink,” and in the remaining cases, it is translated as “feast.”  “And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink.” 

If we go to Esther 7, it is translated as “banquet.”  From Esther 5 through Esther 7, this same word is found ten times, and every time it is translated as “banquet.”  It is a “banquet of wine,” as it says in Esther 7:1:

So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen. And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine…

That is why it is interesting that this same word translated as “banquet” is translated as “drink.”  Of course, at a banquet of wine, you would be given a cup, and the cup would be filled with wine that those invited would drink.  And that idea fits in with the Biblical language found in several places in the Bible concerning “the cup of the wrath of God.”  For example, it says in Revelation 14:8:

And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Then it says in Revelation 14:10:

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

It is the cup of the wrath of God.  This is what Jesus was heavy with, as He was suffering under the wrath of God in His demonstration.  He was being punished, but without sin, because payment had been made at the foundation of the world, so there was no need to pay again, but in order to demonstrate what He had done, He was drinking of the wrath of God in a spiritual way.  That is why He fell down to His knees and prayed to the Father: “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.”  It was the cup of the wrath of God, and this is what was in view with Esther’s “banquet of wine.”  And who was invited to the banquet?  Haman, the enemy and the adversary of the Jews.  He hated the Jews, especially Mordecai.  Actually, he hated Mordecai above all, and the reason he hated the Jews was because they were the people of Mordecai.  He had found out that the Jews were Mordecai’s people, so he wanted to destroy all the Jews for the simple reason that he hated Mordecai so intensely.  Of course, Mordecai was a great type of Christ, and Haman was a type of Satan, the Devil.  And, yet, he was invited to the banquet of wine or to the feast, just as Abimelech was made a feast by Isaac.

Let us keep reading in Esther 7:3-5:

Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request: For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage. Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?

Again, we must set up the spiritual picture.  God’s elect know that Christ spoke in parables, and without a parable He did not speak.  And Christ is the Word made flesh, and Christ spoke in parables to teach us how to understand all Scriptures, and to look for the mystery or parabolic meaning in all Scriptures.  And when we do, we realize that Ahasuerus is married to Esther, and Esther is a type and figure of the believers, and Ahasuerus is a figure of God Himself who enters into marriage with the elect or those that Esther typifies.  And now God, as typified by King Ahasuerus, has found out Haman’s evil plot, representing Satan’s plot to destroy the people of God, including Mordecai, and he said, “Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?”

And then the response was given, in Esther 7:6:

And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman. Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.

We did a study in the book of Esther years ago, and we were able to show that there is a likelihood (although it not absolute) that when we look at the notice that went forth declaring that all the Jews were to be destroyed, and then Mordecai went to Esther and asked her to go into the king on behalf of the Jews, and Esther said, “I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days,” her reference to thirty days dating back to the day that the notice was sent revealing that the Jews were to be destroyed on those days of Purim.  So given that information, we can show that when Haman came to the banquet of wine, it was “the seventeenth day of the second month” of the calendar they used, which matches up with “the seventeenth day of the second month” in Genesis 7 when the flood began, which in turn relates to the date exactly 7,000 years later, May 21, 2011, which also had the underlying Hebrew calendar date of “the seventeenth day of the second month.”  In other words, May 21, 2011 began Judgment Day and concluded the Great Tribulation.  It was the day that God closed the door of the ark and the flood began.  It is perfectly in keeping with Haman being called to the banquet of wine to drink of the cup of King Ahasuerus, a type of God, and there his sins were exposed. and his guilt was found out.  He was openly charged before God, and we read in Esther 7:7:

And the king arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath went into the palace garden: and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen; for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.

You can read the rest of the account, but the king came back, and there was judgment without mercy.  They grabbed ahold of Haman and hanged him on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai the Jew to be hanged on, and Haman was killed.  He is dead, just as the Bible teaches that Satan was put down on that date of May 21, 2011, but we must be aware that he continues to exist.  Historically, in the book of Esther, Haman was killed, but remember he had ten sons, which represent the “ten horns” we read about in the book of Revelation.  That is what is in view with Haman’s ten sons (that continued to live).  And in Daniel 7, we read that the beast was slain in the Day of Judgment, but the rest of the beast continued on, although their dominion was taken away.  Likewise, the ten sons of Haman continued to live until the “days of Purim” came, but they lived until then without any dominion or authority because Mordecai was ruling over the house of Haman and over the ten sons of Haman.  That is the reason we are continually saying that the Lord Jesus Christ is presently ruling the earth with a rod of iron.  Jesus is now the King of the earth because Satan had been king of the earth since the Garden of Eden and man’s fall into sin.  For thousands of years, Satan had been the ruling king of the earth, until these days after the Tribulation, during this prolonged judgment period.  This is the time when Christ is reigning on the earth.

When those Premillennialists and their churches spoke of a millennial reign of Christ, they were wrong about the duration being a 1000-year reign on earth, but they were right about the fact that Jesus would reign on the earth.  And we have looked at this and seen this in various Scriptures.  For example, it says in Revelation 11:15:

And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

Keep in mind that this is not an eternal reign.  It cannot be, because it is an impossibility that Jesus will reign eternally over the kingdoms of this world because this world will be destroyed.  But does it not say that He will reign for “ever and ever.”  But it is just like verses that say that the wrath of God goes on for “ever and ever,” but we have learned that the preposition “for” can properly be translated as “to.”  He shall reign to ever and ever, or to the point of eternity at the end of the world, because once the world ends, eternity comes.  And that is the reason it says, in 1Corinthians 15:23:

But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.

This is talking about the coming of Christ, but it is not referring to His first coming.   The book of 1Corinthians was written well after His first coming.  It is His second coming, and it says in 1Corinthians 15:24:

Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God…

And that is what He did when He saved the last of the elect by the date of May 21, 2011.  Again, it says in 1Corinthians 15:24:

Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

That is, He has put down all rule of the evil one.  All the authority and power of Satan has been put down.  This is what we are continually teaching – Satan is deposed.  He is not presently ruling the world.  The Lord Jesus is ruling.  He has come and delivered up the kingdom to the Father and put down all rule.  It is all simultaneous, and it all happened years ago on that date the Tribulation ended, and Judgment Day began.

Now read this next verse carefully, in 1Corinthains 24:25-26:

For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

And what is another word we could use instead of “till”?  It is “until.”  So let us get this straight.  Jesus will reign on the earth until He has put all enemies under His feet, and the last (enemy) is death.  And, of course, it is on that last day when “death and hell” will be cast into the lake of fire and they are destroyed.  God will destroy the world, the wicked, and sin, and He will destroy the “grave,” because earth had been turned into the condition of the “grave” or “hell.”  The earth is destroyed.  Death is gone forever, and now there is only life because God is eternal, and His people are eternal.  All the remaining creatures, like the good angels, which He created are eternal, and everything has life for evermore.  There is no more death.  The unmistakable implication of 1Corinthians 15:25 is that Jesus will reign up until the point of the last day, and then He will reign no more, at least in this regard. 

But other Scriptures indicate a (future) eternal reign, and the believers will reign with Christ “a thousand years,” and the “thousand” points to the completeness of eternity, but that is a different matter; that is like a king that reigns over his kingdom, and then he annexes another land or province, and it becomes part of his kingdom.  That is, this earth and all its kingdoms that were previously ruled by Satan are now ruled by Christ, as He rules with the specific purpose of destruction.  He is ruling with a rod of iron – not for their good or welfare – to destroy them, first spiritually, and then literally.  He is ruling as King Abaddon or King Apollyon, as we read in Revelation 9, where the locusts had a king over them.  We have long known that the locusts represent the elect, and their King was Apollyon and Abaddon, and those Hebrew and Greek words mean “destruction.”  The King is Jesus, the King of Destruction and the King of the earth in Judgment Day.  The throne of the Lord Jesus is a judgment throne, and He will judge man and, finally, destroy man, and then His earthly reign will come to an end.  He must reign until He has destroyed that last enemy, and then He reigns no more here.

Again, it said, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign to ever and ever.”  Then it goes on to say in Revelation 11:18:

And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged…

It is “the time of the dead,” and that means that this reign of Christ is taking place within the boundaries of time, and not eternity.