Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #11 of Genesis, chapter 27, and we are reading Genesis 27:32-38:

And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed. And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father. And he said, Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing. And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son? And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.

I will stop reading there.  As we have been looking at this over the last few studies, we have seen it is really a dual picture concerning Jacob pretending to be his brother Esau. First, we saw it is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who became man, as the word “Esau” or “Edom” identifies with man.  Then the father blessed Jacob, a picture of God blessing Jesus who was in the form of a servant and in the form of man.  And, yet, in Christ are all the elect, or all spiritual Jacob, which consists of everyone God saved over the course of history, from the beginning right up to the end of salvation.  God’s salvation program concluded on May 21, 2011.

Then we saw that Jacob is a picture of all the elect that received the blessing, but in going out from his father’s presence after having received the blessing, it is a picture of that very last elect person that had to be saved being saved.  Then he went out, having obtained the blessing, and the whole company of the elect have been blessed of God receiving everlasting life.

Then according to the language here, Jacob had scarce gone out when Esau came in to receive the blessing.  Then Isaac, a picture of eternal God, said to Esau, “Who art thou?”  We spent the last couple of studies looking at the verses in Matthew 7 where it says that in that day many will come knocking at the door, saying, “Lord, Lord!”  Also, we looked at Luke 13 where it said, “…when once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door,” then there were those without that tried to enter in, but the Lord said, “…I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.” 

Then we spent some time looking at the word “whence,” and how it led us to Revelation 7 regarding the great multitude that appeared in this glorious vision.  They were all saved, and the question was asked, “Whence came they?”  God wants His people to know the answer to that question, so the answer was, “These are they which came out of great tribulation.”  That is, the reference to “Whence came they,” has to do with a particular time and season, a particular period of rain that produced a particular fruit.  It was the “last fruit,” the ingathering that came at the end of the year.  So that is why once the master of the house had risen up to shut to the door, it was immediately after the Tribulation and immediately after the Latter Rain had fallen, and the fruit had been produced.  There is now no more rain and no more fruit and, therefore, when these (people) come after that time, the response is, “I know ye not whence ye are.  You are not of those that were saved during the church age, and you are not of the final fruit saved over the last about seventeen years of the Latter Rain period during the second part of the Great Tribulation.”  Therefore, since there is no more scheduled periods of rain and no more fruit to come in, Jesus’ statement in Luke 13 says, “I know you not whence ye are.”  That is, these are coming at a time that identifies with our present time, immediately after the Tribulation, and known as Judgment Day, wherein God’s program is to mete out judgment and pour out His wrath upon the unsaved inhabitants of the earth.  It is not the time for rain.  It is not time to gather in fruit any longer.  That is already done, and that is why it was possible for God to shut the door and begin the final judgment process. 

But now they are coming because it is a spiritual judgment, and unsaved natural-minded men have no ability to spiritually discern spiritual things.  That is why they can never truly know the Bible.  That is why they can never truly know sound doctrine, the deep things of God.  That is why they spend their time looking at the surface of the Scriptures and are content with the plain, historical, literal meaning of the Bible and gospels that teach them only basic things in the Bible concerning history and morality, and so forth.  They cannot dig deeper, because it requires the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit being in them (in conjunction with the Holy Spirit), in order that they might discern “time and judgment,” and spiritual truths.  They are unable to do that and, therefore, they are unable to recognize things like the judgment that fell on the churches. 

And that is why hundreds of millions of professed Christians stayed right in the place where God was bringing destruction, the very location where God had said, “There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”  And, yet, they remained (in the churches), ignorant and unafraid because they did not believe it.  It had to be discerned on a spiritual level, as God speaks of fleeing Judaea in Matthew 24 and going to the mountains.  And their theologians take things only literally and they do not go below the surface, so they mistakenly think this applies to the Jews in the Middle East, and that this Scripture was fulfilled in 70 A. D. and does not apply to us today.  So, in blindness and ignorance, they stayed right where they were, as God commanded to come out of the churches, depart out of the midst and go to the mountains.  That is, go to the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God is found in the Bible, where there could have been salvation for them and their families.  But they remained – hundreds of millions of them – and very few came out of the churches because they had no ears to hear, eyes to see or hearts to perceive spiritual things or spiritual truths.

Then, in like manner, after carrying out a 23-year (8,400-day) spiritual judgment upon the churches and congregations, God warned the people of the world near the end of that time period that Judgment Day upon the whole earth was coming on May 21, 2011!  There was an exclamation point because it was an absolute statement that was certain to come to pass.  So God’s people trusted God and trusted the Word of God and the things that God the Holy Spirit opened up to the understanding of His people, as the Bible information fit so perfectly and locked in that date.  And God’s people declared that it would be the Day of Judgment, and all the world heard, for all intents and purposes.  And, certainly, the churches heard, and there was much tension and anxiety and trepidation in the people of the world.  They were not comfortable at all in being faced with this message of judgment from the Bible, a source they know is a correct source, and from a God that they know deep-down is true and does exist.  And, of course, they knew He was displeased with them, and they were in trouble with God, so there was a great deal of discomfort as the day approached. 

Then it finally came, and nothing happened visibly.  Nothing happened in the physical realm.  Nothing happened (outwardly) in the world because that is all the world understands.  It is all the natural-minded individual can perceive and grab ahold of, as it has to be something they can see, taste, smell, feel or hear.  None of their physical senses noticed anything at all and, therefore, the world concluded nothing happened, along with the churches.  The churches had already been blinded, and their time was up and now they could not come out because it was within the boundaries of the time (leading up to May 21, 2011) before the door of heaven was shut that they could have been potentially blessed if they had besought the Lord from the vantage point outside of the local churches.  But they did not, and they remained behind, and the door shut on the world, and the door shut on everyone within the churches and congregations.  God brought to pass Judgment Day, beginning May 21, 2011, as the world was celebrating, and as the churches joined in the celebration, mocking, ridiculing and reviling God’s faithful people, especially a good man like Mr. Camping.  They said every evil thing they could think of to disparage him and the Gospel he was teaching.  Yes – they mocked the idea of May 21, 2011, and the churches grabbed hold of that, and they said, “If he is wrong about that, then he is wrong about everything!  He is wrong about the judgment on the churches and the loosing of Satan to rule in the congregations.”  (That is what they were truly furious about, as these things had been proclaimed against them.)  “How dare anyone say that God would have His people to leave the churches and depart from us in order to be blessed.  Do they not know that we are the ones in control of blessing, and we are the pillar and ground of truth?  God has established our pastors, elders, priests, bishops and popes, and we are the ones in control of blessing.  And how dare anyone say that there can be no blessing in any church, and that our pastors and priests and bishops and popes have no power to bless?  How dare they!”  They were tremendously angry.  They celebrated and spoke evil (of the truth).  And by the way, the word “blaspheme” is really a word that means to “speak evil of,” and they spoke evil of the teachings of the Bible that the Holy Spirit had opened up. 

But at the very time they were celebrating and congratulating themselves and patting each other on the back, God brought to pass what He said He would do – He shut the door of heaven.  He started a spiritual fire on the earth.  He set in motion the division among the nations of the world, and it was not a “rolling earthquake,” per se, but it is evidence that we are now able to witness in the world as it is taking place.  Of course, we look out at the world only after first looking at the Bible and seeing if God speaks of Satan’s end as being a “house divided,” and whose kingdom of Babylon will fall in that way.  And the Bible keeps bringing forth more and more confirmation of the things we have learned, so there is no need to go back.  Those that have gone back have gone the wrong way, rather than waiting on the Lord.  And God’s elect spent some time waiting on the Lord (after May 21, 2011), but once the Lord opened up these things, we continued to move forward because that is the way He would have His people to go.

Well, this all fits in with Esau coming before his father Isaac, and Isaac is not accepting Esau’s pleas after Isaac said, “Who art thou?”  Then after Esau declared that he was the elder son, it says in Genesis 27:33:

And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him?

It is settled.  It is done.  A “great gulf” is now fixed between the one blessed and the one cursed, because if you are not blessed to receive the gift of eternal life, you remain in your sins under the wrath of God, with the curse of God upon you.  Finally, at the end you will be utterly destroyed for evermore.  That will be your “hell.”  It will be eternal damnation in the sense of eternal destruction from the presence of the Lord.  And this is the serious nature of what God has done in this Day of Judgment.  It is settled.  It is done – He has given the blessing, and the rest are cursed, so we read in Genesis 27:34:

And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.

“Save me, God!  Have mercy on me, O, God!”  It would have been tremendously wonderful to hear this plea from anyone, as represented by Esau, prior to May 21, 2011, and to have had them approach unto God in that way and beseech  Him like blind Bartimaeus: “Thou son of David, have mercy on me.”  He was told to hold his peace, but he cried all the more: “Thou son of David, have mercy on me.”   Jesus asked him, “What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?” The blind man said, “Lord, that I might receive my sight.”  That would be so wonderful if that (plea) were in its proper time and season.  If Esau’s pleas had taken place when God was still receiving them and the throne of grace was available, and the light of the Gospel was shining, and the water of the Gospel was flowing, how wonderful it would have been! 

And this was the prayer of God’s people on behalf of all the “Esaus” in their lives among their neighbors and friends and, especially, in our families.  We prayed and prayed, “O, Father, please have mercy!”  We did not have to pray, “Father, having had mercy, have mercy,” because at that time it was still the day of salvation.  “Have mercy, O, God!”  We prayed often, and we tried to speak with them and give them literature about the Word of God, and we tried to share the importance of the need, but it was always  put off or dismissed: “I do not have time for that.  I do not want to hear that.”  And that was Esau’s (attitude) in the proper time and season, but after the door is shut and once the Master of the house has risen up and shut to the door, then many come seeking the blessing.  Many are trying to obtain the blessing at the time when it is no longer available. 

And this is just like mankind – it is the nature of man to want that which he cannot have any longer.  We see it in the account of the spies and their evil report.  There were two spies, Caleb and Joshua that said, “We are well equipped to go up and take the land,” but the other ten spies gave an evil report: “No, no, no.”  And the people believed those ten and refused to go up, so God judged them.  He sentenced them to wander a year for each of the forty days that they had searched out the land.  Forty years they would wander in the wilderness.  Once they heard the sentence and once they heard the judgment of God, they rethought their position and they determined, “You know what?  It is not that bad, after all, especially with God with us.  We will go up and fight those people rather than wander in the wilderness.”  But it was too late.  It was the judgment of God.  The sentence had been given.  This was the wrath of God upon them for their disobedience and rebellion, but they thought, “Well, we can still do this.”  So they gathered together and went up, and they were badly beaten back by the enemy forces because God was not with them.  And that is the nature of man.  It is always after it is too late and after the goodness of God has had its day when God’s salvation program was (still) operating, but they did not want to approach God in a right manner. 

But once God said there was no more salvation and that Judgment Day has come, now they are coming humbly.  They are coming like Esau came.  They are coming and knocking on the door.  From what we can read in these passages, they are not trying to violently take the kingdom of heaven by force.  They are coming to the proper place, the door, and the Word of God is the door because Christ is the door.  So they are coming to the Bible, and they are saying to the Lord, “Let me in,” which is a proper recognition that God has to open the door and receive them and bring them in.  It has always been by the work and faith of Christ that anyone became saved, so they are following the correct approach.  Esau is not saying, “I am blessed,” but he is going to Isaac and saying, “Will you bless me?”  Listen to his plea: “…he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.”   What a wonderful prayer for the day of salvation: “O, Father, have mercy upon me.  Bless me – save me.”  That was the cry to have made at that time, but no longer. 

If we turn to Zephaniah, we will see what we have been saying about the deeper spiritual meaning of this passage and how it points to Judgment Day when salvation is no longer available.  We will see how well it fits with Esau’s great and exceeding bitter cry.  It says in Zephaniah 1:14-18:

The great day of JEHOVAH is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of JEHOVAH: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against JEHOVAH: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of JEHOVAH'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

The mighty man shall cry there bitterly.  You can just hear the cry of Esau.  You can hear the tears and the beseeching nature of his petition to his father, the father who blessed both of his sons concerning things to come, but only one received “the blessing.”  And now here is the other (son) before him.  Certainly, Isaac took no pleasure in not giving the blessing to his firstborn son Esau.  No – it was all sorrow for his father Isaac.  How he would have desired to have more blessing available, but God had arranged for limited blessing and, therefore, it was only enough for Jacob.