Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #22 of Genesis, chapter 28, and we will read Genesis 28:15:

And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

We were looking at several encouraging Scriptures last time where God declares that He will not leave nor forsake His people.  He will not fail us, but He will be with us, and God accomplished that through salvation and the indwelling Holy Spirit who the sinner receives at the point of salvation, along with a new resurrected soul.  God’s Spirit is in us somehow, mysteriously.  No one can explain how that is or really understand it, but it is a Biblical fact and a truth the Bible teaches.

So even if everything in the world was against us – our friends, family, neighbors and everyone else – God would be for us, and He would stay with us and He would not leave us.  And you know as well as I do that there can be certain developments and circumstances that can happen, from time to time, when it seems that everyone comes against you.  It seems there are ten thousand round about, but God never sides with those that are against us.  He is always with us, and that is why we have confidence.  And that is why we have tremendous hope and security because we know, “greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”  Even if, somehow, they could possibly be gathered together as one (against us), they would not be able to stand and fight against the force and power that is within us.  Of course, they might kill, harm or destroy us physically, but the Bible tells us not to fear those that can kill the body, but have no power against the soul.  But, rather, we are to fear God who can destroy both body and soul together with an eternal destruction.

But the elect will not experience eternal destruction.  We will not be annihilated or cease to exist.  We will live on for evermore, and this is why we read in 2Corinthians 4:7:

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels…

That is, we have this gift of salvation – this wonderful, glorious blessing of God of everlasting life and a new perfect, resurrected soul, along with God’s Spirit and presence within us.  We have this tremendous treasure…and that is what it is.  You might think a treasure is money or gold and silver, and something you can measure by the size of your possession of material things.  You may think of a treasure that can be accumulated and something you can perceive, see, touch and spend in this world.  That is the world’s understanding of treasure, certainly.  But all the world’s treasures will see rust and corruption.  It is not lasting or enduring.  It will vanish away, along with the whole creation, on that last day. 

If you die, you cannot bring any of that treasure with you.  And that is the point of determination and that is really the “test” of treasure.  It is what you have on the day you die.  What do you have if you are a billionaire or even if you had a hundred billion?  Oh, wonderful, and men certainly spoke well of you all your days: “What a great guy!  What a wonderful person!”  And you enjoyed all the pleasures of sin and all your “filth,” and then you die.  Then you die.  You trip over something and fall down the steps, and you break your neck and you are dead.  What good does your (earthly) treasure do you at that point?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  And you are empty within.  You have no resurrected soul.  You have no indwelling Spirit of God.  You are like a beast that perishes, no matter how rich you were.  No matter what you did for the measly few years you lived, and no matter how much you enjoyed them and ate, drank and made merry, it is all gone.  It is all gone.  You are dead.  And now you are just like a dog or a cat or a rabbit.  You are as dead as they are, and when an animal dies, the breath of life God gave them (that “spirit” that makes a dog so happy that he wags his tail) just goes away, and now the dog is gone.  It does not live on.  It is buried, and it becomes part of the ground again. 

And the sinner that dies in their spiritually filthy condition is like the beast that perish.  He is gone forever and annihilated at the end of all things, and his thoughts, memories, joy, laughter and fun cannot be found.  It went “Poof!” like a dream, and it flew away.  It is all gone.  It may still be in the memory of some still living, but as far as that individual goes, it is gone from him.  It is gone to nothing.  So there is the evidence and proof that they never had any real treasure.  They had “fool’s gold,” or that which they thought was valuable.  And, in a way, they sold their souls for it.   They believed the lies of the world and, finally, it caused them to be destroyed.

On the other hand, there is the illustration of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, where the rich man had everything (of this world), but he ended up in the grave or hell, but Lazarus had nothing.  He was a beggar, full of sores, and he desired to eat of the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table.  And it is true that we can be envious, in a way, when we look at the people of the world and the, seemingly, careless way they live their lives and the things they enjoy of the world.  And they are not in trouble as other men – they are not chastened by God.  They do not have an inward struggle between flesh and spirit, this battleground that rages within our own personality.  And they do not have the assault of Satan and his spiritual forces.  So, of course, they seem at ease, and their days seem almost peaceful, so there can be an envy, as it says in Psalm 73:3-7:

For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.

Let us go further down in Psalm 73.  By the way, the envy of the wicked can lead to self-pity, if an elect child of God were to lose sight of Christ (temporarily) and start looking at the world and allow his flesh (the physical body) to lead him, he can start envying them and feeling sorry for himself.  So, finally, in his own chastened condition, he says in Psalm 73:12-14:

Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.

Poor, poor, soul.  Is that true?  Do you feel sorry for yourself?  I know I have fallen into that trap sometimes, and that is why I am aware of it.  And it is one of the biggest lies, and we really should be ashamed of ourselves when we do fall into that trap because with salvation, we have everything.  We have a treasure that is in an earthen vessel, and it is full of riches.  It is full of the most valuable things imaginable, and the time will soon be here when our “treasure chest” will be opened, as it were.

So, it seems the Psalmist, who is an elect child of God, has fallen into a similar trap, and it says in Psalm 73:15-22:

If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins. So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.

That is, he realized the foolishness and ignorance of envying those that have their inheritance in this life.  It is a measly inheritance compared to the eternal inheritance that the elect children of God possess, and that is really the shameful thing about envy.  We have the real riches that moths cannot eat and rust cannot corrupt and the riches that will endure forever and ever.  Just think of enjoying those riches after this world is gone (very soon) and God creates the new heaven and new earth.  And there you and I are and all of God’s elect, and we are all with God in new creation.  We are new creatures in our new spirit bodies to go along with our new souls, and God, who is Spirit, dwells with us, and all is utter happiness and joy.  And there is love, peace, gentleness, kindness, goodness, and all the fruits of the spirit.  There are no more works of the flesh.  They are all good things, and that is all that will be permitted because the works of the flesh were evil due to sin, but there is no sin that will ever again happen in the new heaven and new earth or in any part of God’s creations.  It is all finished and done, and there we are enjoying real life – life that we cannot imagine.  And we will be enjoying it and enjoying it, with no end to it.  We just go on, and on, and on. 

Now it is not possible for you or me or any of God’s people who have been transformed to remember the former things.  God will not permit us to remember former things.  That would be remembering sinful things because sin has tainted every area of this world, so God wipes our memories clean.  There you are, and the longer and further you go into eternity future, if you could look back at that little “speck” of time that existed once in this world …and, you know, it is hard to remember things that happened just a few years ago, let alone looking back from all eternity future.  But, if you could look back and remember yourself and remember your fears and the troubles you experienced, and all the persecution, tribulation and affliction and your envy of the wicked, would you not take yourself by the scrap of the collar and shake yourself and say, “You fool!  Wake up!  Let those things go.  Forget those things.  Those things are nothing!”?

Press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus!  Go forward!  It is soon to come anyway, as this pitiful thing we call “time” is over in just a few years, and the end of time is right in front of us, and we only have this small pittance to suffer and to take up our cross and to feed the sheep and to serve God and show forth the love of Christ.  And you are concentrating on all these other things?  And you are so enamored with these riches?  Well, let me tell you, as if from eternity future, “There are no riches on this earth, as far as the things of the world and all these material things.  I cannot even remember them.  They are gone forever, and so are the ones you are envying – they are gone forever.  Snap out of it, and go to the Word of God, the Bible, and pray to God for grace and wisdom and strength to look forward and stop feeling sorry for yourself.  Look to Christ.  Keep your eyes on Him and trust on the Lord and trust on His Word.”

I would say that to myself, and probably much more.  Of course, if we could have that kind of visit…but God does not permit those things.  He allows us to stumble on in our ignorance and foolishness, and He allows us to waste hours of a day or even whole days, weeks and months.  And, sadly, some of us have wasted years. And, yet, by His grace, we are an elect child of God and He is giving us this “extension of time” that we did not even know existed until we entered into it.  It is not the church age.  That is over.  It is not the Great Tribulation.  That is past.  But it is Judgment Day, the day of the wrath of God.  And, yet, we now have an opportunity here to glorify God in the fires, and to serve Him and to show love toward Him, as Christ said to Peter, “Feed my sheep,” after asking him three times, “Lovest thou me?”  He will not leave us or forsake us, and He will also bring us again into the land.

Well, I guess I kind of got off track.  Sometimes, I just kind of “preach” instead of doing a Bible study.

But I will read our verse again, in Genesis 28:15:

And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

Lord willing, in our next Bible study, we are going to look a little bit more at God’s statement that He will not leave us.  We will also look at this statement He made to Jacob, and remember that this was the time that Jacob was fleeing the land of Canaan because his brother was planning to kill him.  We saw that this ties in with the end of time, just as “in the end of days,” Cain slew Abel, or brother betrays brother, according to the Gospel accounts.  It is the time that the Lord makes separation between the wheat and tares.  And Jacob was blessed and received the blessing, while the other brother realized that he was not blessed, and he responded in anger and wanted to kill his brother.  And that fits in with the end of the church age, and we saw that Jacob’s 40-year sojourn in Haran fits in well with 1994 through 2033, and also with the statement where God says that He will bring him again into this land.  We will look at the book of Jeremiah because a similar statement is made several times in relationship to God’s command to the people of Judah to go into captivity into Babylon.  And if they would go, He  would bring them again into the land of Judah.  And we can see how that fits, and it is really further confirmation that Jacob’s 40 years in Haran does, indeed, identify with God’s end-time timeline for the end of the world, which began with judgment on the churches and transitioned into judgment on the world. 

But we will look more at that, Lord willing, in our next Bible study.