Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #26 of Genesis, chapter 28, and we are continuing to 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 have been spending some time (on this verse), and I think it is good for us to do so, because this return or restoration to the land really ties in well with our present situation and time period.  We have come out of the churches, and the churches typified the kingdom of God, just as Jacob has, at this point, come out of Canaan.  He is coming out, and he will be gone for 40 years, and then he will return.  And God is telling him that He “will bring thee again into this land.” 

And while he is away, there is that comforting and encouraging statement, “…for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of,” which really puts this in a new light when we look at the historical setting and how it points to the spiritual meaning, the end of time and our present time period, where God is assuring His people: “Do not be concerned that you have left the representation or type of the kingdom of heaven behind (the churches), because I will bring you again to that which the church always pictured, the glorious, eternal kingdom of God.”  And this will happen at the conclusion of God’s end-time judgment program, after 40 inclusive years from 1994 to 2033, from everything we can find out from the Bible.  This is the 40-year period that is in view.

So we have been looking at this statement, and we have seen, again, and again, especially in the book of Jeremiah that God refers to returning the captives in Babylon to the land of Judah.  And He is just using the land of Judah as a type and figure of the actual kingdom of heaven.

Last time we were looking at Micah.  Let us go back there now.  It says in Micah 4:10:

Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there JEHOVAH shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.

This is very significant language.  The “city” is pointing to Jerusalem or the churches, as typified by Jerusalem.  They were to go forth out of the city, and God did command His people to leave the corporate church and to “flee Judaea” or to flee Jerusalem, and go to the mountains.  But, here, it says, “Thou shall dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon,”  and the field and Babylon represent the world.  They are interchangeable or synonymous.  It is pointing to Satan’s kingdom.  There in Babylon or the world, God said, “There shalt thou be delivered; there JEHOVAH shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.”  That is exactly what happened when we got to the second part of the Great Tribulation, and the Lord opened the Scriptures to reveal the “shocker” that the church age was over, and issued the command that came through His revealed Word to “depart out of the midst and flee to the mountains.”  We were to get out of the churches.  The Latter Rain was falling outside of the churches, but in the congregations, there was no “rain.”  But outside the churches, the Latter Rain was falling, and it was God’s intention to save the great multitude, and He did.  So the elect obeyed, and came out, and God finished His salvation program.  He saved everyone He intended to save, a tremendous number of people.  We do not know exactly how many, but scores of millions, certainly, as the Bible uses the figure of 200 million in Revelation 9, and that could be the sum total of all God’s elect, and the majority of them were saved in that little season, that time period from September 7, 1994 through May 21, 2011.  There, out in the world is the deliverance of God’s people, the daughter of Zion, and then God commands in other places to come out of Babylon and return to the land.  We saw that in Zechariah 2:6-7:

Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith JEHOVAH: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith JEHOVAH. Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.

It is the same idea, is it not?  Go out into the field Babylon, and there you will be delivered.  And, here, it says, “…flee from the land of the north…Deliver thyself, O Zion.”  Deliverance is connected to salvation, and that is what we also saw in Isaiah 48:20-21:

Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, JEHOVAH hath redeemed his servant Jacob. And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.

To be “redeemed” is salvation.  We spoke of this a couple of studies ago, and it was also mentioned in our last study, how God tells us that it will no more be said, “JEHOVAH liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, JEHOVAH liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north.”  You see, it is the same spiritual picture, so, here, God begins with going forth of Babylon, redeeming His servant Jacob, and then easily transitions to language that applied to Israel in the wilderness, where they thirsted not and where He brought water out of a rock, because the coming out of Babylon points to salvation, just as the coming out of Egypt points to salvation.  And God implies in a couple of places that since they will no more say, “JEHOVAH liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,” but the new saying will be, “JEHOVAH liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,” the latter is of greater importance and carries the greater weight.  As we spent some time discussing, the only way this can be true is when we look at the spiritual picture, and the time of the end when the great multitude would be saved.

Another verse that fits in with this is in Jeremiah 50, which details the fall of Babylon, which, in turn, pictures the fall of the kingdom of Satan at the conclusion of the Great Tribulation and the beginning of Judgment Day.  We read in Jeremiah 50:40-41:

As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof, saith JEHOVAH; so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein. Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.

A people comes from the north, a great nation, and “many kings” refers to the army of God that will destroy Babylon.  And we could relate this to Joel 2 where an army is devouring the earth, from Joel 2:1-11, or we could relate it to the locusts of Revelation 9; or to the saints on white horses following the Lord Jesus seated upon His white horse in Revelation 19.  The “many kings” are spiritual kings, as God’s elect are prophets, priests and kings.  The army comes out of the north because they have been delivered, finally, from the kingdom of Satan and they have been delivered from bondage.  They are now altogether, the people of God or the army of God.  And now was the time for them to “fight.”  Prior to this was not the time, as Jesus told Pilot in John 18:36, as He responded to their question, “Art thou the King of the Jews?”  It says in John 18:36:

Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

It was not at that time, but Judgment Day is the proper time.  Judgment Day is when the plow shares are turned back into swords – it is time for the final battle.  Of course, we know that 2Chronicles says that we have no need to fight in this battle.  And we do not fight within the world’s division and their battle to destroy one another.  We do not get engaged in that, but as far as sharing the Word of God and declaring the truths of what the Bible says in the Day of Judgment, that is something we do get involved with, and that is how the saints will judge the world.

Interestingly, we also find in Isaiah 11:11:

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

We understand that the “second time” that God recovers the remnant of His people refers to the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which began in the Jubilee Year, starting in September 1994 when the Latter Rain period began in which God saved the great multitude.

If we continue reading, it says in Isaiah 11:15-16:

And JEHOVAH shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.

Do you see how this fits in with the statements we read in Jeremiah 16:14-15?

…it shall no more be said, JEHOVAH liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, JEHOVAH liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north.

In Isaiah 11, with the recovering of the remnant the “second time” through the second outpouring of the Holy Spirt, it can only be the great multitude in view that was saved out of great tribulation. 

Here in Isaiah 11, it says that the Egyptian sea is dried up (representing the world) and God makes His people go over dryshod, which is the highway for the remnant of His people that shall be left – those which are alive and remain.  Then it says, “…like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.”  In other words, God is saying that there is another deliverance that is like Egypt, and they would cross over the Egyptian sea, dryshod, and that is also what happened with the Red Sea when Israel crossed on dry ground, historically.  God says it is like it, indicating that He is not referring to that historical event, but He is referring to something “like it,” the coming out of Babylon or coming out of the north country, even though it says here that it is the Egyptian sea.  Remember in Isaiah 48:20-21, God starts by speaking of coming out of Babylon in verse 20, and then He transitions to things that happened during the coming out of Egypt in verse 21.  He is able to refer to the context of both, because they are both pointing, spiritually, to salvation, the deliverance of His people.

It is the same thing here, where it says the remnant of His people will cross dryshod over the Egyptian sea.  If we go to Revelation 16, a chapter that focuses on the Day of Judgment and the pouring out of the seven vials of the seven last plagues of the wrath of God, we read in Revelation 16:12:

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.

(The Euphrates was the river of Babylon, so this has to do with Babylon.)   You see, it is the same spiritual picture, as the “kings of the east” are God’s elect, who are prophets, priests and kings.  And with the language of drying up the river or the Egyptian sea, the waters identify with the wrath of God, and not a drop (of water) will touch the remnant or the kings of the east because the wrath of God had been paid for in full by the Lord Jesus Christ at the foundation of the earth.

Yes – we have been left on the earth that we may appear and make demonstration before the judgment seat of Christ.  We go through that judgment, but we do not experience the wrath of God.  That is, the wrath of God does not hurt us, touch us, or destroy us in any way, and that is how we can “endure unto the end.”  We are not burned up.  We are not annihilated, but we will endure all the way through, and then we will come up out of it.  And that is the “way,” the way that is made dryshod for us.  And, here, this great river Euphrates being dried up is teaching the same thing as when the Egyptian sea was made dryshod so the remnant of God’s people could cross over.

And, ultimately, this will be the coming out of the world, but it began back when God saved the last of the elect, and all were delivered out of the kingdom or house of Satan, which enabled Him to start the judgment process and begin to pour out His wrath.  That is why it tells us in Revelation 18:2:

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen…

After 70 years, Babylon fell.  During the 70 years, it was in its prime.  It was powerful, and the king of Babylon was full of strength over the course of that time period in ruling the nations.  But after 70 years, he fell.  In one night the king of the Medes and the Persians took the kingdom.  Christ comes as a thief in the night.  Then the proclamation was made to let the Jews go and return to their land.

And that was the coming out of the north country that began on May 21, 2011.  It began with the fall of Babylon and the deposing of its evil king, and the beginning of the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, and His declaration to go forth.  That is why it says further on in Revelation 18:4:

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

God is judging them (the world), and there was the need to come out.  Again, it was said that you cannot come out of the world, and Mr. Camping did say this at least a couple times: “You cannot come out of the world.”  And he was teaching that this command to come out of Babylon had to do with coming out of the churches.  But, again, just to be clear, the churches were annexed by Satan as they became part of his overall kingdom, so the churches did become “Babylon” in that way.  And in some places in the Bible, it is necessary for some references to “Babylon” to be pointing to the churches, but, again, overall, it was just part of his kingdom, as Babylon typifies the world in general.  That is why in Isaiah 13, which begins with the “burden to Babylon,” we then we read of God punishing the world.  It is also why in certain places in Jeremiah, God commanded His people to leave Judah and go to Babylon, but we have to seek the spiritual definitions in those Scriptures.  In those Scriptures, Judah would represent the churches and Babylon would represent the world, as you would not leave Judah (the church) and go Babylon (the church).  So in numerous Scriptures where the Jews were commanded to go into captivity, to go to Babylon could only represent the world, or as we see in Jeremiah 51:49:

As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall…

Now, again, we have to define the terms.  Who is Babylon?  It is Satan and his kingdom?  Or, does it represent the churches?  No – because it caused the slain of Israel to fall, and Israel represents the corporate church.  Then God says in Jeremiah 51:49:

… so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.

It is the judgment of Satan and of his kingdom of this world.  That is what is in view.  You cannot make that point to the corporate church.  It has to be Babylon, the world. 

Likewise, when God says, “Come out of her, my people,” in the context of the fall of Babylon, which occurred after the 70 years, or after the Great Tribulation and after the judgment on the churches, the command to come out of her…why would God command people to come out of the church on May 21, 2011 and the days after that?  There is no further command, although I guess the command stays in effect because the churches are “dead,” but it will not benefit anyone because the separation of the wheat and the tares had to take place prior to May 21, 2011.  That would have been the only benefit because God was still sending the Latter Rain, and people could have become saved up to that point.

But, here, it says, “Come out of her, my people,” meaning to deliver thyself from Babylon.  That is, if you believed you were saved outside of the churches during the Latter Rain period, then leave the world.  But you cannot leave the world, and that was Mr. Camping’s point, as I am sure some people are saying.  But is that so?  Is it true we cannot leave the world?  Go over to 2Corinthians 6:17-18:

Wherefore come out from among them…

And that is a translation of the same words we find it Revelation 18, where it says, “Come out of her, my people.”  Again, it says in 2Corinthians 6:17-18:

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,  And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

“Come out of her, my people.”  Is that not saying the same thing as, “come out from among them”?  How can we come out from among the people of the world when we still live in the world?  We live in the world.  We work in the world.  Our homes are in the world.  But God is defining what it means to come out: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate.   God was saying, “Come out of her, my people,” but as He typically does, He did not complete the thought, which was to “Be ye separate.” 

Let us look at this word “separate.”  We find it in Matthew 13:49:

So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

And “come forth” is the same word translated as “come out” in 2Corinthians 6 and Revelation 18.  The word “sever” is the word for “separate.”  That is what takes place – separation of the just from the wicked.  It is just as we see in  Matthew 25:32 where there is a separation of the sheep and goats.  “Come out of her, and be ye separate.  Come out of her, my people.”