Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #27 of Genesis, chapter 28, and we will be reading Genesis 28:16-19:
And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely JEHOVAH is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.
Jacob awoke out of his sleep, and he had been given a dream and the dream was from God. God broke the barrier of the supernatural and communicated with him, showing him the ladder that reached unto heaven, and He spoke to him, telling him that He was the God of Abraham and Isaac. And He reiterated the promise of the land to Jacob and to his seed, and He also greatly encouraged and comforted him by telling him that He would be with him and keep him in all places whither he would go. Jacob was leaving Canaan and going to a strange land. And, yes, that was very comforting to Jacob, and what was even more comforting was the fact that God told him that He would bring him again into the land, and He would not leave him until He had done what He had spoken to him of, so it was a wonderful experience wherein the Lord blessed Jacob. From everything we can read, Jacob had not had this type of encounter with God before. He knew God. He was of a family of believers. His father Isaac was a true elect child of God. And from everything we can read, his mother Rebekah was a true elect child of God. They were a family God was dealing with, a line of true believers, and they had received the promises from God. God was favoring them, blessing Abraham and blessing Isaac, and now the blessing was upon Jacob. He had received the birthright and the blessing of the firstborn already, and now God actually communicated with Him, and he heard the Word of God.
I think that is partly what is in view with the language, “And Jacob awaked out of his sleep.” The Bible uses “sleep” in a few different ways. It can refer to death, as we read in Ephesians 5: “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” We know that man is spiritually dead, and when we experience salvation, it is as though we have been awakened and risen from the dead. It is just like when you wake up out of a good night’s sleep, and you come to your senses. You are able to see around. While you were sleeping, you did not notice your surroundings. You were not conscious of your surroundings. You were not perceiving and discerning your bedroom, but when you awakened, you see, you hear, and you feel. Your senses are activated, once again, and you perceive your surroundings.
And I think that is the picture here. Jacob, a type of the elect, is leaving Canaan. And as we have discussed, Canaan is a type and figure of the corporate church. He is leaving and he will be on a journey for 40 years. He is age 60, and he will not return from Haran and come back to the land of Canaan until he is 100 years old. And that 40-year period relates to the time between 1994 and 2033, inclusively, a time when God actually “awakens” His elect. And maybe not even so much the idea of salvation, as I mentioned that “sleeping” can be a picture of being dead in sin and then being made alive, but it can also picture something else. If we turn to Matthew 25, we read of 10 virgins who were all sleeping. It says in Matthew 25:1-4:
Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
We have talked about this passage before. The lamp is the Word of God: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.” And the Word of God is the Bible, so the lamp represents the Bible. Is it true that God’s elect, the wise, have Bibles? Is it also true that professed Christians – those that fill the pews of the corporate church today – have Bibles? Yes – the wise and the foolish all have lamps or Bibles, but those that are foolish lack the “oil.” They have no oil with them because “oil” represents the Holy Spirit, because they are merely professed Christians. They are Christians because they “signed up” or joined up or because their mothers took them to a church, but they have never been born again. So if you ask them, “Are you a believer? Are you a Christian?” They will respond, “I accepted Him. I know I am saved.” But it is all their profession, and there has been no actual change in their hearts, so God continues to view them as “fools,” just as all the unsaved people of the world would be viewed as “foolish” by God.
On the other hand, there are those that have oil in their vessels, along with their lamps. They have the Word of God, the Bible, but they also possess the “oil” or the Holy Spirit. And that makes a huge difference. It says next in Matthew 25:5:
While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
Both the wise and the foolish slumbered and slept while Christ tarried. We know that Jesus is the bridegroom. And when did Jesus tarry? It was over the course of the entire church age. He departed in 33 A. D., returning to heaven. The Holy Spirit was poured out and the churches were established. and the church age got under way, and it continued for century after century. Finally, we came to the 20th Century, and in 1988, it was the 13,000th year of earth’s history, and the day before Pentecost in that year, May 21, 1988, God did not renew the church age. He ended the church age, and He came as Judge of the churches and congregations. That was the time of the transaction when the Holy Spirit departed out of the midst of the congregations (Christ left the churches), and Satan was loosed out of the bottomless pit and came against the churches. So the “daily” was removed, and the “abomination of desolation” was set up at that point in time. This was under the allowance and permissive will of God because God was judging the churches. The Lord Jesus came as Judge and He no longer “tarried,” and this was during the time of the Great Tribulation.
But while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept, just as we read in the parable of the wheat and tares, in Matthew 13:24-30:
Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
In this parable of the wheat and the tares, God says, “Let both grow together.” The wheat and tares are figures of the saved and the unsaved. The wheat are the saved, the elect, and the unsaved are the tares, the professed Christians. Both grow together, just like there were 10 virgins – five wise and five foolish – and all slumbered and slept together.
And it says here that the sowing of the tares took place while men “slept.” Satan was the enemy that sowed tares among the wheat over the course of the 1,955 years of the church age. But then came the time of harvest. And as I mentioned, 1988 was the 13,000th year, but it was 1994 when the official judgment of the churches began, because after the grievous 2,300 evening mornings (from May 21, 1988 through September 7, 1994), a “new season” arrived, the time of the Latter Rain and the time to bring in the final fruits.
So, since it is possible that it was, perhaps, a temporary famine or judgment that God brought on the churches, and if we would see God use the churches to carry His Word to bring the Latter Rain to save the great multitude, then God would still have been using them. But God confirmed (in 1994) that He was done with the churches, and He brought forth even more information from the Bible to indicate that the church age was over, and He commanded His people to come out, and He commanded the pastors and shepherds within the churches to cease feeding His flock, and so forth. And, therefore, 1994 was shown to be the official end of the church age, and it could be known, absolutely, that Christ was judging the churches and congregations of the world.
So the time when the “sleep” had taken place was during the entire church age. That is not a very flattering way to sum it up, but that is the way God describes it: the entire church age was a time when it was as though men slept, the saved and the unsaved. But they would awake, and that is what we see if we go back to Matthew 25. We were told that the bridegroom tarried, and they all slumbered and slept, and then it says in Matthew 25:6:
And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
And “midnight” in the Bible is a time that identifies with judgment. It could refer to the judgment on the churches or the judgment on the world, and the context would determine which judgment. But it is a time that identifies with judgment, and in this setting, it has to do with the judgment that began at the house of God during the Great Tribulation, that initial judgment period of the “first tribulation,” when judgment started (at the house of God), as God said in Ezekiel 9: “Begin at my sanctuary.”
At that point, during that Great Tribulation and the time of judgment on the corporate church, the Lord brought forth tremendous amounts of information that indicated the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ when He would come to “complete all things” for this world and to end this world. It was the information concerning Judgment Day. That is, it was during the Great Tribulation period that God opened up the eyes or understanding of His people to learn the Biblical calendar of history, and to come to see the timeline for the Great Tribulation, which was 23 exact years or 8,400 exact days, concluding on May 21, 2011. With a sense of great urgency, God expressed upon us to blow the trumpet and warn the people, and the trumpet was not to give an uncertain sound, but a very definite sound. “For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” Who will take warning? But if it was a definite, certain sound, then the people would take warning, so God convinced His people that it would be the Day of Judgment, and we proclaimed it in absolute terms, “May 21, 2011, Judgment Day!” And it was the first day of a prolonged judgment period on the world, and this is what is in view when it says, “Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” And that reference to “going out to meet him” would relate to coming out of the churches because, again, the wise and the foolish were all together, slumbering and sleeping.
But at the point when the Lord revealed the timing of His coming, a division began to take place and separation occurred between the wheat and the tares. And because it was now harvest time, unlike the time of the church age for almost 2,000 years, the mechanism God used to accomplish this process was the command that was revealed by the Spirit of God through the comparison of Scripture with Scripture and spiritual with spiritual (and the Holy Ghost teaches) regarding the spiritual truths and the deeper hidden meaning in verses like Matthew 24: 15; that when you see with eyes of understanding in the Bible that “the abomination of desolation” is standing in the holy place where he ought not to be, then let him that readeth understand. You see, that ties in with “seeing.” When you read it and you see it in the Scripture itself, in the Word of God, the Bible, “Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains.” You need to hear the voice of Christ, and you need to understand that Christ spoke in parables, and without a parable He did not speak. In other words, you need to be an elect child of God that understands how God wrote the Bible, and realize how He hid truth. So “Judaea” is not referring here to that land in the Middle East, but it is referring to the corporate church: “Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains.” Go out. “Depart out of the midst,” as it tells us more directly in Luke 21, when Jerusalem is compassed about with armies. That is, when Satan and his armies (Gog and Magog) come against the camp of the saints, the corporate churches, then we were to depart out of the midst. “Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” And you had better not have remained in the churches to meet Him. When Christ came as Judge of the world, He had already come as judge of the churches, so if you stayed inside the churches when He came as Judge of the world (on May 21, 2011), then there is no hope – you have been destroyed. You are of the tares that had been bundled for the burning because the working of God’s Spirit as He brought the Latter Rain during the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit was taking part during the second part of the Great Tribulation which was the last (about ) seventeen when there was no Latter Rain inside the churches. Therefore, it was impossible to experience the blessing of salvation while there. And if you did not obey and hearken to the commandment of God to depart out, then you could not have been saved during the “last season” that the Bible speaks of, and there is no other season. You could not possibly have become saved through the hearing of the Word of God, because it was necessary to hear outside the churches. That was the location. God is sovereign regarding whom He saved, when He saved, and where He saved, and He had determined that He would not save within the churches during that period of time. It had to be outside the churches, and then He graciously and kindly warned everyone to get out.
And that is where the “wise” did go because they had oil with which to light their lamps. That is, the Word of God, the Bible, was illuminated through the Holy Spirit, and it allowed the elect to see: “Oh, it is the end of the church age, and God is commanding me to go out. That is where I will go.” And it was outside the churches and congregations that they met Christ.
We will see here that the foolish that lacked oil came to the Bible. They heard these things, but it was all gibberish to them: “What are you talking about regarding leaving Judaea and fleeing to the mountains? That had to do with the 1st Century A. D., with the Jews and the destruction of historical Jerusalem. It has nothing to do with the churches.” You see, they had no ears to hear and no eyes to see and no ability to perceive the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. They had no ability to “see” the Bible because it was dark to them. It was not “lit” because they had no “oil.” They lacked the Holy Spirit, and it takes the Holy Spirit to open the eyes, and without it, they could not discern time and judgment.
By the way, that is where the difference comes in, with many statements that we find in Daniel 12:9-10, where it says the Word is closed up and sealed until the time of the end, and then knowledge shall increase, but “none of the wicked shall understand.” The foolish cannot possibly understand – they have no oil. But the wise will understand, for the very reason that we do possess oil, and when we have oil, we can light our lamps. And when our lamps are lit, we can see the path in front of us. We could see the way out of the churches, and God’s people went out, but the wicked or foolish could not see that.
Then it goes on to say in Matthew 25:7:
Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
That is, they all went to light their lamps: “Let me see what the Bible has to say about May 21, 2011, and Christ coming in judgment.” Then it says in Matthew 25:8:
And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.
That is, they are saying, “We do not see what you are talking about. Explain to us. Make us understand. Help us to see this.” And the wise answer, in Matthew 25:9:
But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
Now this is not a cruel response. It is really directing them to go to God (for the oil), because God is the Merchantman. And God is a Triune God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), so go to “them,” as it were. Go to the God of the Bible, and He is the only One that can give you oil or give the Holy Spirit to you, so you can see and know the things of the Bible, and these things regarding the coming of the Lord. “We cannot help you with that, although we certainly want to help you all we can, but you must personally go to God and buy for yourself.” But as it says in Isaiah, you buy without money – it is all freely given by God (in the day of salvation).
Then it says in Matthew 25:10:
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
While they went to buy, the door was shut. They should have gone directly to God and His Word of God, the Bible. But, instead, they went to their pastors and elders and congregational members, and they said, “What do you think about this?” They tried to get their oil from them to light their lamps, but while they were disputing and discussing, it was too late. Christ came on May 21, 2011 and shut the door and ended His salvation program.
We will have to pick this up in our next Bible study.