Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #28 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.

In our last study, we were looking at a couple of parables.  We spent some time in Matthew 25, and we will go back to that in a little bit, with the parable of the ten virgins.  We also went to Matthew 13, and we read the parable of the wheat and tares.  And we saw what they had in common was that they were “sleeping.”  All ten virgins “slumbered and slept” while the bridegroom tarried.  There is no question that Jesus is the Bridegroom, and there is also no question that He tarried during the church age.  While He tarried throughout the entirety of the church age, the truly saved and the professed Christians who were not truly saved all slumbered and slept. 

Now I know that it seems strange to think of it that way.  We know it cannot mean that there was no salvation because half of the virgins were said to have “oil.”  So the truly saved, God’s elect, also “slept” during the church age.  What could that mean?  We know that while men “slept” in the parable of the wheat and the tares, an enemy sowed tares among the wheat.  So it is also clear that Satan was very active in infiltrating the churches and congregations, sowing his people there.  And his people would be anyone that was unsaved.  They could have been very smart people and professional people, like lawyers and doctors, and high respected and rich people, and so forth.  And once they were within the churches and congregations, they picked up on things because they were smart, and since they present themselves very well and speak very well, they would quickly rise into positions of power and authority, and they ended up leading the churches, but they were never saved.  And this was the way that Satan was able to infiltrate and destroy churches – even entire denominations – throughout the church age.  But God was still in the midst, and the Holy Spirit was still there, and salvation could take place while this whole process was under way, and over the course of the 1,955 years of the church age, the tares greatly outnumbered the wheat.

But, again, how are we to understand the “sleeping” of the wise and the foolish, the saved and the unsaved?  We can understand that the unsaved are “sleeping,” because the Bible likens being “asleep” to being spiritually dead, and “awakening” to becoming spiritually alive, and the reason we started looking at this was because Jacob “awaked out of his sleep.”  But there are other connotations to the idea of being “asleep,” and I think we will find what God has in view in the book of Isaiah 29, and it will help us.  It says in Isaiah 29:9-12:

Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. For JEHVOAH hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.

This passage does have to do with the judgment of God.  I think we can see that, as it started out saying, “they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. For JEHVOAH hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes.”  This does relate to the idea of being unable to perceive or discern the spiritual teachings of the Bible.  You cannot know parables, which means that you cannot know the Bible.  The disciples asked Christ this question in Matthew 13:10-14:

And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

This is the condition of the unsaved when they come to the Bible.  They just cannot understand it because it is in parabolic form where God has hidden truth, and it requires the Spirit of God to reveal the hidden truth.  Therefore, they need oil in their lamps, as the parable of the ten virgins points out, and you need the Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth and to open your eyes, and so forth.  So, back in Isaiah 29, it said in Isaiah 29:10-11:

For JEHVOAH hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed…

And that is significant because it is stated in a few books of the Bible, but we will go to Isaiah 1:1:

The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem…

The entire book of Isaiah is a vision God gave him.  He experienced the same thing that Jacob experienced when he came to this place, and he went to sleep.  And while asleep, God gave him a dream of divine revelation.  He communicated with him.  Likewise, Isaiah received a vision of God, as well as other prophets, and these things were written down as part of the Bible and, therefore, the word “vision” can itself refer to the Bible.  And that is what is in view here: “And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed…”  And, of course, the “book” is the Bible.  The word “Bible” means book.  They are “as the words of a book that is sealed,” and that reminds us of what the Lord said to Daniel, in Daniel 12:4:

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

And He said it again, in Daniel 12:9-10:

And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.

Let us just stop here a second, and ask a question: “Why were the words of the book closed up and sealed?”  Was there any kind of distinction made between the wise and the wicked in Daniel 12:10?  Was there a lack of understanding on the part of the wicked and was there understanding on the part of the wise regarding the words that were sealed?  No – neither understood, because the word was sealed up, so there can be no understanding of something that is sealed up.  You cannot even read it, and that is the point that is going to be made in Isaiah 29.  There is no understanding if something is sealed  because it is sealed up, and you are not held responsible for being unable to read and to understand something that is sealed.  But it is sealed up until the time of the end, so Daniel 12:10 is talking about the situation that occurs after the seals are taken off, and the information that God gave to Daniel and the prophets in the Bible is now opened up, and it is no longer closed up.  It is opened up and it can now be understood.  And once there is that ability to understand because God has taken the seals off the book and opened up the information, then the wise will understand.  Then none of the wicked will understand.  Then there is a distinction made between them.

And that relates to the ten virgins who all “slumbered and slept.”  There were ten virgins, and no one could tell which were wise and which were foolish.  You could not point to this one and say, “You are one of the foolish,” and point to another one and say, “You are one of the wise.”  You could not tell, and that is why God said regarding the wheat and the tares, “Let both grow together until the harvest.”  You see that word “till” in Daniel 12:9: “…the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” 

God opens the Word.  He wakes up the virgins with the cry, “The bridegroom cometh!”  But at that point, those that are dead in sins (the foolish or the tares) go to light their lamps, but they have no oil, and now it is a different matter.  Now there is a responsibility to understand: “Let him that readeth understand.”  There is a responsibility to act upon the information God is unsealing, and that is what it gets into in Isaiah 29:11:

And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed…

It explains that the book is sealed, and then it goes on to say in Isaiah 29:11-12:

…which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.

So neither the learned or the unlearned can read the book that is sealed, and the Bible is that book.  The virgins were as “asleep” because the Bible was sealed over the course of the church age.  The wheat and the tares were to grow together because the Bible was sealed during the church age.  But at the time of the end, at the end of the church age and the time of harvest and the cry was made, “The bridegroom cometh,” then began the separation of the wheat and the tares.  Then let the wise depart out and meet the Bridegroom.  The fools will not because they have no ability to understand because they have no oil in their lamps.  See how this all fits together.

Let us go back to Matthew 25 because I just want to finish looking at the verses in that passage.  As we saw, it said in Matthew 25:7:

Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.

They all tried to light their lamps, and 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 could not light their lamps, which means they could not see it or understand it.  There was no discernment, as it says in Proverbs 28.  (And, again, there are many similar verses.)  It says in Proverbs 28:5:

Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek JEHOVAH understand all things.

Why do certain men not understand, but certain others do understand?  It is the “oil,” the Holy Spirit, given to them with the salvation of God.

It also says in Jeremiah 8:7:

Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of JEHOVAH.

These would be the five foolish virgins that are God’s people in name only: “We are God’s people.  We are believers in Christ.”  And, yet, when it was finally time in God’s program of times and seasons for the coming of the Lord and the separation in the harvest of the wheat and the tares, then it was essential to have the Holy Spirit, but the foolish did not have it.  So when the foolish virgins said, “Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out,” the response from the elect was given in Matthew 25:9:

… Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.

That is, “Go to God.”  It is the plural form “them,” because God is a Triune God.  For example, “El-o-heem” is a plural name for God.  Go to them, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the one God of the Bible, and beseech Him for mercy that He might save you, and if He saves you, He will give you the Spirit and you will have “oil.”  Then you will understand – the wise will understand.  But until then, there is no understanding.

Then it says in Mathew 25:10:

And while they went to buy…

While they were in that process…and, again, I think how this worked out in practice was that many people went to their pastors, their elders or deacons and their good church friends, and they said, “Is the church age over?  Do we have to go out?  Is Christ really coming on May 21, 2011?”  And what was the response?  Almost in unison, the response was, “No man knows the day or the hour.”  And they would mischaracterize, and they would misunderstand verses like, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it,” mistaking the corporate church for the internal, invisible church comprised exclusively of God’s elect. 

Anyway, while they went to buy and were in that process, they did not comprehend that they were to go to God.  And to go to God is to go to the Bible.  You do not go to earthly intermediaries and under-shepherds, especially since they were corrupt, and God was judging them for their corruption and, of course, you would not hear a faithful report or a right analysis or an honest searching of the Scriptures.  But, sadly, that is what happened in most cases.  Occasionally, there were some that did go to God because they were elect, and God would have granted them eyes to see through His Spirit.

Again, it says in Matthew 25:10:

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in…

And to be “ready,” you had to have been saved, and God does all the work of salvation.  There is no way a man can get himself saved by saying the “magic words” or making a decision – that is all a perversion of the true Gospel of the Bible because it is all “work,” and no man is justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Christ.  That is the salvation the Bible, and the only salvation the Bible speaks of is by Christ’s faith as He performed the atoning work at the foundation of the world for His chosen people.  Again, it says, in Matthew 25:10:

… and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.

The word “marriage” is the word for “wedding.”  And from May 21, 2011 until 2033, according to the Biblical evidence, we are currently experiencing the “wedding feast” or marriage ceremony.  In Revelation 19 it says that the “bride has made herself ready,” just as it says here, “and they that were ready went in,” and then it was the marriage supper of the Lamb, which has to be worked out.  And when we read of that marriage supper, it is pointing to the wrath of God in Judgment Day, and that is why during Judgment Day, it is simultaneously the marriage supper of the Lamb, the wedding.  The entry into the wedding, spiritually, is the safekeeping due to the entering into the kingdom of God or entering into Christ in salvation, and being safe and secure. 

And now the door of heaven and God’s kingdom is shut because He has saved everyone He intended to save.  That is why He came in judgment, because the “bride has made herself ready.”  And that “bride” consists of the entire company of elect, the body of Christ, and then God shut the door, just as we know that the 7,000-year time period from the flood landed on May 21, 2011 (from 4990 B. C. to 2011 A. D.), and that fulfilled God’s statement to Noah, “And yet seven days,” and then He brought the flood, historically, on the seventeenth day of the second month, after He had shut Noah in the ark.  Then exactly 7,000 years later on the equivalent selfsame day, May 21, 2011 came, a day that had the underlying Hebrew calendar date of the seventeenth day of the second month.  It was the identical month and day that the door of the ark was shut, and no person or animal entered into that ark once the door was shut.  And, likewise, no one else could enter into the kingdom of God after May 21, 2011, because all to be saved had been saved by that point.

Then we read of this time period or “these days after that tribulation,” in Matthew 25:11:

Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

These would be the foolish virgins, the unsaved professed Christians, saying, “Lord, Lord, open to us.”  So they were still believing and thinking that God is saving, or else they would not bother coming.  They are addressing God and having dialogue with God, and we see this today.  We see people using the Bible and encouraging others to cry to God for mercy and He will save them.  Or, they share information that God is still saving.  If you ask them, they say, “Of course, God is still saving – He will never stop saving.”  And all of this is summed up by their coming to the Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ, saying, “Lord, Lord open to us.”  They are saying, “Save us today.  Have mercy upon us.”  That was the only way that heaven can open to sinners.  It is through God’s salvation, but notice how the Lord answers them in Matthew 25:12:

But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

(The word “verily” means “truly.”)  “Truly, I say unto you, I know you not.”  There was no intimate knowledge of them because Christ did not bear their sins.  He did not die for those individuals, so their sins remained upon them.  And He knew them not because they were not His elect.  Then it says in Matthew 25:13:

Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.

They were to “watch,” and in Revelation 3, we learn what it means by “watching.”  It says in Revelation 3:2-3:

Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

The implication is that if you do watch, He would not come as a thief.  Then we could go to 1Thessalonians 5, where it says, “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.”  The elect had “oil” in their lamps.  They could see.  They heard the cry.  They heard the Bible’s warning message – they heard the sound of the trumpet.  And God opened their eyes to the timeline of the Day of Judgment itself.