Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #4 of Genesis, chapter 29, and we will begin reading in Genesis 29:9-12:

And while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep: for she kept them. And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother. And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother, and that he was Rebekah's son: and she ran and told her father.

I will stop reading there.  We have been looking at the spiritual situation and, especially, the timing of it.  Jacob is 60 years old, and it is the beginning of his 40-year period in Haran.  Also, he had come out of the land of Canaan.  Historically, the land of Canaan was a representation of the kingdom of God on earth, just as the corporate church was an outward representation of God’s kingdom on the earth.  So, Jacob has left the church, as it were, and we have discussed how that fits in with the official end of the church age in the Jubilee Year of 1994.  And he came to the well, and the sheep are lying by it, waiting, so that all points to the preparation work that God had done in the time period leading up to the outpouring of the Latter Rain in 1994 and over the course of that (almost) 17-year period until May 21, 2011 wherein God saved the great multitude.

Now we want to look a little closer at this action of Jacob in rolling the stone from the well’s mouth.  It says in Genesis 29:10:

… Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother.

It also mentioned the same word in verse 8, regarding the Hebrew  word translated as “roll,” which is Strong’s #1556, where they said, “We cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together, and till they roll the stone from the well's mouth; then we water the sheep.”  This word was also found in Genesis 29:3: “And thither were all the flocks gathered: and they rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well's mouth in his place.”  So there are three times this same Hebrew word is used in connection with rolling the stone from the well’s mouth.  And, in each case, it mentions watering the flock.  We have talked about how that points to the Gospel water and God’s salvation, because He saved through that Gospel water, the Word of God.  The act of rolling away the stone made the water accessible to the sheep, and that all fits together.

But, again, we want to look closer at this Hebrew word translated as “rolled” in verse 10.  It is found only 18 times in the Old Testament, and three of those times are here, so it is only found elsewhere 15 times.  For example, it is found in Joshua 5 where we read of the circumcision of Israel a second time, in Joshua 5:2:

At that time JEHOVAH said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time.

That is significant because circumcision was the Old Testament rite that identified with baptism, which is the New Testament ceremonial law that God gave to the churches, and it was meant to be the sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit or the washing away of one’s sins.  The water baptism rite or ceremonial law could never itself wash away sin, but it was a sign that pointed to that, as did “circumcision.”  And we know that circumcision points to the taking away of sin because God commands in the book of Deuteronomy that the Israelites “circumcise your hearts.”  And we know that it is an impossible command to obey in the natural realm, because anyone who attempted it would die, and that is why it has to be understood spiritually.  As we pointed out before, the deeper spiritual meaning of the Scriptures is always the greater and more important meaning, and the meaning that the Bible is focused on because it is a spiritual book.  So God gave a command that is impossible to be literally carried out, and then He said later in Deuteronomy 30:6: “JEHOVAH thy God will circumcise thine heart.”  That is, salvation is impossible with man when God commands to circumcise the heart and, yet, it is possible with God.  So this circumcising of Israel the second time points to two major episodes of circumcision in the history of Israel, and it would identify with the two outpourings of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit accomplishes “spiritual circumcision,” just as the Holy Spirit accomplishes “spiritual baptism.”

Remember how God speaks of circumcision in the New Testament, in Romans 2:28-29:

For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

So, here, it is spelled out for the reader of the Bible that God is speaking of “spiritual Israel,” and to be a “spiritual Jew” is to be a true Jew, the Jews in whom there is no guile, like Nathaniel.  To be a spiritual Jew, you must be circumcised spiritually in the heart, which only occurs when one is born again and have received a new heart to replace the heart of stone.  So that is what is in view, and it does identify very much with the working of the Spirit of God in salvation.

So when we read in Joshua this command, “Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time,” we must compare that to Isaiah 11:11-12:

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. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

He is not talking about physical Jews that are outcasts or dispersed.  He is talking of “spiritual Israel,” because once all the elect, as represented by the naming of these various nations, are brought in, then in that manner all Israel would be saved.  Remember that is what God said in Romans 11:25:

For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery…

Let me stop for second to explain that the word “mystery” directs our attention to a “parable.”  God is speaking a parable, and to prove that, just look at Matthew 13, after they asked Christ why He spoke in parables, and He said, in Matthew 13:11:

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.

 Parables are “mysteries.”  It is the hidden truth of the Bible.  Therefore, when God says that you should not be ignorant of this mystery, He is going to relate a parable, as it goes on to say in Romans 11:25:

… lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

So blindness in part happened to Israel until the point that the fulness of Gentiles would come in, and the Gentiles are the nations, the fulness of the people of the nations.  Then it says in Romans 11:26:

And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

So, “in this manner,” all Israel shall be saved; that is, the dispersed spiritual Jews that are scattered among the nations, and not the physical Jews that were the physical seed of Abraham, but the spiritual seed.  They are the ones chosen by God before the foundation of the world, and when they are all brought in, then all spiritual Israel is saved. 

And that is what Isaiah 11:12 refers to when God stretched forth His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people.  The first outpouring of the Holy Spirit was during the church age when the firstfruits were brought in.  God does liken the firstfruits to the twelve tribes of Israel, does He not?  He mentions 12,000 from the twelve tribes, as we read in Revelation 7, and 12,000 from 12 tribes total 144,000, the “firstfruits unto God.”  The book of Revelation makes that tie-in between 144,000 and the firstfruits.  So the first time that God spiritually circumcised would identify with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost in 33 A. D. and spanning the entire 1,955 years of the church age.  Then came the end of the church age (1988) and then a period of famine.  First, there is rain and the fruit comes in, followed by famine; followed by rain, and then more fruit comes in beginning in September 1994, the second outpouring of the Holy Spirt.  It was the Latter Rain period and the “second time” of circumcision.

So it continues to say in Joshua 5:3:

And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.

The name “Joshua” is the same name as “Jesus.”  The name Jesus is the Greek equivalent of the name Joshua, and it was said that Joshua made sharp knives and circumcised the children of Israel.  Now it is obvious that Joshua did not personally circumcise all Israel.  That would have been impossible.  But in order to paint the spiritual picture and because Joshua was in charge of the Israelites at that time, it says that he circumcised them.  That makes the statement something that God uses to direct our attention to Christ who performs the spiritual circumcision of His elect.

So, again, it says, in Joshua 5:3-9:

And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt. Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised. For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of JEHOVAH: unto whom JEHVOAH sware that he would not shew them the land, which JEHOVAH sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey. And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way. And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole. And JEHOVAH said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.

There is our word “rolled” in verse 9: “This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you.”  Here, Egypt would be a figure of the world or the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of darkness and the house of bondage.  God is saying that the circumcision of Israel identifies with the “rolling away” of the reproach of Egypt or the world of Satan’s kingdom, and that is because circumcision points to being born again and being made a new creature in Christ. 

The language of “reproach” is also important.  Let us to Psalm 69, a Messianic Psalm that very clearly points to the Lord Jesus.  For example, it says in Psalm 69:21: “They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”  That was exactly what they gave to Jesus on the cross.  But earlier in this Psalm, it said in Psalm 69:7-9:

Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

This is Christ speaking.  It is as though Jesus is making this statement, “the reproaches of them,” which would be all those He had died for and whose sins He bore.  Again, it says, “the reproaches of them that reproached thee,” and “thee” is referring to God.  The reproaches of them would be the sins of them that reproached God by transgressing the Law of God and breaking the everlasting covenant.  So, again, the statement is made: “and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.”  Christ bore our reproaches, and He became a reproach for us or in our place.  And that is why He had to suffer the wrath of God.  God punished Him and poured out His wrath upon Him because the wages of sin is death.  It was necessary that the sins of those that God intended to save be laid upon Christ, as Isaiah 53 spells out for us.

So the “reproach of Egypt” is rolled away through circumcision.  Our reproach (our sins) are removed from us as far as the east is from the west.  They are taken away from us and we bear them no more.  We are no longer condemned by them.  We are free from them, and that is how we attain eternal life.

We also find this word translated as “rolled,”  Strong’s 1556, translated as “removed” in Psalm 119:22:

Remove from me reproach and contempt; for I have kept thy testimonies.

Again, “roll” away from me my approach and contempt.  And how is that done?  It is only through the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ as He made payment to take away the sins of His people, and it is removed from us.  It is taken from us and we no longer have sin upon us.

Let us also look at one more verse where this word in Proverbs, in Proverbs 26:27:

Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.

That is curious, is it not?  The first statement is, “Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein,” and the idea is that those who set traps for others will fall into it themselves.  But, also, it says, “and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.”   I think I said this would be the last verse, but we need to go to one other place to understand the “rolling” of a stone in this verse, so let us go back to Joshua 10.   In this chapter, there was a battle and Joshua and Israel were fighting a king who had made allies with four other kings, so there were five kings in total.  And Israel was victorious, and we read  in Joshua 10:15-18:

And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal. But these five kings fled, and hid themselves in a cave at Makkedah. And it was told Joshua, saying, The five kings are found hid in a cave at Makkedah. And Joshua said, Roll great stones upon the mouth of the cave, and set men by it for to keep them:

What happened was that later on they rolled the stones away from the cave and brought out the five kings.  They slew them and hanged them on five trees.  Then at the going down of the sun, they took them off the trees and put them back in the cave, and laid great stones on the cave’s mouth.  They rolled the stones back again, so the place the kings’ bodies were placed became their graves, and the grave ties in with “hell.”  So to roll away the stone is to open up hell, and to roll the stone back again, is to close up hell.  That is what we read of the Lord Jesus Christ – He opens doors and closes doors.  For example, He bound Satan in the bottomless pit, and the bottomless pit is “hell” or death.  He bound him there a “thousand years.”  He shut Satan up, and then we read that after the “thousand years,” He loosed him and he came up out of the pit.

So that is the idea in Proverbs 26:27: “and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.”  In other words, because of our sins, we were all under the wrath of God to begin with, and we were all in the condition of death and subject to the “second death,” which is the eternal death of annihilation.  So, in finding this out, there are some people that determine to “roll away the stone” from their spiritual death, due to the fact that they are under God’s wrath.  And they do so by using the Bible and they say, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.”  But they attempt the action (of salvation) themselves, perverting the Gospel of grace and changing it to another gospel, in an attempt to “remove the stone.”  But what God is saying is that if  individuals takes it upon themselves to bring themselves out from under the wrath of God by manipulating the Word of God, that stone they remove will return upon them again.  It is like the kings that came out (of the cave) and then went right back in, and they will die and experience the grave or hell, and it will be an eternal death.