Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #7 of Genesis, chapter 29, and we will begin reading in Genesis 29:12-14:

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. And it came to pass, when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob his sister's son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. And he told Laban all these things. And Laban said to him, Surely thou art my bone and my flesh. And he abode with him the space of a month.

As we are continuing to read this historical account that we find in the book of Genesis, where Jacob had fled the land of Canaan and come to Haran.  He was seeking for a wife, and right away he encountered Rachel, and we know that she will be his wife.  We will read that after spending just a month there, he had a love for her and made a deal with Laban to work seven years, and at the end of seven years his wages would be a wife, Rachel whom he loved. 

We have been spending a lot of time discussing the spiritual meaning of all these things, and we are going to find that Laban will play a greater and greater role.  He is mentioned numerous times in this chapter and in the chapters to come, so we need to understand Laban a little better.  Who is he representing?  To tell you the truth, at this point I do not have a clear understanding of exactly who Laban represents spiritually.  So I want to spend some more time looking at the Hebrew word that is Laban’s name, seeing what it comes from and derives from, or what it is related to, and I am hoping that as we do this, we will have at least some understanding of the word “laban,” if not a full understanding of the historical person or character named Laban.

So let us look at this word for “laban.”  If you were to pronounce this Hebrew word, you would pronounce it as “law-bawn'.”  It is a transliteration, and it is basically pronounced as it is written in the Hebrew.  It is Strong’s #3837.  It is the same as another Hebrew word, with the same consonants and same vowel points, that is translated as “white.”  That is Strong’s #3836, and it is right next to the word for Laban in the concordance.

In turn, this word for “white” is derived from another Hebrew word that is translated as “brick” or “white,” and it is Strong’s #3835.  If you have a concordance (and I hope you do), look at these words and look at the spelling of #3836 and #3837.  And #3835 is very similar and is just one vowel point off from being identical to these other two words. That is, there are a couple of vowels and one is the same, but the other is a softer ‘a’ sound than #3837 and #3836.  It is about as close as it can get, and that is the word “3835” that means to “make brick” or to be “made white,” as it says in Daniel 12:10:

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.

To be “made white” is the same Hebrew word that is found in Exodus 5:14 where it is translated as “making brick.”  So we see similarities with these three words that are right next to each other in Strong’s Concordance: 1) #3837, translated as “Laban;” 2) #3836, translated as “white;” and 3) #3535, translated as “make brick” or “make white.”  They are all closely related, and as we look at these words, we will surely understand the name “Laban,” but, again, that does not always result in understanding how God is using a person with that name, as far as what that person is spiritually representing.

Let us look at some places that Strong’s #3836 (white) is used in a way that identifies with the Gospel, with the Word of God or with Christ Himself, and, therefore, used in a positive way.  The first place we will go to is Exodus 16:31:

And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

The manna was what God miraculously rained down from heaven for the Israelites to keep them alive during their wilderness sojourn, and it is described as “like coriander seed, white.”  That was its appearance, and the word “white” is the same word as “Laban.”  Manna is like coriander seed.  Manna is “Laban.”  It is “white.” 

We know the Lord Jesus likened Himself as the “manna” which fell from heaven, in John 6:48-51:

I am that bread of life. our fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

The historical manna was miraculous bread.  There was never a time before then or since then that bread rained down from heaven and people could eat it, and it would nourish them and provide food so they could live.  God did this through a miracle.  He designed it and rained it down, and it did not rain down all over the world, but only in the location where the children of Israel moved in the wilderness, and they moved often.  But wherever they moved, there was manna.  We should not think that manna fell everywhere over the wilderness.  If there were some Arabs wandering around a hundred miles away in the same wilderness, they would not have received manna in the wilderness.  God specifically sent it to His people where they were, and the manna followed their movements.  The manna did not fall for anyone else, anywhere else in all the world.  It was just for them.  Is that not incredible?  And, yet, after a period of time, the Israelites murmured and complained about it, in Numbers 11:1-7:

And when the people complained, it displeased JEHOVAH: and JEHOVAH heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of JEHOVAH burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp. And the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto JEHOVAH, the fire was quenched. And he called the name of the place Taberah: because the fire of JEHOVAH burnt among them. And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium.

Here, again, we see a description of the manna, and it was said to be the color of bdellium.  By the way, the word “coriander” is only mentioned two times in the Bible, in Exodus 16:31 and here.  And, also, the word “bdellium” is only found two times in the Bible, once in this verse, and it is found in Genesis 2:10-12:

And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

And that is the only other place that we find this word “bdellium,” so bdellium is referred to in conjunction with the river that came out of the Garden of Eden.  Of course, this is when the world was good, before the fall, and there was bdellium and the onyx stone.  So there have been some commentators that thought that the reference to bdellium has to do with the resin of a tree that is found in Ethiopia, and the fruit of that tree appears “white” at a certain stage, as it goes from white to green.  They thought that was in view, but all we have to go on is in these two places, so that gets the priority because this is the Word of God.   Remember, it is “scripture with scripture, and spiritual with spiritual,” so we do not go with a definition that is secular and outside the Bible when God has used the same word in the Bible to refer to some sort of precious metal or stone called “bdellium.”  So the way we can harmonize Numbers 11:7 (which tells us the manna was like coriander seed whose color is bdellium) with Exodus 16:31 (which says the manna was like coriander seed, white or laban), is to understand that bdellium is a white stone of some kind.  It was a valuable white stone that was in the Garden of Eden or in the world before the curse.  So the color of bdellium is “white,” and that would be allowing the Bible to define its own terms, because the Bible tells is that the manna was like coriander seed, “white.”   Therefore, bdellium must be this white stone.

We also find that this word translated as “Laban,” Strong’s #3336, is used in another positive way in Ecclesiastes 9:8:

Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.

Let your garments be always white.  Spiritually, this would point to the righteousness of Christ, and we are going to prove that.  We will go to several verses to see that.  As for the statement, “and let thy head lack no ointment,” that would point to the Holy Spirit.  When Samuel anointed David king, he poured oil on him, and that was typical.  A prophet would anoint someone king by pouring oil on his head and, spiritually, it pointed to one receiving the Holy Spirit.  Even when Saul was appointed king, he was given a “measure” of the Spirit of God in order to carry out his royal duties. So this whole verse in Ecclesiastes 9:8 is pointing, spiritually, to those that have become saved and received God’s grace by having the shed blood of Christ pay for their sins, and that provides them with “white” garments that will eternally be white, and their heads will lack no oil or ointment, because at the moment of salvation the Holy Spirit entered into them.  They received oil, in that sense, just like the five wise virgins had oil in their lamps.  It is a picture of the Holy Spirit.

But let us look at the word “white” in the New Testament.  Let us go to Mark 9, which describes what transpired on the mount of Transfiguration.  It says in Mark 9:2-3:

And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them. And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.

His raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow, which no fuller on earth could whiten in that manner.  It was such a pure whiteness, or such a “holiness” that was shining forth that there was nothing comparable in all the earth.  This is picturing Christ’s resurrected body.  He was laden with sins at the foundation of the world, and being laden with our sins, He became spiritually filthy.  He had filthy garments.  But He paid for our sins by dying at the point of the foundation of the world in eternity past, and then He rose from the dead.  In rising up, He was declared to be the Son of God, the firstborn from the dead, and no sin was upon Him because the payment the Law demanded had been made, and, therefore, all sin was removed.  It was washed away and purged from Him by the “fires of hell,” as “hell” is the grave.  So He received a new resurrected spiritual body and there on the mount of Transfiguration, His raiment declared that He was pure from all sin.  He was not bearing sin at that point, and He was not bearing sin when He went to the cross in 33 A. D.  That is why Pilot washed his hands of the whole matter and said, “I find no fault in him.”  Jesus was not laden with the sins of His people, and that is how He could say to the thief that became saved, “Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”  His soul went to heaven and was not suffering under the wrath of God after it left His body, but it would have had to do so if there were sin upon Him.  He would have had to pay in soul, as well as body, until early that Sunday morning, but payment for sin had already been accomplished (at the foundation of the world), so He could go straight back to heaven, while His body continued the “demonstration” by being in the grave or hell, as death and hell are synonymous.

We see in Zechariah that with Joshua, the priest, there was a change of raiment, and this would fit in with what we were talking about in regard to the Lord Jesus.  We read in Zechariah 3 of Joshua, the high priest, and it says in Zechariah 3:1-3:

And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of JEHOVAH, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And JEHOVAH said unto Satan, JEHOVAH rebuke thee, O Satan; even JEHOVAH that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.

Keep in mind that the name “Joshua” is the Jewish name for “Jesus.”  And, of course, Jesus is the great High Priest, so this high priest Joshua is picturing Christ, and his filthy garments are picturing that point in eternity past when Christ was laden with the sins of His people.

Then it goes on to say in Zechariah 3:4:

And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.

That is the “raiment” the Lord Jesus was showing forth in that verse in Mark 9.  So that is the idea behind these “white” garments or raiment, and Christ Himself had white raiment.  We read in several places in the book of Revelation that the people of God receive white raiment.  It says in Revelation 3:18:

I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

That is parabolic language pointing to the righteousness of Christ that can only be received through the grace and mercy of God in His salvation program.

In the next chapter of Revelation, it says in Revelation 4:4:

And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.

These “four and twenty elders,” represent the twelve tribes of Israel or twelve Apostles of the Lamb, and are representative of all of God’s people on the Old Testament side and on the New Testament side.  And all of God’s people are clothed in white raiment and have crowns of gold.  The crowns are pointing to the fact that God has made us kings.  We are adopted into the royal family of God, and it is pointing to salvation.

It says in Revelation 6:10-11:

And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

The “souls of them beheaded for Christ” had white robes, while the rest of the brethren are mentioned in the next chapter, in Revelation 7:9:

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

And we are told where they came from, in Revelation 7:13-14:

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

That is how one obtains a “white robe” in the blood of the Lamb, the shed blood of the sacrificial Lamb of God, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  And that blood is put in a basin, as it were, and applied with the “hyssop” of the Word of God in every generation throughout the history of the world, up until May 21, 2011.  Then all that were to be saved had become saved.  All that were to receive “white raiment” had received the white robes that we read of in Revelation 19, concerning the bride of Christ, in Revelation 19:7-8:

Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

Then later on, there is an army in heaven following the Word of God, and it says in Revelation 19:14:

And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

That is our attire, and that is the attire for the Marriage Supper.  Remember the king in the parable that went in and there was a man who did not have on the proper wedding attire, and he was cast out, and there was weeping and gnashing of teeth.  The white raiment is what we must be clothed in as we go through and endure this Day of Judgment.