Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #8 of Genesis, chapter 29, and we will begin reading in Genesis 29:13-20:

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. And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for nought? tell me, what shall thy wages be? And Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah was tender eyed; but Rachel was beautiful and well favoured. And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter. And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another man: abide with me. And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.

We are continuing to look at this word  translated as “Laban.”  The Hebrew word translated as “Laban” is Strong’s #3837, and in our last study we saw that this word for “Laban” has an identical Hebrew word, Strong’s #3836, that is translated as “white.”  It was used to describe the color of the manna in Exodus 16:31, and it was also used in relationship to garments in Ecclesiastes 19:8. 

So we took that idea and we went to the New Testament where God repeatedly uses the picture of a white garment or white raiment to illustrate spiritual cleanliness or purity or righteousness.  That is, it shows forth whenever we read that someone has “fine white linen” or “pure white garments.”  It shows that there is no sin upon them, and the only way that is possible is through the shed blood of Christ, which would have washed and cleansed them.

We went to Revelation 7, and we saw that it said 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;

As soon as we read that they are clothed with “white” robes, we are taught the spiritual meaning – they are clean and washed from their sins.  And this is proven as we read further on, 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 beautiful language that indicates that God has saved this great multitude, and He also told us the time when that happened.  It was during the Great Tribulation, as they “came out of great tribulation.”  So through the hearing of the Word of God as the Gospel went forth with the worldwide proclamation of May 21, 2011 as Judgment Day, the Lord saved a great multitude.  In saving them through the hearing the Word ( as faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God), the Lord cleansed them.  They were chosen ones whose sins had already been laid upon the Lord Jesus in eternity past, and He died for them as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  He shed His blood, and that blood was placed in a basin, as it were, and then there was the “hyssop” or “applicator” that would be applied to the elect at some point in their lives.  With some, it could be right at the beginning when they were children, and for others, it could be an old man or an old woman upon their death bed.  But God would come to them in the fulness of time that He had determined for each one, and He would apply the Word of God.  God obligated Himself to bring the Word to them because their sins were already paid for, and in hearing the Word, the blood was applied and washed away their sins, immediately transforming them from their ”filthy garments” and the sin that was upon them, and all sin would be cleansed away from them, leaving them in the glorious garment of Christ’s righteousness, the pure white robes.  And that is the picture here.

In Revelation 15, we find the elect are in view, once again, but here they are called “seven angels,” but these are not angelic beings.  There are angelic beings called “angels,” but it is not possible that these seven angels are those angelic beings.   We know that the word “angelos,” which is translated as “angels” can also be translated as “messengers,” and that would be the more accurate translation here, as God’s elect are messengers of the Word of God and messengers of God.  We know that for certain, without question.  Let us keep reading, as it says in Revelation 15:6:

And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.

They are clothed in “pure and white linen.”  Again, in order to get that clothing or covering, you have to have your sins washed away, but the angels in heaven did not sin.  They did not fall, as many angels did and became demons.  In one account, a man was possessed of “legions,” which would be a couple thousand, so there were a number of angelic beings that did fall and did sin.  But remember that Christ took upon Him the seed of Abraham, and not the seed of angels.  He did not die for any angelic beings.  He died for men.  So no fallen angels became saved.  None had their sins washed away.  Therefore, the angels in heaven that did not fall do not have any need for “pure and white linen.”  There would be no need whatsoever.

The “pure and white linen” is defined further 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.

Do not be fooled (and I know you are not) with those churches out there that have a completely wrong idea of “saints,” as they think they are the ones that makes someone a “saint.”  And it is only someone that they think is “super holy” that is qualified to be a saint, someone that has done some miracle, or whatever they think the qualifications are, but that is ridiculous and foolish, and completely untrue.  God is the only one who can make someone a saint.  The word “saint” is the same word as “holy,” and in order to be a saint, you have to be made pure and holy.  If there was one sin upon you, you are not a saint.  But it so happens that when God saved a sinner with his multitude of sins, He paid for that multitude of sins and they are washed from him.  It is removed from him as far as the east is from the west.  It is cast into the depths of the sea, to be seen no more.  It is purged from them with “hyssop,” and so forth, and all the other wonderful Biblical imagery that indicates that we are forgiven of our iniquities.  There is now no more condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus.  In so doing, God has made us holy: “Be ye holy; for I am holy.”  Then we are called upon to live a holy life, but whenever we fail, that sin, too, was paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ. 

We are the saints of God, and there are a multitude of saints, perhaps as many as 200 million saints.  It is not just those few people the churches made some statutes of…and you know, that whole thing is just an ugly sinful mess when churches make saints, and then they make statues and medallions of these people and they pray to them, and they have a saint for this and a saint for that.  How wicked!  How wrong it is.  God tells us to pray to the Father.  We do not have any Intercessor besides the Lord Jesus Christ, and we do not pray to Mary or to saints.  The saints are our brethren.  The elect children of God are the saints because we have been made holy through the blood of Christ that has “washed our robes” and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  And that is actually a beautiful truth that the Bible declares.

In Revelation 15, when the seven angels or messengers came out of the temple, that is language indicating that they came out of the churches and congregations.  It is the time of the end, and judgment began at the house of God, and God opened the Scriptures to reveal the command to depart out of the midst and flee to the mountains.  So these seven messengers came out of the temple (the corporate church).  They are the elect or the “wheat,” as God was making separation between the wheat and the tares.

Now someone might say, “Well, hold on, because the previous verse says the temple was in heaven.”  It says in Revelation 15:5-6:

And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened: And the seven angels came out of the temple…

So someone might say, “So how could these seven messengers be the elect coming out of the corporate church when the corporate church is on earth, not in heaven?” 

But they are not reading it carefully enough.  Notice that in verse 5, it said, “the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven,”  and the temple itself is not in heaven.  It is of that which is in heaven, the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven.  In other words, it is just like a church that might call itself “The Church of Christ,” or “The Church of God in Heaven.”  The church itself is not in heaven – it is on the earth.  But that which it represents or claims to represent is in heaven.  That is what God is saying when He says that the seven messengers came out of the temple, and that temple were the churches on the street corners in the nations of the world.  They came out, and these are the seven angels that were given the seven vials full of the wrath of God.  Then notice it say in Revelation 15:8:

And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power…

And smoke identifies with wrath and the fury and anger of God.  Judgment begins at the house of God.  Why was God judging the church?  He was angry with them for their sins, and His wrath was being poured out, so the smoke filled the temple, and then it says in the last part of Revelation 15:8:

… and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Then the next chapter in Revelation 16 tells us of the seven plagues being poured out, and the command was given to the seven messengers.  And that is what God has done, is it not?  And chapter 16 is pointing to Judgment Day, the time we are living in right now, and the saints are judging the world with God, as Christ has come with ten thousands of His saints, or the completeness of the elect, or that great multitude that are clothed in white robes and these seven angels that are clothed in pure and white linen.

So God is judging the world with the great multitude that were the last of the elect to be saved and, therefore, they represent the completeness of all saints.  That is the only way God could judge the world because He had to be longsuffering and patient with the sins of men until the early and Latter Rain came and the “fruits” could come in (all that were to become saved), and then the implication is that He would no longer be longsuffering, and He could begin the judgment process.  And that is why we are talking about these things as we are learning them, because it has all worked out as the Bible indicated it would, and we have now progressed in time past the Great Tribulation and into Judgment Day. 

And Judgment Day itself is a “tribulation.”  It is the tribulation of the world.  Just think of that.  Ask yourself the question: “Is the word experiencing tribulation at this time?”  Actually, it has been experiencing tribulation for years since May 21, 2011.  The division that we see all around us was not as evident, but it was going on.  It may not have been as clear as it is now, with the impact of the virus, as God is orchestrating events and targeting all the institutions and all the inhabitants of the world.  It is all part of the judgment of God, as the Lord is “troubling” mankind.  It is the “recompense of tribulation,” as we read in 2Thessalonians 1:5:

Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;

Let us think about that.  What does “recompense” mean?  It means to “repay.”  It is a righteous thing with God to “repay tribulation to them that trouble you.”  You see, God’s end-time judgment program began with judgment on the house of God which troubled the people of God.  It was Satan and his forces.  Satan, the king of the world (as represented by the king of Babylon), and his emissaries came against the churches and congregations when God loosed him.  It was all according to the will of God, as God used him to wreak spiritual havoc and bring spiritual desolation and destruction in the churches as Satan troubled and tormented the churches.  And this also troubled the people of God.  That is where the Bible was, and it was such a grievous and horrible thing to see the churches, the Lord’s outward representation to the people of the world shattered and to see it mocked, humiliated and reviled.  It was a “troubling” to the people of God, as the world mocked the Bible and mocked and reviled those that handled the Bible.   So it certainly was a vexing of the souls of God’s people.

But, you see, God had a particular time period in view for that judgment, which was 23 full years to the very day, from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011.  It was 23 full years or 8,400 exact days of judgment on the churches.  It was an exclusive judgment targeting all the world’s churches and congregations.

But then came the day of transition and expansion from judging the churches alone.  God turned his attention to Satan and the kingdom of Satan, just as in the historical account in the book of Jeremiah where there was that awful 70 years when Judah was the object of the wrath of God.  The nations, beginning with Egypt and then Babylon, trampled Judah underfoot and destroyed Judah.  They came at will and took the people of Judah captive and abused them terribly.  They even destroyed the temple and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.  It was certainly a troubling of Israel and the people of God.  God, in discussing this 70-year period, very directly stated in Jeremiah 25:9-10:

Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith JEHOVAH, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations. Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith JEHOVAH, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.

This regards Judah, which we can understand to represent the New Testament churches.  This is language indicating that God would take from them the Gospel.  There would be no more salvation because the Holy Spirit was no longer in the churches.

Then it says in Jeremiah 25:11:

And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

It was a very specific time period (seventy years).  Then it says in Jeremiah 25:12:

And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished…

That is, when the Great Tribulation is over.  And it goes on to say in Jeremiah 25:12-13:

... that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith JEHOVAH, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.

You see, there was not judgment on the churches forever, and that is the problem with some of the professed true believers out there.  They will not give that idea up, even though they no longer are in line with the timeline.  They have gone beyond the 23 years.  They will not tell you exactly the duration of their idea of the Great Tribulation.  It is like they keep saying, “We are still in the Great Tribulation, and I hope nobody asks for specifics.”  And they know that during the Great Tribulation, God was saving, and they know that if we have moved beyond the Great Tribulation into Judgment Day, then God is no longer saving.  They stubbornly refuse and resist, and they put forth their desire and will that there must still be salvation. 

They are acting like all the people that have had to face particular doctrines over the course of the Great Tribulation and into the present Judgment Day, whatever the doctrine is, whether was the end of the church age, the faith of Christ, the Sunday Sabbath, Christ having paid for sins at the foundation of the world, the doctrine of hell, or whatever doctrine it was.  But at some point, there comes a doctrine that was the “last straw,” and they will not bend their will to it.  Really, this means they never did have a broken will before God.  They never were humble in their soul because they were never born again. 

So God kept in reserve the most severe doctrinal revelations as He completed salvation and then allowed time to carry on during a prolonged Day of Judgment.  And, of course, during the prolonged Day of Judgment, some people will continue to insist that God is still saving, and they will not humble themselves and submit to the will of God, and that is the character of the unsaved.  It does not matter what the particular doctrine is, and I am sure they feel justified and holy about it.  They may feel, “Oh, you are cruel in your heart.”  And the implication is that they are not cruel and hard, and they are soft and pliable and loving and kind, but none of that is true.  They have a hard heart of unbelief, and that is the only reason that anyone resists the will of God.