Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #13 of Genesis, chapter 29, and we are continuing to read Genesis 29:15-20:

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.

I will stop reading there. We have been looking at Jacob’s marriage to Rachel, and we know he also married Leah because Laban, underhandedly, gave Leah to Jacob on the night of the wedding. Jacob had no idea that would happen until after it did happen. So Jacob had two wives. He married Leah first, and then he married Rachel, and we have been looking at the spiritual significance of his marriage to Leah and Rachel. We have seen that Jacob is a type of Christ or God; Rachel is a figure of the elect; and Leah is a figure of the unsaved. 

As I have mentioned a couple of times, the number of children each of them had is significant. Leah had eight sons, and Rachel had four sons, and that is a clear figure we find a few times in the Bible regarding the “one third” as the sons born to Rachel, and “two thirds” as the sons born to Leah. The “one third” identifies with God’s elect, normally; and the “two thirds” identifies with those that are unsaved. As it says in Zechariah 13:8-9, one third go through the fire, and two thirds are cut off and die.

So, again, Jacob first married Leah because Leah is picturing mankind that has a marriage with Christ in the sense that Christ is the Word, and the Word is the Law. The Bible is God’s Law Book, and the Bible is the Word of God. All Scripture can be said to be the Law of God – all the words of the Bible. They completely identify with the Lord Jesus. He is the Word made flesh, but it also completely identifies with the Law of God. So mankind is married to the Law of God, according to Romans 7, and I will read that again. And, really, this is not a very common teaching, and you do not hear it taught too often, apart from hearing Mr. Camping teach it at a few times. And Mr. Camping did not emphasize this a great deal, but he would point it out from time to time. But apart from Mr. Camping, I do not think I ever heard anyone else (or any theologian) discuss this, but it say sin Romans 7:4:

Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

The point the Lord was making earlier, as He moved the Apostle Paul to write this passage, was that a woman was bound to her husband as long as he lives. It said that back in Romans 7:2:

For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

We have to realize that this is the context when we get to verse Romans 7:4:

Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ…

So it is tying it back to the woman who becomes free from the marriage relationship to her husband – otherwise, she would still be bound by the Law to him, and there could be no separation or divorce legally, according to the Law of God. The only thing that could free the woman is the husband’s death, and once he died, then she was free to, legally and Biblically, marry another man. So that is God’s point, but He is relating it to His people: “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ.”In that statement alone, the implication is that we were married to the Law. If Jesus had not died on our behalf, we would not be “dead to the law,” but we would still be bound to the Law by a spiritual marriage to the Law of God. But it goes on to say, Romans 7:4:

…ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another…

The use of the word “another” indicates a previous marriage. It is now a second marriage. We were previously married to the Law, but through the body of Christ, we are free from that relationship of having been bound to the Law because Christ satisfied the Law’s demand. He bore our sins. The Law struck Him dead, like Moses struck the rock. Christ died, and it was as though we died in Him and, therefore, that death freed the elect from the Law. No longer are we involved in that marriage, but we were set free from that marriage relationship wherein the Law demanded and required perfect obedience, and the “wife” is to obey her Husband. And we were married to the Law of God, the Bible, including all the commandments of God, and yet we failed. We disobeyed and transgressed, so the commandments that are written within that Law decreed that if a wife committed fornication or adultery against her husband, she was to be stoned to death. That was the Law’s penalty that Jesus took upon Himself as He bore all our spiritual fornication and acts of adultery against our legal Husband, the Law of God, and He died for them, thus freeing us. Immediately upon our release from the Law, we entered into marriage with the Lord Jesus Christ, a far better Husband to us. 

He settled our account with the Law, so whenever we sin in our relationship to Christ, those sins, too, were paid for when He died for us at the point of the foundation of the world. All the sins of our lives – past, present and future – were laid upon Him. Once we enter into marriage with Christ, when we offend and transgress, our Husband says, “I have forgiven that, too, because that has already been paid for, and that sin, too, is covered.” Then the next day when we have a wicked thought or we spoke a wicked word or we told a lie, or whatever it is, and we have that feeling of guilt, but when we go the Bible, the Word, it tells us that this sin, too, has been cast into the depths of the sea. And the next day, it is the same. Of course, we are still in our sinful bodies, so there is a struggle. In our souls, there is perfection and complete righteousness, but in our bodies we are unsaved, and we could have a “fit of anger” and sin, but the next week is the same thing – we keep going back to the Bible: Blessed is that man whose iniquities are forgiven. We read the Word of God, and we see that God has created in us a clean heart and a new spirit, and He has washed us from all filthiness and all evil deeds. And that is where our love for Christ is growing and building; the more we have sinned, the more grace we see, and the more wondrous is the mercy of God that He has forgiven this, too, or that, too. 

It is a gentle, kind and loving Husband that we have entered into marriage with, and this is why God reminds us earthly husbands to look upon our earthly wives in the same manner. God has arranged and brought that woman into our lives and He has given us that wife, and we are to love our wives as God loved the church – not the corporate church – the invisible church consisting of all the elect. And how did Christ love His church? Let us look at Ephesians 5, starting in verse 22, so we can get the whole context. We read in Ephesians 5:22-32:

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. So here we are in our earthly marriages, and there is an argument, and the wife does something we do not like. And maybe she is completely wrong. It is possible, is it not, wives, that sometimes you are wrong? So let us say that she is completely wrong, and she has said something that was wrong, or she has done something that she should not have done, and it makes her husband angry. It provokes her husband to anger, and the initial reaction may be to yell at her and let her know she has been hurtful and that we are angry with her. But what does God tell the husbands? “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church.” You see, every time a wife does or says something wrong, it is an opportunity for the husband to show the example of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that Christ is married to a bride, consisting of maybe as many as 200 million people He redeemed out of the world, and we have all done something wrong and offended against Him. And we continue to offend in various ways, but He, in response, forgives and speaks words that are comforting, encouraging, and loving.

We are speaking of the true elect people of God, not those that are not truly those He has saved, but only those to whom He has given a new heart and a new Spirit. And Christ forgives us, and through His Word, He tells us that no sin will be held against us. It is gone as far as the east is from the west. It is removed, and it is never to come to mind. God will not condemn us for that sin, although we deserve condemnation, do we not? There is the fact we are guilty of it, but He cannot condemn us because that guilt has already been settled and tended to, and satisfaction was made to the Law because of His own death on our behalf for those sins.

So if an earthly husband is to be an example of Christ, He is to forgive and forget, and to let his wife know it: “Honey, do not worry about it.” And if we raised our voice, we say, “I am sorry that I raised my voice. I am sorry I got angry. It is something that is in the past now.” We forget all about it. We do not hold a grudge. We do not hold onto anger. In a related passage, we read in Colossians 3:18-19:

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.

Husbands, be not bitter against them. Why does God use the word “bitter” here? What does He mean by that? Now I think we understand “bitter” in the sense of “bitterness,” like a bitter attitude of being angry because somebody did something or said something. That does relate, but that is not the point of the word “bitter.” This Greek word is Strong’s #4087, and it is the same word that we find in Revelation 8:11:

And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

In Revelation 8, God is detailing the judgment on the churches. Here, where the “star” falls into the water and it becomes “wormwood” and makes the water “bitter,” it is a spiritual picture because water identifies with the Gospel, the water of life. So God brought judgment on the house of God during the 23-year judgment period on the churches that was completed in 2011, and when God brought judgment on the house of God, He turned the water into “bitter” water, that which was unable to save or to bring spiritual life to those that would drink in the teachings of the Bible as they sat in the pews in the churches. They could be listening to the pastor, and he could be reading from the King James, the best version of the Bible, and he could be preaching a very faithful sermon that in a “normal time” within the boundary of the church age could have been a message God could have used to save someone. But since it was the end of the church age and the time was the judgment on the churches, the water that could have been the “water of life” becomes “bitter” water which kills and destroys. It does not save.

And that is the point here. God is saying, “Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.” It is also the same word we find in James 3:10:

Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?

Again, the word “bitter” is used in relationship to water. Do you go to a fountain and get a drink, and the water is nice and sweet, but two minutes later you drink from the same place and it is bitter? No – a fountain does not give forth both sweet water and bitter. If it was sweet, it will continue to be sweet. If it is bitter, you cannot drink it because there is no sweetness in it. It is either one or the other.

And that is God’s point in speaking to husbands, who are a type of Christ. Husbands, love your wives, and not just love them today, but tomorrow when they cross you and do something you do not like, and you then have a bitter reaction. Where is the forgiveness? Where is the love of Christ? Where is the grace that was extended to you in your spiritual relationship to Christ? Where is that grace that you now have an opportunity to extend to your wife by being an example and a living demonstration? You can take on the mind of Christ, and look at your wife (who has offended you), and you can say, “My wife has offended me, like I have offended Christ countless times. And Jesus has shown me through his constant forgiveness toward me that this is what I am to do now toward my wife: “Honey, come here. I love you, and I forgive you. Let us move on. Let us leave this problem behind, and do not worry about it. It is out of mind – let us just go forward.” You see, that would be a wonderful demonstration. It is just a little, tiny demonstration, compared to what Christ did (and is doing), but it is a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate the love that the Lord has bestowed upon us, and we can love our wives in that manner, rather than giving an unforgiving, unkind and harsh response that is like bitter water, a Gospel without salvation, a Gospel without salvation has no forgiveness.

Yes – we are living in a time when God has ended His salvation program, but that does not mean that we are to mirror that in our marriage relationship. No – we have our example in the Lord Jesus and the marriage He has made with us, hopefully, if we are part of the elect, and that is the pattern we are to follow.