Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #17 of Genesis, chapter 29, and we are going to read Genesis 29:21-30:

And Jacob said unto Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in unto her. And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast. And it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him; and he went in unto her. And Laban gave unto his daughter Leah Zilpah his maid for an handmaid. And it came to pass, that in the morning, behold, it was Leah: and he said to Laban, What is this thou hast done unto me? did not I serve with thee for Rachel? wherefore then hast thou beguiled me? And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years. And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also. And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid. And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.

Laban said, “Fulfill her week,” and then we see it refers to “seven years,” so there is no question that since it is recorded in the Bible inspired by God that the reference to seven days in relationship to seven years is permissible. It is something that God allows, and we see that elsewhere in the Bible. You know, God gives a lot of leeway with time references. We know He can speak of “days” and then assign “a year for a day,” as He did when the Israelites searched of the land for 40 days, and He judged them “a year for a day,” so they would wander in the wilderness for 40 years. Or, the Lord gave Ezekiel divine revelation and told him to lay on his left side for 390 days, and then on his right side for 40 days, and in that context in Ezekiel 4, God also relates each day for a year, so that was 430 years (390 + 40). By the way, we have looked at that before and how it fits into God’s timetable for 2033. We will not get into that too much here, but we can go from the starting point of 1907 B. C. for 3,900 years, and just as a “year for a day,” we can have 1,000 years or 100 years for a day. It is allowable by the Bible, as God has given these kinds of applications in His Word. And 3,900 years brings us to 1994, and then we add 40 inclusive years (3,900 +40). It is just as we can add 390 days plus 40 days to get 430. And this is another way where we can arrive at the time of the end, because 40 inclusive years from 1994 brings us to 2033 A. D.

So God does grant much leeway in these kinds of things, but there needs to be Biblical precedent – we cannot just do anything we want with numbers, but in verses like this where he would work “seven years” and it is referred to as a “week,” but a week is not seven years, but it is seven days. So this is Biblical language that allows us to look for passages of time that may refer to a “week,” and we can have in mind a longer period of time. So we did that with the statement, “And yet seven days,” in Genesis 7:4, and we saw in 2Peter 3 that God ties it in with the statement, “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” He makes that link in speaking of the flood in 2Peter 3, so there is that timeline from 4990 B. C. when the flood began to the year 2011, which was the year that was exactly 7,000 years from the flood, or one “week.”

I mentioned this at the close of the last study, but the Bible looks at the Great Tribulation period as a figure of “seven years.” It is typified by various figures, like “70 years” in the book of Jeremiah, or by “23 years,” in the book of Jeremiah. And seven years can be typified by three and a half days or 84 hours or 8,400 days, and so forth. So God uses several figures to typify the Great Tribulation, and one of them is “seven years.” I mentioned last time that the Great Tribulation concluded on May 21, 2011, which was also the day with the underlying Hebrew calendar date of “the seventeenth day of the second month,” matching the day that God shut the door of the ark after His seven-day warning to Noah: “And yet seven days.” And seven days later on “the seventeenth day of the second month,” the door of the ark was shut. That was also the day the flood began – judgment began. And we have learned that 7,000 years to the equivalent selfsame day on May 21, 2011, judgment began on the earth, and it was also the conclusion of the actual 23-year Great Tribulation, which can be typified by a figure of “seven years” in the Bible. So it could be viewed as “one week” or “seven days” from the flood or 7,000 years, as well as “one week,” to the end of the Great Tribulation.

But there is another way of looking at this, and it is found in the book of Genesis. Let us go to Genesis 41. And, again, let us keep in mind that Jacob, a type of Christ, worked seven years and received both Leah and Rachel, because at that time he had another contract for an additional seven years. But as I mentioned, Rachel would not “officially” be his until he worked the full seven-year period. If he backed out after six years and fled before completing the seventh year, then Laban would have a legitimate argument that Jacob had not truly married his daughter because they had a deal for that marriage that had the condition of working as a shepherd of the sheep, and if he did not carry out the fullness of the contract, it would violate the contract and void the arrangement. That could be the argument, so in order to avoid that whole question, Jacob worked the full seven years, and it was some time before he decided to flee with his wives and his children to go back to the land of Canaan.

But in order for everything to be lawful, there had to be seven years of work, followed by another seven years of work, or 14 years, which are being referred to as “two weeks” or two seven-day periods, so that is what we are looking for in the Bible.

Now there is a reference to 14 days in 1Kings, and we will read this before we go to another account in Genesis. In 1Kings 8, it is after the completion of Solomon’s temple that we read in 1Kings 8:65-66:

And at that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him, a great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt, before JEHOVAH our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days. On the eighth day he sent the people away: and they blessed the king, and went unto their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that JEHOVAH had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people.

He kept this feast seven days, and then seven days. One of them was a feast of dedication for the house that had been newly built, and the other ties in with the feast of Tabernacles, as well as the feast of Ingathering that was held at that time of year. So after completing the house, there are these feasts that were carried out over a period of 14 days, and it can be related to the completion of God’s spiritual house, because Hebrews 3 speaks of Christ being over His own house, “whose house are we.” Also, I think that 1Peter 2 also refers to the spiritual house that God has built. His salvation and election program can be looked at as the building of the spiritual house of God where He will enter in and dwell for evermore. This is His eternal habitation, and that is why once the house was finished, they carried the Ark of the Covenant into the temple and removed the staves. And there is a Scripture that says it is so “unto this day,” meaning that there is an eternal principle that when God completes His spiritual house, He will dwell with them for eternity future, and they with Him.

This is more difficult to look at for a timeline, but let us go to Genesis where we read of Pharaoh who had two dreams. I am going to read in Genesis 41, but I do not want to go into too much detail because, Lord willing, we will get to this chapter in our verse-by-verse study of Genesis. At the rate we are going (and I think we have been studying the book of Genesis for about five years already), it may be several years before we get here, so we are going to look at this without going into too much detail. It says in Genesis 41:1-7:

And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and, behold, he stood by the river. And, behold, there came up out of the river seven well favoured kine and fatfleshed; and they fed in a meadow. And, behold, seven other kine came up after them out of the river, ill favoured and leanfleshed; and stood by the other kine upon the brink of the river. And the ill favoured and leanfleshed kine did eat up the seven well favoured and fat kine. So Pharaoh awoke. And he slept and dreamed the second time: and, behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank and good. And, behold, seven thin ears and blasted with the east wind sprung up after them. And the seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it was a dream.

We know that Pharaoh was greatly troubled by the dreams he had. They unnerved him, and he could not stop thinking about them after he awoke. Then the butler, who had been put in prison by a previous Pharaoh, in the same prison where the baker and where Joseph was imprisoned. The butler remembered that he and the baker had a dream while in prison which Joseph had correctly interpreted. Joseph interpreted the dream of the baker to mean that he would be put to death, and the butler’s dream to mean that after three days, he would be restored to his butlership, and he was now this Pharaoh’s butler. So when he heard that Pharaoh had a dream, it prompted his memory because Joseph had said to him that when it came to pass that he was lifted up after three days and restored to his position, he was to remember Joseph, but the butler forgot Joseph until the time that the Pharaoh had dreams that troubled him. The butler was familiar with that because he had had a very troubling dream himself that Joseph had interpreted in an amazing way. I will just read this because it is a wonderful, historical account that is so interesting. So the butler said to Pharaoh in Genesis 41:9-42:

Then spake the chief butler unto Pharaoh, saying, I do remember my faults this day: Pharaoh was wroth with his servants, and put me in ward in the captain of the guard's house, both me and the chief baker: And we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he; we dreamed each man according to the interpretation of his dream. And there was there with us a young man, an Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard; and we told him, and he interpreted to us our dreams; to each man according to his dream he did interpret. And it came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it was; me he restored unto mine office, and him he hanged. Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon: and he shaved himself, and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret it: and I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it. And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river: And, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fatfleshed and well favoured; and they fed in a meadow: And, behold, seven other kine came up after them, poor and very ill favoured and leanfleshed, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness: And the lean and the ill favoured kine did eat up the first seven fat kine: And when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them; but they were still ill favoured, as at the beginning. So I awoke. And I saw in my dream, and, behold, seven ears came up in one stalk, full and good: And, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them: And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears: and I told this unto the magicians; but there was none that could declare it to me. And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one. And the seven thin and ill favoured kine that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine. This is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh: What God is about to do he sheweth unto Pharaoh. Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt: And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land; And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous. And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

I will stop reading there. Here, Pharaoh had two dreams. There was fat corn, followed by ill-favored, thin corn that devoured the fat corn. Then there were the fat kine, followed by thin kine, and the thin kine devoured the fat kine. So Joseph interpreted the seven of the ears of corn and the seven of the kine to represent “seven years.” Again, God is alerting the reader that this is the Bible, and the Bible is a mysterious book, and in the Bible, Christ speaks in parable, as the Word made flesh. The reason Christ spoke in parables was to teach the reader of the Bible how to properly understand the Bible. You must look for Biblical definitions for words, and you must compare spiritual with spiritual, looking for the deeper spiritual meaning that the Bible will bring forth. 

So, here, we have Biblical justification to look at kine and corn in relationship to “time” in years. The seven kine that are fat and the seven good ears point to seven years of plenty, followed by seven thin kine and seven thin ears blasted with the east wind that point to seven years of famine. Understanding that, we also see two seven-year periods, just as Jacob worked seven years to marry Leah, and he worked seven years to fulfill his marriage obligation toward Rachel, for a total of 14 years. 

And at the time that Joseph was hastily brought out of prison, he was 30 years old. He had entered into Egypt at the age of 17 after his brothers had sold him to the slave traders and they, in turn, sold him as a slave into Potiphar’s household where he served Potiphar. But then Potiphar’s wife cast her eyes upon him, and she was offended that he would not lay with her, so she falsely accused him of sexually violating her by trying to commit adultery with her, so Potiphar cast Joseph into prison. So from his point of entry into Egypt at age 17 to the time when he was hastily brought out of prison was 13 years. The number “13” is all over the place when we get to the time of Joseph in Egypt. Then he interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams at the age of 30, and he was lifted up to second in command in all Egypt. He was a man of great power and authority at that point, just as King David became king at the age of 30 and he would reign for 40 years, and David is a great type of Christ. And Joseph was a great type of Christ.

To begin, there would be seven years of plenty, and there was no indication that there would be any delay in the years of plenty. From everything we can read, from the moment Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, these things immediately occurred, so the seven years would take place from the time that Joseph was 30 until he was 37. Then when he was 37, a number that identifies with judgment, the famine would begin for seven years. And, if you remember, it was after two years of famine that Joseph would finally reveal himself to his brethren and manipulate circumstances to make sure that Jacob and the whole family would leave Canaan and enter into Egypt. 

So if the years of plenty were from Joseph’s age span from 30 to 37, then after two years of famine, how old would Joseph have been? He would have been 39, which is “3 x 13,” representing the purpose of God (the number “3”) and the number “13” points to “super-fulness” and the “time of the end.” And it was after 13,000 years of history in the year 1988 that God ended the church age and brought a spiritual famine upon the land of the churches and congregations of the world, and so forth. 

So we know that the famine identifies with Great Tribulation, and we do not just know it because God speaks of famine and spiritually defines “famine” in Amos 8:11:

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord JEHOVAH, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of JEHOVAH:

This is what a famine points to, spiritually, when we read of famines in the Bible. It is a famine of “hearing,” and since the Bible says, “…faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” it means that people cannot be saved. When famine came upon the corporate church, a famine of hearing the word of the Lord, no one could become saved. That is the nature of a spiritual famine, which is much worse than a physical famine. If someone does not have physical bread or water, they could die physically, but there is still, potentially, hope that God could have saved that person, even in a physical famine. But when there is a spiritual famine, it is much more horrible. People could actually have physical bread and physical water to the full, but lack the spiritual life-saving water of the Gospel, if God is not working to open the ears of man that he could be saved. So that is the nature of the spiritual famine of the Great Tribulation period.

We will have to pick this up in our next Bible study, but there is a proof that the seven-year famine of Joseph’s day is, without question, a type and figure of the famine of the Great Tribulation and the famine that God brought on the churches. Again, we will look at that Scripture when we get together in our next Bible study.