Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #3 of Genesis 30, and we are reading Genesis 30:1-13:

And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her; and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her. And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife: and Jacob went in unto her. And Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son. And Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son: therefore called she his name Dan. And Bilhah Rachel's maid conceived again, and bare Jacob a second son. And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed: and she called his name Naphtali. When Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife. And Zilpah Leah's maid bare Jacob a son. And Leah said, A troop cometh: and she called his name Gad. And Zilpah Leah's maid bare Jacob a second son. And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed: and she called his name Asher.

I will stop reading there.  We have been looking at this historical account in the sense of Jacob being a type of Christ, and the children he is having with his wives, Leah and Rachel, as being pictures of the two covenants.  The children are the offspring of the covenants, as God says in Galatians 4 concerning Hagar, Sarah, and their children.  God said it was an allegory and these things represent the two covenants.  Regarding Hagar, it had to do with mount Sinai in Arabia, the place where the Law was given, and her child was in bondage.  Regarding Sarah, her child Isaac was born by promise, and that is the true Gospel of the Bible, and Isaac was a type of Christ, and all those in Christ are counted for the seed.

So God moved Jacob to make this statement in anger against Rachel, in verse 2, and he was angry because Rachel had said, “Give me children, or else I die.”  Then it says in Genesis 30:2:

And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?

It is as though God is viewing the child as those who are children of His kingdom of heaven.  It is not an accident that he refers to “fruit of the womb.”  Of course, a male child or a female child is not “fruit,” but this word is a word that identifies with “fruit of the land.”  As a matter of fact, if we go to Deuteronomy 7, it says in Deuteronomy 7:12-14:

Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that JEHOVAH thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers: And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee. Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.

This language is the blessing of obedience, and the only way to truly receive the blessing of obedience is through salvation, because then the Lord is looking to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and not our own obedience or righteousness.  But, here, He is using the language of “fruit of the womb” and of “fruit of the land,” and it is the same word, and the fruit of the land – corn, wine, oil – is a spiritual figure that point to the blessing that comes as a result of the Gospel as people became saved.  That is why in Joel 2 God speaks of the “rain,” and the rain produced the fruit of the land.  It says in Joel 2:21-24:

Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for JEHOVAH will do great things. Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength. Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in JEHOVAH your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil.

The rain brings the wine and the oil, the fruit of the land.  You know, there are many Bible proofs that confirm that the rain is the Word of God.  That is what is in view, for example, in Deuteronomy 32:1-3:

Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass: Because I will publish the name of JEHOVAH: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.

His doctrine shall drop as rain, the doctrine of Christ, and the teaching of Christ is the Word of God, the Bible.  And that is what is in view when we read of “rain” in the Bible, like the early rain and the Latter Rain.  It is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  How is the Holy Spirit outpoured?  Is it just some kind of invisible thing, like this presence that spreads out over the earth, and blessing one here and one there?  Yes, and no.  It is the Holy Spirit that goes forth into the world across the face of the earth, blessing one here, and one there, but it is always through the Word of God.  That is the way the Holy Spirit “travels.”  It is the way He moves about in the earth through the sending forth of His Word.  He will go as His people carry that message of the Gospel: “The king's heart is in the hand of JEHOVAH, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.”  So God turns the hearts of His people.  Before the advancement of technology and “instant travel” through the internet, in past times the people of God had to get on ships, and they journeyed to Africa or India, literally and physically carrying the Word of God in written form.  When they got there, they would share what the Bible has to say.

In our day, we had the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit during the Latter rain (the about 17 years from September 1994 through May 2011), and it moved much faster, necessarily, because God only had the “few,” His elect.  He did not have the huge corporate church to work with because He ended His relationship with them.  Additionally, the world’s population mushroomed and grew to billions of people, so He had fewer people to get the job done, but more people to reach.  So God, in His great wisdom, opened up technology.  Seeing this would happen, He began to do this beginning a century before, and He finally allowed it to grow and expand until the proper time.  We had radio, internet and television, and the Gospel was going out over the airwaves and reaching all the people, but the Word had to travel.  The Word traveled into homes, and as that person in the house turned his radio on, he heard the Word, and that gave the Holy Spirit (in the outpouring the second time) to either bless that person, or move on.  He could bless if there were an elect within that household, or He would move on.  Or, maybe he would use that household of ten people, none of whom were elect, and He would attract them to the message in one way or another, and they would share it with others, until finally someone hearing it from a brother, a sister or neighbor would say, “I will turn to that radio station, too,” and that person was elect, and that is how God brought blessing. 

The Latter Rain fell, and the moment the person became saved, he became “fruit.”  He became a child of God, fruit of the spiritual womb, in that sense, and brought forth by the “mother,” who is the Word.  The mother would then nourish that person with the milk of the Bible, the milk of the Word, and he would feed upon the Word of God.  And he would, hopefully, grow fast because it was the time of the end and the time God opened the Scriptures to bring forth the “meat” of the Word.  There was no time to spend all that long as a “babe” or a “child” any longer because that was for the time of the church age.   But at the time of the end, it was necessary for there to be immediate spiritual growth. 

One had to grow to maturity, spiritually, unless it was a very young person, or in a situation where they may have been saved late in the Latter Rain period.  Then on May 21, 2011 all the information was cut off, and they may have been in a faraway land (in as Muslim land, or wherever), and they did not receive any follow up information.  And that is one of the reason God commands His people, “Feed my sheep.  Get this information about Judgment Day spiritually occurring on May 21, 2011 out there to the world.”  And as we share the things the Bible is teaching, regarding the day of wrath and the revelation of God’s righteous judgment, it will feed them.  That will be the “meat” they need to develop from being as a “babe,” because they could not grow in understanding of the Word of God without hearing the Word of God since they became saved.

You know, God works all these things out.  We may think of an example or two of how God might do things.  But, for the most part, we completely lack wisdom in that area.  God takes care of it all, and He makes sure His Word is fulfilled and His promises are kept, and we are confident in that.  We trust God to do all these things.

Well, let us look at just one other place where we see “seed.”  Remember that the Word of God is likened to seed that is sown upon man’s heart.  That is the purpose of the parable of the sower.  Christ is the Sower.  The seed is strewn into the world.  The message of the Bible is shared over the electronic medium, primarily, and it was sown far and wide, especially over that second part of the Great Tribulation.   Certain ones became saved and certain ones did not.  The same idea is in view with the parable of the wheat and the tares.  In the parable of the wheat and tares, we read in Matthew 13:24-30:

Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

Then a little further down, the Lord explains the parable, in Matthew 13:36-37:

Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom…

Notice the language of “children.”  That is the link we are seeing through the use of this phrase “fruit of the womb.”  When Jacob said that to Rachel, he was referring to children, after Rachel demanded, “Give me children, or else I die.”  And Jacob said, “Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?”  So God is speaking of fruit here, which is the wheat that has come forth.  Again, it says in Matthew 13:38:

The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

There are two kinds of children, are there not?  There are children of the kingdom and children of the wicked one, the wheat and tares.  It is just like that passage I go to a lot, but that is because it is such a revealing passage in Galatians 4.  Here, we find two sons or two types of children, representative of the saved and the unsaved.  It says in Galatians 4:22-24:

For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants…

There were two women, and one was a bondservant and the other was free.  There were two sons representing two covenants – one was truly saved, and one was not saved.  That is what it points to and, likewise, Christ is the Sower who sowed the seed in His field, and the field is the world.  The churches were throughout the world in practically all the nations and cities, and the enemies sowed tares among the wheat.  So there were two kinds of children that the churches produced.  The children of the kingdom are the good seed, as Christ is the seed (singular), and we are counted for the seed in Him.  But the tares are the children of the wicked one, and that refers to Satan or the Devil.  He is the evil one.  Remember, Jesus said to the Jews in John 8:38-45:

I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.

Christ said, “Ye are of your father the devil.”  The tares are the children of the wicked one.  Why is that?  In what way did Satan produce spiritual children?  That is what is being discussed regarding the wheat and the tares.  Clearly, we understand that the wheat is the good seed, the children of the kingdom of God.  So they are children of God, and we understand that they were born again, and they became new creatures, and they received life like a child.  The Bible lays that out very clearly.  But, at the same time, the Bible recognizes that many people respond to the lie of a false gospel or a false doctrine, like, for example, “accepting the Lord,” or making a decision for Christ, and those kinds of things associated with a free will gospel.  When people respond to it, what happens after they respond?  The church’s pastor and the congregation embrace them as a Christian, and then they start coming to that church, and they try to live their lives as a Christian.  Regarding the wheat and tares, that parable is especially looking at the churches and congregations during the church age.  The two groups grew up together.  Those that were deceived into thinking they were born again, but they had believed a lie of “another gospel,” and there is no other gospel, but simply lies of Satan.  But they believed the lie of the false gospel, and they became a child of it, so their spiritual father is the Devil.  They are children of the wicked one, and that is why we are seeing this worked out so often already, even in the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis, where God takes us carefully through the birth of the twins, Esau and Jacob.  But only one received the blessing. 

And now with Jacob and his wives and the various children born to each wife, God is again emphasizing this point because it is a major point that goes throughout the whole Bible.  And it is an important point for every Christian, and we have to ask the question, a question that is not to be avoided.  It is not a question that we should say does not matter.  It is a question that must be faced, especially in the day in which we are living, when there is an overwhelming majority of “professed Christians.”  And by “professing,” I mean those that say they are Christians, and they believe they are (Christians) in their minds.  I do not think they are lying about that.  The Bible presents those who have gone the wrong way with all sincerity.  You can be sincerely wrong, so they think they are children of the kingdom of God, but, again, there are tremendous numbers that are actually children of the wicked one, conceived and born of a lie.  So they are standing before God as a “tare.”  It is as someone who ought to receive the blessing, but they will have the blessing taken from them, like Rueben or like Esau, the firstborn.  They do not receive the blessing of the firstborn, and we spent a lot of time looking at the blessing spoken of in Psalm 123, which is “life for evermore.”  It has to do with eternal life.

So God finally brought about the separation of the wheat and the tares.  And really what God did, if we look at this, is He separated out His own children.  His children are the wheat, and He wanted to gather together His children, and to remove those who were not His children.  That makes it a little easier for us to understand, does it not?  Of course a father would only want His children and not the children of another, especially the children of the wicked one.  He would want the children who are dear and precious to Him to be with Him, and to remove from Him those children that are not children of truth and love, and not children of His dear Son and born of the Word of God, but children born of lies and falsehood and deception.   Certainly, He would remove them far away, and that is what God has done in the Day of Judgment.