Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #4 of Genesis 30, and we are reading Genesis 30:3-8:

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.

We will stop there.  We are going to look at Bilhah a little more closely.  The name “Bilhah” is #1090 in Strong’s Hebrew Concordance.  It is from #1089, the word right next to it, and #1089 is a word that I would pronounce as “baw-lah,”  so it is close to “Bilhah,” but slightly different.  Also, there is another word that is #1091 that is basically the same as “Bilhah.”  So, again, “Bilhah” comes from #1089, a word that is found only one time, in Ezra 4:3-5:

But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto JEHOVAH God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us. Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, And hired counsellors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

The word “troubled” in verse 4 is our word.  The people of the land who were adversaries of the Jews that had come out of Babylon “weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building.”  This word “troubled” is the word “baw-lah,” and we can understand that the “trouble” was that they hired counsellors against them to frustrate their purpose, and that is what the word “trouble” is pointing to, a frustration of purpose. 

Actually, it seems to be related to the idea of “torment” in the New Testament.  When we look up the Greek word translated as “torment,” we find it has to do with being “vexed” or “troubled,” like when some of the disciples were rowing hard in a storm, and that word “torment” is used.  They were trying to row toward land and get safely out of the water, but the storm “tormented” them and “frustrated” their purpose.  And that is related to the word for “trouble” and “torment,” and we can see the link here between “trouble” in verse 4 and the frustration of purpose in verse 5.

So that is the only time #1089 is used, and the word “Bilhah” is derived from that word.  There is another word, Strong’s #1091, which is found several times, and this word is translated as “terror,” and it is also translated as “trouble.”  For example, we read in Job 18:11:

Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.

Then it says in Job 18:14:

His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.

And, again, this word for “terrors” is related to the name “Bilhah.” 

We read in Psalm 73:16-19:

When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.

Here, being brought into desolation as in a moment and being utterly consumed with terrors is pointing to Judgment Day.  This is a Psalm where God’s elect were envious of the wicked until they went into the sanctuary of the Lord and they saw their end, so that is confirmation that Judgment Day is in view, so being “utterly consumed with terrors,” relates to Judgment Day.  So, too, does “trouble” and “torment,” as we know the Bible speaks of Judgment Day using the figure of five months of torment, in Revelation 9, or five months of troubling the wicked of the world, unsaved mankind.  The “five months” is a figurative period pointing to the entirety of the Judgment Day period, which according to Biblical evidence may be 22 actual years or 23 inclusive years.  And throughout (this time), the purposes of the world will be frustrated or troubled, and that is what we are presently witnessing in many areas of life in this world.  Man is being troubled.  That is the one constant, as the world goes through political division, exposures of the sins of renowned and famous people, like the “Me Too Movement.”  Or, as the world goes through the virus across the face of the earth, it serves to trouble mankind.  Or, with the riots, lootings and burning of buildings, it also serves to trouble mankind.  And that is the “torment” of Judgment Day, and then there will be the next phase (of troubling), and the one constant will be that God is targeting the unsaved inhabitants of the earth and, therefore, they will be troubled and consumed with terrors.  And this word “terror” is related to the word “Bilhah,” and it comes from that root word, #1089, which was only found once, translated as “troubled.”

In Ezekiel 26, we find this related word, Strong’s #1091, but I want to read verse 15 first, so we can see that Tyrus is in view.  It says in Ezekiel 26:15:

Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH to Tyrus; Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee?

Then it says in Ezekiel 26:18:

Now shall the isles tremble in the day of thy fall; yea, the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy departure.

And Tyrus is a similar figure to Babylon, in the sense that Tyrus is a representative of mankind, just as Babylon is a figure of the kingdom of Satan or the nations of the world.  The nations of the world are the people of the world.  It is mankind, so the day of Tyrus’ fall is synonymous with Babylon’s fall, and Babylon fell after the Tribulation in the Day of Judgment.  And the “isles” in verse 18 are the continents of the world.  The continents of the world are surrounded by water, so they are very large islands, so God often refers to the continents in the Bible as “isles.”  Again, it says in Ezekiel 26:18-21:

… the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy departure. For thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; When I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and great waters shall cover thee; When I shall bring thee down with them that descend into the pit, with the people of old time, and shall set thee in the low parts of the earth, in places desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited; and I shall set glory in the land of the living; I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord JEHOVAH.

God will make Tyrus a “terror,” and they will be no more and never found again.  And I think that is a similar picture to the end of Babylon, where it says in Revelation 18:20-21:

Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

By the way, this is actually a paraphrase of what we read in the book of Jeremiah 51, and Jeremiah 50 and 51 are two long chapters wherein the Lord details His judgment on Babylon, which is spiritually detailing God’s judgment on the world.  We read in Jeremiah 51:59-64:

The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince. So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words; Then shalt thou say, O JEHOVAH, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever. And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates: And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

Here in Jeremiah 51, the words of Jeremiah were written in a book, and that book is the Bible.  And God says that when you make an end of reading the book, bind a stone to it.  That is, bind a stone to the Word of God, and cast it (the Word of God) into the midst of the Euphrates.  The Euphrates is the river of Babylon.  And what would happen to that book, the word of God, the Bible?  It would sink into the river Euphrates and sink into its depth, and then God said, “Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary.”  You see, God is linking the judgment – the sinking, drowning, and bringing down of Babylon into the midst of the sea, which represents God’s wrath or hell – to His Word.  It is His Word that is proclaiming these things.  It is the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God upon the world, and Babylon typifies the world.  So it is as though God is saying, “It is my Word that is judging the kingdom of Satan and the unsaved inhabitants of the earth.  It is my Word that is destroying them and bringing them down under my wrath, and they will rise no more.  They will be no more.  They will cease to exist.”  And that is what we saw in that last verse in Ezekiel 26:21:

I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord JEHOVAH.

That is the conclusion.  That will be the end result as we will finally arrive at the last day of this prolonged judgment period.  And, again, according to much Biblical evidence, that year in which the last day will arrive will be 2033, and we are fast approaching that.  Then comes that day when God finishes everything of this world, and He destroys the earth and the creation, and He destroys the sinner upon it, and the sinner goes to nonexistence or to nothing.

And, remember, that God created something out of “nothing.”  He has that power and ability to bring to life and to bring into existence things which are from things that were not, and He also has the power to take things that “are” and turn them to “nothing,” where there is no life or being for evermore.  It is the mercy of God to put this world with all of its ugliness out of existence.  We can see, can we not?  We can look around and, to use an expression, we can see when “Pandora’s Box” was open and when everything could not be put back in again.  Well, “Pandora’s Box” of evil was opened back in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed God.  And look at all the horrors and terrors that have come forth because man thought he knew better than God and was wiser than God, as he was deceived by the serpent, the Devil.  And what pain and misery and sorrow and death sin has brought to this world, and it just goes on and on, and it just gets worse and worse.  Now that we are living at the time of the end, wherever we look there is just incredible sorrow that sin has wrought in the earth due to what man has done as he has ruined this world and ruined life in this world.  And there is no fixing that.  There is no remedy.  There can be no repairing of the damage.  We cannot put it back together again by saying, “Now we will obey God.”  It is way too late.  All that is left is for God to complete the judgment the Law demands, and then the Law will receive satisfaction, and it will all be removed and gone forever through annihilation.  

And God will have taken His people whom He has redeemed as His spiritual bride unto Himself, and He will create a new heaven and new earth, in beauty and perfection, and we look forward.  And this world will be gone, and it will never come to mind, nor into our remembrance ever again.  We will not think of the past, because if God allowed us to remember our loved ones, we would have to remember them in the context of sin and the context of the things of this cursed world, and that would bring “the cursed thing” into that pure and perfect creation, and it would contaminate it.  That cannot be.  There must be a “wiping away” and a cleansing of the mind from all things that were touched by this world, and then we move forward, and that will be a tremendous mercy of God.

Remember that this Hebrew word for “terror” is related to the name “Bilhah.”  Now that begins to make us wonder.  We also saw this word “terror” in Job and in Psalm 73, regarding the terrors of Judgment Day.  Here in Ezekiel 26, it is the terrors of Judgment Day.  If we go to Ezekiel 37, it speaks of the isles again, so it is speaking of all the inhabitants of the earth, and it says in Ezekiel 27:35-36:

All the inhabitants of the isles shall be astonished at thee, and their kings shall be sore afraid, they shall be troubled in their countenance. The merchants among the people shall hiss at thee; thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt be any more.

And, again, it is being in terror because of the fall, because God’s wrath is upon them, and it brings terror and trouble.  That is what happens when you have a “target on your back,” and God is aiming, and God does not miss.  He hits His target.  Just take a quick glimpse around the earth today.  You and I are witnessing God hitting His targets.  He can take something “small” and something the world had not planned for, and magnify it, and He causes fear, and the pit and the snare to be upon the earth because of it, like the invisible virus that has impacted the world in a huge way, and is really unprecedented.

Also, we read in Ezekiel 28:12-13:

Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God…

Then it says in Ezekiel 28:14:

Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth…

Then  it says in Ezekiel 28:15:

Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.

In these verses, the king of Tyrus can only be referring to either mankind or Satan.  Those are the only two possibilities, and mankind was given rule over the creation in the beginning when he was perfect in his beauty and without sin.  He ruled the creation, and for reasons we will not go into here, Satan does not qualify to be the one in view here.  It must be mankind.  So God is referring to the king of Tyrus as a figurehead of mankind that was created good, originally.  Then we read in Ezekiel 28:18-19:

Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.

Again, God is reiterating, “You will be a terror.  You will be no more.”  So this word “terror” relates to destruction, ruination and, finally, to annihilation, the removal from existence, which comes at the close of God’s judgment. 

So these are all places where this word is translated as “terror.”  There is one time the word, #1091, is translated as “trouble,” in Isaiah 17:13-14:

The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.

Again, Judgment Day is in view.  We can know that due to the reference to the “chaff of the mountains before the wind,” and the reference to “whirlwind.”  These are common terms the Lord uses in regard to the wicked in Judgment Day.  It says, “before the morning he is not,” and that is the nonexistence factor again.  And this is the trouble of mankind.

So as we look at all these verses – whether we look at #1089 or #1091 – we see either “trouble” or “terror” related to Bilhah.  And now Bilhah is in view, in Genesis 30, when Rachel gives this “terror” or “trouble” to Jacob to wife, in order to bear a son.