Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #8 of Genesis 30, and we are going to read Genesis 30:7-13:

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.

We will stop reading there.  We are continuing to look at Naphtali, Bilhah’s second son that she bore to Jacob, and which Rachel claimed as her own.  If you remember, we went to Genesis 49, and Jacob was moved to make this statement concerning his son Naphtali, in Genesis 49:21:

Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.

Then we looked at some Scriptures where a “hind” is spoken of, and the word “hind” is a feminine word.  In the Hebrew, “hind” is #355 and it is the feminine of #354 in Strong’s Concordance, which is translated as “hart,” and a hart is a deer.  We saw that the hind was spoken of in Habakkuk 3:19:

JEHOVAH God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.

We saw the same statement in Psalm 18:33, and then we saw a couple of verses where the voice of JEHOVAH makes the hinds to calve, or to bring forth. 

And we began putting this together to see that the hind and the heart are pictures of the elect believers as they send forth the Gospel into the world, and we do so “with haste.”  God will make our feet like hinds’ feet because the hind or hart (a deer) can run very fast, and we go speedily to obey God’s command to share the Gospel with the nations or the people of the world.

We also went to Psalm 42:1-2:

As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?

The hart is mentioned a few times.  It says in Psalm of Solomon 2:8-9:

The voice of my beloved…

And the “beloved” is a spiritual reference to Christ, and that can be shown when we look at these references that Jesus is in view.  Again, it says in Solomon 2:8-9:

The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice.

Christ is like a “young hart,” and that would fit in with Habakkuk 3:9 and Psalm 18:33, where it says that God makes “my feet like hinds’ feet.” 

If you remember, we looked at Isaiah 52, where it says, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,” and we looked at Romans 10, where is says, “How beautiful are the feet of them…”

So Naphtali is “like a hind.”  He is a picture of those who are sent forth with the Gospel, and as we carry the Gospel, it is as though Jesus is carrying the Gospel because the people of God are the body of Christ.  What we do, He does.  He is the head.  He is the one who moves the body, as the control of a body is always through the head or the mind, and the mind directs the feet to run the way of God’s commandments.

Remember that hinds and harts are connected, as one is masculine, and one is feminine.  In Lamentations, we can see how it is used in regard to the people of God.  In this case, it would refer to the confessed Christians that were in the churches.  It says in Lamentations 1:4-6:

The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for JEHOVAH hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.

Lamentations is a sorrowful book.  That is what “lamenting” means.  It is a book that describes the sadness of a people that have relationship to God and claim to be the people of God, and, yet, God’s wrath  is upon them.  It is a book describing God’s judgment that began at the house of God upon the churches and congregations of the world, so the “princes of Zion” would point to the spiritual leaders, like the pastors, elders, deacons, and so on.  They are become “like harts.”  There is no surprise there.  Naphtali was like a hind, but they are like harts that find no pasture, and this is what happens when the wrath of God came upon the churches as the Spirit of God departed out of the midst.  All the “green grass” and the “waters of the gospel” dried up.  It is like the green grass we read about in Psalm 23:2:

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

That is a picture of Christ, the Shepherd, providing for his flock.  But when there are no pastures, the sheep are not fed. Here, it is not a hart, but a sheep, but it is the same picture.  The hart has no place to graze, so they are without strength.  They do not have God’s protection to help them when they are pursued.

Now let us go back to Genesis 49.  I know we are in Genesis 30, but this chapter is helping us understand Naphtali.  We are basically going through verse by verse, and at the rate we are going, it will be many years before we get to Genesis 49, Lord willing.  Do not worry, because by that time, we will be due for a refresher.  In this verse, the Lord moved Jacob to refer to Naphtali, and it says in Genesis 49:21:

Naphtali is a hind let loose…

The term “let loose” is not what you would think it means.  It is #7971 in the Hebrew Concordance, and it is found over 800 times.  It is translated as “go,” 73 times; as “send forth,” 54 times; and “send away,” 48 times.  So I think it is well over 700 of the 800 times that it has to do with being “sent” or “sent forth,” and that fits in with what we were understanding about Naphtali being like a hind.  And when we followed that word “hind,” we saw that the Lord will make my feet “like hinds’ feet.”  And we saw the reference to “feet,” as it ties in with going forth with the Gospel: “How beautiful are the feet of them…”  And this confirms it.  Naphtali is like a hind sent.  That is basically what it is saying.  We could go to many, many verse, but we will start with Exodus 3, and it will be used here a few times.  This is when Moses was having a conversation with the Lord, in Exodus 3:12-15:

And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, JEHOVAH God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.

The word “sent” appears in each of those verses.  God has “sent” me unto you.  That is the word that is translated as “let loose,” where Naphtali was a hind let loose.  He was going forth.  He was sent.

Also, this is the same word used in Isaiah 6:8:

Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

As we have read this verse, we have long understood it as referring to the sending forth of the Gospel. 

Let us look at one more place, in Psalm 107:20:

He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

He sent His Word.  That is exactly what God did over the course of the church age and over the course of the second part of the Great Tribulation period.  He sent His Word and accomplished His salvation.

Let us go back to Genesis 49:21:

Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.

Naphtali is a hind “sent,” and he gives goodly words.  Do you see how that fits?  It fits with our understanding of the hind or the hart as a picture or type and figure of those that are sent with the Gospel.  And the words “let loose” is actually the word “sent,” and that fits with the idea that the Lord makes my feet as hinds’ feet.  And, finally, it all has to do with the Word of God: “…he giveth goodly words.”  It is just as we read in Psalm 107:20 where it said, “He sent his word.”  God giveth goodly words, and Naphtali giveth goodly words, because he is a carrier or messenger of the Word of God, the Bible.

So, going back to Genesis 30, we have looked at Dan, and that was a completely different picture.  All I can say is that we are just following what we are given here.  We are just following the words and names that are in this verse, and it takes us to different places, and we should not be surprised at that.  With Dan, it was an emphasis on judgment, and with Naphtali, it was an emphasis on the sending forth of the Gospel. 

They were both sons of Bilhah.  And, yes, Bilhah means “trouble,” and in regard to Dan, I referred to her name often, but with Naphtali, it is a different matter, and I suppose we would look more at Rachel as a figure of God’s elect, the third part.  Rachel claimed Dan and Naphtali and, later, she would have two sons of her own, for a total of four out of the 12, or “one third.”   And she was the wife that Jacob loved, so it is not surprising that we can read good things about her children.  We will read very excellent things about Joseph when we get to him.  But, here, this is the focus God has given us.

We are not going to go quite as long in this study, but when we get together in our next study, we are going to move on to Zilpah and the two sons she had, as this competition increased.  It was getting pretty bad, with Rachel being desperate enough to give her handmaid to Jacob, as she had apparently pouted and fought with her husband until he gave in to her and quit going in unto (having sexual relations) with his wife Leah.  So Leah left bearing, and we know that Rachel was not allowing Jacob to see Leah from what we will read later in this chapter when Rachel desired some of Rueben’s mandrakes, and Leah gave them to her with the condition that Jacob come in unto her.  But during this period of time when Jacob could not go in unto Leah, Leah ceased to bear.  She had born four sons, and she was not having any others during this period of time, and Rachel saw an opportunity and came up with the idea of giving Bilhah to Jacob to wife.  Then Bilhah had these two sons, but Leah had no more, but with the condition of Jacob not being allowed to go in unto Leah, there was a “loophole” that Leah apparently took advantage of, thinking, “OK, if you can give your handmaid to Jacob to be his wife, I can do the same thing.”  So she took her handmaid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob. 

Now what could Jacob say?  He has already shown weakness in this area.  He had already given in to Rachel, and now his other wife is saying that she wants him to do the same thing.  It was getting to be a bigger and bigger mess, as he took a fourth wife.  It is obvious that Leah and Rachel were the main wives, and these handmaids are a lesser form of wives in their eyes, but in God’s eyes they are equally wives of Jacob.  So Jacob will marry a fourth wife and have two sons through this other handmaid, and the trouble will multiply.

Once a person is going the wrong way, contrary to the will and commandments of God, things just get worse and worse.  Sin begets sin, and that is what was happening here.