Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #18 of Genesis 30, and we will read Genesis 30:22-24:
And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach: And she called his name Joseph; and said, JEHOVAH shall add to me another son.
I will stop reading there. Finally Rachel has born a child. She had desired one for quite some time, and now the Lord opened her womb and gave her a son that she called Joseph. We can pinpoint the year, and various things concerning time in relationship to Joseph’s birth because later when Jacob entered into Egypt and came before Pharaoh, Pharaoh asked Jacob his age. Jacob told him he was 130 years old upon entering into Egypt. We also know that at the same time as Jacob was 130, Joseph was 39, because Joseph came out of prison at age 30, and we know that after that, there were seven years of “plenty,” and then there would be seven years of “famine.” And we know that after 2 years of famine when Joseph was 39 and Jacob was 130, the Lord arranged circumstances to bring Jacob and all the sons of Jacob into Egypt. So that gives us the age of the father and the son, so we know exactly how old Jacob was when Joseph was 39. So if Jacob was 130 when Joseph was 39, then that means that Jacob was 91 years old when Joseph was born. So at this time in Genesis 30,when Joseph was born, Jacob was 91
Because the Lord has revealed His biblical calendar of history that is largely based on the lifespan of patriarchs found in the Bible, we know that Joseph was born in 2007 B. C., and 91 years later would be the year 1916 B. C. That was the year of Joseph’s birth. Then we could also confirm it because we know Jacob entered into Egypt in 1877 B. C., and if we subtract 1877 from 1916, it gives us 39 years. That was the year that Joseph was 39. And 2007 B. C. minus 1877 B. C. is 130 years. So 1877 B. C. was the year Jacob entered into Egypt.
So Rachel had a child when Jacob was 91. God does not give us Rachel’s age, but we can know that it was the 31st year since Jacob left Canaan and went to Haran to find a wife, and we also know that he would be there for 40 years, so there would be nine more years to go before he departs. So this would work out that after three years when Jacob was 94 and Joseph was 3 years old (and that would be the period of Joseph’s weaning), Jacob went to Laban and wanted to depart, and they made a final deal for Jacob to work for the cattle, which was a six-year arrangement, so from age 94 to age 100 would fulfill that last contract. Then when Jacob was 100 in the 40th year he was in Haran, he finally left and took his family and cattle. He fled Haran, with Laban in pursuit, and at that time Joseph would have been age nine, in 1907 B. C. when Jacob was 100.
So we know that Joseph was the 11th son. Jacob had six sons with Leah and four sons with two concubines, totaling 10. And Rachel bore the 11th (son). Rachel had been barren until she bore Joseph who is the 11th son of Jacob. When we search the Bible, we find the number “11” identifies with the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ was born in 7 B. C., after more than 11,000 years of history. The creation date was 11,013 B. C., so it was 11,006 years to 7.B. when Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary and entered into the human race to live His time on earth So the number “11” points to the first coming of Christ. And, here, Joseph, a great type of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the 11th son of Jacob. We can see that clear picture, even with the language that Rachel uses when she says that God has taken away her reproach through bearing this son, and that has everything to do with the Gospel and what Christ came to do for His people.
So the number “11” identifies with Joseph’s birth as the 11th son, and also with his death. When he will finally die, he will be age 110, and the number “110” breaks down to “10 x 11,” with the number “10” representing completeness, and the number “11” pointing to Christ, so after 11,000 years God brought the fruit, who was Jesus. The early righteous rain had fallen over the course of the Old Testament period, and then finally produced the “fruit” of the Lord Jesus Christ as He entered into the world.
One other thing: at the time Joseph was born, Jacob was 91, and the number “91” breaks down to “7 x 13.” So we can see in the lives of Jacob and Joseph, there is an interrelationship between the two with these dates, their ages, and even the separation between their ages. Again, when Jacob was 130 and Joseph was 39, there was 91 years separating their ages, and that would have been true no matter how old they were. They were always separated by 91 years or “7 x 13.” So the Lord was emphasizing the number “11” at the time of Joseph’s birth as the 11th son and also the number “13.” Those are the two main numbers in the Bible regarding God’s times and seasons because they point to the two comings of the Lord Jesus Christ. He first came as a little baby, born into the world after 11,000 years. And then He came as the Judge of the churches, as judgment on the house of God began in 1988 when the Great Tribulation began, and God initiated his end-time judgment program, which is still unfolding in our time It appears it will be a judgment of 45 actual years or 46 inclusive years before the judgment ends on the world.
I want to add one more bit of interesting information regarding when Joseph came out of prison (in Egypt). First, his brothers sold him at age 17 as a slave into Egypt. Then he worked in Potiphar’s house for a while, and then he got in trouble over Potiphar’s wife because she falsely accused him. Then he went to prison, and he came out of prison at age 30. So from age 17 to age 30, we see the passing of 13 years, and that is a number that repeatedly appears in the lives of Joseph and Jacob. Then when Joseph came out of prison at age 30, Jacob was 121, and that number would break down to “11 x 11.” So, again, these two numbers continually appear in these accounts. And it is interesting that it would be nine years from his coming out of prison at age 30 until Jacob entered into Egypt when Joseph was 39.
And, likewise, here we have a period of nine years. Joseph was born and Jacob would stay in Haran for the next nine years before they departed. So there are all kinds of interesting number relationships that God developed using these two men, father and son, especially with the numbers “11” and “13.”
Now let us look at what Rachel was moved by God to say in Genesis 30:22-24:
And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach: And she called his name Joseph; and said, JEHOVAH shall add to me another son.
She said, “God hath taken away my reproach.” When we look at the word “reproach,” we find it is Strong’s #2781. We find it in Joshua 5:9:
And JEHOVAH said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.
This was when Israel was circumcised again after leaving Egypt and after their wilderness sojourn. When they came to Jordan, they were “circumcised” again, and the Lord refers to their circumcision as the rolling away of the reproach of Egypt from them.
In 1 Samuel 17, at the time when Goliath was making his challenge to Israel to send a man down to face him in battle, David came and heard of it, and we read in 1Samuel 17:23-26:
And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words: and David heard them. And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid. And the men of Israel said, Have ye seen this man that is come up? surely to defy Israel is he come up: and it shall be, that the man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father's house free in Israel. And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?
We know David did go out to face Goliath, and he slew the giant, and that is a wonderful picture in a historical parable. It is historical truth. It is true history that this young lad David went and faced the giant, and he did kill him with sling and stone. But it is also a historical parable, as David is a type of Christ, just as is Joseph. And Goliath is a picture of Satan, the enemy of Israel, and slaying Goliath was an act that was likened to taking away the reproach of Israel or the shame of Israel. And this word is translated as “shame” a couple of times.
And we can see that circumcision represents the removal of sin. God likens circumcision to being circumcised in heart, so to be circumcised is to have the reproach rolled away, it is a figure of sin being removed because sin is a shameful thing to the one who bears it. To have it removed takes away the reproach.
In Psalm 69, a Messianic Psalm, we read in Psalm 69:7-9:
Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face. I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and are fallen upon me.
It is as though Christ is speaking, and He says, “The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.” That is, the sins of the sinners that have sinned against God have fallen upon the Lord Jesus, and in bearing their sin, He bears their reproach. Then we read further on in Psalm 69:18-21:
Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies. Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee. Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
It is very obvious in this Psalm, which refers to the cross, is speaking of the Lord Jesus suffering under the wrath of God and He did this (demonstration) concerning His people and the sins of His people. And that reproach He was laden with was because He was bearing the sins of His people and, of course, we know that He only bore those sins at the foundation of the world, but in 33 A. D. He was demonstrating His bearing of their sins, without actually bearing them. But it is still declaring the glorious truth that Christ bore the sins of His people and became a reproach for them, and that that reproach broke His heart. It broke His heart, and it was necessary, as we can see from what God says in Psalm 51, the Psalm where David was declaring his iniquity. He had been convicted (of sin) by the prophet Nathan who came to him and said, “Thou art the man,” regarding David’s adulterous affair with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband. David is pouring out his brokenness before God, and we read in Psalm 51:16:
For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
Animal sacrifices and those kinds of sacrifices will never take away sin. But what will take away sin is declared in the next verse, in Psalm 51:17:
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
And people misread this all the time, thinking that the Lord wants them to show their broken heart before Him, but it is not saying that. It is telling us that it is not the sacrifice of the sinner, but the sacrifice of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is eternal God, and the fact that He bore the sins of His people. God poured out His wrath upon Him for those sins, thus breaking His heart, as it said in Psalm 69:20: “Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness.” It was just as the Lord showed when He was in the garden, and He was in agony, and He said that His soul was “exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” We can see the heaviness that was upon Him and the broken nature of His heart, as He showed forth what had happened at the foundation of the world.
And by the way, the wrath of God was poured out upon Him a second time, and He was smitten by the Law a second time, just as Moses smote the rock twice. But there was no sin upon Him, which could have made it all the more grievous that He had to experience such agony and terrible wrath while having no sin, as Pilot declared of Him, “I find no fault I him.” He was the spotless Lamb of God. There was no iniquity of any kind because the iniquity of His people had previously been paid for, as the Lord was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world when that payment was made.
So this was the reproach that fell upon Christ, and in falling upon Christ, it came off the people of God, those that became saved. Their sins are washed away, and they are cleansed from the shame of their iniquity. Christ bore the reproach in their place. There was a substitution that took place at that point for the Christian who has truly become saved. We are no longer reproached for our sin, but in the world we become a reproach because of Christ and because of the Word of God, and the Bible tells us this in a few places. For example, it says in 1Peter 4:13-14:
But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
Also it says in Hebrews 13:11-13:
For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
We bear that reproach. Can you imagine? That is how evil this world is that simply identifying yourself with eternal God, who is good, just, right, holy, and pure, will result in the world speaking evil of you and casting out your name as evil. They want nothing to do with you. You have become a reproach to them. But if you were to roll around in the “mud” with them and speak in a filthy way and do filthy and lewd acts and all kinds of evil, rotten things, you are embraced by the world. But you are then a reproach to God. Your sin is a shameful thing to Him and a reproach, so it has to be one way or the other. Either sin will be our reproach, or Christ and His Word will be the cause of our reproach. And, of course, God makes the determination which it will be for us. But by His grace and according to His mercy, we are blessed if the world hates us and despises us, and if we have become a reproach for Christ’s sake, as Moses realized when he had come to years. We are told of Moses, in Hebrews 11:25-26:
Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.
He esteemed or counted the reproach of Christ as greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. They can keep it all. Let them have it. Let those of the world have money overflowing, and let them have all the riches, the cars, the boats, the holidays, and all the comforts and ease of this life, although they do not have much “comfort” because God is troubling the earth, and they are soon going to lose it all. But God’s people will be content and thankful that we can bear the reproach of the name of Christ, and may we rightly and wisely count it greater riches than anything in this world.