Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #24 of Genesis 30, and we are going to read Genesis 30:37-38:

And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree; and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink.And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted. And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstraked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban; and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not unto Laban's cattle. And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's. And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses.

We are continuing to look at this strange account in Genesis 30, where Jacob was taking rods of certain trees, the green poplar, the hazel, and the chesnut trees.  And it says, “and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.”  I think just about every kid has done something like that.  You find a branch or stick on the ground, and you pick it up and start peeling the bark, and when you peel the bark, you see the white layer underneath.  Basically, that was what Jacob did when he took rods of these trees and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.

Last time, we were looking at the word “rods,” and we saw how it was translated as “staff” in some places.  And it can tie in with the Word of God.  Of courses the word of God completely identifies with the kingdom of God, and we also know the churches had the Word of God, and, therefore, they had identification with the kingdom of God.  Over the course of the church age, they were actually the outward representation of God’s kingdom on this earth during their time period.  I think you will start to see the importance of that idea when we look at the rods from these trees.

To begin with, there was the “green poplar,” and it is only mentioned one other place, in Hosea 4:12:

My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them…

Last time we looked at the word “staff,” which is a translation of the same Hebrew word translated as “rods” in our passage.  Then it continues to say in Hosea 4:12-13:

…for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God. They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery.

So they sacrificed upon the tops of the mountains, the high places that provoked God to anger and fury, and He poured out the wrath of His judgment upon the churches.  Historically, Israel did these things under actual trees in their high places on the mountains, but it points to “spiritual high places,” which are false gospels and false doctrines that were imbedded in the confessions and creeds (of the churches), and these things were worshipped when people followed their confessions and creeds over the things that the Bible says.  And that is what provoked God to anger.  Here, they did so under oaks and poplars and elms, and that is the only other place we read of poplars, from which the rods were taken.  And from those couple of verses, we would have to say that “poplars” identify with Israel of old and the corporate church of the New Testament.

Well, what about the hazel tree?  If we look up the word “hazel,” it is Strong’s #3869, and it is identical to #3870, which is the word for “Luz,” the city of Luz.  We read of this city in Genesis 28:19:

And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.

By telling us that, God is joining together the two places.  Bethel is the same as Luz.  It is actually said a few times, but we will look at just one other place, in Genesis 35:6:

So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.

The word “Bethel” literally means “house of God,” and there was a city in Israel that had the name of Bethel, but it points to the churches.  The churches were the house of God, and judgment began at the house of God.  It is Bethel.  That is not in the Greek in the New Testament in 1Peter 4:17, but that is what it means.  That is what Bethel refers to, the corporate church or the house of God,  and that is where God began His end-time judgment program. 

So we can see that the poplar in Hosea 4:12-13 can be tied to the churches.  And hazel is the same word translated as Luz and, in turn, it also identifies with the “house of God.”

What about the chesnut tree?  We only read about it here and in one other place in Ezekiel 31:7-8:

Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters. The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.

Twice in this verse we find reference to the “garden of God” or the Garden of Eden, and the Garden of Eden was an outward representation of the kingdom of God on the earth.  It was unusual why God even established a Garden of Eden and had Adam to till the ground within that boundary because the whole earth would have been a glorious garden.  Why would God cordon off a section and call it the Garden of Eden and cause man to work there?  It is because that is what God has done throughout history.  First, it was with the nation of Israel.  It was like taking a little piece of the world and saying, “This will be my garden.  This is where I want my people to work.”  And outside would be the rest of the world, just as it was with the Garden of Eden.  Then the Lord did the same thing with the churches: “The churches and congregations will be my garden, and this is where my people will work over the course of the church age.” 

Here, a few of the trees of the “garden of God” were the cedar, the fir and the chesnut tree.  The chesnut tree was in the garden of God.  Once again, that would cause a relationship to be seen between the chesnut tree and the garden of God.  Keep in mind, this is the only other verse we will read of the chesnut tree, just like Hosea 4 was the only other place we read of the poplar.  So we have limited reference points or limited information to deal with, but in that limited amount of information, we can see a link to the kingdom of God.  And the churches were the outward representation of the kingdom of God on the earth.

So our verse refers to the rods of the poplar, the hazel and the chesnut trees or the “staff” of the kingdom of God.  And, again, it would also connect to the churches because the “staff” of the kingdom of God is the Word of God, and the churches had the Word of God.

Let us continue to read because I think we are going to find something interesting that will really help us to understand more of Laban.  And keep in mind, if we did not see that Laban was almost in the role of “Pharaoh” in not letting Jacob go and in afflicting him (just as Pharaoh would not let Israel go and afflicted them), I do not think we would have been able to understand what is going on here concerning the “pilling of the rods” in order that the white strakes appear in them.

What does the word “Laban” mean?  The answer is that it means “white.”  Although it has a different Strong’s number, the word “white” has identical spelling and vowel points to the word “Laban.”  Again, it said, “and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.”  Actually, the Hebrew word translated as “white” in this verse is the Hebrew word “lâbân,” so it is his name. 

Is there some reason that God is basically referring to Laban as these white strakes appeared in the rods when they were pilled?  What would be the reason for Laban’s name to appear?  Remember that Laban is a type of Satan, and the rods are coming from the kingdom of God – from the green poplar, the hazel and the chesnut tree, three trees that come from the kingdom of God.  And as Jacob peels them back, something is being revealed, is it not?  The “whiteness” of these rods could not be seen until they were peeled or “pilled,” but once they were pilled, then the white could be seen underneath.  The white part of the rods identify with Laban, and Laban is a type of Satan.  Now are you starting to see what God is getting at?

Let us look at this in the overall sense of the judgment on the churches during the Great Tribulation.  What does the Bible tell us concerning “the man of sin”?  Remember what it says in 2Thessalonians 2, and it may help us to understand the pilling of the rods.  It says in 2Thessalonians 2:1-4:

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

First of all, in verse 1, he is addressing the brethren and beseeching them: “Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him…”  This refers to the elect at the time of Christ’s coming, at which time we will gather unto Him.  Who are we, and who is He?  We are the flock or the sheep, and He is the Shepherd. 

Jacob is the shepherd, and he is about to have the flock gather unto him, is he not?  That is why Laban is going to be so furious, as he will think his flock has been stolen from him, and Jacob flees because all that were to be gathered had been gathered together unto Jacob through this strange process after the deal that was made.  The election program is in view concerning certain sheep and cattle. 

So, getting back to 2Thessalonians 2, that is how that chapter starts, and then it says, “…for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first.”  The word translated as “falling away” is the Greek word “apostasia,” and that was the apostasy of the churches that we have witnessed.  That had to come, and then right along with the falling away, that “man of sin” will be revealed.  He will become known.  That is, it will be at the time of the falling away, that event that took place during the Great Tribulation when judgment began at the house of God.  At that time, God also began to “reveal” Satan.  He began to reveal that the antichrist was Satan, and God began to open the understanding of His people to the fact that Satan, who had been bound for that figurative thousand years, was now loosed.  Immediately upon his loosing, he entered into the churches and congregations and took his seat (in the temple) as the man of sin.

And, again, the hazel, poplar and chesnut tree identify with the kingdom of God, the churches and congregations that were the outward representation of the kingdom of God on earth.  The rods from these trees identify with the tree itself, or with the corporate church, and as Jacob “pilled” or peeled back the bark, the “white” appeared.  It was the revealing of the man of sin, the antichrist or Satan, as he was typified by Laban.  We are now learning that Laban is a figure of Satan or the “man of sin.”  He is a type and figure of Satan and his name means “white,” and that is what is being revealed in the rods of the poplar, hazel and chesnut trees.

Let us go back to Genesis 30, and read the second part of the verse, in Genesis 30:37:

…and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.

Jacob pilled them, and the white appeared that was in the rods.  It is interesting that the Lord used that kind of language, is it not?  We know that Satan had infiltrated the churches from the very beginning of the churches.  He was sowing tares among the wheat “while men slept,” and that phrase identifies with the entirety of the church age.  Satan was active there.  In the book of Revelation, Christ addresses the seven churches, and in a couple of instances, He referred to them as the “synagogue of Satan.”  Satan was already present, and that was written in the first century A. D., not many years after that first outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.  But Satan was already in the churches, and yet, he had not been revealed to the degree he would be revealed at the time of the end, because at the time of the end God unsealed the Word.  And the unsealing of the Word is almost like “peeling the bark back” or “pilling the rods,” and then Satan could be “seen” by anyone with (spiritual) eyes to see.  Satan was in the churches, and at the time of the end, he was not only in the churches, but he was ruling the churches as the man of sin, showing himself that he is God.

Also, consider the timing of this.  The time that Satan is revealed is joined together with our gathering together unto Christ.  It was the time that was in close proximity to when the Gospel would go forth outside of the churches to the nations, and the great multitude would be saved.  Jacob is gathering together to himself a great multitude of cattle and sheep, and he will soon depart Haran with them, and return to the land of Canaan, representing the eternal kingdom of God, the heavenly Jerusalem.  He will return with those he has taken from his father-in-law Laban.

So these things begin to get more solid, even though this is already pretty solid as far as a spiritual understanding.  When these things began to fall together, we know we are on the right track, but it gets even more solid when we look at the word “appear” in Genesis 30:37:

… and made the white appear which was in the rods.

This is a word that is translated as “uncovered” in regard to the Ethiopians that had their buttocks uncovered, in Isaiah 20:4, and that means that they were “naked,” and that was to their shame, of course.

And in Jeremiah 13, God in speaking of Jerusalem says in Jeremiah 13:26:

Therefore will I discover thy skirts…

I need to back up a little bit and explain that the word “appear” is #4286 in Strong’s Concordance, and it is only found here.  But it is derived from #2834, and it is actually the same word, except that #2834 has a Mem prefix, which is why it is so distant in the concordance from #4286.  It has the Mem prefix  attached to the word.  And yet, it is the word translated as “uncovered” in Isaiah 20:4 and as “discover” in Jeremiah 13:26.  And this word, #2834, is the word we read in Joel 1:6:

For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number…

Historically, this nation refers to the Babylonians.  Then it goes on to say in Joel 1:6:

… whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.

Spiritually, this would refer to Satan and his forces – Gog and Magog – coming against the camp of the saints, the corporate church.

Then it says in Joel 1:7:

He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare…

And that is the word that is related to the word translated as “appear,” where it said, “made the white appear” in the rods.  Then it says, in Joel 1:7:

… and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

So this is clearly describing God’s judgment on the corporate church, as typified by the fig tree, and the barking of the fig tree is making it bare, and the bareness has to do with “spiritual nakedness.”  Christ is the only righteousness and covering for sin, but He had departed from the churches.  But in doing so, it leaves it “clean bare,” (revealing) Satan.