Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #26 of Genesis 30, and we are continuing to read Genesis 30:39-43:

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.

As we have talked about already, the rods point to the Word of God, and of course God uses His Word according to His will.  He sent forth the Gospel into the world, and from our perspective, it just goes here, and it goes there, but when God sends His Word out, He knows the particular people chosen by Him to receive it, and He brings the Word into their path at the right time.  And that is what we were discussing concerning the animals being “in heat,” as the word “conceived” in this passage identifies with being “in heat,” and when an animal is “in heat,” it is in its estrous cycle and prepared to have offspring.

This spiritually points to God’s program of “times and seasons.”  The Word of God is necessary, and yet, the Word of God must operate within the boundaries that God establishes, whether it was to operate in the nation of Israel for a time, or in the churches for a time, or out in the world for a time.  And there are times when the Word does not operate.  For example, the 2,300 evening mornings (that began May 21, 1988) was the time when the two witnesses were lying dead in the streets, spiritually, and the two witnesses identify with the Law and the prophets and the Bible itself, and during that time absolutely no one was saved within the churches and, virtually no one was saved outside of the churches out in the world.  This shows us that we can have the Word, but it has to be in its proper time and season, or its proper cycle. 

So the fact that the flock was “in heat” before the rods means they had been prepared, and it was the ideal circumstances arranged by God for His purposes.  Spiritually, that is what we are interested in.  Yes – it is very nice that Jacob was able to grow a large herd of cattle and sheep, and so forth.  That is nice, but if it does not go beyond that – especially when we are reading of an ancient shepherd and his ancient herd, both long gone – what  would be the point of telling us this?  But in the Bible, everything has a point.  Everything has value, purpose and meaning in the spiritual realm, and God is painting us a picture, as He tells us, “And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstraked, speckled, and spotted.”

We saw that “ringstraked”  has a related word that is only used one other time at the time that Abraham bound his son on the altar.  He tied him about and wrapped a rope around him, just like a ring going around an animal.  So that identifies “ringstraked” with the atoning work of Christ because Isaac was bound on the altar, the only son of his father, and it clearly points to the death of Christ at the hand of God the Father.  He smote Him twice, once at the foundation of the world when He paid for sin, and a second time at the cross in 33 A. D. when He demonstrated that payment.  So when the cattle were “ringstraked,” they were “bound,” and that marking would direct us to the Lord.

The same is true of the “speckled” in the flock.  The word “speckled” is related to a word translated as “herdmen” in Amos 1:1 regarding the herdmen of Tekoa, and to a word translated as “sheepmaster.”  The king of Moab was called a sheepmaster.  Both would refer to a shepherd, so these cattle were speckled, and they are herdmen and sheepmasters, and they will take after Jacob.  And the people of God follow the Shepherd, and we become shepherds as we minister the Gospel to our fellow man and brethren.  So in both cases, the fact that they are shepherds means that they will follow the Shepherd and will also become shepherds.

And there were “spotted” animals, and we saw that this relates to the word “lambs” in Isaiah 40:11 where Christ gathers the lambs in His arms, so they are the lambs of Christ.

So each one of these markings set these sheep or cattle apart.  They are Jacob’s cattle, and Jacob is a type and figure of Jesus.  They belong to Him – they have the markings of Christ.

Speaking of markings, we find in the New Testament in Galatians 6 that the Apostle Paul, who is said to be a pattern of the true believer, as he said of himself in Timothy, was moved to write in Galatians 6:17:

From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

He is not referring to any kind of physical marks.  He does not have the imprint of nails in his hands or a pierced side.  He did not have those kinds of marks, but he had spiritual “marks” which identify him with Christ.  I was glad to see that when I checked some of the theologians on this verse, they recognized that (and they do not always recognize these things).  But they understood that he was not referring to literal, physical marks upon his physical body, but they realized he was referring to “marks” of suffering for Christ, as they put it.  And, actually, I think that is pretty accurate.  That is the mark of a Christian, because we are called to take up our cross and follow Jesus, and that means we take up the Word of God, for which there will be tribulation and affliction and suffering and shame for the Word’s sake. 

It is a shameful thing in this world to identify with the Bible.  The world has, seemingly, lost all shame concerning everything else, except for their new-found morality and laws they are developing now that are completely opposite and contrary to the Law of God regarding things like marriage, where it is now fine for those of the same sex to marry.  They are rapidly developing their own laws, and if you violate their laws, they try to heap shame upon people, but it is not a shameful thing for an elect child of God to uphold the Law of God, the Bible, because it states the truth that marriage can only be between a man and a woman, with certain qualifications that must be met.  It cannot be two men or two women.  So that is not the “mark” of Christ, although the world would have us to be ashamed of the Gospel, and, yet, there is no shame in these things, but it is the perverted viewpoint of the ungodly and unsaved people of the world regarding a great number of things the Bible says, and they want to do completely contrary to it.

But as far as the child of God is concerned, when we uphold the truth of the Bible on whatever point, it will bring suffering, affliction and tribulation, at least to some degree, and that is the “mark” we bear in the body, as the Apostle Paul said, “…for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”  It is not a single “mark,” but it is plural, as there are numerous occasions for us to take up our cross and identify with Christ.

If we go back to Galatians 6, I think we will see the context a little better as to why Paul made this statement in Galatians 6:17.  It says in Galatians 6:13-14:

For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

Remember, the Bible says it is a shameful thing to hang on a tree.  It means you are “cursed.”  Christ became a curse for His people, and He hung naked in front of the people of the world as a cursed individual.  As we read in the Gospels, He was showing forth what He had done for us in paying for our sins – all the filthy things we have thought, said, and done.  He made payment for them all, and He bore that “mark.” 

The religious people of the world would have you to be circumcised and bear a physical mark.  No – we do not glory in the flesh, but we will glory in the cross.  So then he says, in Galatians 6:17:

From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

It cannot be anything of the flesh.  That would have been hypocritical of him to make a reference to some kind of physical mark after he was just moved to say that he did not glory in the flesh.

One last thing – the word “marks” is only found here.  It is Strong’s #4742, and it is the Greek word “stigma,” from which we get our English word “stigmatize,” as in when someone has been stigmatized; they have been “marked.”  They have done something shameful.  It is a mark of shame.  And, again, that is what we bear before the world as we have been crucified in that sense, as we take up our cross.  The world separates from us.  They distance themselves.  They want nothing to do with us, in large part, even though we might be part of the same earthly family or the same neighborhood or same job.  And yet, there will be this movement away, at least to some degree, from the child of God.

Let us go back to Genesis 30, and we will read Genesis 30:40:

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.

So we can see Jacob is a type of the Lord Jesus, eternal God, and the cattle are bearing his mark.  They have been “stigmatized.”  They have these particular markings that Laban will be able to identify and Laban’s sons will be able to identify.  That is, there is never any dispute when later Jacob fled and Laban and his sons and servants pursued him and caught up with him, but there was no question that the cattle could be Laban’s.  He never brought it up.  He never said, “You have taken my cattle.”  (The only point he could make was that they had taken his idol, as Rachel had stolen his false god.)  But as far as the cattle, he could say nothing, and you can be sure he would have said something if he could have done so, but he realized these were exactly the type of cattle that were specified in the deal that was made before these cattle were conceived and came forth into the world.  Jacob had said that these particular cattle belonged to him, and remember he had said that if Laban found any others, “that shall be counted as stolen with me,” but there were none of Laban’s cattle that Jacob would flee with – they were all his.  Of course we can see the spiritual meaning of that.  Christ named His sheep, the elect, and He chose them before the world was and before they were born, and that was the point in Romans 9 concerning the birth of the twins, Jacob and Esau.  And God tells us that before they were born, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”  It was the predeterminate counsel of God and His predestination program to choose (His elect) before the foundation of the world.

It is amazing how people are so desperate to keep man’s works in the Gospel and to turn God’s Gospel of grace into a Gospel of works, and they are so desperate to maintain that man has a free will and the ability to choose Christ.  They talk all around it, and yet, it is so plainly stated.  It is unusual for God to declare so clearly what is in view, but He did just that in Ephesians 1:4-6:

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

We were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.  We were chosen and predestinated, and then it says in Romans 9:11-13:

(For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

But leave it to the fallen, corrupt and rebellious mind of man to try to steer around it some way, and to justify his own sinful doctrine, and to substitute the “far lesser,” and grievous, erroneous doctrine of men to say that man plays a part (in salvation), and they say, “God looked down the corridors of eternity.  He looked ahead and he knew that you would be one who would choose Him, and that is why the Bible speaks of election, and that is why the Bible says that God loved Jacob, because Jacob would be an upstanding individual of strong moral character, and Jacob had the ability to do what was right and accept God.”  What nonsense!  What ugliness!  What spiritual filthiness it all is, and not a bit of it is true. 

When God looked down the corridors of time, do you know what He saw in all mankind?  Desperate wickedness, and hearts of stone, flowing forth with all manner of iniquity, as we read in Romans 1 or in Matthews 15.  He saw men who were spiritually blind, deaf, dumb, lame, and dead in their souls, and men who loved the lie over the truth, and men who loved darkness over light.  He saw men who would never choose Him, if it were in their ability to do so, because they hated God.  They despise God, and they run from God.  So God necessarily had to do the choosing and the saving.  He had to draw the man, as Jesus said: “No man can come to me, except the Father which sent me draw him.”  And the word “draw” is seen in the book of Acts when Paul was drawn out the temple by a violent mob, and they certainly did not take care for his person.  They did not concern themselves if they might have banged his head, but they forcibly grabbed hold of him and dragged him out of the temple.

Likewise, God grabbed hold of certain ones, the chosen ones, and they would never have come to Him, as God defines proper coming, unless God had grabbed them by the “scruff of the neck” and forcibly took them out of the world to Himself and His Word.  That is the salvation of God.  Salvation is of JEHOVAH – it is not of man.  It is not of works, lest any man should boast.  And the free will gospel is a false gospel.  It is a gospel of works, and it is not the true Gospel of the Bible.

So here in Genesis 30:40, we read, “And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstraked…”  The Hebrew word for “separate” is the same word we find a couple of times in Genesis 10.  It says in Genesis 10:5:

By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.

And further on it Genesis 10, it says in Genesis 10:32:

These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.

Our word is the word translated as “divided.” 

We read something that gets right to the point in Genesis 25 concerning Rebekah.  Isaac had married her, and after struggling for a while with being barren, she was with child, and then we read in Genesis 25:22:

And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of JEHOVAH. And JEHOVAH said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

There it is, and that is referring to Jacob and Esau, whom God said that before they were born, He determined to love Jacob.  And remember that Scripture that says that we love Him because He first loved us?  God’s love for Jacob was before he entered into the world, and, likewise, God’s love for each one He would save took place before the world was, at the foundation of the world.  So God made this choice, and He separated them.  He “divided” these people: “Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels.”  They would be divided into the nations of the world and the “nations of them that are saved.”  There are only two kinds of people in the world, the saved and the unsaved.  Everyone will fit into one of those categories.  You are either truly saved, or you are not saved, and at this point in time, there can be no changing.  In past times, a person could be unsaved until the Word reached them, although they were separated or divided from the womb, in a sense, if God had chosen them before the foundation of the world.  But everyone to be saved has been saved, and the righteous will remain righteous still, and the filthy will remain filthy still.  There will no longer be any movement from unsaved to saved.  All are fixed in their particular “nation” or “kingdom,” and that is how it will remain until the end of time.