Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #27 of Genesis 30, and we are continuing to read Genesis 30:40-43:

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.

I will stop reading there.  As we have seen, this is a historical parable pointing to God saving the great multitude out of the Great Tribulation.  One flock that Jacob had oversight of was given over to Laban and his sons, pointing to the end of the church age.  And now he has a greater flock, a second flock, that will belong to him.  This flock will not be given over to Laban, but Jacob will flee the land of Haran, taking this flock with him which amounted to a great multitude.

We saw in our last study that the word “separate” is the same word found in Genesis 25, and we will go back there again.  After Rebekah had gone to the Lord as she wondered about the situation with her (unborn) child, as she may not have known then that she had twins.   It says in Genesis 25:22-23:

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.

We see here that God is dividing up the human race into these two nations, and we understand from other Scripture that they are the nations of the world and the “nations of them which are saved.”  They are two people belonging to two distinct kingdoms.  One is the kingdom of darkness ruled over by Satan, and the other is the kingdom of light ruled over by the Lord Jesus Christ.  These are the “two manner of people” in the world, and they are in view in our passage in Genesis 30 concerning the sheep.  The sheep are being divided into two types of sheep or two types of cattle, with one type of cattle belonging to Jacob and one type of cattle belonging to Laban.

Actually, all “cattle” (people) once belonged to Laban, did they not?   Everyone is born in sin, and all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and they were outside of God’s kingdom.  This is true for the most part, as I think that it was a rare occasion that God would save someone in the womb, like John the Baptist.  For the most part, even God’s elect were all born into the world as “children of wrath even as others,” and we were all out in the world as “orphans.”  Even though God had paid for our sins at the foundation of the world, we were still identified as “Laban’s cattle,” the sheep of Satan, or the people of the world that belong to Satan.  But then along came the Lord Jesus, the Good Shepherd, to seek His sheep.  That is what Christ said to the Canaanite woman: “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  He went to find His sheep and to gather His flock, as we saw in 2Thessalonians 2, which identifies with the Great Tribulation and the time of the end and the salvation of the great multitude.  It says in 2Thessalonians 2:1:

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,

You see, Christ is coming.  He is coming to take His sheep or His flocks, and they are gathered together unto Him as God saved them.  And, again, that is what was happening with the separating or dividing of these certain sheep that had these predetermined markings.  If they matched the markings (of the contract), they belonged to Jacob, and no longer did they belong to Laban.  Likewise, if we were predestinated by the Lord Jesus Christ, even though we were for a time in our sins as “children of wrath even as others,”  Christ came and set the “rod” before our eyes.  That is, the Word of God entered into our life, and faith came by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.  Then we were changed.  In this historical parable the cattle conceived, and they were brought forth, matching those markings, and they became identified as the cattle of Jacob, or the cattle of the Lord Jesus.

One other I want to mention regarding Genesis 23 when the Lord told Rebekah there would be two manner of people separated from her bowels, He also said, “and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.”  We discussed that when we went through those verses as it applies to Jacob and Esau and who they represented, the elect and the unsaved, respectively.  But it is interesting that God says that one people shall be stronger than the other.  And in Genesis 30, that is what we are reading in Genesis 30:41-42:

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.

It was not stated in Genesis 25 that one people would be weaker or feebler, but it simply said that one people would be stronger than the other.  But if you have one stronger, it means that the other is more feeble or less strong than the other one, although it is a different word for “stronger” than we see here.  But we are going to see as we look up the word “feeble” and the word “strong” that are used here, how it fits in and how it relates to God’s salvation program.

Let us start with “feeble,” and, again, it says in Genesis 30:41-42:

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.

We see how it is connected to placing the rods before the stronger cattle, implying that they would produce offspring that were stronger because of the rods.  And when the cattle were “feebler,” he did not lay the rods before their eyes, implying that this resulted in the feebler cattle not having the markings according to the deal that would make them Jacob’s, and they were Laban’s.  There was a difference in the cattle.  Strong cattle identified and belonged to Jacob.  Feeble cattle identified and belonged to Laban.  And, again, Jacob identifies with Christ, and Laban identifies with Satan.  There are two manner of people, and as we think about the feeble cattle, we may think of what it says in the New Testament where the Lord speaks of “weak brothers,” in 1Corinthians 8:10-12:

For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols; And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when ye sin so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ.

Here, we see the word “weak,” and as it is used in relationship to the weak brother, it is also translated as “diseased,” or “impotent,” or “sick.”  In the Bible, when people are sick or diseased or they have an illness of some kind, it points to “sin sickness.”  That is why when Christ performed healings, the healings always spiritually represented salvation.  The healing of the sick was a picture of saving a sinner, so the weak or sick brother and the feeble cattle are a similar idea.   But this word “feebler” or “feeble” is #5848 in the Hebrew concordance, and I think the best place to understand it can be found in Lamentations 2, where it is used three times.  It says in Lamentations 2:10:

The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.

The word “swoon” or “swooned” is a translation of the word translated as “feebler.”  That is pointing to a famine, as the Bible says in Amos 8:11: “…not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the JEHOVAH.”  That is what famine points to spiritually.  It is a problem of “hearing,” and hearing has to do with the Word of God: “For faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  But it also requires the activity of the Holy Spirit.  As we know, the Word was in the churches.  They had Bibles in the pulpit and Bibles in their pews, and they read and preached from the Bible, but once judgment began on the churches (and lasted for 23 years), there was a famine of “hearing.”  How could there be a famine when they had all these Bibles and an abundance of the Word?  It was because the Holy Spirit had departed out of their midst, and without the Holy Spirit, there could not be spiritual hearing.  It required the working of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God to create the new heart and to give “ears to hear and eyes to see.”  So when we read Lamentations, which is describing judgment on Old Testament Jerusalem and Judah, it is a type and figure of the New Testament corporate church that came under the judgment of God for that 23-year Great Tribulation period from May 21, 1988 through May 21, 2011.  It is pointing to the famine of “hearing,” a famine where none were being saved in the churches.  This is related to the “swooning” in the streets in verse 11, and also related to the statement about the absence of “corn and wine” when “they swooned as the wounded din the streets of the city.”

In verse 19 of Lamentations 2, it is translated as “faint.”  It says in Lamentations 2:19:

Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.

Again, a famine or hunger points to no spiritual bread.  The “staff” is broken, as Leviticus 26 declares.  God’s wrath is upon them, and that indicates that there is no salvation taking place.  So when we see this word translated as “swoon” or “faint,” and we bring it back to Genesis 30 and these reference to cattle that are feeble, they are cattle that would identify with those that “swoon” or “faint” for lack of spiritual bread and water.  They do not have the Gospel (applied).

But what do we see in verse 43?  “But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in…”   What did he not put in?  The rods of the hazel, the green poplar, and chesnut trees, which identify with the Word of God. 

The Word of God that was put before their “eyes” is pointing to that great multitude that was scattered out in the nations.  And the Gospel did go forth at that time and covered the earth as the waters cover the sea, but, for the most part, people ignored it or dismissed it, and it was not put before their eyes.  They saw a billboard about Judgment Day, May 21, 2011; or they saw a bus pass by with that message; or they received a tract, and they walked two feet, crumpled it up and put it in the trash.  They did not take warning – they did not hearken.  They did not listen.  That is why some who did hear would say, “I never heard,” because they paid it no mind, so the Word did not work upon them because they were not predestinated.  Those “cattle” are the ones that Jacob has no interest in; he does not want those cattle because they are “feeble.”  He wants the ones that are “stronger.” 

So let us look at that word “stronger.”  On the other hand, the word “stronger” is Strong’s #7194, and it is a word that does not mean what we would think, and it really does not seem to identify with physical strength or power in any way.  It does not seem to relate to that, but it is a word that is found 44 times in the Old Testament, and it is translated as “bind” about 14 times; as “conspiracy,” about 18 times.  When you look up a word like this, and you see where it is translated as “conspiracy” most often, we wonder why this word translated as “stronger” and “bind” is translated as “conspiracy.” 

In a conspiracy, two or more people come together and bind themselves in agreement and, typically, it is a negative kind of agreement: “We will join forces and be allies and come against the people of God.”  But it is a binding together.  This word is also translated as “joined together” in Nehemiah 4:6:

So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.

The wall identifies with God’s salvation program.  Its construction in 52 days points to the acceptable year of JEHOVAH, and the wall was “joined together.”  It was made strong.  Yes – we can see that, but it was bound together.

Or we can go to Joshua 2, which has to do with Rahab and her house.  It says in Joshua 2:18:

Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father's household, home unto thee.

Then it says in Joshua 2:21:

And she said, According unto your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they departed: and she bound the scarlet line in the window.

So the word “bind” and “bound” in those two verses is this word that is translated as “stronger.”  And just as with the “wall,” this has to do with salvation.  The salvation of God’s elect in Jericho was “bound” as they all came together in Rahab’s house.  It was her family – and only her family – that was not destroyed.  And it was that “marking” of scarlet thread that pointed to the covering of the blood of Christ that protected them.  So it is the blood of Christ that is in view with the binding of the scarlet thread, just as the wall being joined together is a picture of salvation that comes only through the sacrificial work of the Lord Jesus.

I think we will start to get the idea, if we go to Deuteronomy 6, and we will see much better why the rods were placed before the “stronger” cattle.  It says in Deuteronomy 6:6-8:

And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

It is the Word of God that they were to “bind” as “frontlets between thine eyes.”   So as the cattle came to drink of the water, there were the “rods” right before their eyes, if they were the stronger ones.  And here the Word  is bound for a sign upon thine hand, and the “hand” has to do with the will of God.  It is language pointing to salvation and your “will” being changed as God gives you a new heart, and you have the Word ever before you. 

It also says in Deuteronomy 11:18:

Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.

Again, that is our word “bind,” and here the Word is laid up in your heart and soul, and then it will impact your will, which the “hand” represents.

We can also go to Proverbs 6.  (And these are all Scriptures saying a similar thing.)  It says in Proverbs 6:20-21:

My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.

It appears again in Proverbs 7:2-3:

Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.

Where is the “apple of thine eye”?  Well, it is right before your eye, is it not?  It is right in the middle of your eye. 

And so with these references, I do not think it is coincidental that God is speaking of bringing His Word right before your eyes.  He is using this word “bind,” which is the same Hebrew word we see in our passage in Genesis 30:41:

And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive…

I suppose we could say they were the ones “bound” by the blood of Christ, bound in His atoning work, and bound because He had already paid for their sins at the foundation of the world.  It was when the bound cattle were “in heat.”  That is, in the proper time and season, Jacob laid the rods (the Word of God) before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters that they might conceive among the rods.  It all fits in, does it not, when we understand the “rods” to be the Word?  But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in, so the feebler were Laban’s and the stronger were Jacob’s, so this helps us to understand how God worked out His salvation program among the billions of people in the world regarding His Word.  When He sent it forth, it accomplished the purpose He sent it forth to do. 

Then the last verse says, in Genesis 30:43:

And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses.

And this word “exceedingly” leads us to the idea of the great multitude.  It is the same word that is used in Ezekiel 37:10 concerning the army that “stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.”