Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #4 of Genesis 31, and we will read Genesis 31:8-12:
If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the cattle bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstraked shall be thy hire; then bare all the cattle ringstraked. Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me. And it came to pass at the time that the cattle conceived, that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and, behold, the rams which leaped upon the cattle were ringstraked, speckled, and grisled. And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob: And I said, Here am I. And he said, Lift up now thine eyes, and see, all the rams which leap upon the cattle are ringstraked, speckled, and grisled: for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.
We are continuing to look at this interesting historical account. Here in verse 8, Jacob was speaking to his two wives, Rachel and Leah. He had called them to the field to where the flock was located, so they could see the multitude of cattle. After telling them that their father had deceived him and changed his wages ten times, but that God had suffered him not to hurt Jacob, he said to them, “If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the cattle bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstraked shall be thy hire; then bare all the cattle ringstraked.”
So God revealed to Jacob that He was going to help him in this situation, and Jacob knew that Laban was not going to win. Laban was going to “pay the wage.” He was going to honor the deal because God was on Jacob’s side. We see here that no matter what decision was made concerning the characteristics of the cattle, Jacob had confidence it would work out for his good, so we can see God’s providential hand. We read that He came to Jacob in a dream, comforted him, and revealed key information that led to Jacob obtaining this multitude of cattle that was previously Laban’s. Again, we know that spiritually Laban is a type of Satan and Jacob is a type of Christ, as well as of the body of Christ, and this points to the great multitude saved out of the second part of the Great Tribulation period when the Latter Rain fell outside the churches.
Of course, the cattle are spiritually representing people that belonged to Satan because they were born in sin into the kingdom of darkness, “children of wrath even as others.” And now they have been delivered out of Satan’s kingdom, as represented by Laban’s herd, and into Christ’s kingdom, as represented by Jacob’s cattle. We have some further confirmation that this is the picture that is in view in the next verse, in Genesis 31:9:
Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me.
The Hebrew word translated as “taken away” is Strong’s #5337, and it is used 213 times in the Old Testament. Only twice is it translated as “taken away.” It is primarily the word in the Old Testament that is translated as “delivered.” It is used 179 times out of 213 as “deliver” or “delivered.” It is a word found in numerous verses that identify with the deliverance that takes place upon salvation as God saved a sinner. We will just look at how it is used in several verses, so we will understand this very well. Let us begin with Genesis 32, regarding when Jacob was afraid when his brother Esau was coming to meet him. It says in Genesis 32:11:
Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children.
So he was crying out to God, “Deliver me…from my brother.” He was very much afraid of him, and with good reason.
Also, we read in Exodus 2:19:
And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock.
The “Egyptian” is a reference to Moses who delivered Reuel’s daughters.
So we see this word can be used in a variety of ways, but it has to do with delivering someone from trouble.
In Exodus 12, it is used in an interesting way. It says in Exodus 12:36:
And JEHOVAH gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians.
Here, it is the word “spoiled.” They did not “deliver” the Egyptians, but what I think we can see is that when God delivered Israel, it served to spoil Egypt and the Egyptians. Anyway, it is related to the great deliverance that God worked for His people in Egypt.
It says in Psalm 7:1:
O JEHOVAH my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me:
It says in Psalm 119:170:
Let my supplication come before thee: deliver me according to thy word.
This next verse will be the last one we go to, but I encourage you to look up this word that is used many more times. In Ezekiel 34, we see a verse that identifies closely with what is going on in Genesis 30 regarding the cattle. It says in Ezekiel 34:10:
Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.
God will deliver His flock His flock from the mouth of these shepherds, and this is really a verse that relates to the end of the church age. God came and opened the Scriptures to reveal the fact that the church age was over, and that all His people were to depart out of the midst and flee to the mountains. We were to come out of the churches and go out in the world and worship God outside of any churches or congregations. With that opening of the Scriptures to reveal the spiritual situation that the Spirit of God had left the churches and Satan’s spirit had entered in, God effectively caused these shepherds to cease feeding the flock. The church age was over. There was no longer any authority for the pastors and elders of the churches to minister and spiritually nourish the people of God. God delivered His flock from them.
Again, consider the historical parable we are dealing with in Genesis 31 where Jacob is taking the flock away from Laban and his sons. Remember that Laban is a type of Satan, so his sons are emissaries of Satan that would identify with false shepherds who feed themselves of the flock, rather than feed the flock. He is taking the cattle away from them, and he is going to leave, and that is the identical picture here, if we continue reading in Ezekiel 34:11-13:
For thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.
The “mountains” identify with kingdoms, and the mountains of Israel identify, therefore, with the people of God. Then it says in Ezekiel 34:14-15:
I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord JEHOVAH.
It matches very well with Jacob who is about to take the cattle. And where is he going? He is going back to the land of Canaan or Israel. God had given that land to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and Jacob will actually have his name changed to “Israel” on his journey home. And “Israel” does not point to the churches, but to the spiritual Israel of God and the spiritual kingdom of God where the Lord Jesus will personally feed the flock. And that has been happening all the time that the elect of God were coming out of the churches as the wheat was separating from the tares. We went out, and God has spiritually fed us in the way He has always done by opening up the understanding of His Word and causing us to understand, and then qualifying certain ones to teach and proclaim the things He is revealing. And that information feeds the flock.
It is just as when God saved. We read in one place, “How beautiful are the feet of them,” and in other place we read, “How beautiful are the feet of Him.” So He moves us to will and to do, accomplishing His purpose, and, therefore, He has done it, but it is done through lowly servants that carry it out.
That is why I have been saying of Jacob that he is a type of Christ and a type of the elect, in putting the rods before the cattle as they were “in heat,” and they conceived. He caried out this plan that had been revealed to him in a dream, and we will see that as we go back to Genesis 31:9:
Thus God hath taken away (delivered) the cattle of your father, and given them to me.
“Delivered” is a much better word. We are not the flock of Satan any longer. Let me go to Ezekiel 36, and read the last two verses, in Ezekiel 36:37-38:
Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock. As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am JEHOVAH.
And that is to “know” in an experiential way through the experience of salvation. We come to know that God is JEHOVAH as He fulfills His salvation promise toward us. Also notice how it just naturally flows from discussing “men” to discussing “flocks,” and that is because Christ spoke in parables, and Christ is the Word. The whole Bible is a parable, filled with hidden truth and deep spiritual mysteries that the Lord must reveal to the understanding of His people. And that is exactly what He has been doing for many years now at the time of the end.
Again, Jacob said, “God hath delivered the cattle of your father, and given them to me.” Again, it is Christ, the Good Shepherd. Then it says in Genesis 31:10-12:
And it came to pass at the time that the cattle conceived, that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and, behold, the rams which leaped upon the cattle were ringstraked, speckled, and grisled. And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob: And I said, Here am I. And he said, Lift up now thine eyes, and see, all the rams which leap upon the cattle are ringstraked, speckled, and grisled: for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.
Jacob received a dream from God – divine revelation. It was supernatural revelation, which was permissible at that time because the Bible was nowhere near being completed, so God was actively bringing revelation, and He did so at numerous times through dreams. We know that God spoke to Daniel through dreams, and that became part of the Word of God. Also, a son of Jacob who was living at this time (because Jacob was about 100) was Joseph, who would have been eight or nine years old at this time. And when Joseph was 17, he himself would receive dreams (from God). When we think of people receiving dreams in the Bible, we typically think of Daniel and Joseph. They are the main two, and we do not typically think of Jacob, and yet, here God came to Jacob with a dream, a very important dream that revealed to Jacob what he ought to do, and the type of cattle he should select in the deal made with Laban. And it is a wonderful spiritual picture of the great multitude that God would save.
Actually, when Joseph began to have his dreams, it helps us to understand why Jacob was receptive. He did not reject the dream, and he was not offended as Joseph’s brethren was offended when they heard the dreams, but it was also humbling to Jacob, if we go over to Genesis 37 when Joseph was 17, and we read in Genesis 37:3-11:
Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? Or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.
Now it does seem that Jacob was offended because it said that he rebuked him, but that last statement tells us a lot. Jacob observed the saying. He recognized it because he had personally experienced God coming to him in a dream, so he knew God gave dreams. It changed his whole life, and he became an incredibly rich man because he listened to God in his dream. And here, his son Joseph is 17 years old, and he had two dreams.
By the way, Lord willing, if we get to this point in Genesis, we will go through these verses, but I think I can mention a couple of things without spoiling things, because at the rate we are going, it will be a few years before we get to chapter 37, so I am sure you will forget whatever I am saying now. [Laughter]
In Joseph’s first dream, he was binding sheaves and he said to his brethren, “…behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.” How many brothers did Joseph have? Joseph was one of 12, so he had 11 brothers in the dream that bowed down to him. Then he had a second dream, and we are told that the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed down to him. That is a total of 13. So there were two dreams, one is emphasizing the number “11” and the second is emphasizing the number “13.” And at both points, they are bowing down to Joseph, a great type of Christ. What could be the significance?
It just so happens that the Lord has revealed the biblical calendar of history, and we know the creation date was 11013 B. C., and from creation to the point when the Lord Jesus was born into the world in 7 B. C. was 11,006 years, or 11,000 years, plus a “tribulation number” that was likely 2,300 days. Then Christ entered the world the first time.
And we also know that Christ has come the second time already. We are looking for the “completion” of His coming, not the beginning of it, because He came when He came as Judge of the churches in 1988, the 13,000th year of earth’s history, and He carried out that judgment for a total of 23 years of the Great Tribulation. And now He is judging the world, but it is still related to the fulness of the number “13,000,” just as when Christ went to the cross in 33 A. D., which was 11,046 calendar years from creation, and in the year 2033 A. D. (which biblical evidence suggests will complete His coming and be the year of the end of the world), it would be 13,046 calendar years from creation.
You see, in many places in the Bible there is an emphasis on two main dates or two main numbers, the number “11” and the number “13.” The number “11” has to do with the first coming of Christ, and Joseph was the 11th son born, and he would also die at age 110, which is “10 x 11,” so that was a strong emphasis in his life. There was also a strong emphasis on the number “13,” so the second major time that is emphasized is 13,000 years. It was 11,000 years for the first coming of Christ, and 13,000 years for the second coming of Christ. And from everything we can tell, there is a pattern involved where Jesus’ ministry began in a Jubilee Year of 7 B. C. and would complete in 33 A. D., which was 40 calendar years or 39 actual years. And then from 1994, which was the year of official judgment on the churches, until 2033 is 40 inclusive years and 39 calendar years. And, actually, those dates are exactly 2,000 years apart, with 7 B. C. to 1994 A. D. being exactly 2,000 years; and 33 A. D. to 2033 A.D. being exactly 2,000 years. It is a mirror image, only separated by exactly 2,000 years, just as we see here in Genesis 37. First, 11 brethren bow down, and then the sun, moon, and 11 brethren bow down, for a total of 13.
So I do not think we are making too much of Jacob’s dream concerning the cattle by saying it is a figure of God saving His elect, since the Lord refers to “men” as “flocks,” and it is just further confirmation, especially as the Lord uses the word “delivered.” “Thus God hath delivered the cattle of your father, and given them to me.