Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #5 of Genesis 31, and we will read Genesis 31:10-16:

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. I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred. And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house? Are we not counted of him strangers? for he hath sold us, and hath quite devoured also our money. For all the riches which God hath taken from our father, that is ours, and our children's: now then, whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do.

I will stop reading there.  Jacob has called Leah and Rachel, and he explained the situation to him regarding Laban’s countenance being changed toward him, and he fears what might happen.  And Rachel and Leah understood and were willing to go with him and leave their father’s house and the land of Haran, and go to the land of Canaan with Jacob.

We have been looking at the spiritual meaning, and we have seen that Laban is a type of Satan, and Jacob is a picture of Christ, as well as the elect.  It is a dual picture.  We find here that Jacob explains to his wives that God has come to him in a dream and given him insight into what to do regarding the deal he made with his father-in-law Laban.  That is, God told him which cattle to select, and this really led to Jacob obtaining a great multitude of cattle.  So we can see the spiritual picture that relates to the time of the end when God also revealed hidden and mysterious things (to His people). 

Revealing a dream was a mysterious thing to Jacob, revealing things to come in his dealings with Laban, identifying certain characteristics that Jacob applied in his deal with his father-in-law.  And this fits in with God revealing the secret things and mysteries of God in the Scriptures that were sealed until the time of the end.  Then when the time of the end arrived, God opened up these things to the understanding of His people, and it certainly led to the obtaining of that great multitude saved out of Great Tribulation that became the flock of Christ.  They were taken from the control of Satan and taken by the Lord Jesus, and that is the picture we see here.

So it says in Genesis 31:11-12:

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.

If you have been following along, you may remember earlier that we were seeing the similarity between Laban and Pharaoh, and the affliction of the Israelites in Egypt and Jacob’s affliction, and the great deliverance out of Egypt and the deliverance of these cattle from under Laban.  It finally led us to a clear spiritual picture of Laban as a type of Satan, as does this statement in the last part of verse 12: “…for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.”  If we turn over to Exodus 3, we read in Exodus 3:7:

And JEHOVAH said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;

God saw the affliction of His people, just as He did in Genesis 31:12: “…for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee.”  And it led to God coming to help to get the cattle out of the land of Haran and back to the Promised Land.

It goes on to say in Genesis 31:13:

I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.

The Lord said that He is the God of Bethel where Jacob anointed the pillar and vowed a vow unto Him.  We can read that vow if we go back to Genesis 28:20-22:

And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall JEHOVAH be my God: And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

So this was the vow referred to in verse 13 where God spoke to Jacob and said, “I am the God of Bethel,” and that was the location where Jacob had another interesting dream and encounter with God.  So the Lord reminded him that it was where he anointed the pillar and vowed a vow unto Him, and that vow had everything to do with God’s whole salvation program, as it spoke of him going to Haran and giving him bread to eat and raiment to put on, and then of returning again (to Canaan).  So it is interesting that God brought this up again at the end of Jacob’s 40-year stay when it was time for him to go back home.  Then the Lord commanded that very thing: “…now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.”

You know, this command to get out from that land and return to the land of his kindred is really fairly common in the Bible when we look at the Lord commanding Moses to go back to Egypt and bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.  We can find this in other areas, too.  It is also part of God’s salvation program.  That is, remember when God ended the church age and what He commanded?  He commanded His people to come out of the churches.  We find that in Luke 21:20-22:

And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

God commanded His people to come out of the churches.  What is interesting is that we can see sort of an overview of God’s salvation program, as far as His program of “times and seasons,” the periods of rain, followed by famines.  And we see something curious.  We find that over the course of the church age from 33 A. D. to 1988 A. D. was when the rain fell, and God saved the firstfruits.  The Lord refers in Revelation 14 to all those saved during the period of “early rain,” the rain that fell over the 1,955 years of the church age that produced the firstfruits.  And remember that the church age completely identifies with Pentecost because that is when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Day of Pentecost (in 33 A. D.) and 3,000 became saved, and that rain continued to fall until May 21, 1988, the day before Pentecost, because Pentecost would have renewed the commission to the churches.  It says in Revelation 14:1-4:

And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

The 144,000 are called the firstfruits.  Then we see in Revelation 7 where God is commanding those to be sealed in their foreheads, and it says in Revelation 7:4:

And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

Then we read of 12 tribes, with 12,000 from each tribe, and “12 x 12,000” equals 144,000.  Then we read this statement in Revelation 7:9:

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude…

So that distinguishes and sets apart the two seasons of rain or the two harvests of fruit.  The early rain brought in the firstfruits, and then there was the Latter Rain…and the Bible does speak of these two seasons of rain.  The Latter Rain brought in the final harvest of ingathering.  There were two main rains, and two harvests.

If we lay this out, we find that the rain fell over the church age, and as the rain fell, God brought forth the fruit, the “144,000.”  That number is a figurative number.  It is not a literal number.  There were probably a handful of millions saved over the course of the charge age, perhaps 10 or 15 million.  We do not know exactly, but it was relatively few, given the length of time involved and the widespread nature of the churches.  But it was still a fairly sizable number that were saved, and they were all saved within the timeframe of the church age.  On May 21, 1988, the church age ended, and never again was there another person saved within the churches.  The Holy Spirit departed out of the midst on May 21, 1988, and the spirit of Satan entered in, and then there was that grievous famine of 2,300 evening mornings leading to September 7, 1994, a Jubilee Year and the beginning of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit during the Latter Rain.  But that was only outside the churches.   None of the Latter Rain fell within the churches. 

What I am trying to say is that the rain fell, and the fruit grew during the church age, but it was not until the end of the church age during that second part of the Great Tribulation that the Lord Jesus came to get the fruit.  You know, there is a Scripture in 1Corinthians 15 that really is informative.  We read in 1Corinthians 15:23-24:

But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God…

So Christ was the firstfruits, and what that means is that He is the first of the firstfruits.  He was the “wave offering.”  There was a period of fruit that produced the Lord Jesus, and then “afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.”  When we study the coming of Christ (and we have), we find it is two-fold.  He first came as the Judge of the churches.  Judgment began at the house of God.  And then on May 21, 2011, He came as Judge of the world.  The judgment that had begun exclusively on the corporate church was expanded to include all the inhabitants of the world or all the nations.  So we would expect when it says, “afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming,” it refers to everyone that would be saved, and yet, it does not really spell out the two distinct periods of time, but it is only when we look up Christ’s coming…and we will not get into that right now, but you can look at Revelation 2:16 where the Lord warned the churches that He would come quickly.  You can also look at Revelation 2:5.  And the same warning was given to the world in Revelation 22:10-12.  He said, “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me…” 

So Christ came as Judge on the churches, and He came as Judge on the world – two different times, with two spiritual judgments, and two tribulations, and so forth.  He also came as a “thief in the night,” as Revelation 3:3 refers to Christ coming as a thief on the churches.  And, of course we know that on May 21, 2011 He came as a thief on the world.

So when it says, “at his coming,” it is referring to two distinct periods of time: “…afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.”  In other words, Christ came as Judge while simultaneously gathering the fruit.  Christ did not come to get the fruit while the rain was still falling during the time of the church age.  The fruit was still growing; there was still salvation taking place.  But He came to gather the fruit after the rain had stopped and the fruit was no longer increasing.  All those that were to be saved were saved within the churches and congregations.

Then after the church age in the time of the church’s judgment during the time of the Great Tribulation, He opened the Scriptures to reveal the command to depart out of the midst and flee to the mountains.  And through that command and the obedient action of hearkening to that command, we see the method by which He gathered the firstfruits unto God.  And those that did not come out were bundled as tares for the burning.  They were not His fruit. So that is the way God worked it out, as far as the firstfruits of the early rain.  He actually gathered them in the time of the church’s judgment. 

Now I hope you can see where this is leading, because the reference to “at his coming” also has the judgment of the world in view, and Christ came to judge the world on May 21, 2011.  He did not come to gather His fruit during the Latter Rain period from September 7, 1994 through May 21, 2011, or about 17 years.  That is when the rain was falling, and the fruit was growing.  The salvation of the great multitude was taking place, and that is not the time to gather the fruit.  The fruit is gathered afterwards, as it says: “But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.”

The Lord Jesus came as Judge and King of the earth on that date of May 21, 2011, and what do we find?  If we go to Revelation 18, we find another similar command to the command to depart out of the churches.  Only this time, it is not referring to the churches, but to the world.  It says in Revelation 18:4:

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

He commanded, “Come out of her,” just as He had commanded the firstfruits to come out of the midst (of the churches), and He then gathered them to Himself.  And there is another command in the Day of Judgment at the time of His coming, and that command is to come out of the world.  How can we do that?  Yes – we could come out of the churches because the churches were a place, and we simply renounced our membership and we left, and we worshipped God out in the world.  But you cannot come out of the world unless you die.  In 2Corinthians 6, the Lord helps us by defining what He means by “coming out of Babylon.”  It says in 2Corinthians 6:17:

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

This could not be done literally as we literally left the churches.  It has to do more with what is going on in our hearts in our personal lives.  The Lord is commanding us to come out of the world, “and by ye separate…and touch not the unclean thing.”  Concerning Babylon, remember what it said in Revelation 18:2:

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

Again, “…touch not the unclean thing.”  Come out of the world by detaching yourself from the world’s institutions and from all the various associations you may have with it.  Yes – we still have to live in the world and work in the world, so there are some things we cannot leave.  But we certainly can leave the world’s entertainment industry.  We can leave the world’s sports institutions.  We can leave the political system, as far as becoming attached and involved.  We can still carry out our duty as a citizen to vote (or not), but we come out of the world’s music, and all the things of the world that try to enter into our lives and tangle about us.  Judgment Day is the day to come out of those things and to go to the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is the time of His coming and the gathering of His fruit, and that is why we have been learning about God’s delayed drawing process, with the many Scriptures that indicate the people of God will come to Him.  Coming to God, or coming to Christ, is the same thing as coming to the Word, and committing oneself to the Word, and cleaving to the Word of God.  That is what is in view.

We have run out of time in this study.  Lord willing, next time we will continue with this idea of God’s command to Jacob to come out of Haran and return to the Promised Land.