Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #16 of Genesis 31, and we will be reading Genesis 31:26-29:

And Laban said to Jacob, What hast thou done, that thou hast stolen away unawares to me, and carried away my daughters, as captives taken with the sword? Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harp? And hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters? thou hast now done foolishly in so doing. It is in the power of my hand to do you hurt: but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.

I will stop reading there.  We are continuing in this account as God has revealed it on the pages of the Bible.  It must be important therefore, and it must also have to do with the Gospel.  By God’s grace, we have seen the Gospel meaning stand out, again, and again.  I think we will also see it in these verses.

I have to admit that before I studied these chapters carefully…you know, when you do a Bible study, you have to look at each word in each  verse, and then God starts to reveal things, and you start to see the spiritual picture that you never saw before.  I do not know how many times I have read Genesis 31 and its account of Laban and of Jacob fleeing back to Canaan, but it was numerous times in my life, but I never understood the spiritual meaning in many of these verses.  Typically, when I read the book of Genesis, I would almost want to “fast forward” and look at the account of Joseph, or go back to the account of Abraham, and focus on things that are pretty exciting in this book and things that seemed more clear.  And maybe that was a big reason I would want to do that, because I would read parts like this and come away with very little understanding.  And that is why it is a blessing to slow down and do a careful Bible study, verse by verse, especially in passages we have never understood before.

Here, we know the characters in the spiritual setting.  Jacob is a type of Christ.  His brides are a picture of the elect, and at times a type of the corporate church.  The cattle are a type of the great multitude saved out of the Great Tribulation.  Jacob’s father-in-law Laban is a type of Satan, and Laban’s brethren are a type of Satan’s emissaries.  We see all these various characters and the roles that God has assigned in this historical parable, and as we see them clearly, it is a big help in understanding what God is saying (spiritually).

So, here, it is the time when Laban overtook Jacob, and we saw in our last study that Satan overtook and then overcame the corporate church.  We looked at a verse in Lamentations that said that, and we looked at another Old Testament Scripture, as well as some Scriptures in the New Testament in the book of Revelation.  It was not the same word, but it carried the same idea in that the camp of the saints, the corporate church, was overcome by Satan, just as Laban overtook Jacob.  But there is a difference here because God is with Jacob, but God was not with the corporate church, which means that when Satan overtook the churches, they had no recourse and they had no help, so Satan ruled and had his way.  But when Satan tries to do this very thing with the elect children of God, God is with them, and Satan does not get his way, but he is driven back. 

We can see the same thing with the account of the Assyrian assault against Jerusalem and Judah under King Hezekiah.  The Assyrians had been mighty conquerors that had conquered many lands, even the land of Samaria or Israel in the North, which typified Satan’s assault against the corporate church as he rose to great heights during the Great Tribulation period in both the churches and the world.  So he was extremely proud and arrogant.  And this king of Assyria came against the city of Jerusalem during the reign of King Hezekiah, and Hezekiah’s rule typified the city of the elect, and, really, New Jerusalem.  So this king of Assyria sent his captain and boasted of all his conquests, but God fought for the city of Jerusalem and Hezekiah, and He smote them.  In one night, 185,000 were slain. 

And that is the same idea here as Laban, a type of Satan, is pursuing Jacob.  He is persecuting him, which is what that word means.  But he caught up with Jacob and he overtook him.  Now if God had given Jacob up as He did the corporate church, the outward representation of God’s kingdom on earth, then Laban would have dominated and done whatever he pleased, including hurting Jacob.  But in this case, God had warned Laban not to speak either good or bad. 

So Laban said to Jacob, in Genesis 31:26

What hast thou done, that thou hast stolen away unawares to me…

This is the same Hebrew language that we saw back in Genesis 31:20:

And Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian…

We spent a good deal of time looking at the word “stolen,” and we also understood that in the Hebrew, Laban was literally saying that Jacob stole his heart.  And, here, it is the same language: “What has thou done that you have stolen my heart and taken away my daughters as captives with the sword?”  Again, we have discussed what it means to have stolen Laban’s heart, or in the spiritual dimension, to have stolen Satan’s heart.  And there is the Bible verse that says, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also,” and that verse is key because the treasure has to do with those that Christ redeemed and saved out of the world, a world that was under the power and control of Satan throughout its history.  Therefore, the treasure in the “field” belonged to him, and yet, God bound the “strong man” and spoiled his house.  When you spoil a person’s house, you do not take things that lack value, but you take the valuables – the “gold, silver, precious stones,” the treasure.  That is why you would bind him, so that you can ransack, spoil, and plunder.  And this is what Christ did with the kingdom of Satan, and this is what it means to have stolen Satan’s heart – it is to take his treasure.  And this is what the Lord Jesus has done.

Then it continues to say, in Genesis 31:20:

… and carried away my daughters…

The words translated as “carried away” is the Hebrew word, Strong’s #5090, that we find in Isaiah 49:8-10:

Thus saith JEHOVAH, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.

The words translated as “lead them” is a translation of the word for “carried away.”  And that is the idea.  Jacob has carried away Laban’s daughters, as well as his cattle.  And it is a picture of the mercy of God in salvation.  And he also says, in Genesis 31:20:

… and carried away my daughters, as captives taken with the sword?

The word “captives” is the word we find in Psalm 68:18:

Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that JEHOVAH God might dwell among them.

The term “led captivity captive” is quoted in the New Testament, as we find in Ephesians 4:7-8:

But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

This has to do with God’s salvation passage and the fact that He saved sinners that were in captivity prior to being saved, which is why Egypt was called the “house of bondage” because the Israelites were captives in Egypt and serving Pharaoh.  Then the Lord came with Moses and delivered them, and they took the captives out of Egypt.  The idea of taking “captivity captive” comes in because after the Lord delivers sinners, they in turn become His servants, but it is a completely different level of servitude.  It is not hard bondage of serving cruel taskmasters, but it is servitude out of love that strives to please Him who has delivered us from terrible death and destruction.  He has pitied us and forgiven us of all our sins and iniquity, although we do not deserve His grace in any way.  So the spirit that God gives us is moved toward love for Him, and our love shows itself through keeping God’s commandment and serving the Lord because we serve God by doing His will, and His will is expressed through the commandments found in the Bible.  So captivity is taken captive.

This word “captive” is also seen in Isaiah 61:1:

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because JEHOVAH hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

And we see also see “the acceptable year” in Isaiah 61:2:

To proclaim the acceptable year of JEHOVAH, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

The Gospel proclamation was to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that were bound.  It is about setting the captives free, and taking captivity captive.  And we know that in Luke 4, Christ quoted this and added, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”  So it has everything to do with the Lord Jesus and the magnificent salvation program of God. 

Let us go back to Genesis 31:27:

Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harp?

He aside, “Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me?”  We have seen some of these words appear already in this chapter, and “flee” or “fled” is one of them, and it can relate to the time when Israel came out of Egypt, in Exodus 14:5:

And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?

The people fled, and it was told Pharaoh, just as Laban was told that Jacob had fled.  There are obvious differences.  Pharaoh had actually released them.  After the death of their firstborn, he was destroyed at that point, and he released them, but when the people actually left and it was told to him, it was like they had the realization: “What have we done?  We have ruined our economy.”  But it was all out of stubborn pride and a hard-hearted nature because it was in God’s mind to get Him honor upon Pharaoh.  So he did pursue Israel.  And, again, that is the same word as when Laban pursued Jacob.  It is a similar idea, but a different set of circumstances.  It is teaching the same spiritual truth that Satan pursues after, or persecutes, the people of God.

Here, Laban is saying to his son-in-law, “Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me?”  And the reason that he gives is this: “…  that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harp?”  He is saying, or at least implying, “If you would have told me you were leaving, I would have sent you away with celebration.  I would have made a feast and we would have rejoiced, and there would have been music and joy.  Instead, you stole away like a thief, and it is like you took my daughters captive with a sword.”  He tried to paint the ugliest picture he could paint.  

Now we do not know the truth (of what he would have done), and we will never know because it did not happen that way.  It is possible that after some wrangling and delaying…you know, he had done that years earlier with Rebekah when he hindered the servant of Abraham from taking the bride back to Isaac.  Maybe, eventually, Laban would have given some kind of a farewell party.

But we wonder what the spiritual meaning is, as we keep going along looking for the spiritual meaning.  The historical record is slightly interesting regarding this happening in history with the father-in-law catching up with Jacob and saying these things.  But what are we going to learn from that?  It is not going to teach us much, but the spiritual aspect is full of meaning. 

What do we see here if we look at this another way?  Laban was complaining that Jacob fled without the celebration, and that means that there was no mirth, no songs, no tabrets, and no harp.  Now I think we can start to get the spiritual picture.  Remember, this is picturing the end of God’s salvation program.  Salvation is completed with the salvation of the great multitude out of Great Tribulation.  After the last one to be saved had become saved, it meant no further evangelism of the earth.  No one else would ever become saved.  Therefore there would no longer be mirth or songs, as far as they relate to the Gospel proclamation.  There would be no “music” that proclaimed ongoing salvation with tabret and harp.

How can we make that link and tie that in with musical instruments?  Well, I do not do that, but the Bible does, and God speaks of prophesying upon the harp in 1Chronicles 25:3, and in numerous places He refers to musical instruments and ties them in with proclaiming the Gospel.

As far as “mirth,”  Laban said, “I might have sent thee away with mirth,” and this Hebrew word is translated much more often as “joy.”  It is a word that is translated 44 times as “joy,” and far less times as “mirth.”  And keep in mind what the Bible tells us about joy.  We read in Luke 15:7:

I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

Also, it says in Luke 15:10:

Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

It is the joy of salvation.  But if there is no salvation, there is “silence in heaven.”  The Bible says in Revelation 8:1: “And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.”   And, yes, we would have to say there was virtually no one being saved, due to the word translated as “silence,” which allows for some sound.  But overall, when there is no mirth and no joy, it spiritually indicates that no salvation is taking place, and no true repentance is taking place.

Isaiah 24 is a chapter that is relentless in describing the Day of Judgment in verse, after verse.  It says in Isaiah 24:4-12:

The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh. The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth. They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it. The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in. There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone. In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.

The mirth is gone.  The joy is darkened.  There is no more salvation occurring anywhere in the world because it is Judgment Day. 

The same language is used in Revelation 18, which is the chapter that declares Babylon’s fall, which typifies the kingdom of Satan of this world, and God says in Revelation 18:20-23:

Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

There is no more “music,” and music identifies with the Gospel as far as evangelization is concerned.  There is no more reason to beseech our fellow man to be reconciled to God.  There can be no more encouragement to them to go to God, so we cannot say, “Go to God, for He is a merciful God, and it is the day of salvation.”  We cannot say that because it is now the Day of Judgment, and we can only witness and share what the Bible permits us to do.  So there is no longer any mirth or sound of the harp or songs having to do with salvation, or of tabret and harp.  And this is why Jacob fled without this fanfare.  There is no celebration.  There is no mirth.  And just consider how God saved that great multitude.  Was there a tremendous celebration afterwards?  No – because we immediately entered into the Day of Judgment, and all joy across the face of the earth immediately ended.