Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #17 of Genesis 31, and we will be reading Genesis 31:29-35:

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. And now, though thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after thy father's house, yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods? And Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid: for I said, Peradventure thou wouldest take by force thy daughters from me. With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him not live: before our brethren discern thou what is thine with me, and take it to thee. For Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them. And Laban went into Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, and into the two maidservants' tents; but he found them not. Then went he out of Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent. Now Rachel had taken the images, and put them in the camel's furniture, and sat upon them. And Laban searched all the tent, but found them not. And she said to her father, Let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up before thee; for the custom of women is upon me. And he searched, but found not the images.

I will stop reading there.  This account is continuing to be a very interesting historical parable that God has given us concerning Jacob’s flight from Haran with his wives, his children, and the cattle he had gotten in the land of Haran. 

Here in verse 29, Laban is speaking with his son-in-law Jacob after he had pursued him and caught up with him in the mount, and Laban told him, “…but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.”  We went into some detail in discussing this, but remember that it was a wise thing to tell Laban not to speak either good or bad, because Laban could not only threaten, but he could have flattered Jacob using smooth and kind words to entice him to work longer for him.  So God told him to speak neither good nor bad.

We also saw that as Laban is a type of Satan, and Satan was the ruler and god of this world.  And in other places in the Bible, God mocks idols (gods) as unable to do “good or bad” because they have no life, no power, and no might.  They cannot do good to the people that worship them, nor can they do bad to the people that fail to worship them, so they are nothing, really.  So that is a spiritual point that God is making regarding the fact that Satan has no power or ability to do anything to the elect of God.  God watches over His people, as typified by Jacob and his family.  He protects them and keeps them safe, and Satan and his forces can do no harm.

Then Laban brings up these gods in Genesis 31:30:

… wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?

This is referring to the images that were taken.  We read about that in Genesis 31:19:

And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father's.

The word “images” is the word “teraphim,” and in case there is any doubt, the Lord clears it up by having Laban refer to them as his gods.  They were idols.  They were religious items that he observed to be a god.  It does not matter how devout someone is in his idolatry.  The fact that they go down that particular path is enough – it is grievous and terrible sin.  And Laban and his house were involved with idol worship, and it seems that Rachel was influenced by this in her upbringing.  And when she was about to flee, she remembered her attachment to these teraphim or images (false gods), like people today might say that some object brings them luck or are a good omen.  Whatever her reason, she did wickedly by stealing this image, especially by stealing an image that was an idol and false god.

It also brought some evil report on Jacob.  Laban is no fool.  Jacob and his family fled, and at the very same time, Laban’s gods came up missing.  It is not that hard to put two and two together and figure out that Jacob or one of his wives – perhaps even one of his own daughters – took them.  So Laban is feeling pretty confident that the images are in the camp, so he started with Jacob’s tent.  Then he went into Leah’s tent, and into the two maidservants’ tents, and, finally, into Rachel’s tent. 

It is interesting that he went into Rachel’s tent last.  My guess is that Laban, knowing his children, suspected Rachel.  Maybe they had conversations in the past about the importance or significance of these teraphim and how they (supposedly) brought blessing to his house.  We do not know, so this is pure speculation.  But we do know that Laban was Rachel’s father, and he would have known her pretty well, so he probably suspected her and saved it for last.  That is my guess.  Why would he go into the maidservants’ tents before Rachel’s tent?  He went into Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s tent, who was his oldest daughter, so we would think he would go into Rachel’s tent next, but he did not.  But whether he suspected her, or not, he went into her tent, and Rachel was the thief.  We read in Genesis 31:33:

And Laban went into Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, and into the two maidservants' tents; but he found them not. Then went he out of Leah's tent, and entered into Rachel's tent.

I am sorry – I just noticed in the last half of verse 33 that it indicates that he went out of Leah’s tent and entered into Rachel’s tent.  So why does the first part of the verse indicate the order of Jacob, Leah, and the two maidservants, but then it says he went out of Leah’s tent, and into Rachel’s tent?  I am not sure of that wording.  It could be that he went back to Leah’s tent, and then on to Rachel’s.  That is odd wording.  Then it says in Genesis 31:34-35:

Now Rachel had taken the images, and put them in the camel's furniture, and sat upon them. And Laban searched all the tent, but found them not. And she said to her father, Let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up before thee; for the custom of women is upon me. And he searched, but found not the images.

He went into Rachel’s tent, and Rachel was seated upon the camel’s furniture.  She had taken the images and put them in the camel’s furniture, and then sat upon them as Laban entered in.    She gave the excuse that it was her menstrual period.  It was “that time of the month,” and her menstrual period was upon her, and Laban accepted that excuse.  He looked everywhere else, and he apparently did not think they would be under the camel’s furniture where Rachel was seated.

What is camel furniture?  We know that in the Old Testament time period when this was happening, it was right around 1907 B. C., which was a long, long time ago, over 3,900 years from our present time.  When the people of that day were traveling, they would set up tents, so they did not have couches and chairs like we have in our homes.  But what they did have their saddles.  They rode on camels, not horses.  We read in Genesis 31:17:

Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon camels;

He set Rachel on a camel, and I would think that you would not ride bareback on a camel.  You would have some sort of saddle.  Then when they set up camp and put up their tents, they would take the saddle off the camel and put it inside their tents, and it would serve as a nice seat.  It was more comfortable than anything else, and it was probably as close to a chair as anything they had.  So from what we can gather, that would be the “camel’s furniture” that is being referred to, and it would explain why Rachel was seated upon it.  She was seated upon the camel’s furniture because it was a comfortable seat, just as when she was riding a camel.

And the images would have been under the “shape” of the saddle where it would fit the contour of the camel’s back.  It may have had a little shape to it, so she could put something underneath it, and she sat upon it during this visit from her father Laban.

So I think we see this historical picture.  Laban went around the tent, and there would not be too much to search.  There were maybe some cases or trunks of clothing and some household items, like plates or dishes, and things that were important to Rachel.  He went through whatever he could, and he allowed her to remain seated upon the camel’s furniture.

A couple of weeks ago during an EBible Open Forum, a listener commented and brought up this verse where Rachel was seated on the camel’s furniture, and he wanted to compare that to a verse in Revelation 15, so we are going to do that.  We will look at a verse that an EBible listener brought up, in Revelation 15:2:

And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.

The listener was comparing verse to Genesis 31:34 where Rachel was seated on the camel’s furniture over the image.  She was seated over the image.  Again, let me point out that what Rachel did was sin.  It was wrong, and it was against the commandments of God, and it is very possible that Rachel herself was never saved.  But who Rachel typifies is the elect of God.  She would eventually be credited with four out the 12 children, while her sister Leah would be credited with eight.  Leah bore six children, and two by her handmaid, and Rachel bore two children, and two by her handmaid.  So Rachel bore “one third” and Leah bore “two thirds.”  We have gone over this a few different times, but Rachel having “one third” of the children is typifying the elect, and there is also the fact that Jacob loved her.  That is why he worked to purchase a wife.  He kept sheep in order to obtain her as a wife, and the Bible tells us that Leah was hated.   So we have that same picture as when God tells us, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”  Here, Jacob is a type of Christ, and He loves one bride, Rachel, but the other is said to be hated.  Rachel is a type of God’s elect.  The spiritual circumstance is the time of the end in the Great Tribulation when a great multitude has been saved out of the nations the world, and they have come out of the Great Tribulation, which is spiritually in view as Jacob flees the land of Haran with this great multitude of cattle that were taken from the house of Laban.  All these riches being taken was the spoiling of Laban’s house, spiritually pointing to the spoiling of Satan’s house, which was completed on May 21, 2011 when the Latter Rain ended, and God had saved everyone that was to be saved. 

And then began Judgment Day.  Up until that time for the 23 years of the Great Tribulation, Satan was victorious.  Satan was triumphant over the churches, as well as over the world.  We find here in Revelation 15:2 that it refers to “…them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name.”  The Greek word translated as “gotten the victory” is Strong’s #3528, and it is most often translated as “overcome,” and it is used concerning Satan overcoming the churches, in Revelation 11:7:

And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

Also, it says of the beast in Revelation 13:7:

And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

Satan won for 23 years.  He was conquering and he had overcome the corporate church.  The outward representation of God’s kingdom on earth belonged to him, which is why we read in 2Thessalonians 2:3-4:

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

We have long understood that in the Bible…maybe not in every case, but in many cases…when we read of someone being seated or taking their seat, it indicates they are ruling.  And, here, the man of sin, Satan, desires to show himself that he is God, and “he as God sitteth in the temple of God.”  He sat to rule in the churches because they had been given over to him, and this was the time when the beast overtook the camp of the saints.

But in Revelation 15, we do not read that the beast, his mark, or the number of his name is overcoming.  Instead we read of “them” that had gotten the victory: “and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name…”  And this would be the time of May 21, 2011, and thereafter, the days after the Tribulation, which is our present time period wherein God’s elect are commissioned.  And Revelation 15 will move into discussing “seven angels” or seven messengers that are given the task of pouring out the seven last vials of the wrath of God, and the language has everything to do with Judgment Day.  And we know that it is God’s elect people that are the saints that will judge the world with Him, and we also judge the angels.  That is what it says in 1Corinthians 6:2-3:

Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

So the saints are the “holy ones,” made holy by having their sins washed away through the fires of death or hell that Christ experienced on their behalf.  They are now made holy, and they are saints of God that are judging the world with God as God takes His seat upon His judgment throne, ruling the nations with a rod of iron and executing “the judgment written,” because the Word will judge in in the last day.  Since it is already written, God reveals the judgment written to the understanding of His people, who then declare it.  And in declaring it, they are accomplishing the purpose of judging the world while simultaneously feeding the sheep.  They are pouring out the seven last vials full of the wrath of God, as Revelation 15 and 16 describe, and they are ruling with Christ over the beast, the image of the beast, the mark of the beast, and the number of his name, which would be “666,” the representation of “two thirds.”  (Again, the “one third” typify the elect, and the “two thirds” represent mankind,  the unsaved inhabitants of the world.)  The elect are ruling with Christ.  Christ rules us, and therefore, we rule over them in the Day of Judgment, which began on May 21, 2011, and which will continue, according to biblical evidence, to some yet unspecified date in the year 2033.  This is the prolonged Judgment Day period wherein the saints of God are ruling.

And what is the figure that the Bible uses to represent “ruling”?  It is to take one’s seat.  And if we go back to Genesis 31, we find it says in Genesis 31:34:

Now Rachel had taken the images, and put them in the camel's furniture, and sat upon them. And Laban searched all the tent, but found them not.

She was seated over these teraphim or images.  Spiritually, everything lines up and fits with what happened when we entered into Judgment Day.  Satan is no longer ruling, and we have understood that.  God has revealed that Satan has been deposed and put down from all rule.  Dominion has been taken away from him from ruling the nations, as well as from ruling the corporate church.  Christ is now ruling.  As it were, the twelve tribes of Israel are ruling along with Him – His elect people are carrying out the task that He has assigned for us to do.  Therefore, we have the victory.  We have overcome the beast and the image of the beast, and the mark of the beast, which is placed on the forehead, figuratively, and it has to do with the soul condition.  When God saves His people, He also uses the figure of the Father’s name being written on our foreheads, and the forehead is where the mind is, and in the Bible, the heart, mind, and soul are synonymous.  So the elect have the Father’s name in their foreheads, but the unsaved have the “mark of the beast,” which indicates they are unsaved.  Through salvation, the elect have overcome the mark of the beast, and overcome the number of his name, which is “666” or “two thirds.”  The unsaved inhabitants of the world are under the wrath of God, and they are in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ.  It is the time in which “every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”  And the elect of God are with Christ, so in that sense we are seated over the beast and everything that has to do with the beast, including the “image.”  And that is what this spiritually represents.