Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #20 of Genesis 31, and we are going to read Genesis 31:37-42:

Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff, what hast thou found of all thy household stuff? set it here before my brethren and thy brethren, that they may judge betwixt us both. This twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy she goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night. Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes. Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle: and thou hast changed my wages ten times. Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.

We will stop reading there.  In our last study, we talked about the spiritual picture that is in view with this historical parable as Laban performed a diligent search of all Jacob’s stuff, which is what Jacob said in Genesis 31:29:

Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff, what hast thou found of all thy household stuff?

As we know from what we looked at in our last study, Laban is a type of Satan, and Jacob is a type of Christ, and the wives and children and cattle of Jacob point to all those saved in God’s salvation program (at least in this particular picture).  And Satan, as typified by Laban, was searching to find some fault.  He knows there has been sin or transgression because his images were missing, and someone there must be guilty.

We talked about how Satan and those aligned with him will perform diligent searches to find iniquity in the people of God, but they can find nothing.  And that was Jacob’s point: “Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff, what hast thou found of all thy household stuff? set it here before my brethren and thy brethren, that they may judge betwixt us both.”  Satan could not find the sin.  Again, we looked into that aspect of things concerning each individual child of God.  There is no sin upon us.  All sin has been paid for, and the Bible says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”  Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?  Who can accuse God’s elect of sin? 

But Satan is “the accuser,” so he was accusing, as he had already accused Jacob, “Wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?”  He had accused and searched to find the proof.  And yet, that is where he failed.  He cannot find the evidence.  He cannot find the evidence to show the transgression or the breaking of the Law by stealing his gods.

So we looked at this from the perspective of the individual child of God, but there is also another way of looking at the deeper spiritual meaning of this parable.  As we have already understood, Jacob is a type of Christ, and he is saying, “You have searched all my stuff,” and this had to do, historically, with all the tents and everything that was in the camp of Jacob.  Laban had searched all his stuff, and the word “stuff” is a key word.  That is why in the second part of the verse, Jacob said, “What hast thou found of all thy household stuff?”  That is, Jacob is saying, “You have searched all my stuff, and it belongs to me.  But if you have found anything that belongs to you, put it here before us.”  This is very important language that identifies with God’s salvation program, and it especially identifies with the time of the end when the Lord Jesus Christ would complete His salvation program by saving everyone that was to be saved, and they have entered into the kingdom of God, or into the “camp of Jacob,” the city of God, New Jerusalem.  And because God was operating outside of the churches and saving people among the nations during that little season of the second part of the Great Tribulation (where the Latter rain was falling), He was only bringing truly saved people into the kingdom of God. 

It was not like the time of the church age when both the saved and the unsaved entered in, and the wheat and the tares grew together.  God made sure He was only finding people that were the “lost sheep of the house of Israel,” the “true Jews” whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. 

And that is the reason for this language.  Satan is aware that his house has been robbed and his “stuff” has been stolen. He wanted to find it, and he knew full well it was there.  And the spiritual picture is that of Christ ransacking the strong man’s stuff to spoil his house, and we will actually prove that as we follow this word translated as “stuff.”

In the Old Testament, this word is Strong’s #3627, and it is found 325 times in the Old Testament, and 166 of those times, it is translated as “vessels.”  Let us go to 2Kings 4:3-6:

Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.

Now this is really a parable, and the vessels are pointing to people.  We could show that the pouring out of oil is the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, filling “empty vessels.”  That is actually describing God’s salvation.  We are empty and void.  We are vain creatures until God saves us and the Holy Spirit enters into us.

We also read the word “vessel” in Psalm 2:8-9:

Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

Here, it is referring to the Lord Jesus and how He will destroy the wicked, and He will destroy them like they were marred vessels of the potter.  They are vessels of dishonour, and we will look at a verse that tells us that.

Still following this word in the Old Testament, let us go to Jeremiah 18:1-6:

The word which came to Jeremiah from JEHOVAH, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of JEHOVAH came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith JEHOVAH. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

Here we see a clear reference to the pottery being like the house of Israel, and God can do with it as He pleases.  Of course the potter is the creator that made the vessel, and the first vessel was marred, so he made another vessel.  And this is what is in view when we read Romans 9:18-24:

Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

This is a beautiful illustration of God’s magnificent salvation program, and He likens it to what a potter does with the clay, making one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour, as we saw in Jeremiah 18, where the first (vessel) was marred, so he made another.  And here, explanation is given.  The one made to “dishonour” are the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction.  And the other is made unto “honour” and is not marred and is called “a vessel of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory.”  God had chosen a people for Himself and He had determined to have mercy upon them and, therefore, they are “vessels unto honour.”  The others are the rest of the people of the world who were not predestinated and whose sins were not laid upon the Lord Jesus at the foundation of the world.  They are “vessels of dishonour” and their sins are upon them, which mars them.  Ultimately, they must be destroyed as Psalm 2 revealed.  The Lord Jesus with a “rod of iron” will break the vessels and destroy them, and that is what is happening now as we go through this present Judgment Day period.

Because this is really pulling from Jeremiah 18 concerning the potter and his vessel, we have an equivalent word in the New Testament.  The word in Jeremiah 18 is the same word, if you remember, that was translated as “stuff” in Genesis 31:29, where Jacob said, “Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff?”  And then he asked, “What hast thou found of all thy household stuff?”  Where are your vessels?  That is really what the discussion is about.  Jacob is saying that all the stuff or vessels belong to him, and Laban (Satan) is accusing that there are vessels among Jacob’s possessions that belong to him. 

So we have imagery of two types of vessels – one to honour, and one to dishonour.  And we can assign the vessel of honour as the “vessel of mercy” that belongs to Christ.  It is His “stuff” or His “vessel,” while the other, the marred vessel, belongs to Satan.  Satan had deceived mankind and caused them to serve him for thousands of years, so this is why Satan is making the claim.  They were the peoples of the nations that dwelt in his kingdom of darkness, so the charge of Satan is, “Of your stuff, some belong to me.”  And the only way that is possible is if some were not truly saved, but God has taken care of that, as we mentioned earlier, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit outside of the churches.  So there was no outward organization or representation of God’s kingdom on earth where people would gather – there was no official place in all the world. (God did allow “fellowships,” but they are not designated by Him as places that His people should go.)  There was no earthly (corporate) place, so Satan could not have his emissaries infiltrate and sow tares there and, therefore, his “stuff” or “vessels” cannot be found when any diligent search is performed by him.  No sin can be found among God’s elect, and no “Canaanite” can be found in the land of JEHOVAH, which is the language of Zechariah 14.  That is, no unsaved person can be found in the “net” that brought forth the great multitude of fish, representing the great multitude that came out of Great Tribulation, because that “net” identifies with the heavenly kingdom of New Jerusalem, and nothing of this earth.

Just to show that this word in Romans 9 is the equivalent word to the Hebrew word that is translated as “stuff” in Genesis 31 and as “vessels” in the other verses we went to, this Greek word, Strong’s #4632, is also translated as “stuff,” if we go to Luke 17:29-32:

But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot's wife.

The word “stuff” is the same word translated as “vessel” in Romans 9.  We can understand what is being said in verse 31.  It is a verse that identifies with God’s command to come out of the churches, and not to go into the “house,” and the house identifies with the house of God, the corporate church.  And it says, “In that day,” which is Judgment Day, and then it says, “he which shall be upon the housetop…”  And if we were to follow that word “housetop,” it is a place where prayer is made and where preaching is done (proclaim from the housetops), and other things involved with intense spiritual activity.  The “housetop” would carry that kind of meaning, so God is indicating, “Yes, continue with intense spiritual activity, like praying and proclaiming the word.” 

It says, “...he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff (vessel) in the house.”  God speaks of the wife as the “weaker vessel” in a couple of places, and this could identify with a man who has come out of the churches because he understands about the end of the church age and God’s command to depart out.  And yet, his wife does not understand, and she remains in the church, and maybe his children too.  So his vessel or stuff is still “in the house,” and God says, “…let him not come down to take it away.”  That is, do not go back into the churches for any reason whatsoever.  He is not to return to church for his wife’s sake, his children’s sake, or for anybody’s sake.  He could have prayed and beseeched the Lord to have mercy and bring them out.  Of course we are talking about the time period of the Great Tribulation when the churches were the object of the wrath of God, and when there was still hope that people would come out.  But we are beyond that at this point, as we are in Judgment Day on the whole world.

Anyway, this verse shows that in the Greek “vessel” and “stuff” are the equivalent word to the Hebrew word that was translated as “vessel” and “stuff,” as well as in some other ways.  Now this word is also translated some other ways in the Greek, and this is where it gets interesting.  We read in Matthew 12, where the earlier context had to do with Satan’s divided house and divided income, and it says in Matthew 12:29:

Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.

The word “goods” is the same Greek word that is translated as “vessel” and “stuff.”  And the “strong man” is Satan.  So let me read it again, as we consider what is going on back in Genesis 31 with Laban and his household stuff, in Genesis 31:37:

Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff, what hast thou found of all thy household stuff?

And in Matthew 12, we are reading about the strong man’s house, in Matthew 12:29: “Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods (stuff or vessels), except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house.”

We have it stated here, and we also have it in Mark 3:27:

No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.

We are seeing a lot of confirmation as we go along in Genesis 31 regarding Laban as a type of Satan.  You know, it was a struggle going through these chapters of Genesis 29, 30 and 31, where Laban comes to the forefront.  It was really a struggle until we saw who he represents, and now it is just “filling out” as things fall into place in verse, after verse, after verse.

So too, as we go back to Genesis 31:37:

Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff, what hast thou found of all thy household stuff?

That is what Laban is looking for.  It belongs to him.  It came out of his house.  Keep in mind what we learned about this 40-year period, and now this is the end of the 40-year period and the time that Jacob is basically spoiling the house of Laban through the blessing of God, and he has taken a great deal of riches and wealth from his father-in-law.  He has taken his daughters and his grandchildren and a great multitude of cattle, and Laban’s house has been ransacked.

But the last thing that Laban can make an accusation about is the images, if he could find the images amongst the stuff.  And remember how we spent some time looking at how the images have to do with the “image of the beast.”  And God said in Revelation 13 that every unsaved person in the world would have “the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”  It all identifies with Satan and being unsaved, and with being owned by Satan and belonging to him.  It is his “stuff” or “vessels.”

On the other hand, when God saved His people, He saved those He had chosen before the world was, and whose sins He had paid for at the foundation of the world.  So they belong to Him.  They were the Lord Jesus Christ’s even before the world began and before Satan had deceived mankind into sin.  The elect belonged to Christ before that time and after, so Satan has no claim on them, but he still seeks to find something that has to do with the image.  He wants to find some aspect of the image of the beast so that he can make a claim, but he cannot.