Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #21 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 were looking at verse 37 last time, and we saw that the word “stuff” is used twice.  Jacob began by saying, “Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff,” and then he asked the question: “What hast thou found of all thy household stuff?”  We saw that the Hebrew word translated as “stuff” is also translated as “vessel,” like the potter’s vessel in Jeremiah 18.  Then we went to the New Testament because the New Testament picked up on that picture of pottery in the hand of the potter, and making a vessel that is marred, and making a vessel that is good.  I will read it again.  It says in Romans 9:21-23:

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 God’s salvation program, and it is describing the two types of people in the world.  We are all vessels of clay.  We are all creatures created by the hand of the Creator, and the unsaved are the “vessels unto dishonour,” because sin dishonors God.  The saved are “vessels unto honour” because God has paid for their sins, and cleansed them and purified them.  This is a description of the human race.  We are either vessels of honour or vessels of dishonour.

Again, we are following the trail of the word “stuff” from Genesis 31:37:

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.

Laban, a type of Satan, was accusing Jacob of having his household stuff among Jacob’s stuff.  We have to keep the spiritual picture in mind.  The “stuff” has to do with “vessels” and the vessels have to do either with God’s elect (the vessels unto honour) or those that are not God’s elect (the vessels unto dishonour).  Jacob’s “stuff” would be vessels of honour, as he is a type of Christ, and Laban’s “stuff” would be vessels of dishonour, as he is a type of Satan.  The stuff that would belong to him would be the unsaved inhabitants, and yet, when Laban performed this search, he cannot find his stuff.  He cannot find anything of his household stuff.

We also saw in Romans chapter 9 that the Greek word for “vessel” is the equivalent word to the Hebrew word used in Jeremiah 18, where the potter makes a vessel.  And that is how we can make tie-ins from a Hebrew word to a Greek word.  The word “vessel” in the Greek is equivalent, and it was also translated as “stuff” in Luke 17:31 where the man on the housetop is not to come down into the house to get his “stuff” in that day.  We discussed how that could refer to a wife or family in the churches, and how God did not give any allowance for going back into the churches in order to convince your wife or other family members to come out.  No – we were to stay on the housetop, and remain involved in intense spiritual activities outside of the house, which would mean out in the world, and not in the “house” (the churches). 

And we also saw that this same word that is used in Romans 9 as “vessel” and in Luke 17 as “stuff” is also used in Matthew 12, which is in the context of Satan’s house being divided, as it says in Matthew 12:25:

And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation…

By the way, please check out the Greek word translated as “brought to desolation.”  It is found fives times.  It is found twice in the context of a divided kingdom and a divided house, pointing to Satan being divided, and three times it has to do with Babylon.  And what does God say?  A kingdom divided cannot stand.  A house divided cannot stand.  In Revelation 18, this Greek word is found two times, and that chapter is emphasizing that Babylon has fallen.  The whole chapter is a long description of Babylon’s fall, and if you fall, you cannot stand, so this has everything to do with Judgment Day occurring on May 21, 2011 when Satan’s kingdom fell.  And Satan’s kingdom is typified by Babylon, and his kingdom fell on that date.

Again, it says in Matthew 12:25-26:

And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?

In this context, let us go down to 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.

We are very familiar with this verse.  We have heard for many years how Christ bound Satan at the cross, and he was bound for the figurative “thousand years,” as Revelation 20 declares, and his house was spoiled.  And we know that not long after the cross, on the Day of Pentecost, we read in Acts 2 that the Holy Spirit was poured out and three thousand became saved.  It was the spoiling of Satan’s house.

But we are living at a time when God is opening up a great deal of information in His Word, and it is very curious to us that in this context, Christ said, “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.”  We are currently doing a study having to do with the “binding and loosing of Satan,” and this is one of the reasons for that study.  Is it possible that since the kingdom of Satan falls in the Day of Judgment that the spoiling of his house has some relationship to that, meaning that Christ will spoil his house during the time of the final judgment of the world?  That is not to say that He has not spoiled it in other ways, and to various degrees, over the course of history, but will there be a final, climactic, and great spoiling of the house of Satan at the time of the end? 

We are continuing to look at that, and now we find that there is a link to the “vessels” or “stuff” in regard to Jacob as he has fled Haran after 40 years, after having spoiled Laban’s house because the cattle had been Laban’s.  Jacob was working for him and they entered into agreement, and Jacob obtained a great multitude of cattle.  And we have seen, and it has been proven by the spiritual pictures that have developed, making it clear that Laban is a type of Satan, and Jacob is a type of Christ.  This 40 years that Jacob served Laban neatly fits in with the last 40-year period of time in God’s timetable for this world, from 1994 to the year 2033, according to biblical evidence that points to those 40 inclusive years.  And there was a great multitude of people (vessels or stuff) that were taken out of the house of Satan because the house of Satan are the nations of this world, and these elect of God were out in the world as God sent forth the Latter Rain to save them during that about 17 years period from September 7, 1994 to May 21, 2011.  And even though they were saved by May 21, 2011, we are learning that God still has plans for them during these 22 actual or 23 inclusive years of judgment that has to do with “drawing” them to Himself, and the Bible indicates that they will come to Him.  In these last days there will be this movement of these elect that will be drawn and come to Christ.  Remember, it says in John 6:44:

No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

No man can come except God draw him, and the Bible says of that great multitude of fish, “Bring of the fish which ye have now caught.”  Then the fish were drawn to Christ, and that is language indicating a drawing process that would be underway after the great multitude of fish had been delivered, which would be after the Tribulation, which is when Judgment Day is taking place.

So here in Matthew 12:29, the word “goods” is the same word as “vessels” used in Romans 9, or the word “stuff” used in Luke 17.  Again, it says, “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.”  

We read the same thing in Mark 3:24-27:

And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end. 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.

So we see in both Matthew 12:29 and in Mark 3:27 that the word “spoil” is used twice.  In order to spoil his goods, the strong man has to be bound.   This word “spoil” is used only four times, twice in each of the two passages, and it is the only time it is used in the New Testament.  It is Strong’s #1283.  But it is also a word that is a compound word.  It has a preposition, the Greek word “dia,” Strong’s #1223, plus the Greek word “harpazō,” Strong’s #726, to make the word “diarpazō.”  The two words that make it up are #1223 and #726 in the Greek Concordance.  The word “dia” can be translated as “by,” as “through,” or as “with.”  The word “harpazō” is translated in some interesting ways.  Let us go to Matthew 11:12:

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

The word translated as “take it” is the word “harpazō.”

This word is used in Matthew 13:19:

When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

It is the word translated as “catcheth away.”  That is, Satan would come and take it, and it does carry the idea of being done through force.  It is a forceful action.  It is something that the individual had no part in.  It is a violent taking by force.  So when we look at Matthew 12:29, where it says, “Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods,” we can understand the word “spoil” (harpazō)  to be through force, or by taking it.  So that is the idea.  How can one enter into a strong man’s house and take his vessels by force, except he first bind the strong man, and then he will spoil his house?  This is a forceful, violent action against the “strong man,” who we understand to be Satan.  It is his house that was in view with this context, so there was a very powerful, forceful action taken against the Devil that bound him, and then his goods or vessels could be taken. 

This same word, “harpazō,” is used in John 10 by the Lord Jesus Christ, as we read in John 10:26:

But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

The word translated as “pluck” is “harpazō.”  So Christ says of His sheep that no man can take His sheep by force out of His hand, and the hand represents the will.  No one can take them.  It is not possible for an elect child of God, one of Christ’s sheep, to be taken out of Christ’s kingdom or house, just as these sheep, the elect, were taken out of Satan’s house.  That is the point the Lord is making, and it is a necessary point to make.  After all, if we had been in the one kingdom, the kingdom of the evil one, and Satan was the king over us, but then one stronger than he (the Lord Jesus Christ) took us by force…and we will discuss in a future study how and when that took place…but Christ took us by force from that kingdom and translated us into the kingdom of God’s dear Son, the Lord Jesus. 

So now we are in another kingdom or house (Christ’s), so the obvious question is, “Can the strong man come along and do the same thing that was done to him?”  You know, we have all the language of Satan coming against the house of God as judgment began at the house of God, and that had everything to do with Satan.  Satan was the one who assailed and assaulted the churches and congregations of the world, and he entered in and took his seat, ruling over the house of God. 

Can you see the concern that someone might have?  “Well, does this mean that those that had been taken out of Satan’s kingdom can be returned to him as he comes and usurps the authority of God and recaptures them?”  No, no, no.  The Lord had permitted Satan to do that, and God actually used him as a destroying weapon in His hand to bring judgment on the churches and congregations of the world.  And then God called His people out, and we did come out, and out in the world was our Shepherd to care for us, and to nourish us, and to feed us upon the mountains of Israel: “…and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.”  No man can pluck us out of Christ’s hand.  We are eternally secure.  We cannot be taken hostage once again or become a captive in the dark dungeon of sin and Satan.  That is past.  That is over and done with, and now no one can take us by violent force and bring us back.

Just to show the fact that this word “harpazō” has to do with being acted upon, where the one acted upon really has no control over what is happening, let us go to 1Thessalonians 4 where this word is used in a verse that we are very familiar with, but we may not realize it is this same word that was translated as “pluck” and “take it” (by force).  We read in 1Thessalonians 4:17:

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

We will be “caught up” or “taken” by force, by the power and will of God.  He will take us up on the very last day of earth’s existence when the Rapture occurs.   We will be taking up physically – one has to be physically alive to be raptured.  (If you are dead, then the term is “resurrected.”)  But those that are physically alive will be “caught up” or “taken up,” and as we are taken up, we will be translated into “new creatures,” and then we will be brought into the new heaven and new earth to be with God for evermore.