Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #27 of Genesis 31, and we are going to read Genesis 31:49-52:

And Mizpah; for he said, JEHOVAH watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another. If thou shalt afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take other wives beside my daughters, no man is with us; see, God is witness betwixt me and thee. And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have cast betwixt me and thee; This heap be witness, and this pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm.

I will stop reading there.  We have been slowly going through this chapter, especially this particular passage where Jacob and Laban are making a covenant together and set up a pillar of stones.  The pillar of stones is said to be a “heap” and a “witness” between these two men. 

As we looked at the word “heap,” we that it often has to do with God’s judgment.  He makes a ruined city a heap, or the waves coming upon Babylon in Jeremiah 51.  The word “wave” is the same Hebrew word translated as “heap.”  We saw this with Achan, the Israelite who sinned by taking a Babylonish garment and some gold wedges, and he was stoned to death, and the stones became a “heap.”  And that is our word. 

This heap of stones is a witness between Laban and Jacob, and it was called “Galeed,” which means “heap of witness.”  Then in verse 49, it was also called Mizpah, and we saw that this word is Strong’s #4709.  There is a related word, Strong’s #4708, that is basically translated the same way, but with slightly different vowel pointing.  And we can see these two words used in the same passage, if we turn to 1Samuel 7:5:

And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray for you unto JEHOVAH.

This is Strong’s #4708.  Then it says in 1Samuel 7:6:

And they gathered together to Mizpeh…

And this word is Strong’s #4709.  They are different Strong’s numbers, but it is obviously talking about the same place.  Again, it says in 1Samuel 7:6:

And they gathered together to Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured it out before JEHOVAH, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against JEHOVAH. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh.

And the second reference to Mizpeh is #4708, so it reverted back to the other word in the concordance.  Why these words are different, I do not know. 

Then it says in 1Samuel 7:7:

And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpeh…

This is Strong’s #4708.

Also, it says in 1Samuel 7:11:

And the men of Israel went out of Mizpeh…

This is Strong’s #4709.

Then it says in 1Samuel 7:12:

Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen…

And that is also #4709, the same word we have in Genesis 31:49.  Strong’s #4709 is identical to #4708, and it is further identical to #4707, except for vowel pointing.  Again, vowel pointing was a later edition, and when God wrote the Bible, there were no vowel points. 

And this word, Strong’s #4707, as we saw in our last study, is translated as “watch tower” in 2Chronicles 20.24:

And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped.

We also saw that the enemy armies were fallen to the earth, meaning they were dead.  But when we look up this word translated as “watch tower,” which is #4707, it is only found two places in the Old Testament, once here, and also in Isaiah 21:6-10:

For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth. And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed: And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights: And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground. O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.

We see here the same word “watchtower.”  Again, it says in verse 8: “My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights…”  The watchtower is where the watchman would be, and God uses the picture of a watchman who is to keep watch for the enemy, just as Jehoshaphat and his army went to the watch tower in the wilderness, and there they looked and saw that their enemies were destroyed.  The watchman is to look out to see if the “sword” is coming, and that has everything to do with the wrath of God.  The sword identifies with the Word of God, and in Judgment Day, it is the Word that judges.  So where you would see the “sword” coming is in the Bible.  That is where God’s watchmen keep watch.  We do not look up into the sky.  We do not look at the earth.  We look into the Bible, and when our end-time generation of God’s elect people study the Bible, God opens the eyes of His people to see Him coming “in the clouds,” as it says in Matthew 24.  And when we read Numbers 9, we see that a “cloud” identifies with God’s commandments, the Word of God.  It is the Bible.  It is the revelation or the revealing of the Son of man.  And He is Christ, the Word, that judges the inhabitants of the earth. 

This is where the watchmen are keeping watch, and they see that “Babylon is fallen, is fallen.”  It is the identical thing that the true elect people of God saw.  We have gone through the Great Tribulation, and we saw that May 21, 2011 was Judgment Day, and we saw it through the Bible as God revealed it.  We have also seen in these days after that tribulation that God brought to pass a spiritual judgment on the world, and it is a prolonged spiritual judgment that is unfolding over the course of several years.  According to biblical evidence, it will be 22 actual years, or 23 inclusive years, from the year 2011 through a date in 2033.  We have observed through the “watchtower.”  Again, this is looking into the Word of God – that is where we keep watch.  And we have observed the “fall of Babylon.”  The world, as typified by Babylon, has fallen.  The enemy armies of Satan have fallen.  He was the ruler of the world, as typified by the king of Babylon, and Babylon represents the nations.  And the king of Babylon, spiritually, is Satan, and the kingdom of Babylon has fallen. 

And that is what we see with the watch tower in the wilderness in 2Chronicles 20.  It is the enemy armies of Satan, and they have fallen to the ground.  They are all dead men.  They have fought one another rather than doing battle with God’s people.  It is the same picture we see in Zechariah 14, which is teaching us about Judgment Day.  We read at the end of the verse in Zechariah 14:5:

…and JEHOVAH my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.

Then we read in Zechariah 14:9:

And JEHOVAH shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be JEHOVAH, and his name one.

This is because He has put down the rule of Satan.  He has deposed him, and this is the point when the Lord Jesus became King of kings and Lord of lords.  There is one King, one JEHOVAH, and one Lord over all the earth.  Then it says in Zechariah 14:12:

And this shall be the plague wherewith JEHOVAH will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem…

Who fought against Jerusalem?  The Babylonians fought against Jerusalem.  The king of Babylon fought against them.  Again, Babylon typifies the whole world; they are the “Gentiles” or the “nations” of the unsaved.  They were the emissaries of Satan that fought against Jerusalem.  And God is going to smite them that fought against Jerusalem because it is the time of the “recompense of tribulation.”  They had brought tribulation to the churches, the people called by God’s name.  Yes – it accomplished God’s purpose, but once that was accomplished, God turned around and repaid tribulation to them.  Then it goes on to say in Zechariah 14:12:

…Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

That is a vivid description of what happens in the grave when someone dies and is put into the ground.  They “consume way.”  Their flesh consumes away.  Their eyes consumes away.  Their tongues consume away.  If you were to open that grave a hundred years later, you will not see their flesh, their eyes, or their tongues.  They will have consumed away.  So God is using this language to describe the people of the world that have been smitten by Him at the beginning of Judgment Day, and yet, they are still “upon their feet” because they are still physically alive.  As we look at the world, it is crazy and chaotic, but, for the most part, things are operating normally.  The sun comes up, and the sun goes down.  People are going to work, and they are trying to do what they normally do, but they have already been smitten and struck dead, spiritually, when God closed the door of heaven.  When God ended His salvation program, for all intents and purposes, He smote them and killed them at that point.  It is just a matter of the working out of the prolonged judgment period so that the Lord can accomplish His many purposes that He desires over the course of this final judgment, and then they will be dead forever.  But, here, the process is under way.  That is what we are being told regarding their flesh and their eyes and their tongues consuming away.  Then it goes on to say in Zechariah 14:13:

And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from JEHOVAH shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.

Everyone will rise up and fight against his neighbor, and it is a great tumult from JEHOVAH, just as God was the one who smote those men in the wilderness.  Although they killed one another, it was a tumult from JEHOVAH as God fought for His people Israel.  And as this world is destroying itself right before our eyes with this constant division in every imaginable aspect of the world, with people being set against one another.  This tumult is from JEHOVAH.

So we can see this word “watch tower” that is used in 2Chronicles 20, a historical parable pointing to Judgment Day, as Joel 3 teaches us.  And it is also found in Isaiah 21 in the context of “Babylon is fallen, is fallen,” just as we find in Revelation 14, which ties the fall of Babylon to Judgment Day, in Revelation 14:8-11:

And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

Babylon is fallen.  Look at the context.  It is the cup of the wrath of God.  The unsaved with the mark of the beast will be tormented with “fire and brimstone.”  Remember when we read Isaiah 13, God started out telling us it was the “burden of Babylon,” and then He quickly began speaking of “the day of JEHOVAH.”  Then to leave us without doubt about the context, He said in Isaiah 13:11: “And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity…”   It is in the context of the “burden of Babylon,” and then the language changed back to Babylon in Isaiah 13:19:

And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

And what did God use to overthrow Sodom and Gomorrah?  He used “fire and brimstone.”  And in Revelation 14, we read, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen,” and then we read of “fire and brimstone,” the cup of the wrath of God.  You know, it is proven from the Bible that the fall of Babylon has to do with Judgment Day, after the completion of the Great Tribulation during which Satan assaulted the churches and congregations of the world.  We have seen that solidly proven, but now we have a link with this word “watch tower” between the historical judgment in the valley of Jehoshaphat in 2Chronicles 20 and the fall of Babylon, because this word that is used only twice is used in these two passages – 2Chronicles 20 and Isaiah 21:8-9.  So that further ties these things together, and affirms that we are on the right track and understanding things correctly.

And that brings us back to Genesis 31 because this word “Mizpah” just almost seems to be thrown in there.  This “heap of stones” was called Galeed, made up of the two words “heap” and “witness,” and then God just throws in this word “Mizpah.”  And when we tracked it down, it led us to 2Chronicles 20 and Isaiah 21:8-9, and the fall of Babylon.

By the way, if we go back to Isaiah 21 for a moment, we read in Isaiah 21:2:

A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth…

You can find a reference to “the treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously” in chapter 24, a chapter that deals with the judgment on the world.  Then it says, “and the spoiler spoileth,” and God will spoil those that spoil His people.  Then it says in Isaiah 21:2:

 Go up, O Elam…

Elam was the location where Shushan the palace was found, one of the capitols of the Medes and the Persians.  Again, it says in Isaiah 21:2:

Go up, O Elam: besiege, O Media; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease.

So Elam was to go up and Media was to besiege.  That is, the Medes and the Persians were to conquer Babylon, in this context that led to that declaration in 21:9, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen.”  And verse 8 told us of the watchtower.  Then it says in Isaiah 21:3:

Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.

Now let us compare that with Isaiah 13.  This will be another link between these two passages.  It says in Isaiah 13:6-8:

Howl ye; for the day of JEHOVAH is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt: And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.

We see similarity between Isaiah 21:3 and Isaiah 13:8.  And that is a chapter that is basically describing the fall of Babylon.  It is the “burden of Babylon,” which is the punishment of God upon the world, and it is connecting these pieces.  And we are getting this picture, especially with the words “Mizpah,” and “watchtower.”

So now let us go back to Genesis 31:50-52:

If thou shalt afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take other wives beside my daughters, no man is with us; see, God is witness betwixt me and thee; And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have cast betwixt me and thee; This heap be witness, and this pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm.

And the Hebrew word for “harm” is the word “râ‛âh,” which is overwhelmingly translated as “evil,” but it can be translated as “harm” or “hurt.”  So here, it is the “heap of stones,” and they are set between Jacob and Laban, and Laban says, “I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm.”  And this is their covenant.  They are making peace, and we talked about how on the spiritual level, it is a covenant between Satan and Christ after He has finished His salvation program of ransacking the house of Satan, spoiling his house, and saving everyone He intended to save, taking them away, just as Jacob is taking away the cattle from Laban.

But notice the language of “not passing over.”  Laban said, “ I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm.”  What does this remind us of?  Let us go to Luke 16, and the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.  It says in Luke 16:23-26:

And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

You see, there it is.  Father Abraham is a picture of God, and God is saying to the rich man in “hell” that there is a gulf fixed.  “We cannot pass to you, and you cannot pass to us.”