Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #28 of Genesis 31, and we are going to read Genesis 31:49-53:

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. The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac.

We have been looking at Mizpah in verse 49.  We saw a closely related word in the concordance that is actually the same word and has the same consonants.  It is translated as “watchtower” twice, once in 2Chronicles 20, and once in Isaiah 21.  In both places we can see from how God uses this word that it has to do with Judgment Day.  In 2Chronicles 20, it is a historical parable which the Lord reveals has to do with judgment in Joel 3.  In Isaiah 21, it is in the context of, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen.”  That statement is made a few times in the Bible, and it identifies with the time after the Tribulation, with the beginning of judgment on the world.  We saw how that fits and harmonizes with the spiritual picture we have been following in Genesis 31.

It is not that I just came up with that idea and then developed it.  In other words, it is not my spiritual picture, but it is God’s spiritual picture because this is how God wrote the Bible.  And we just stumbled upon it when we realized that Laban is a type of Satan, and then all the pieces fell into place, like Jacob’s servitude in Haran for 40 years, and then the time to leave and his taking with him his wives, children, and the flock.  We have seen this represents the time of the end when the Lord Jesus Christ, as typified by Jacob, had gotten all He desired from the kingdom of Satan, as typified by Laban’s house.  The kingdom of Satan consisted of the nations of the world, and it was among the nations that Christ delivered His people.  He saved His elect, and He brought them out of the house of bondage.  He brought them out of darkness into His own kingdom of light.  That is what is in view.

At this point, the spiritual battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven (which had raged throughout the history) of the world has now ended, as far as the battle over souls is concerned.  Everyone who was to be saved has been saved.  This is the spiritual picture.  Jacob was no longer working in Haran for a wife.  Jacob was no longer working in Haran for cattle.  He has obtained both, and now it is time to leave and return to the land of Canaan, which represents the kingdom of God.  That is the reason for the language regarding the pillar or heap of stones that was placed for a covenant between them. 

Now we must look at verses 50 and 51 because the Lord has included this information.  We will not just gloss over it.  Sometimes when things do not make sense, there is a little temptation to do that, but we should not do so.  So we are going to look at it on the spiritual level.  Historically, it is no problem.  Laban is telling Jacob in Genesis 31:50:

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.

It is a bit of a warning.  Laban is father to Rachel and Leah, and he is grandfather to the sons of Jacob, so he would have a concern and love for them on some level, so he is warning Jacob, “Do not hurt my daughters.”  He also warns him not to “take other wives beside my daughters.”  There is no problem with Laban saying that, historically.  That would be a fatherly thing to say.  The difficulty comes when we go deeper, remembering that Jacob is a type of Christ, and Laban is a type of Satan.  (And that has been consistent through this account.)  Now let us put these words in Satan’s mouth as if he is saying these things to the Lord Jesus Christ: “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.”  Then we have to just “shake our heads,” and we wonder why Satan would care if his daughters…and his daughters would be his children.  Remember, the people of the world are of their father the devil, so he is very much a spiritual father to the people of the world.  And Christ took His bride out of the world when He saved them by taking them out of the house of Satan.  But why would Satan care?  We know he has no real concern for the people that are in his house or kingdom.  He does not care if they are afflicted.  And why would he care if Christ took other wives?  But that is the question we have to ask on a spiritual level. 

You know, the good thing about asking this kind of question and finding the answer is that it further confirms that we are understanding the whole thing correctly.  We are understanding the spiritual picture in a right way. When we ask this kind of question, our first thought is that there is no way we can apply anything said here to Satan and this warfare between Christ and him.  And now it is the end of that warfare, and does Satan have some kind of concern for the people that they be not afflicted, and that Christ take no other wives? 

My first reaction is, “Boy, this is a problem.  I have no idea.”  And that is a good point to start praying.  And by God’s grace, and because of the time we are living in, the Lord will often (but not always) open up our understanding a little bit more, and then we find the answer. 

In this case, let us look at the word “afflict,” as it said, “If thou shalt afflict my daughters…”   When we look up the word “afflict,” we find it in Leviticus 16 a few times.  I will just read a couple of the verses.  It says in Leviticus 16:29-31:

And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you: For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before JEHOVAH. It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever.

This is referring to the Day of Atonement, and God speaks of the people afflicting their souls and doing no work, and then on that day the priest would make an atonement for them, and that would point to the Lord Jesus, the Priest after the order of Melchizedek, who did make atonement for His people at the foundation of the world when He paid for their sins, which served “to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before JEHOVAH.”  Here, to be afflicted has a spiritual relationship to God’s salvation program through the work and faith of the Lord Jesus.

Let us go to Isaiah 58, where God mentions those who literally try to afflict their souls, in Isaiah 58:3-7:

Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to JEHOVAH? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

Here, the Lord brought fasting into the discussion along with afflicting one’s soul.  The Israelites were mostly natural men and, therefore, they did not have spiritual ears to hear.  So when they read Leviticus 16, where it said to afflict their souls, they tried to accomplish it on a natural level by fasting, hanging their heads down, and spreading sack cloth and ashes under them.  Then they called it “an acceptable fast.”  But God is saying that they have to look at the deeper spiritual meaning, and in verses 6 and 7, He says to “loose the bands of wickedness,” and so forth.  Each one of these statements has to do with salvation: “to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke… Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and so forth.  This is the “acceptable fast.”  This is the spiritual dimension of the command to afflict one’s soul, and it has to do with bringing the Gospel that sinners might be saved.  That ties in with this word “afflict.”

We can see it clearer in Psalm 119 in a couple of verses.  First, let us look at Psalm 119:67:

Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.

This is indicating that to be “afflicted” is involved in the process of God’s salvation because to keep His Word can only be done properly when someone is born again.  They have a new resurrected soul, and they keep God’s Word perfectly in their heart.

It says in Psalm 119:107:

I am afflicted very much: quicken me, O JEHOVAH, according unto thy word.

Affliction – salvation.  “I am afflicted, and, O, Lord, may you quicken me or bring me to life, spiritually.”  It is involved in the process of the program that God laid out, as far as salvation is concerned.  It involves being “afflicted,” and we do know that if we take the Lord’s Word into our mouth and we seek to follow it, affliction results for the Word’s sake.

From these verses, we can see that to be “afflicted” does relate to God’s Gospel program.  It does tie into the Word of God that saves sinners and cleanses them from sin, and that is where the spiritual meaning comes in as far as Satan saying this to Christ, if we go back to Genesis 31:50:

If thou shalt afflict my daughters…

He is saying, “This ‘Galeed’ or ‘heap of witness,’ the stones that  we have set up in this covenant are to be a witness that you will not afflict my daughters.”   That is, there will be no more fasting, which goes along with afflicting one’s soul, in carrying the Gospel message that looses the bands of wickedness.  Well, whose bands of wickedness are being loosed?  It is Satan’s bands of wickedness, because the sinner was taken captive and entered into bondage, just as Egypt, the house of bondage, was ruled over by Pharaoh, a type of Satan, or as it says in 2Timothy 2:26, they “are taken captive by him at his will.”  So if you do not involve yourself with the spiritual “afflicting of souls and fasting,” which has to do with sharing the Gospel, then no one can have their bands loosed, nor can the heavy burden be undone.  The oppressed cannot go free.

And all those things are Satan’s concerns because he is the cruel taskmaster.  The servants of sin and Satan reside in his kingdom.  And we have seen that Christ has pillaged and spoiled his house and taken the captives away, as He “led captivity captive,” and now we are servants to Christ in quite a different way than we were servants to Satan.  So from Satan’s perspective regarding this heap of stones: “OK, you have your people, but the rest are mine.  No longer afflict my daughters.”  Then he continues:“…or if thou shalt take other wives beside my daughters, no man is with us; see, God is witness betwixt me and thee.” 

So now we understand why Satan would say, “Do not afflict my daughters,” but why the reference to other wives?  It is because in the taking of his daughters, Jacob (Christ) had come for a wife, as we read in Hosea 12:12:

And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.

That was his purpose, and it aligns with the purpose of the Lord Jesus in entering into the world and sending forth the Gospel, and for everything God has done in putting up with the sins of mankind over the course of history.  It has all been for the purpose of obtaining a wife, the bride of Christ.  The Lord Jesus is the Bridegroom, and those that He saved are His bride. 

And now Jacob has his bride, Rachel, as well as Leah, and the two handmaids.  We have not looked at it this way before, but now Jacob had four wives, and the number “four” points to universality of whatever is in view.  In this case, they are the “wife” that the Lord Jesus has found and brought to Himself as He sent the Gospel into the four corners of the earth.  He has accomplished that task, and He has gathered her to Himself.  So Satan is saying, “With this heap of witness, you will not take other wives besides my daughters.  God be witness.”  And from Satan’s perspective, it means, “There will be no more sending the Gospel into my world (the nations), and no more seeking of a wife.  You found your wife.  I could not stop you, and now you must needs be gone, so go with your brides, but do not take another wife again.”   

It is the same idea as, “Do not afflict my daughters.”  It is the same picture.  If God were to take another wife, how would He do it?  He would send forth the Gospel to save some more people that would be the bride.  But that is not within the plan of God.  It is not a possibility, which is why Jacob, a type of Christ, can agree to this covenant, because the sending forth of the Gospel has been completed.  It is done with, and there will be no more saved, so the two of them are in agreement because God has no intention of sending forth the Gospel again.  It is over and done with, as far as God is concerned.

So we have these two statements that are seemingly unrelated to the Gospel, but they are actually very important statements.  And, again, they are confirming the overall spiritual picture.  Salvation is over, and it is Judgment Day.   Remember when we looked at the word “heap,” regarding the “heap of stones,” we looked at Joshua 7:26:

And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So JEHOVAH turned from the fierceness of his anger…

We looked at numerous Scriptures that used that word, whether it was translated as “heap” or “wave,” and it all had to do with the wrath and judgment of God.  And it is May 21, 2011, the day of the wrath of God, and the outpouring of His furious anger, and the salvation of souls was then past.  It had been accomplished, and it is no longer in God’s plan, so we see that Jacob will not take another wife, and he will not afflict Laban’s daughters, regarding the spiritual application.

We will quickly look at Genesis 31:51, and we will see a “problem” here before we end this study, which we will look at in our next study.  It says in Genesis 31:51:

And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have cast betwixt me and thee;

What would be the problem here?  If Laban is a type of Satan (and he is), and if Jacob is a type of Christ (and he is), then why is Laban saying that he is the one that cast it between them?  That would be as if Satan were saying that he set up this covenant or pillar between himself and Christ.  Do you see the problem?  Why does Satan take the lead here?  Why is it as though he is the one with the power and ability to make a covenant, and Christ is just going along with it?  We do not understand that, because God is the one that sets the terms and God is the one that determines these things, and not Satan.  That is one problem.  But we also have a problem on the historical level because earlier in this account we read in Genesis 31:45-46:

And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones; and they took stones, and made an heap: and they did eat there upon the heap.

There it says that Jacob took the stone, and Jacob and his brethren made the heap of stones.  But look at Genesis 31:51:

And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have cast betwixt me and thee;

Laban said he cast that heap of stones.  So that is very curious and unusual language.  Lord willing, in our next study, we will see the deeper spiritual picture and how precise it all is.