Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #29 of Genesis 31, and we are going to read Genesis 31:51-53:

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.

In our last study, I mentioned that there seems to be an inconsistency with Laban’s statement that was made in verse 51 with what Jacob had said and done earlier.  For example, let me read Genesis 31:51:

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

But if we go back to verse 43, to be fair, it does seem to be Laban who presented the idea to Jacob.  It says in Genesis 31:43-46:

And Laban answered and said unto Jacob, These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children, and these cattle are my cattle, and all that thou seest is mine: and what can I do this day unto these my daughters, or unto their children which they have born? Now therefore come thou, let us make a covenant, I and thou; and let it be for a witness between me and thee. 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.

Then it was called “Galeed.”  So, historically, we understand that Jacob did the work.  He first took a stone and set it up for a pillar, and that would point to the Lord Jesus.  Then Jacob said to his brethren, “Gather stones; and they took stones, and made an heap.”  So the setting up of the stones was done by Jacob and his brethren, which I suppose would have been his children.  But it was not done by Laban and Laban’s brethren, or Laban’s sons.   It was work done by Jacob and his brethren.  Laban said to Jacob, in Genesis 31:51:

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

This word translated as “cast” is an unusual word as it is used here and elsewhere.  It seems to have a wide range of things it can be referring to.  For example, this is a word that is translated fairly often as “shoot,” as when someone shoots an arrow.  It is also commonly translated as “teach.”  For example, it is the word we find in Isaiah 28:9-10:

Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

In verse 9, the word “teach” is this word.  So, again, there is a very wide spectrum in how this word is used.  To shoot an arrow and to teach knowledge are very different things.  So to “cast” a pillar between two men would seem to be very different from shooting or teaching.  But to be fair to Laban, it was Laban’s idea when he said, “Now therefore come thou, let us make a covenant, I and thou; and let it be for a witness between me and thee,” so he may have been referring to the fact that it was his idea, in Genesis 31:51: “Behold this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have taught betwixt me and thee.”  In other words, “I was the one who told you this.”  That is one possibility, historically.

The other possibility is that Laban is being deceitful, to a degree, and he was doing what he had often done over the course of that 40-year period, which was to take credit or to claim that something Jacob had done was actually his own doing.  Laban was accustomed to Jacob working for him, and he was reaping the benefits of Jacob’s labor.  So that is also a possibility as to why Laban said that he was the one that cast the pillar and the heap.

But, spiritually, we have a problem because we have been understanding (and I think our understanding has been correct) how the spiritual picture has been carried in verse after verse that the man Laban is a type and figure of Satan.  We have understood Laban to represent Satan, and Jacob to represent the Lord Jesus Christ.  So Jacob taking a stone and setting a pillar is a spiritual picture of Christ taking a stone and setting a pillar.  And as Jacob is commanding his brethren, it is as if Christ is saying, “Gather stones; and they took stones, and made an heap.” 

Keep in mind that we looked up the word “heap,” and in verse after verse, it identified with the judgment of God and the outpouring of the wrath of God, such as was the case with Achan who was stoned to death, and they set up a great heap of stones where he died.  It was the outpouring of God’s anger against his sin.  And we went to numerous other verses that showed the same thing.  So it is the Lord Jesus that sets up the stone for a pillar, and sets up the heap of stones by commanding his brethren to do it.  Nonetheless, spiritually it points to Christ setting up these stones as a “heap of witness,” and the “heap” is a testimony of judgment against Satan, as typified by Laban, and his house.  It has everything to do with the house of Satan, and a “house” and a “kingdom” in the Bible are synonymous, so this covenant has to do with the kingdom of Satan. 

We have already looked a little bit at how significant it is that it is being set up at this point, which has to do with Judgment Day.  It is a Judgment Day covenant.  It is a covenant of Judgment Day that involves a “cease fire” of the spiritual war that had raged throughout human history since the Garden of Eden.  And now it is coming to an end.  So Laban is saying, “I have cast this heap and this pillar betwixt thee and me,” but we see that it was actually Jacob who did the work.  Spiritually, Christ cast the stone in judgment, but Satan claims it was his doing.  And I think we can start to understand, if we go to Exodus 15, where we will find the same Hebrew word, and it is also translated as “cast.”  It says in Exodus 15:1-5:

Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto JEHOVAH, and spake, saying, I will sing unto JEHOVAH, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. JEHOVAH is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him. JEHOVAH is a man of war: JEHOVAH is his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea.  The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone.

God brought judgment on Pharaoh and his army, the Egyptians, and He drowned them in the Red Sea, which pictures the wrath of God.  And that is the judgment of God.  So, here again, this word is being used in relationship to the judgment of God.  When it says, “Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea,” it was God who did that.  It was not Pharaoh that cast his host into the sea along with himself, but it was the God of Israel that was fighting for His people.  He collapsed the wall of water upon them, and they were cast into the sea as they came under His wrath.  And this is a historical parable that applies to the time of the end in which we are living, and it points to the final judgment against Satan and the unsaved inhabitants of the world, as typified by the Egyptians.  And in our time, we have learned that the casting of Babylon or Egypt or the unsaved into the sea and bringing them under judgment is not accomplished in a single 24-hour day, but it is a prolonged judgment.  It is a prolonged Judgment Day that takes place over the course of many years.  So this historical statement that He has cast Pharaoh and his host into the sea is describing a quick death, but the Bible also tells us God’s judgment is not executed speedily, and that goes along with the prolonged judgment that is currently happening.  And yet, the spiritual equivalent of Pharaoh and his army being cast into the sea would be the spiritual judgment that is taking place over 22 actual years or 23 inclusive years from May 21, 2011 to a date in the year 2033, according to biblical evidence.

And this would be that time period and the same judgment that is in view on Laban, in Genesis 31, because Jacob has gathered His bride.  He had worked and received his bride, and he has gathered his flocks, and he is leaving Haran and headed for the land of Canaan, typifying the Promised Land of the kingdom of God.  So judgment falls on Laban and his house, and the stones are signifying that judgment, and it is Jacob, a type of Christ, who has his brethren gather the heap together and set up the pillar.  So it is Christ or God’s doing, just as JEHOVAH God cast Pharaoh and the Egyptians into the sea.

But why were Pharaoh and the Egyptians cast into the sea?  It was a result of their disobedience and rebellion against God.  It was Pharaoh’s sinful, stubborn heart and his refusal to bow the knee and submit to the God who created him.  Instead, he fought against Him.

So too, we can ask the question, “Why has God brought judgment on Satan and the unsaved people of the world?  Why was it necessary for the Lord Jesus to make a heap of stones and to set it up so that it could not be passed over?”  We will talk more about that.  I think I have mentioned how this relates to what we read in Luke 16, concerning the rich man and Lazarus, and the great gulf that was fixed between them: “…they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.”  It is just like with this heap of stones.  That was exactly what was said in Genesis 31:52:

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.

You see, this heap of stones is like the stones upon a grave, as the whole world has become a grave.  It has been turned into “hell,” as God has shut the door (of salvation), and He has made it impossible to be translated out of the darkness of the world and into the light of salvation and the kingdom of God’s dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Now everyone has a fixed spiritual condition.  The filthy will remain filthy, and the righteous will remain righteous.  That is, if you are unsaved, you will remain unsaved.  But if you were saved prior to entering into the Day of Judgment beginning May 21, 2011, then you will remain saved.  No one will lose his salvation, but no one will be granted salvation either.  It is a fixed condition, just as the “rich man” must stay in hell, tormented in the flames, while Lazarus will remain in Abraham’s bosom to be comforted.  One cannot go to the other.  You cannot bring him a drop of water, and he cannot go to you.  It is a heap of stones that cannot be passed over.  No one can go to you, and you can go to no one across this heap of stones because it is the judgment of Christ, and it is the judgment of Christ because of Satan and his rebellion against God, dating back to the Garden of Eden when he deceived Adam and Eve into partaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  They sinned against God, bringing death to mankind.  It is judgment against that and everything else Satan has done since then.  It is all the wickedness and the terrible evil and ugliness of sin that man and Satan have been involved with.

Laban and his sons, representing Satan and the unsaved people of the world, are the ones who have cast this heap of stones, we could say, because it was their doing and the consequence of their sinful actions.  All the wrong, the evil and wickedness that they have done made it necessary for the Lord Jesus to set up that heap of stones, that ruinous heap that none can ever pass over again.  That is, it is the result of Satan and the fallen angels, as well as all unsaved mankind, that finally forced God to shut the door of heaven and end His salvation program, and to being the process of pouring out the spiritual fire and brimstone that is coming forth from the pages of the Bible.  It is a spiritual fire, and that flame was kindled in His anger against all the unsaved inhabitants of the world for all the evil and wickedness they have done.

So we can see through this “tricky” language that on a historical level Laban is taking credit: “I am the one who cast this heap and pillar between me and thee.”  It was cast between God and Satan or between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of the evil one.  Yes – the credit does belong to Satan, in the sense of the guilt and shame of it.  It belongs to him and those that are in his dark house and dark kingdom of Satan, the unsaved inhabitants of the earth.