Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #37 of Genesis 31, and we are reading the last two verses, Genesis 31:54-55:

And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac. Then Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount, and called his brethren to eat bread: and they did eat bread, and tarried all night in the mount. And early in the morning Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them: and Laban departed, and returned unto his place.

In our last study, we were discussing the fact that they ate bread and tarried all night in the mount.  We understand that the eating of bread spiritually applies to the sheep we are feeding, the elect of God, that great multitude that are alive and remaining on the earth.  They are spiritually fed as God gives that command, “Feed my sheep.”  And it is being done on the mountains of Israel, spiritually speaking. 

So the elect tarry all night.  And we also saw that “tarried all night” can be translated as “abided” or “lodged” and that was done “in the mount,” not “on the mount,” because it is referring to God and the kingdom of God.  Where are all the elect, spiritually?  We are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.  We are in Him.  We are within the kingdom while the rest of the world is outside the “door” or outside the kingdom of God.  And whether you are inside or outside has to do with your spiritual condition.

Then we looked at a few verses that spoke of mountains, so we are going to move on to the last verse, in Genesis 31:55:

And early in the morning Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them: and Laban departed, and returned unto his place.

This sounds rather nice.  Laban got up early.  It is always a good trait to rise early in the morning.  And he got up early,  and he kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them.  That does not sound like Satan.  It sounds like a loving relative that is showing forth his love.  We have seen that Laban has been a type and figure of Satan throughout the whole chapter, so how can we understand that Satan is in view in this verse?  It just does not seem possible. 

But let us look at the words used in this verse, and we will see that rising up early in the morning is not always a good thing.  For example, we read in Isaiah 5:11:

Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!

Now this would apply to people who have a problem with drinking, and they are alcoholics and drunkards.  It certainly is a woe to them on a literal level.  But in the Bible, “strong drink” represents other kinds of gospels, false gospels, and this refers to those that rise up early in the morning to follow strong drink, and they become drunken with other gospels.  So it is not good.  Some people are very zealous, and rising up early indicates that they cannot wait to start the day because they have a lot to do, and they want to get to work.  But their work is a “works gospel,” a gospel that has added to the Word of God, the Bible.  And yet, they are eager to follow after it, and there is nothing good about that at all.

We find in Zephaniah 3:7:

I said, Surely thou wilt fear me, thou wilt receive instruction; so their dwelling should not be cut off, howsoever I punished them: but they rose early, and corrupted all their doings.

Here, God is referring to those He has given instruction to and chastised, but, nonetheless, “they rose early, and corrupted all their doings.”   Isaiah 5:11 may tie in with this as far as following strong drink.  But I just wanted to go to these verses to show that rising up early in the morning is not necessarily a good thing.  However, it does not seem to tie in too closely with Laban and what he is doing, but keep in mind that Laban as a type of Satan is a figure of his whole house, and the house of Satan are the unsaved inhabitants of the world.  So do not think of Satan individually, but we can picture those that are in his kingdom as doing this, as the unsaved of the world do the things we just read about in Isaiah 5:11 and Zephaniah 3:7.

But a verse that may be more closely related can be found in Proverbs 27:14:

He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.

Now that seems more related to what we read in Genesis 31:55:

Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them…

Early in the morning, Laban did bless his sons and daughters, and in Proverbs 27:14 we read, “He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.”  In other words, just because he is blessing them does not mean that all is well and wonderful.  Certainly, it is not wonderful, even historically, with the relationship between Laban and Jacob and their two households.  But on the spiritual level, there is nothing wonderful between Satan and his forces and Christ and His people, even though they have made a covenant in Judgment Day.  And now Satan has kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them.  And does Satan have sons and daughters?  Yes, Jesus said in the Gospel of John, “Ye are of your father the devil.”  But, here, the wives and children, and even the sheep, typify those God has saved, but can we say that they are sons and daughters of Satan?  We can in the sense of what we read in Ephesians 2:1-3:

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

By nature, we are children of wrath that were under the wrath of God, even as others, and you could not tell us apart from them.  So we were certainly among all the children of disobedience.  And with our acts of disobedience in our flesh and spirit (prior to salvation), we were conducting ourselves as children of Satan, although I do not think the Bible specifically says that, but certainly, there was a very close relationship.  What prevents us from saying we were children of Satan during that time is the fact that Christ had paid for our sins at the foundation of the world, and when God refers to the elect in the world, He likens us to orphans because He delivered us by paying for our sins.  So there was a big difference between an elect sinner that had yet to hear the Word and become saved and a non-elect sinner that would never become saved, even though for a time we “ran together” with them.  We had the same behavior and same conversation and the same sins, and we may have even done more wickedly, but there is that difference in the lives of God’s elect based on the Lord having chosen us and paid for our sins before we were born into the world.  So it is a little difficult to express this, but we were as close as possible to being children of the devil at one time.  But that is what is in view with this verse in Genesis 31:55:

Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them…

What about the word “kissed”?  Does that not indicate love and care and compassion?  Well, not always, if we go to Matthew 26:47-50:

And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him. And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him.

In a parallel passage, it says in Luke 22:47-48:

And while he yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?

Jesus said, “Betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?”  So let us go back to Proverbs 27 again, which is the same chapter where it said, “He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.”  Earlier in Proverbs 27, we read in Proverbs 27:6:

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

What is the nature of Satan?  He is the deceiver.  He is such a deceiver that his emissaries declared that the Lord Jesus was a deceiver.  They actually called him a deceiver.  That is just amazing, and it shows the blindness of men.  They see the One who is absolute Truth, and righteous, good, and holy, and they label him as “that deceiver.”  Only man’s desperately wicked and deceitful heart that is deceitful above all things could turn their understanding around to the degree of seeing the only trustworthy One as “that deceiver.”  It certainly does not say much for man’s ability to discern right from wrong and good from bad when we see that they labeled the Lord Jesus in that way, but man’s heart is deceitful above all things. 

However, Satan is the actual “deceiver,” right from the beginning.  He is a liar, and the father of it.  He deceives: “Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”  It sounded nice.  It sounded good.  It sounded wise.  So too when he comes with his “loving, caring gospel,” saying, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.  Just choose Jesus and make a decision for him.”  All these things are so flowery, and they flatter you, and they “tickle the ear.”  They are smooth things.  They are words that are not threatening at all, but the other way around.  Remember what we read in 2Peter 2 concerning false prophets under the power of Satan, in 2Peter 2:17-19:

These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

They promise life and liberty, freedom, and eternal life, and all these wonderful things, but these are the “kisses of the enemy.”  They are all deceitful.  They are lies from the depths of hell.  They will bring the ones that they snare right down to the grave, and these are the words that fool the natural-minded individual who has a heart of stone and is dead in his sins.  Just talk sweetly, softly, and kindly, and you can say whatever lie you can dream up, and people will speak well of you: “Oh, he is such a great man.  He saved scores of thousands of souls with his crusades!”  They speak well of wicked man.

On the other hand, there can be a good, faithful servant of the Lord who tells the truth from the Bible, and we have experienced someone like that in the past.  He would “shoot straight,” as the expression goes, and he told it like it is.  He did not try to sugar coat things because he knew that to be a faithful servant, you just have to tell the truth.  And he was despised and call a false prophet and every terrible name you can think of, but that is the nature of unsaved man.  That is the human condition of the people of the world, and it is no wonder that they believe the foolish absurdities they believe, like evolution, the “Big Bang,” or gender issues.  They have insane ideas that are so ridiculous and far from the truth that we just wonder how these people can believe these things.  It is because of the nature of their heart, and they are prone to deception.  They are wide open to deception, which means they are wide open to Satan and his lies, and they also have that built-in tendency to love the lie and to hate the truth.  They believe the lie and doubt the truth.  They are skeptical of the truth.  As Jesus said, “Ye do not believe me because I tell you the truth.” 

This is what we are seeing with Laban, even though he may “kiss” his sons and daughters.  On the spiritual level, it is like the “kisses” of the enemy.

Let us go to Ruth 1 before we close this study and finish this chapter.  We read in Ruth 1:7:

Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters in law with her; and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah.

We do not have time to read the whole thing, so let us go down to Ruth 1:9-15:

JEHOVAH grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept. And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people. And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me? are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have an husband also to night, and should also bear sons; Would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye stay for them from having husbands? nay, my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of JEHOVAH is gone out against me. And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her. And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law.

This is significant because the word translated as “gone back” is Strong’s #7725, and it is the same word in our verse in Genesis 31:55: “And Laban departed, and returned unto his place.”   So we have that similarity, and we also have the similarity that Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but she was the daughter-in-law of which it was said,  “Thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law.”   Orpah kissed Naomi, and then she went back to her people and her gods.  And that is what we see with Laban as he kisses his sons and daughters, and he returns to his place – back to his people and back to his gods.  We know he had false gods because those were the images that Rachel had stolen.  Again,  Laban is a type of Satan and Satan identifies with his kingdom, indicating that the unsaved at the point of the covenant of Judgment Day will not cross over into the Promised Land, the kingdom of God.  And Jacob is a type of Christ, and Christ and His kingdom have also made the covenant not to cross to them.  The unsaved have returned to their people and to their gods.  Everyone in the Day of Judgment goes to their own land, spiritually speaking.  They go to their own kingdom and their own people and the gods that they serve.  God’s chosen people serve the true God of the Bible, whereas the unsaved will continue to serve whatever false idol or god they have been serving.  So that is what we are seeing here.

Now it is interesting that the name “Orpah” is related or derived from a word that is translated as “neck” or as “back.”  For example, it is the word used in 2Kings 17:14:

Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in JEHOVAH their God.

So Orpah lived up to her name.  She went back and hardened her neck.

This word is also translated as “back” in Exodus 23:27:

I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.

Orpah was not a true child of God.  She had come “close” by marrying into a family that was of the people of Israel and Bethlehem, so she came close to “the house of bread,” but she herself was never saved, but Ruth was a true, elect child of God.  When Naomi told Ruth to go back along with her sister-in-law, Ruth said in Ruth 1:16:

And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:

The word “lodge” is the same word we saw translated as “tarried all night.” 

Just as we see this distinction between Orpah and Ruth, we are seeing the same distinction between Laban and Jacob – they are two different kingdoms and two different people, and they follow different gods.