Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #6 of Genesis 32, and we are going to read Genesis 32:13-21:

And he lodged there that same night; and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother;  Two hundred she goats, and twenty he goats, two hundred ewes, and twenty rams, Thirty milch camels with their colts, forty kine, and ten bulls, twenty she asses, and ten foals. And he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by themselves; and said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove. And he commanded the foremost, saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose are these before thee? Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob's; it is a present sent unto my lord Esau: and, behold, also he is behind us. And so commanded he the second, and the third, and all that followed the droves, saying, On this manner shall ye speak unto Esau, when ye find him. And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me. So went the present over before him: and himself lodged that night in the company.

I will stop reading there.  We have been learning from some of the words in this passage, and one of the words is the word “present,” which is mentioned here a few times.  It is Strong’s #4503.   It is the word for “offering” or “meat offering,” and it has to do with sacrificial offerings.  Here, it is Jacob giving the present to Esau, or making an offering to Esau. 

We also saw some other language that was back in Genesis 32:5:

And I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and menservants, and womenservants: and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight.

Putting this language together with the humble petition that he might find grace in Esau’s sight, and the fact that Jacob is giving “offerings” to Esau, we came to the conclusion that the spiritual teaching in view has to do with the atonement made on behalf of God’s elect.  And Esau is a type and figure of the Law.  We looked at how Esau is “Edom,” and how God also uses mount Seir in relationship to Esau.  We went to three Scriptures that showed that Edom and mount Seir are identified with Sinai and mount Horeb, where the Law was given, so in this passage Esau represents the Law.  I am not saying that in every instance where we read of Esau, he represents the Law.  It is not wise for us to make that kind of general assumption.  We have to look at the context whenever we come across a reference to Esau.  But regarding the way that the Lord has laid out this chapter, Esau is a type and figure of the Law.

And remember that Esau was angry with Jacob.  Why was he angry?  It was because Jacob did him wrong.  He lied, and he was deceitful when he pretended to be his brother Esau and received the blessing (from Isaac) as a result.  That was sin.  He has sinned against his brother, so Esau is the offended one, and it was Esau’s intent to kill his brother because of that offense.  Just think of that in terms of Esau representing the Law of God.  The Law of God is offended (with sin), and in response, what does the Bible tell us about what does the Law intend to do to the one who has transgressed the Law?  The wages of sin is death.  The Law intends to smite and kill the sinner, just like Esau intended to kill Jacob.

But now they are about to meet after this 40-year period that Jacob had been in Haran, so messengers are sent by Jacob to his brother to inform him of his coming with his large family – several wives and many children – and his servants and flocks.  But before Jacob sees Esau, he wants to give him these presents.  He wants Esau to receive the offering.  And it was his hope, as we read in Genesis 32:20:

Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me.

Jacob wants to appease him with the present.  Again, the present was all those animals, and when we added them up, it totaled 550, and if we break down the number “550,” it breaks down to “5 x 10 x 11,” and the number “5” has to do with the atonement.  The number “10,” has to do with completeness, which makes sense considering that we are looking at Jacob’s flocks and wives as a picture of all that were to be saved.  So it is the completeness of the atonement.  And the number “11” points to the 11,000 years of history when the Lord Jesus went to the cross to demonstrate the atonement.  So the flock that went before as the “offering” was like a sacrifice being offered up to Esau, and it is very fitting that it breaks down to these particular numbers.

And what really clenches this idea is what we are told in Genesis 32:20:

Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease (make an atonement for) him with the present (offering) that goeth before me,

We saw that the word “appease” is Strong’s #3722.  It is the word translated as “atonement.”   It is the word found in Exodus 30:10:

And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements…

It is also Exodus 30:15-16:

The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto JEHOVAH, to make an atonement for your souls. And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel…

And what was the atonement money?  It was .5 or half a shekel, and that is where we get the idea that the number “5” identifies with the atonement.  Then it goes on to say in Exodus 30:16:

…and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation; that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before JHEOVAH, to make an atonement for your souls.

This is the word that is translated as “appease” in our verse.  It is the word “atonement.” 

When we go back to Genesis 32, we read in Genesis 32:20:

Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease (make an atonement for) him with the present (offering) that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face;

And this language, “I will see his face,” is also significant.  We know that Jacob was afraid of seeing the face of his brother Esau because of what he did to him, and because of the threat that Esau intended to kill him.  So Jacob’s hope was that he was sending these “offerings” or “sacrifices” to him for his offense, the thing he was guilty of, and then after Esau received the offering, he will be appeased.  There will be atonement or satisfaction.   You know, that is exactly the Law of God and the salvation program of God wherein Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  He is the offering that was made in order to satisfy the anger of God.  The Law of God has been broken by men, and their transgressions must be dealt with, which means they must die.  The sinners that have offended God must die.  That is according to the Law.  But if their sins were laid upon Jesus…and Jesus was smitten as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  He is the Rock that Moses, a type of the Law, smote two times, which points to Christ being slain at the foundation of the world (when he made the actual atonement for sin), and it points to when the Lord Jesus entered into the world to demonstrate what He had done, and he was smitten and killed a second time by the Law.  And because the Law slew Him as He bore our sins, the Law was satisfied because its demand was death.  Se let us say that the sins of 200 million elect were laid upon Christ, and the Law accused and condemned each one of them, but every one of their sins were laid upon Christ, and He bore them in His body on the tree.  And the Law killed Him (and us in Him), and then the Law is content.  The Law has exacted its vengeance upon the Lord Jesus, and He has died as the Law required.  Then He rose again, without sin, in justification, and in His resurrection, it is a wonderful and glorious declaration that the sins of all His people – all 200 million – are washed away, purged by the fires of hell, or death. 

And now the Law has nothing further against us, and there is no grievance or condemnation against any of God’s elect, no matter what we have done, and no matter what filthy deeds we have been involved with in our thoughts, words, and actions.  No matter how many millions of sins we have committed, they are all paid for – past, present, and future.  They are all washed, baptized in the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ performed before this world was created, and then it was applied through the hearing of the Gospel, and now we are free.  There is no judgment, no wrath, and no anger.  Christ said to the woman caught in adultery, “Hath no man condemned thee?”  She said, “No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”  All manner of iniquity is cast into the depths of the sea, removed as far as the east is from the west.  It is just too wonderful and glorious and incredible to be true, but it is true.  It is what God has done for the sake of His people.

And then afterwards, we can “see the face of God,” as it were, but not before.  Jacob had said, “I will appease or present this atonement for him with this offering that goes before me, and after the atonement has been received, I will see his face.”  Here is why he says that if we look at 1Peter 3:12:

For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

The face of the Lord is against them. 

Let us go to Nahum 1:5:

The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.

The word “presence” is the Hebrew word translated as “face.”  It is the same in the New Testament.  The Hebrew word and the Greek word are both translated as “face” or “presence.”  And, here, the earth is burned at His “face,” and the world, and all that dwell therein. 

Remember what we read in Genesis 3:7-8:

And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of JEHOVAH God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of JEHOVAH God amongst the trees of the garden.

They hid themselves from the presence or face of God.  Immediately, man hid himself from the face of God because of what we read in 1Peter 3:12: “…the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.”  And they knew immediately that God was against them because God had told them that in the day they ate of that tree (and sinned), they would surely die.  And they did die in their souls, and now they hid themselves because their sin was open to the eyes of God, and they sensed His anger toward Him, and they hid from His face.  And it is no wonder when we read Scriptures, like Psalm 98, where it tells us about God’s face and His wrath, in Psalm 68:2:

As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.

Let the wicked perish at the “face” of God.

Or we can go to 2Thessalonians 1 where we read another terrifying Bible verse, in 2Thessalonians 1:7-9:

…when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;

Destruction from the face of the Lord.  That is the punishment – eternal separation from God’s presence, and a complete removal out of His sight.  And since God is omnipresent, the only way to do that is to annihilate the sinner, and destroy him with everlasting destruction so he will not be in the presence of God ever again because he will be obliterated and come to nothing.  This is the judgment of God.  This is what mankind fears deep down.  Referring to Judgment Day, it says in Revelation 6:16-17:

And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

Did you catch what it says in verse 16?  “Hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne.”  God’s presence is so fearful that man wants to be hidden from it, just as Adam and Eve hid themselves among the trees of the garden from the presence of the Lord.  But now the time of final judgment has come, and it is time for the earth and the heaven to flee away, as it says in Revelation 20:11:

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

They will be gone.  Everything will be gone – the sinners, as well as the cursed creation – as everything must be removed from God’s presence.

But there is good news the elect of God, if we use the figure the Bible gives of 200 million.  (Let us say that is the sum total of all God has saved.)  And for us, there is a change made in our lives because of the atonement that has gone before us.  The atonement has been made on our behalf for our sins.  There has been an offering presented to God, and God has received it.  So after the atonement, God’s wrath is pacified.  He has been appeased.  Again, the Law is contented, and there are no longer any demands made concerning the sins of the sinners.  It was once paid, a full payment, and there is no need for any further payment.  There is no double jeopardy.  The one-time offering for sin is what has satisfied the justice of God, and now the elect of God can “see God’s face” in the face of Jesus Christ.  And that is why we come to the Bible.  We come to the light.  We come to the shining forth of the face of God in the light of Jesus Christ on the pages of the Bible, and we are not afraid.  We are not scared off.  We do not hide from the truth.  We embrace the truth.  We love the truth because there is now no more condemnation toward us.  So God points this out, for example, in Revelation 22:4:

And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.

Not only will we see His face, but we will be in His presence for evermore.  He will be in the midst of us.  And, again, “face” and “presence” are one and the same.  God will be present.  His presence will be there into eternity future, and it is all well and good.  All is fine once more.  The relationship has been restored, and we are at peace with God.

Let us look at one last verse, in Psalm 16, and then we will close this study.  It says in Psalm 16:11:

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.