Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #14 of Genesis 32, and we will read Genesis 32:30-32:

And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank.

In our last study, we were looking at the idea of seeing God face to face, as Jacob said in Genesis 32:32:

And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

We saw that there were very definite reasons for Jacob being thankful and wondering about his life being preserved after seeing God face to face because of what we read in Exodus 33:20:

And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

Then God hid him in the cleft of a rock and covered him with His hand as He passed by, and it says in Exodus 33:23:

And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.

That is understandable, but the problem is what we read in the same chapter, in Exodus 33:11:

 And JEHOVAH spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.

So we have a problem.  We have an apparent contradiction, although there are no actual contradictions in the Bible.  Bible critics claim there are actual contradictions, which means there are mistakes, errors, and imperfections, thereby making the Bible unholy, because holiness is related to perfection and absolute and total purity.  And this is something that snares great numbers of theologians (most of them modern theologians) that are natural-minded men, when they allow for “scribal error” in the Bible, they are allowing for “the dead fly to fall into the ointment of the apothecary,” so to speak.  You see, there is a prescribed way of making that ointment of the apothecary, and the “dead fly” cannot be a part of it, and that “little leaven that leavens the lump” is defective.  There is just a “little crack,” and we have that saying, “the edge of the wedge,” so if they can just find the littlest crack, they place the point of their wedge, and they bring the hammer down upon it to bust it open.  And the churches and their theologians have no understanding of that, and they “give in,” saying, “Oh, this is not an important point of doctrine.  It is not a major truth.”  But you see, that is worldly-minded thinking. 

The people of God are Bible believers, and we believe the whole of the Bible.  And if somebody comes and assails what others consider to be a minor point, the elect child of God will defend the truth: “That is not the case, and it is important, as are every jot and tittle and every word of every verse.”  We are not to give way and allow the enemies of the kingdom of God to trample upon the Word, and this is what Bible critics tend to do as they search the Bible, and some are extremely diligent, but only insofar as they search for error to find that “crack.”  They think that in verses like this that are so close together there is an obvious mistake in the Bible, but there is no mistake.  The error lies with the reader; if you think there is a contradiction in the Bible, the mistake is on your part.  It is due to the limitation of the reader for not being able to harmonize both with the whole Scripture, and the only way we can do that is if God allows us to do so.  God is perfectly fine with people thinking that the Bible has mistakes and errors that cause them to think the Bible is a “lesser book,” or that it is just another book.  God allows man to do that because it results in their damnation.  We read about this twisting of the Scripture in a very frightful verse in 2Peter 3:15-16:

And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

That is how God destroys the non-elect sinner and ruins that individual, by allowing them in their arrogance and prideful heart to stand above the Bible as though they are the Bible’s judge.  But it is the other way around.  It is the Word of God, the Bible, that judges a man, and we must come humbly to the Bible, knowing it is the perfect Word of God.  Holy God has given us His holy Word without error.  It is inerrant.  There are no mistakes in the original Greek and Hebrew, but it does not mean it is not difficult and hard to understand.  That is a good way to describe the whole Bible – it is hard to understand.

How can it be that Moses saw God face to face as a man speaketh to his friend, but then it says a few verses later that God says that if any man sees His face, he will die.  But then it is Moses (and not some other man) that God hid in the cleft of a rock, and He does not show him His face, but only His back parts or else he would die.

And we saw that there is a “fulness of God,” and that the word “face” is also the word “presence,” so it has to do with the fulness of God’s being and His holy presence, and He cannot dwell with sin.  He must destroy sin, and we are still in sinful bodies while we live on the earth.  At the end of time, we will be equipped with new resurrected spiritual bodies, and we will be one whole and righteous personality at that point.  The righteousness of Christ will have been fully bestowed upon us in both body and soul, and we will be equipped in all eternity future to live in the very presence and face of God, as we saw in Revelation 22:4.

But that is not now, and at this time we still have these sinful bodies, so we cannot enter into this glorious, hallowed, and powerful and holy presence of God unless we are changed in our body.  That is why the Bible says, “…flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” (1Cor. 15:50)  There must be a change.

So we understand that, but we also started to look at 2John 1:12, and let us turn there again.  John is a type of God (the elder), as God is the Ancient One, and he is writing to the children of God, and it says in 2John 1:12:

Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.

From here, we went to John 16, where the Lord Jesus said in John 16:12:

I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

And we spent some time discussing the very good reasons why God would store up so much hidden information for the time of the end rather than giving it to His people at the beginning of the church age when the Holy Spirit was poured out in 33 A. D.  There was simply no need to know.  I am not sure if that is a military expression, but it is an expression we are familiar with in our time: “It is on a need-to-know basis,” as to when certain information is given to individuals.  “When you need to know, we will tell you.”  That is basically the idea.  And even the saints of God, the true elect that lived over the course of the church age, had no need to know the things that God sealed up until the time of the end. 

Now with some doctrines we do wonder why we could not know them earlier, like the purified doctrine of the faith of Christ (rather than our own faith), a doctrine that settles the whole matter of whose will is involved in salvation – it is all of God’s will, according to His grace and mercy, and He gets all the glory.  But the Lord, for His own purposes, also kept that in reserve until the time of the end.  But it was at the time of the end when the overwhelming majority of elect would become saved, so we could say it was unveiled at a very good point in time. 

But for much of the information, there was no need to know during the church age, and we can see why.  For example, regarding the doctrine of the end of the church age and the duration of the church age itself, there was no need for them to be aware of that information when there were still many centuries to go in the church age, as well as the information regarding the time of the Great Tribulation and the judgment on the churches, or the information about the wheat and the tares growing together.  If they had known that Satan had sowed so many tares in the churches, and that most in the congregations were not true believers, but only feigning to be just men while they were still wicked in heart, then it would have caused unnecessary burden to them over the course of the church age.  It was not God’s purpose, and He wanted both to grow together until the time of the harvest, and the harvest was at the end of the church age.  Then God said to the reapers to separate the wheat from the tares, but it was at the proper time.

So too, regarding the date for Judgment Day.  It was just not necessary for them to know, as we read in Mark 13, the parallel chapter to Matthew 24, the chapter dealing with the time of the end.  We read in Mark 13:11:

But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.

This is an amazing statement that God has said.  We are not to take thought or meditate beforehand, even though everything in the Bible says we are to “think on these things,” and we are to hide the Word of God in our hearts, and to study to show ourselves approved.  Of course we are to think, and think, and think.  But concerning the things of the end, it would have been useless back at that time.  It would have been unfruitful for the men of old to develop end-time scenarios.  And yet, they did so because they did not understand, and they did develop their theologies and their eschatology regarding the time of the end, and they were all wrong.  The Premillennialists, the Postmillennialists, and the Amillennialists, and everyone had major errors, and doctrine after doctrine were incorrect because they thought beforehand, and they did premediate. 

And yet, these things were impossible to know until the “hour” came because the Lord would then open up His Word, and the Holy Ghost would speak.  And that is another amazing thing about this verse: “…but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.”  Of course that connects to 1Corinthians 2, where it says that when we compare spiritual with spiritual, the Holy Ghost teacheth, as it was said to Daniel to seal up the words until the time of the end, and it is linking the revelation (revealing) of that information to the methodology of comparing spiritual with spiritual, because that is the only way the Holy Ghost can speak to us.  And yet, notice that it is not the Holy Ghost that is speaking, but it is us (the elect) as we follow the guidance of the Spirit, “here a little, there a little,” and then it is actually the Holy Ghost that is teaching.

Let us go to 3John where we will find another statement that is very similar to what we read in 2John.  It says in 3John 1:13-14:

I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee: But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee. ..

 

Very interesting, is it not?  Again, he has many things to write, but he will not write with ink and pen.  If he did, it would have to be added to the Bible.  And this has to do with the additional information the Lord Jesus was referring to in John 16:12-13:

I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth...

And that identifies with only one period of time, the time of the end.  I have referred to this a few times, but it is always good to remind ourselves.  It says in Daniel 12:4:

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

And, again, it says in Daniel 12:9:

And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

There is a strong implication that at the time of the end, there would be the unsealing of the book, the Bible, and then the words that Christ yet had to say would be revealed.  The information would come forth, as we saw in Mark 13.  In that “hour,” the Holy Ghost would speak, and that is exactly what He has done over the course of the Great Tribulation and continuing into the Day of Judgment, as it says in Romans 2:5:

… the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

The conjunction “and” connects the day of wrath to “the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”  Both are combined.  That is, the day of wrath is also the day of revelation, the revealing, as it says in Luke 17:30: “…in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” He is coming in the clouds, immediately after the Tribulation, and every eye shall see Him.  The clouds identify with the commandments, and His coming is revealed in the commandments of God, the Bible, and we see His coming in the Word.  It is the revelation or revealing of it.

Once again, 3John is telling us the same thing as is 2John, and the important thing to our study in Genesis 32 is in 3John:12: “But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face.”  It said the same thing in 2John.  We could also go to 1Corinthians 13, known as the “love chapter,” and yet, this chapter has much more in it than those beautiful verses dealing with love or charity.  It says in 1Corinthians 13:9:

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

The Apostle Paulo was writing in the first century A. D. before the Bible was completed, so that statement of knowing in part and prophesying in part applies to the church age.  Then it says in 1Corinthians 13:10:

But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

Notice, again, how this fits in with John 16:13:

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth…

Again, it said, “But when that which is perfect is come,” it does not name His Person, but it is saying He is perfect, and the One who is Perfect is God.  The Holy Spirit is God and is perfect.  “But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away,” and in 1994 with the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Bible opened up.  How can a man read a book that is sealed?  At best, you can have a little understanding, but God took the seals off, and at the time of the end the people of God are being given the meat of the Word.  All during the church age, it was only the “milk of the word,” and God likens that time period as though He were feeding children.  But at the time of the end, we become full grown.  We become a man, and we put away childish things, and that is what it says here in 1Corinthians 13:11:

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

That is, we put away those things that were “in part,” the partial understanding.  We have received correction.  A partial understanding was that Christ paid for sins on the cross in 33 A. D., but now we have been corrected.  He necessarily paid for sins at the foundation of the world.  Or another partial understanding was that hell was a literal place where God would punish the sinner with lashes for ever and ever and ever, without end.  But the correction and the perfect understanding has come that “hell” is the grave, and the grave is death, and God cannot eternally apply lashes to the sinner when He is under His own Law, and the Law of God says that you cannot give more than 40 lashes, so the teaching is that there is a limit to punishment.  So we have come to understand that finally there must be the death or annihilation of the sinner, and then the wrath of God will have been appeased, and the sinner will have been removed out of existence for evermore.  And in doctrine after doctrine, we have come to the knowledge of the truth and the purification of truth concerning the “faith of Christ,” baptism as the washing away of sin, and the Sunday Sabbath.  Although they worshipped correctly on Sunday, they were never able to defend the spiritual reason why we worship on Sundays.  But now God has opened it up and revealed that truth, along with so many others. 

This is the time we put away childish things, the high places and the doctrines of the church age concerning marriage and divorce, and so forth.  Then it goes on to say in 1Corinthians 13:12:

For now we see through a glass, darkly…

Again, he was speaking during the time of the church age.  Then it goes on to say in 1Corinthians 13:12:

… but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

You see our phrase, “face to face,” and how it was used in 2John and 3John?  He had many things to write, but he would not write, but He would come and speak face to face.  In the time when partial understanding is done away, God would speak face to face.  It is the time when the Spirit will guide us into all truth, bringing us to a perfection of understanding before the end comes.