• | Chris McCann
  • Audio: Length: 25:46
  • Passages covered: Genesis 33:4-8, Genesis 45:12-15, Genesis 46:28, Acts 20:37-38, Romans 16:3-4, Acts 20:37, Galatians 6:16.

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Genesis 33 Series, Study 6, Verses 4-8

Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #6 of Genesis 33, and we will read Genesis 33:4-8:

And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept. And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant. Then the handmaidens came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves. And Leah also with her children came near, and bowed themselves: and after came Joseph near and Rachel, and they bowed themselves. And he said, What meanest thou by all this drove which I met? And he said, These are to find grace in the sight of my lord.

We have been looking at this meeting between twin brothers Jacob and Esau, and we have seen that it is a meeting of the Law of God (as represented by Esau) and the Lord Jesus Christ as He has saved His people.  Christ is coming with His wives, His children, and His flocks, as it were.  This is the spiritual picture.  Historically, it was Jacob, but spiritually it is Christ coming with His spiritual wives, all those He has saved.  And He comes with His spiritual children of God, which also points to all those He has saved.  And He comes with His spiritual flocks of God, which would also point to all those God has saved.

So his brother Esau is coming, and Jacob goes before his wives, his children, and his flocks as the intercessor, as he is a type of Christ, and he had sent the offering (the atonement) before him, and he is waiting to see if it will be accepted and received.  And he finds that it is received, as Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him.  And they wept.

We spent some time looking at what the Bible has to say about falling on the “neck.”  There are at least three instances, although there may be more, where people are meeting like this, and in two of the three instances it involves family.  In the third instance, it is not the physical family, but it is the spiritual family that is in view.

So let us take a look at these, and we will see that they are similar to the instance in which Esau fell on Jacob’s neck, and kissed him, and they wept. 

Let us go to Genesis 45 where Joseph revealed himself to his brethren after there had been two years of famine in the land, and this really points to the year 1994, the dividing point of the Great Tribulation.  And Christ revealed Himself as being outside of the corporate church.  Throughout the church age, Christ was in the midst of the churches.  And yet, when we came to the time of the end, the people of God (the brethren of Christ) discovered that He was no longer in the churches, but He was outside the churches.  We discovered that because God revealed it in the Bible through the Scriptures.  So this is the historical situation.  It is the revealing of Joseph to his brethren at the point of two years of famine, which Acts 7 calls “great tribulation,” and we read in Genesis 45:12-15:

And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you. And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen; and ye shall haste and bring down my father hither. And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck. Moreover he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them: and after that his brethren talked with him.

We only read that Joseph fell upon Benjamin’s neck and wept.  He did kiss his brethren and weep with them, but we do not read that he fell upon their necks.

Another similar account is in Genesis 46.  After Joseph revealed himself to his brethren, he told them to go back home and get his father and all their families, and bring them all to Egypt.  So Jacob did come, and we read in Genesis 46:28:

And he sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to direct his face unto Goshen; and they came into the land of Goshen. And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen, and presented himself unto him; and he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.

This was Joseph and Jacob, and it would seem it was Joseph who fell on his father’s neck, and wept on his neck a good while.  Again, the spiritual period in view would be the Great Tribulation.  And not only that, but it is the “dividing point” of the Great Tribulation.  These two family members had been separated for some time, and we can actually know how long the separation had been between Joseph and Benjamin, and Joseph and Jacob, because when Jacob came into Egypt, Pharaoh asked him how old he was, and he said he was 130.  And we know his age when Joseph was born was 91, so that would reveal Joseph’s age as 39 at this time.  Significantly, Jacob is 130, and that number is “10 x 13,” because the Great Tribulation began after 13,000 years of earth’s history.  And Joseph’s age of 39 is “3 x 13,” so there is a strong emphasis on the number “13” in this account. 

We can also figure this out because Joseph was 30 when Pharaoh called him out of prison, and then there were seven years of plenty, plus two years of famine.  So “30 + 7 + 2 = 39.  So that is confirmation.  And not only does Acts 7 call this dearth “great tribulation,” but even with the ages of Jacob and Joseph, we see that it ties in with the period of the end, which is our time period.   The year 1988 was the 13,000th year of earth’s history.  But more specifically, this points to 1994, after the first part of the famine of two years.  They were in the land of Canaan, but now Joseph had revealed himself, and they are coming out of the land of Canaan for the remaining five years of famine, just as 1994 was the “dividing point” between the first 2,300 days when the people of God were in the churches where there was famine.  But then starting in 1994, God sent forth the Latter Rain outside of the churches, as pictured by Egypt.  So these are two instance of “falling on the neck,” and both identify with Great Tribulation.

There is a third instance in the New Testament in Acts 20, and this takes place near Ephesus.  The Apostle Paul called for the elders of the church in Ephesus to come to him, and then he preached the Gospel to them, but it also tells of a great many things concerning his life.  Then after telling them that he had not shunned to declare the whole counsel of God, they prayed together, and it says in Acts 20:37-38:

And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him, Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship.

The historical setting is that Paul is going to Jerusalem, and in Jerusalem he will go to the temple, and then some of the Jews will recognize him and charge him with bringing a Gentile into the temple.  And then they will forcibly drag him out of the temple.  This is the turning point in the book of Acts, where the previous chapters all related to the church age, but in Acts 21, we get into the end of the church age.  He was being drawn or dragged out of the temple (church).  He was forced out of the church, and then in the next few chapters he is in prison as the Jews tried to have him killed by the Roman authorities.  But he appealed to Caesar, and unto Caesar he must go, and that is why in Acts 27 he is onboard the ship on his way to Rome.  And Rome would represent the world.  He is leaving Jerusalem, and leaving the church, and going into the world, and then the ship was shipwrecked.  With the destruction of the ship, God is indicating the church age is over.  With Paul coming out of Jerusalem and going to Rome, it indicates that the church age was over, and we must go out into the world.

So it really starts here in Acts 20 as Paul is leaving Ephesus, and the elders of Ephesus from the church at Ephesus.  He is leaving the church, and  it says, “And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him, Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more.”  Here, we can see Paul, who is often a pattern of the elect believers, to be a type of Christ as Christ’s Spirit was about to depart from the churches.  And when did that happen?  The Spirit of Christ departed in 1988 when the Great Tribulation began, but it was not the official end of the church age until 1994.  So we have further tie-in with the previous two Scriptures in Genesis 45 and Genesis 46 when Joseph revealed himself.  It was at the dividing point of the Great Tribulation.

But even here, we would have to say the Great Tribulation is in view in Acts 20, as it was the point where Paul came out of the church.  So that would be three out of three instances that tie in with the Great Tribulation, and we wonder about this “falling upon the neck and weeping.”  Historically, it is no problem when Joseph fell upon Benjamin’s neck, or when Benjamin fell upon his neck, because they had not seen each other for some time.

Joseph was now 39, and he was sold as a slave by his brothers when he was 17, so that would mean it was 22 years later, or we could say it was “23” inclusive years, which is the number of “tribulation,” so that is another connection with the Great Tribulation.  From age 17 to 39 is 23 inclusive years, and that is when Joseph revealed himself to his brethren.  And the same thing is true of his meeting with his father Jacob, which would have been 23 inclusive years earlier that he last saw his father.  Then we have the tie-in in Acts 20 with the Great Tribulation.

So we wonder, “What is going on with the weeping on the neck?”   I have come across a verse in Romans 16 that I think will further help us define the neck.  It says in Romans 16:3-4:

Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.

The Apostle Paul was moved to write this in the book of Romans.  We know that Tertius was the one who penned it as the scribe, so that teaches us that Paul did not literally write Romans.  He had a scribe write it.  And as God dictated these words to Paul, Paul then dictated it to his scribe.  So this is the Word of God, but the Lord is moving Paul to write of this couple that were said to be “helpers in Christ: Who have for my life laid down their own necks.”  It would make sense for it to say, “laid down their own lives,” but it did not say that.  It says they “laid down their own necks,” and this is the same word used in Acts 20 where they fell on Paul’s neck.  So here, we can get a better grasp on what the “neck” points to.

You know, there is an expression, “I risked my neck for you,” and, also, “I am sticking my neck out for you.”  It means the same thing.  They are risking danger to their lives, in some fashion, and sometimes they are literally risking their lives.  For example, if there is a wounded soldier lying out on the field, and another solider runs out and carries him to safety, then the latter has “risked his neck” or “risked his life.”  The source of that saying can probably be traced to this verse: “Who have for my life laid down their own necks.”  So “necks” would be a synonym for “life.”  Or we could say that the spiritual meaning of “neck” would be “life.”

And if we go back to Acts 20 regarding Paul and the elders of the church who were believers at Ephesus, it says in Acts 20:37:

And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him,

Again, as I mentioned, Paul is a type of Christ leaving the churches and they would see His face no more, so they are falling on Christ’s “life.”  The “neck” is representing the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, and, of course, we all fall on Christ’s life because of what He has done – the life that He has, and the life that He gave for us.   We are alive, and we have (eternal) life ourselves.  And this would also be in view, I think, when we go back to Genesis 45:14:

And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck.

It was reciprocal.  First, Joseph fell upon Benjamin’s neck, and in response, Benjamin fell upon his neck.  So it is as though Joseph, a type of Christ, has given life to his brother Benjamin.  And having life, Benjamin responds by weeping upon Joseph’s neck, or Christ’s neck.  So that appears to be the spiritual meaning of the “neck” in these verses, and it would be a similar idea with Jacob in the next chapter – they are falling on the neck (life).

But does it fit in Genesis 33?  It is more difficult because it is Esau, in verse 4, who ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and they wept.  So Esau was the one falling upon the neck of Jacob, and Jacob is a type of Christ.  I do not know how to understand that, except to say that they are twin brothers, with one identifying with the Law and, therefore, with God, and the other representing the Lord Jesus, the Word who saves.  So both the Word and the Law have life, and there is this embracing and falling upon the neck that would relate.  It is just revealing to us (in some way) the “life” that is in the Word of God, the Bible.

I think we have covered that enough, so let us go on to Genesis 33:5:

And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant.

Do you hear the Gospel there?  Who are these wives and children?  And Jacob responded, “The children which God hath graciously given thy servant.”  It is the grace of God because the children point to all those that God has saved.  They are the Israel of God, or “spiritual Israel,” as we read in Galatians 6:16:

And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

It is as though seeing the “Israel of God,” he asked, “How did you obtain them?”  It is as if within the counsel of the Godhead, the Triune and Holy God, the question is asked, “Where did these children come from?”  It is like the question that was asked in Revelation 7 regarding the great multitude, “Whence came they?”  And the answer came in Revelation 7:14: “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”  And yet, every single one of that great multitude could answer that they were children of God because of God’s grace: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”

And so Jacob says, “The children which God hath graciously given thy servant.