Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #10 of Genesis 33, and we are going to read Genesis 33:12-16:
And he said, Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before thee. And he said unto him, My lord knoweth that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me: and if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die. Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure, until I come unto my lord unto Seir. And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with me. And he said, What needeth it? let me find grace in the sight of my lord. So Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir.
In our last study, we started to look at the spiritual reasons why Jacob would not allow Esau or his 400 men to lead them into the land of Canaan. We were looking at a similar spiritual picture regarding Moses not being allowed to lead Israel into the land of Canaan, so let us go back to that account in Numbers 20:9-12:
And Moses took the rod from before JEHOVAH, as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also. And JEHOVAH spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.
This was the situation when God told Moses to speak to the rock, but he smote the rock twice (or a second time), and because of this, God told Moses, “Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.”
Further on, we read what Moses said about this incident in Deuteronomy 1:37-38:
Also JEHOVAH was angry with me for your sakes, saying, Thou also shalt not go in thither. But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go in thither: encourage him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.
So we have these two individuals, Moses and Joshua, and in this case, Moses is a type of the Law of God, and Joshua is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. The name “Joshua” is basically the name Jesus. And Moses led them all the way through the wilderness, right up to the point of crossing over into the Promised Land. He led them the entire 40 years, but then in that 40th year, God did not allow him to “finish the job,” or for Israel to follow him across Jordan into the land of Canaan. Moses could not go before them. He was not to go over the river Jordan, and Israel was not to follow him. Instead they were to follow Joshua, and there God is teaching a very important biblical principle that the Law can direct you, and teach you, and instruct you about the kingdom of heaven, and when we follow the Law in various ways, it is a blessing in our lives, but as far as salvation is concerned, the crossing over Jordan and entering into the land of Canaan was a spiritual picture of salvation and entering into the kingdom of God, as well as the end of the world and the entering into the new heaven and new earth. And as far as that is concerned, the Law cannot accomplish that. The Law cannot bring you to the promise of God, as God promised Abraham concerning the land of Canaan being an “everlasting habitation.” The Law can do much, and, of course, it is good, but the Bible tells us that the “end of the Law is Christ.” He is the end of the Law, and we can read that in Romans 10:2-3:
For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
How did Israel seek to establish their own righteousness? It was through keeping the Law, but they were ignorant of God’s righteousness, which was through the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, Christ did the work. It was His faith. It was all in Him, and not in the sinner. It is not our works of righteousness, which the Bible says are “as filthy rags,” but it is Christ’s work that was finished at the foundation of the world, and it was imputed to those that He had determined to save.
Then it says in Romans 10:4:
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
This is telling us that the Law leads us to Christ. It directs us to Him. Of course the Law also shows us our sins, and that is one of the reasons that God gave the Law, as we read in Romans 3:19-20:
Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
God sent forth His Word, and the Word is the Law, and people heard it within the day of salvation, and it shined the light of truth, and they saw their sins. The commandments revealed the breaking of the Law by the sinners, and it convinced them of sin, and it showed them their guilt so that their mouths may be stopped. They no longer thought they were “good people,” as most of the people of the world think of themselves. Even murderers would say, “Oh, yes, I am basically a good person.” But, no, none are good – no not one. None are righteous. And that was the purpose of the Law in showing the one reading the Bible that they are guilty, and they can never get right with God by keeping the Law. The Law just shows us our desperate need of a Saviour, and that is why Christ is “the end of the law.” When the Law would bring us sinners to that point, and we would feel the desperate wicked heart of unbelief within us and the multitude of our sins, if we were one of God’s elect, we would cry out, “Dear Father, save me! Save me! Christ is the Saviour!” And if we were one of these elect, then He did save us, and that is why Christ is “the end of the law.”
That is why it was Joshua who led Israel into the Promised Land, and not Moses. Moses, a type of the Law in that historical situation, could not do it. And that is the same thing we are finding in our passage in Genesis 33, so let us look at one other place concerning Moses, in Deuteronomy 34:1:
And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And JEHOVAH shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan, And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar. And JEHOVAH said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.
Then Moses died. He did not lead them and go before Israel as they entered into Canaan, and that was in the 40th year of their sojourn. And here in Genesis 33, Jacob had been 40 years in Haran. These circumstances and events we are reading about in the meeting with his brother are taking place in that same 40th year. It was the same year as Jacob’s name was changed to “Israel.” He was 100, which was 40 years from the time that he left Canaan to go to Haran, so there is a similarity with Moses not being able to lead Israel over Jordan to Canaan in the 40th years of the wilderness sojourn and the 40th year of Jacob’s sojourn when Esau came to meet him and wanted to go before him. But Jacob would not have it. “No, you cannot lead my children. You cannot lead my flocks.” He said, “…and the flocks and herds with young are with me: and if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die.” This is the reason why Jacob would not even allow some of Esau’s men to stay with him because all 400 of the men would also represent the Law, and none of the Law could lead that great multitude (as typified by the children and flocks) into the kingdom of heaven. It must be Christ, and Jacob is a figure of Christ, and he will lead them.
We see that this is exactly what happened, historically. But let me read, again, Genesis 33:13-14:
And he said unto him, My lord knoweth that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me: and if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die. Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure, until I come unto my lord unto Seir.
Now I mentioned that Jacob’s family and flocks typify the great multitude, and we spent some time talking about that. And here, I think we have a little spiritual reference to what we have thought and talked about in the past regarding the great multitude that God saved out of Great Tribulation in our day – many of them are young. Many that God saved were, more than likely, either in their mother’s womb, or they were toddlers and little children from all over the world. I am not saying they were all young, as God saved people of all ages, but when we are looking at that great multitude that numbers, perhaps, 175 or 180 or 185 million people, maybe only 15 million or 20 million or 40 million were adults, but the vast majority of them are very young. And that would serve to protect them over the course of this prolonged judgment for a number of years, as their parents would watch out for them, and it would also allow the Lord to do what He is planning to do to get His Word to them in order that these sheep be fed.