Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #19 of Genesis 33.  We started off in Genesis 33:17 regarding Jacob making booths (tabernacles) for his cattle.  And the name of the place was called Succoth because it identifies with booth or tabernacle.  So we decided to look into what the Bible has to say about the feast of Tabernacles and this whole idea of “booths.”  What purpose does it show?  What is it for?

In trying to understand this, we went to Nehemiah 8, and we saw that the Lord connected the feast of Tabernacles to the “feast of the Bible,” as Mr. Camping used to say.  There was the reading of the Word of God, and there were thirteen men causing the people to understand, and the people did understand.  And it was all in relationship to the feast of Tabernacles, from the first day until the last day. 

So we understand that the Word of God, the Bible, is central to this feast.  It has much to do with the spiritual fulfilment of the feast of Tabernacles.

From there, we went to Isaiah 4, and I will read that again.  It says in Isaiah 4:6:

And there shall be a tabernacle (booth) for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.

There would be a tabernacle, or booth, that would serve as “a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.”

From there, we saw that Isaiah 25:4 spoke of the Lord God being, “a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat…”  It is very similar language to that found in Isaiah 4:6, which has to do with that booth or tabernacle, and that is because God Himself and the tabernacle are completely identified with one another, just as God and His Word completely identify with one another.  Christ is The Word, and it is the Word itself that serves to protect the elect people of God, the “Israelite born,” and they are the only ones that are qualified to come under the booth prepared for them by God as God opened the Scriptures to reveal a great many doctrines that were never previously understood.  And God brought it forth to the understanding of His people at the time of the end, and it was so much information that the Bible likens it to another covenant.  Of course nothing has been added to the Word of God, or anything of that nature, but it is the revealing of the hidden things, the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, regarding the spiritual dimension or underlying spiritual teachings of many things that were in the Bible.  The Lord finally brought these things forth, and when the elect people of God hear them, they “sit under them.”  They are in submission to them, and it is the Word that protects them.

Let me give just one example of how properly understanding a teaching or doctrine can serve to protect and keep from harm the child of God.  We can look at the information having to do with the judgment on the churches and congregations.  There was the departure of God’s Holy Spirit and the entering into the churches of Satan, and the fact that there was no salvation possible there throughout the 23-year Great Tribulation.  And God made this information known to His people, and He further commanded them to depart out of the midst and flee to the mountains because it was outside the churches that the Lord was saving the great multitude.  So the elect of God left the churches, and they went out.  Even though they were elect, some may not have yet been saved, and outside the churches God then did save them.  So this was a doctrine or teaching that the Lord revealed at the proper time regarding the end of the church age, and this certainly protected the people of God because anyone who remained behind was in a place where there was no Latter Rain or working of the Holy Spirit, so none could have been saved.  Of course God guaranteed that His elect would (come out) by moving in them to will and to do of His good pleasure, and  to obey His commandment to come out.  But, nonetheless, we can see how the booth, which identifies with the true doctrine of the Bible, is a refuge.  It is a place of protection from the judgment of God, which came first on the churches, and now is on the world.

From there, we went to Isaiah 28, and we are going to go back there because we are looking at the word “refuge,”  since God Himself is said to be a refuge from the storm, and a shadow from the heat, and that is the very same thing that was said of the tabernacle.  So we are understanding that God and the tabernacle, as far as it being brought to spiritual completion at the time of the end, are one and the same.  And the only way that could be is that the tabernacle is made up of the Word of God.  Of course there is no problem with that because we are not looking at a tabernacle or booth made with branches or wood from this tree or that tree, as God commanded.  That is one level of understanding, the surface level of the Scripture as seen in the Law that God gave Israel.  He would tell them what to do, and they would do it, and they were acting out a spiritual picture, and that is the level we are looking at when we say that the Word of God, the Bible, is what is in view with the booth.  It is the spiritual booth or tabernacle that protects God’s elect people (spiritual Israel) over the course of the fulfilment time period from 1994 to 2033, according to biblical evidence. 

So as we understand it is the truth of the Word of God, we can see the opposite is in view in Isaiah 28:15:

Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:

Also, it says in Isaiah 28:17:

Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

They have made lies their refuge, and, again, this is what the churches have done.  They are apostate and unfaithful at our time of the end.  They have twisted, perverted, and changed the Gospel of grace that gives God the glory.  Salvation is all of God, and He has saved His people.  But they have added works to the Gospel – all kinds of works of one sort or another.  The most common would probably be the work of “accepting Christ” or the work of “belief.”  “You must believe.  Christ has done it all, but the work of Christ in paying for your sins is of no real value unless you accept Him.  Yes – Jesus has paid for your sins.  He has done everything except the one thing you have to do.  You have to reach out and accept it, and take it to yourself.  You have to make a decision for Christ, and if you do not, you are going to perish.”  Do you see how valueless and demeaning that is toward the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ, as they think His work was not all-sufficient?  It was not able to accomplish what He had set out to do.  Because they do not understand, they cannot explain how it could be that Christ has died for all your sins, except for the sin of not accepting Him.  But if you do not accept Him, what would that be?  It would be sin.  Would that not also have been paid for by Him?  “No,” they would say.  It is as if that sin is in a special category of being an unpardonable sin, I suppose.  It is just a mess – their gospel is a false gospel that has no basis in the truth of the Word of God.  It is a gospel that is made of lies.  And it is not just me saying that, but God Himself says in Ezekiel 13:22:

Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life:

You see, they give the promise of life.  That is the consistent thing, whether it was Old Testament Israel or the New Testament church: “Walk down the aisle.”  What is the promise?  Life.  “Accept Christ.”  What is the promise?  You will live.  You will have eternal life.  And that is a lie. 

Of course it is true that Christ obtained eternal life for those He has saved, but it is a lie when they say that you can control the Lord’s atoning work, and you can have it applied to your life simply by making a choice.  You see, it is all really in your control.  You are actually “God,” with all the power of life and death.  No – that is nonsense.  The Bible gives God the glory.  God gets the glory because only He deserves the glory.  It is His magnificent salvation program, and God said, “…I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.  This is the Bible’s clear teaching, and yet, they ignore it, dismiss it, and do not search for it.  They are in darkness regarding it, and they lack understanding, so they spue their lies, and these are the lies God is referring to in Isaiah 28:15 and Isaiah 28:17.  It is as though they are speaking: “…we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.”  It is not the protection of Almighty God, but it is the protection of their theologians and their erroneous confessions and creeds, or the protection of their pastor’s teaching, or their denominational stance that says, “These are the things that you must do, and you will certainly go to heaven.”  Lies, lies lies!  And they actually offer no protection to the sinner, and that sinner will be eternally destroyed by trusting in them, and that is what God is pointing out in verse 17 when He speaks of the hail.  The “hail” is a figure of speech referring to God’s wrath: “…and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.”  Wherever that individual sinner is trying to hide, God’s wrath will destroy that flimsy protection he is trying to hide under regarding his false teachings and gospel.  That is what the Lord is basically saying in Revelation 6:14-17:

And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 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?

Do you think that those rocks and dens were able to hide them?  Obviously not.  They were no protection whatsoever.  God destroyed their refuge made of lies, and their false teachings and false gospels, and then He destroyed them.  But the reason we came here was to look at the word “refuge.”  Their lies are their refuge, but they are no refuge at all.  We understand that.

But when God is our refuge, and when the tabernacle (booth) is our refuge, then it is not lies that protect us, but it would be the opposite – it is the truth.  And Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.  So it is the truth of the Word that is our safety.  It is our protection that God has made for us to keep us safe from all harm, spiritually, throughout the Great Tribulation period when He brought us out of the churches and opened up various teachings.  We just followed the Word, and we stayed under the truth of the Word of God.  Do not go backward because when you go backward, it is as though you come out from under the booth, and then the heat of the sun and the storm of the wrath of God will beat down upon you.  This is why only those that are “Israelite born” can adequately fulfill the spiritual meaning of the feast of Tabernacles.  Only God’s elect will endure to the end.  That is, we will stay under the booth that God has made for us.  We will maintain faithfulness.  We will be faithful stewards of the mysteries of God all the way through until the end on the last day of this prolonged judgment period.

I just want to read Psalm 46 before we close this study, as we read of God being our refuge, and that Psalm is also pointing to the day of the Lord, as it says in Psalm 46:1-11:

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted. JEHOVAH of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. Come, behold the works of JEHOVAH, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. JEHOVAH of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.