Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #22 of Genesis 33, and we are going to read Genesis 33:19-20:

And he bought a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for an hundred pieces of money. And he erected there an altar, and called it Elelohe-Israel.

That brings us to the end of the chapter.  We talked about the purchase of a parcel of a field, as Jacob bought this piece of ground.  In today’s study we are going to look at the next part of verse 19: “…where he had spread his tent.”  The Hebrew word translated as “tent” is Strong’s #168, and it is a word that is also translated as “tabernacle,” often in relationship to the tabernacle in the wilderness when Israel came out of Egypt.  It is also the same word used to describe the tabernacle of the congregation that was set up in Shiloh.  Let us turn to Joshua 18:1:

And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there. And the land was subdued before them.

Spiritually, this tabernacle, or tent, served the same function as the house of God.  It represents the same thing as the house of God in the Bible, and we know this because God actually called the tabernacle “the house of God” in Judges 18:30-31:

And the children of Dan set up the graven image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day of the captivity of the land. And they set them up Micah's graven image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

If we did not realize that it was the tabernacle (tent) that was in Shiloh, we might think it was the same house of God that Solomon built when he built a temple.  But it was not – it was a tent.  It was the tabernacle, and by calling it “the house of God,” God is equating the two, and we can see the spiritual picture.  And we can also see why God forsook the tabernacle in Shiloh, and He tells us about that in Psalm 78:57-58:

But turned back, and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow. For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.

This was just like we read in Judges 18 of the tribe of Dan which took Micah’s graven image and set it up for their own, and they did that all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.  And here, God is referring to this, and it goes on to say in Psalm 78:59-61:

When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel: So that he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men; And delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy’s hand.

We can really see the similarity between what happened to Shiloh and what would happen later to Judah and the house of God.  It really was a prefiguring of that later historical disaster when the Lord would raise up the Babylonians to come against Judah, and they would destroy the temple.  And we could say that the forsaking of Shiloh, which was called the house of God, and the judgment against Solomon’s temple, which was also the house of God, both picture the judgment of God on the apostate New Testament churches, which are called the house of God.  So these were all types and figures, and in Jeremiah 4 God refers to His tent being spoiled, and yet, at the time that God moved Jeremiah to write this, the house of God at Shiloh had been long gone for many centuries, so it was not referring to that, but it was referring to the house of God located in Jerusalem.  It says in Jeremiah 4:20:

Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.

Then in Jeremiah 7, the Lord ties together Shiloh with the people of Judah, in Jeremiah 7:12-16:

But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith JEHOVAH, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim. Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.

God forsook Shiloh, and now He had forsaken Judah.  It is the consistent teaching of the Word of God concerning the outward representation of His kingdom on earth.  Any entity that identifies with God and represents God and His kingdom must remain faithful.  They do not stand by grace, but they stand in a works relationship to God, and at any point they fail to maintain that standard of good works, which is obedience to God’s commandments, God will come and forsake them, and cast them out of His sight.  And He did this with Israel in the North, with Judah in the South, and with the New Testament corporate church.

But it will not happen again because all those outward representations of God’s kingdom have come to an end, and God is dealing directly with His people, those who have truly become saved, and He is not calling us to form a nation or to enter into a physical church, but He is dealing with us individually, one-on-one.

The Lord makes reference to Shiloh one more time, and He calls Israel to remember it, in Jeremiah 26:2-6:

Thus saith JEHOVAH; Stand in the court of the JEHOVAH'S house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in JEHOVAH'S house, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminish not a word: If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings. And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith JEHOVAH; If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you, To hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early, and sending them, but ye have not hearkened; Then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.

Then it says in Jeremiah 26:8-9:

Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that JEHOVAH had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die. Why hast thou prophesied in the name of JEHOVAH, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of JEHOVAH.

We can certainly see that they got the point.  They realized they were being compared to Shiloh.  And when God said they would “be like Shiloh,” they would be desolate without an inhabitant.  The wrath of God would come upon them, just as the people of Israel understood that it had previously come upon Shiloh.

So we are reading of the tent that Jacob spread out in Genesis 33:19:

And he bought a parcel of a field, where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor…

And this was in the land of Canaan, and that is Israel, and that was the Promised Land and represents God’s kingdom, so this figures in this picture of God establishing a tent or a house.  If you find it difficult to think of this in terms of a “tabernacle,” then just think of “house” or “temple,” as these are common spiritual picture that we have come to understand as God building His house.  And we also realize that the house can be the corporate entity, the corporate church, which came under the wrath of God at the time of the end, or it can be the eternal house, or eternal church, that goes on for evermore, and cannot be destroyed. 

Here, we are not really given any insight into which “tabernacle” or “house” is in view.  Is it the eternal house?  Or is it the temporal house, the corporate church?  But we do know that the Lord uses this same figure of a tabernacle in both ways, just as He uses “house,” which I have mentioned several times in regard to Hebrews 3:6: “But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we…”  We are His house, a spiritual house, that is made up of living stones as God has saved us.

It is the same idea with the “tabernacle,” if we go to Proverbs 14:11:

The house of the wicked shall be overthrown: but the tabernacle of the upright shall flourish.

Do you see how “house” and “tabernacle” are virtually interchangeable?  The second part of the verse is contrasting the first part of the verse.  If it had said, “the house of the upright shall flourish,” we would understand that to mean the spiritual house of God that is eternal and which God has made for us, as 2Corinthians 5 speaks of “an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”   But, here, He does not use the word “house,” but He uses the word “tabernacle,” which is our word “tent.”  The tabernacle, or tent, of the upright shall flourish.  That  is, it will not be overthrown.  It will not be destroyed.  This is really illustrated so that we can understand it, in Isaiah 54:1:

Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith JEHOVAH.

The children of the desolate.  They are the children of the “desolation,” that great multitude saved out of Great Tribulation, and they can be referred to, or identified with, the children of the desolate.  Then it goes on to say in Isaiah 54:2-3:

Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

What would be in view if we understand this “tent” to be the same ideas as a “house?”  And we know God uses the latter figure both corporately and concerning His eternal church.  He likens the salvation of His people to the building of a house.  And the same principle and idea is in view regarding the tabernacle: “Enlarge the place of thy tent…”  In the Old Testament, when God saved individuals, it was like adding them to His tent, and you would not have needed a very big tent.  Then over the course of the church age, there were many more than in the Old Testament that came into the “tabernacle” or “tent” of God in salvation as the firstfruits were saved over the course of the 1,955 years of the church age, but the “tent” still did not need to be enlarged until we got to the time of the end after the church age was over, followed by that grievous 2,300-day period (of spiritual famine).  Then on September 7, 1994, God began the Latter Rain.  The Latter Rain went out to the nations at a time when the world had a tremendous population of about seven billion people, and God saved the best until last by saving that great multitude from every tribe, nation, and tongue.  How would we picture that if we are using the image of a tent?  We would have to “enlarge” the tent and “stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations; spare not…”  That is, do not move the stakes back just a little bit, but make sure there is plenty of room because a tremendous number are entering into that “tent,” the eternal kingdom of God.  It is a great catch of fish, so it says, “…lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes.” 

It is really a wonderful and beautiful picture.  All of a sudden, a “tent” that had been of sufficient size for much of history was no longer sufficient for the magnificent ending God had in mind for His salvation program.  The size must be doubled, tripled, or quadrupled.  We are not given that kind of description, but we are told to make it bigger, and spare not, so that would mean it would need to be much bigger, and that fits in with what we learned in Revelation 7 regarding the 12,000 from each of 12 tribes, which was the 144,000 that typified those that were saved over the church age.  Then after the early rain of the church, it says in Revelation 7:9:

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

It is just a glorious, wonderful climax to God’s salvation of a people for Himself.  So as we read in Genesis 33 that Jacob spread his tent, the idea of spreading the tent can point to greater salvation, and the need for greater space for those that the Lord has saved to enter into heaven itself.