Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #7 in Genesis 35, and we will read Genesis 35:6-8:
So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him. And he built there an altar, and called the place Elbethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother. But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.
I will stop reading there. In our last study, we saw that Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, was first referred to back in Genesis 24, although she was not mentioned by name. Abraham’s servant had come to Haran to find his master’s son Isaac a bride, who was Rebekah. And Rebekah returned with him, and she brought along her nurse, just as it says in Genesis 35 calls her “Deborah Rebekah’s nurse,” who died.
We are able to pinpoint the time when Rebekah left Haran and went to Canaan to marry Isaac and become his wife. It was the year 2027 B. C., and that was also the year that Isaac was 40 years old. He was born in 2067 B. C. It was also the time, we could say, when Abraham would have been 140 years old. And if we go from 2027 B. C. when Isaac was 40 until the time we are reading about in Genesis 35, this would have been the year 1907 B. C., from what we can gather. It was 120 years that Deborah served as Rebekah’s nurse, from her introduction in the Bible in Genesis 24. Now it is true that she was probably Rebekah’s nurse for a few years before that, but God does not mention that. For example, He does not tell us how old Deborah was when she died. He also does not tell us how old Rebekah was when she left Haran.
As far as ages of women in the Bible, it is rare for God to give specific numbers. That is why when we see that God gives the specific death age of Sarah of 127 years, it is very unusual. It is very rare. In fact, it is the only incident in the Bible where a woman’s death age is given. We know Sarah died in the year 2030 B. C., and soon after that, Abraham sent his servant to find his son Isaac a wife, and the servant returned in the year 2027 B. C. with the bride Rebekah.
So we now know the nurse’s name was Deborah, and she served Rebekah for many years, and then she ended up with Jacob in the company of Israel that came out of Haran. And now at this point, she died after a space of 120 years. We wonder, “Why does God give us enough information to ascertain that it was 120 years?” We are getting this from the Bible. It is not out of our own minds. All the dates come from the Bible. And it reminds us of Anna, who was said to be a prophetess from the tribe of Asher. At the time of Christ’s birth, it says in Luke 2:36-38:
And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity; And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
This old woman named Anna was moved by God to come into the temple at that time. Interestingly, God does not tell us her age either, only the fact that she was a widow of 84 years, and before that, she had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity. The problem is that we do not know her age when she married. Was she 14, or 16, or 21? It was probably a younger age than 21, but without knowing her age, we cannot know how old Anna was at this time when she came into the temple. All we know is that she lived with her husband at the time of her marriage (and loss of her virginity) for seven years, and then she was a widow for 84 years, totaling 91 years. And the number “91” breaks down to “7 x 13,” which are both significant numbers, spiritually. So God wants us to focus on the number “91” rather than to focus on her actual age. For example, if she were 15 when she got married, we could add 84 to that, but that would be pure speculation, and we do not want to engage in speculation. So all we deal with are the numbers that God gives us, and we find that “7” and “13” are very significant numbers in their spiritual meaning.
So too, 120 years is significant. It is the length of time that God referred to in this statement in Genesis 6:3:
And JEHOVAH said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
This was at a time when men lived hundreds of years. Noah, who would soon come into view in chapter 6, was 600 years old at the time of the flood, and he lived for 350 years after the flood. And other men would live much longer than 120 years. So what did God mean? We understand there is a two-fold meaning. The Lord was giving Noah 120 years to build the ark. And what does the number “120” point to, if we break that number down? It is “10 x 12,” with the number “10” pointing to completeness, and the number “12” pointing to fulness, indicating the “complete fulness” of the time that God would give before the beginning of the end of the world when God would destroy the world with fire in His wrath. The number “120” identifies with that, and we have talked about this before regarding how there is a relationship in the Bible between the numbers “12” and “13.” For example, there were 12 tribes of Israel, but there were actually 13. There were 12 apostles, but there were actually 13. There should have been 12,000 years of history before we reached the time of the end, but there were actually 13,000 years of earth’s history before we began the time of the end in the year 1988.
Why is there this relationship? How can this be? The promise of the coming Messiah was pending throughout the whole Old Testament period until Christ was born in 7 B. C., which was 11,006 years from the date of creation. And the number “11” often identifies with the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He did come after 11,000 years, and then He would go to the cross. And at the cross, we learn from the Bible that Satan was bound; that is when the Lord Jesus took a “chain” and cast him into the bottomless pit. And how long was he to remain in the bottomless pit? According to Revelation 20, we read in Revelation 20:2-3:
And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
The Bible insists that Satan was bound for a thousand years, but that is not correct if we look at it literally. We know Satan was bound in 33 A. D. at the cross, and a literal thousand years would mean that he would have been loosed in the year 1033 A. D., around a thousand years ago. No – that is not the case. Actually, his binding went from 33 A. D. and spanned the whole church age, which lasted for 1,955 years. It is remarkable that God worked it out that way, and that Satan’s binding would continue to exactly the duration of the church age, which was just short of two thousand years, and it so happens that if we go from the creation date of 11,013 B. C. to the year 33 A. D., it works out to 11,045 actual years. And if you add 11,045 actual years to 1,955 years, you get 13,000 total years. And that is another proof we could use to show that the church age was, indeed, 1,955 years because it works out so perfectly in God’s overall program. In the year 1988, after those 1,955 years, it was the 13,000th year of earth’s history, exactly. It was not the 12,000th year, but the 13,000th year because God views this as 11,000 years until Christ, and then 1,000 years of Satan’s binding, and then he was loosed at the time of the end, which would total 12,000. However, the 1,000 years is figurative, and not to be taken literally, but it simply represents the completeness, as multiples of “10” does not change the spiritual meaning of “completeness.” So the 1,000 years of Satan’s binding was the completeness of time in which God would have him bound, and that turned out to be 1,955 years, and it perfectly comes to the point in that year (May 21, 1988) wherein God loosed Satan, and the church age came to an end; the Spirit of God departed out of the congregations. The church age would not officially end until September 1994, but the end of salvation in the churches was May 21, 1988. It was the end of the Spirit’s activity there, and so forth.
So we see 12,000 years when you look at it one way, but actually 13,000 years. Likewise, we find in the Bible several references to “120 years,” and we also find numerous references to “130 years.” How old was Jacob when he came out of the land of Canaan and entered into Egypt under Joseph’s care and protection? Pharaoh asked him how old he was, and Joseph said, “The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been…” That pointed to the time of the end and the Great Tribulation, which occurred after 13,000 years of history, but so too, a figure of “120” points to an identical time period, and that is what is in view with “Deborah,” in Genesis 35.
God is indicating that Deborah Rebekah’s nurse died after this 120-year period. And keep in mind what her name means. The name “Deborah” is a word that comes from the word “daw-bawr',” which is the Hebrew word for “word.” So the name “Deborah,” which is found 10 times in the Old Testament, is only used once to refer to Rebekah’s nurse, and it used nine times of the prophetess in Judges 4 and Judges 5. And when we find the word “Deborah,” especially in Judges, it is overwhelmingly used in the parabolic meaning of the historical account to be a type and figure of the Word of God that would bring judgment in the last day. And the last days are in view in those chapters because Barak descended with 10,000 from Naphtali and Zebulun, pointing to Christ coming with “ten thousands of his saints.” And Barak’s name means “lightning,” He is coming like lightning to judge the world, and it is all according to Deborah who speaks the Word. Barak said that he would not go unless Deborah went with him because Christ would not judge the world without the Word of God. Jesus said, “The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.”
Here, Deborah (the Word) Rebekah’s nurse died. We have to think about that. The Word of God has died? How is that possible? How could that be, and when and where did this happen? Those are the questions that we have to answer. Lord willing, we will try to do just that in our next Bible study.