Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #8 in Genesis 35, and we are going to read Genesis 35:8:
But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.
We have talked about Deborah being a type and figure of the Word. We also know she is in view in the Bible for 120 years, from the point of leaving Haran with Rebekah when Rebekah went to meet and marry Isaac. And the Bible tells us that Isaac’s age at that time was 40, which allows us to pinpoint the year as 2027 B. C. We also understand that these events took place in 1907 B. C. when Jacob was 100 years old, and he had come out of Haran.
By the way, that may help to explain Deborah being in this company because she was a native of Haran. So it is very possible that when Isaac and Rebekah sent Jacob to Haran when Esau’s brother was thinking to kill him, and they sent Deborah with him because she was from that area and familiar with many things there. It is possible that she, as well as other servants, could have gone back with Jacob, or maybe at some point in Jacob’s stay she returned. And then when Jacob came out of Haran, Deborah came out of Haran once again, after having done so earlier when she left with her mistress Rebekah. So it appears she came out of Haran a second time with Jacob, and the total length of time was 120 years, which ties in with the time of the end of the world, the end stage era of earth’s history which began in 1988. The year 1988 was the 13,000th year of earth’s history, and God often uses the figure of “130” to point to “13,000,” and He also uses the timeframe of “120” years as He did in Genesis 6:3 when He said that man’s days would be 120 years, which spiritually represent the identical time period up until the time of the end, and the time of the end began in 1988.
Deborah’s name means “word,” and she died, and it goes on to say in Genesis 35:8:
… and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.
We see a pretty strong emphasis here on going “beneath.” Death identifies with the ground because those who die are put in the ground. And she was buried, which means to go beneath (the ground). And the Lord does not just say she was buried, but she was buried beneath Bethel. He could have said she was buried at Bethel, but He said, “and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak.” Do you see all the related words there? To be buried means to be down below; as well as “beneath” and “under,” and the statement that she “died.” There is a very strong emphasis on being “below” or “under.” And yet this is the Word of God, and that is what the word “Deborah” means. God used this name for the prophetess Deborah in the book of Judges, and we found it to be very accurate for the spiritual context there. This woman who was a prophetess named Deborah identifies with the Word of God because the name “Deborah” comes from the word “daw-bawr',” which is the Hebrew word for “word.”
So have we carried the whole idea of looking for deeper spiritual meaning in names a little too far? How is it possible that the Word of God would die? How can the Word of God be buried beneath Bethel? Bethel is the “house of God.” That makes us think, does it not? The Word died, and is buried beneath the house of God. That is curious.
But before we try to answer that, let us look at the word “nurse.” The Hebrew word for “nurse” is Strong’s #3243, and this word is translated as “suck,” or “suckling” several times. Let us go to Isaiah 66:11-13:
That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith JEHOVAH, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees. as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
This is referring to Jerusalem, referring back to verse 10. The Lord is likening Himself to a mother who would comfort a child, and the language here identifies with salvation, especially the statement, “I will extend peace to her like a river…” God is using the language of sucking children and the comfort they would receive, and in order to receive comfort, you must receive the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, so it fully identifies with salvation. It is also tied to “milk,” in verse 11: “That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out…” And we understand that “milk” is connected to the Word of God, the Bible. Remember what it says in 1Peter 2:2:
As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
The Word gives the milk. And that is what we are looking at with this verse about Deborah, whose name identifies with the Word, and it just so happens that she is a nurse. The Hebrew word translated as “nurse” is also translated as “suck” in regards to sucking milk as a child would suck milk from the breast. And that has to do with the Word of God that gives “birth,” so to speak: “For faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” The Word of God comes to us, and we are “born of the Word” when we become saved, and then we feed upon the Word after we are saved, drinking in the milk and honey. That is how God describes the Promised Land, a land of “milk and honey,” and the milk certainly identifies with the Word of God. We could go to other Scriptures, like Isaiah
55:1-2, but we will not do that here. (You can look it up if you want further evidence for that.)
The word “suck” is interesting as it is used here. It is also used in Exodus 2 when Moses was a little baby, and his mother cast him adrift, and we read in Exodus 2:5-9:
And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it.
Very obviously, this has to do with a mother giving milk to her baby. In this case, it was the actual mother of Moses, and she nursed him. How are we to think of this in relationship to Deborah who was Rebekah’s nurse? She was not giving Rebekah milk all these years. She could have done so when Rebekah was a baby, and she may have given suck to her. That is possible, and then she became known as Rebekah’s nurse, and then she served Rebekah as a handmaid in many ways. But spiritually, the idea is that Deborah had been Rebekah’s nurse providing “spiritual milk” because her name means Word of God, like the Word giving milk to the saints of God throughout the history of the world, especially during the period of the church age. The milk of the Word has nourished those that have become saved through, and of, the Word.
But now she has died. Let us go to Lamentations 2 where we will find the same Hebrew word translated as “nurse,” but it is translated as “sucklings,” as those who would suck upon the Word. We read in Lamentations 2:11-12:
Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.
This is describing the wrath of God upon Judah and the resulting famine as Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians went up and compassed the city about, and there was much grief in the city. There was a literal famine of “bread and water,” but God uses those as figures of a famine of “hearing of the Word of God,” and that is how it is put in Amos 8:10:
And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation…
By the way, this will help us to understand why Deborah was buried under an oak. Remember that the name of the oak was “Allonbachuth,” and I mentioned that one word means “oak” and the other word means “mourning” or “weeping.” So it is the “oak of weeping.” Again, it says in Amos 8:10-13:
And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord JEHOVAH, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of JEHOVAH: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of JEHOVAH, and shall not find it.
They will find no Word – no “Deborah.” The nurse has died, and she can give suck no longer. And that is the reason the sucklings swoon in the streets.
Also, we read in Lamentations 4:1-4:
How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street. The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter! Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness. The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.
This is awful language! It is terrible language, even historically, as it describes things that took place in Old Testament Israel and Judah. There was a literal and physical famine. But worse than that is the “famine of hearing the word of God” that overtook the corporate church at the time of its end in 1988, after 13,000 years of history. God left the churches, and Satan was loosed to enter in and take his seat. The Spirit of Christ came out of the churches, and Christ is the Word, so even though they had physical Bibles and their pastors preached from it, and the people in the pew held them in their laps, the Spirit is needed to provide the nourishment of the milk of the Word. So none could be born of the Word without the Spirit’s work, and the Spirit was gone. Therefore, as it says, “The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst…” What kind of thirst? As Jesus said in Matthew 5:6: “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness…” Christ is righteousness. There is a hungering and thirsting after Christ, but He cannot be found. That is referred to in the next part of Lamentations 4:4:
… the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.
And who is the “bread of life”? And who is this “man” that breaketh it not unto them? And we see this quite often in the Bible when a “man” comes into view, like in Jeremiah 5:1:
Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.
The implication is they cannot find “a man.” Well, they could have found plenty of ordinary men, but they could not find the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He had removed Himself. He had departed from Israel. The glory of Israel had departed. That is the whole point of the historical parable when the Philistines seized the ark and took it out of the land of Israel. The “glory” had departed – Christ was gone. So as Lamentations 4:4 tell us: “
… the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.”
Who was it who broke the bread and fed the multitude? It was the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One who breaks the bread and multiplies it in order to feed the people. But this is no longer true in the churches. No longer is there “a man.” No longer will He break the bread, and feed the multitudes within the congregations. It has come to an end, and therefore, there is famine – not a famine of bread and water, but a famine of hearing the Word of God. If there is a famine of hearing, and if “faith cometh by hearing,” then it means that the spiritual reality is that there is no longer salvation possible in any church in the world.