Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #11 in Genesis 35, and we are going to read Genesis 35:8-10: 

But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth. And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him. And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.

I will stop reading there.  We have been looking at verse 8 and the spiritual meaning of Deborah, who was Rebekah’s nurse, having died.   Curiously, the Lord told us she was buried beneath Bethel (house of God), under an oak that was called Allonbachuth, which would literally translate as “oak of weeping.”

Keep in mind that when we originally looked at the word “oak,” it was back in verse 4.  Jacob’s family and household turned over all their idols and earrings, and he hid them under an oak that was by Shechem.  We saw that the word “oak” is closely related to the word “el-aw',”  which is translated as “God.”  We discussed that, and if you missed it you can go back to study #6 and review it, but it identifies with the word “God.”  So the word “oak” is used in relation to the “oak of weeping,” although it is not the same word but a related word, and it would also carry that same identification as “oak of weeping,” or “God of weeping.”  And that fits right in with what we were looking at as far as the deeper spiritual meaning of this historical parable.  A historical parable means it is true history, but God has placed it in the Bible in order to teach a spiritual aspect in the fact that Rebekah’s nurse died.

We looked at “nurse,” and we saw that it identifies with giving “suck,” and it has everything to do with the Word of God which supplies spiritual milk.  And the word “Deborah” means “word,” so it is fitting.

Regarding the fact that Deborah died, we saw in Revelation 11 that the “two witnesses” relate to “Moses and Elijah,” or “the law and the prophets.”  And “the law and the prophets,” in turn, point to the Word of God.  The two witnesses represented the witness of the Word of God in the congregations over the course of the church age, and it came to an end when Satan was loosed at the end of the church age.  We were looking at this in our last study, but it says in Revelation 11:7-8:

And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

We talked about the difference between Deborah’s historical death and her being buried and the fact that the dead bodies of the two witnesses were lying in the streets, but they were not buried.  We spent some time discussing this.   The power of the Word of God works through the Spirit of God, which needs to be there in order for the Word of God to be “living (quick) and powerful,” as it says in Hebrews 4:12.  It “died” as the Spirit of God departed, and Christ came out of the midst of the congregations.  But they still had Bibles in the churches, and the members of the congregations still sat in the pews with Bibles in their laps, so they had the Word, but it was a “dead Word” without the Spirit of God empowering it.  There could be no salvation, and no blessing of God upon it.  God had cursed their blessing.  The Word remained physically, so it is pictured as being “unburied,” but it was “dead.”  The two witnesses had been killed.

We talked about that, but there is another verse here that I want to look at in Revelation 11.  We will read the first couple of verses, but we will focus on verse 2.  It says in Revelation 11:1-2:

And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

This is a Scripture that is telling us of God’s intention to turn the corporate church over to the nations, and the nations were under the power of Satan, so it is basically saying the same thing as Revelation 20:7:

And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

The Greed word translated as “nations” is the same word translated as “Gentiles,” so it is referring to all the nations (the four quarters of the earth).  And “Gog and Magog” is the term God is using to describe the situation in which Satan would rule the nations like never before.  He is “Gog,” and “Magog” represents the nations.  Then it goes on to say in Revelation 20:8:

And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city…

This fits right in with the ascending of the “beast” when he was loosed in Revelation 11:7:

And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

So it all fits together.  It is Satan and the nations, and we know that Satan did not use all unsaved people (Gentiles) to overcome the corporate church, but he used a great many of them.  For example, when we look at the number of professed Christians in the world, it comes to about two billion people that were within the churches and congregations.  They were active in Catholic churches, and various other churches that had added or subtracted from the Word, like the charismatic-type churches that believe in “tongues and visions,” and so forth.  When the Lord ended the church age, and if there are two billion people in the churches, that means there are two billion “Gentiles” or “tares.”  The (unsaved) people of the world had entered into the congregations, and keep in mind that Satan was behind that, according to the parable of the wheat and the tares.  The question was asked why the field had tares, and the response was, “An enemy hath done this.”  Satan is that enemy, and the explanation of that parable tells us in Matthew 13:38:

The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

The enemy that sowed them was the devil, so he was instrumental because they were his children, or his people, and that is why God holds Satan accountable for daring to put forth his hand against “God’s anointed.”  Although they had ceased to be the people of God, nonetheless they had the name of Christ, and they had the blessing of God during the church age.  And Satan and his forces, the unsaved of the nations that number about two billion people, were a significant portion of all the nations, and they were the armies of the world, Gog and Magog.  So when the judgment on the churches was completed after 23 full years (8,400 days) on May 21, 2011, then the Lord transitioned from judging the churches to judging the world.  It was the “day of reckoning,” or the day of God taking vengeance for his people that Satan and his forces had polluted, desecrated, and trampled underfoot.  That is the key phrase here in Revelation 11:2:

But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

This was the duration of the Great Tribulation and God’s judgment on the corporate church for 23 years.  It was the time wherein the Gentiles (nations) would trample the holy city under foot, and in doing so, they were trampling the Word of God under foot.  The two witnesses had “died,” and yet they remained.  Where did they remain?  In the house of God, or “Bethel.”  Bethel was where the two witnesses were killed, and their dead bodies remained over the course of that time period.  If they have died and fallen down, then Satan and his emissaries were above them – they had overcome the camp of the saints.  They were trampling underfoot the outward representation of God’s kingdom on earth, and the Word of God which they still had in their  churches. 

And this is why there is a strong emphasis on Deborah, the nurse (the one who gave suck) to Rebekah, and when she died, she was buried “beneath Bethel,” and Bethel means “house of God.”  And 1Peter 4:17 tells us that judgment begins at the house of God.  Therefore, Bethel is a type and figure of the corporate church that was judged at that time (during the Great Tribulation), and yet it continued on with the two witnesses beneath, or under foot.

The English words “tread under foot” is a translation of one Greek word, which is “pat-eh'-o,” Strong’s #3961, and it is only found five times.  It is found in Luke 21:20:

And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.

What armies compassed about Jerusalem, the beloved city and camp of the saints?  Revelation 20:8-9 explains that this was where “Gog and Magog” attacked.  Let us read it again, in Revelation 20:9:

And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city…

Jerusalem is the beloved city.  We know that Luke 21:20 is describing the same time period when Satan was loosed after the “thousand years,” representing the church age, had come to an end.

Again, it says in Luke 21:20:

And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies…

We “see” these things with eyes of understanding.  That is how we “see” it.  We study the Bible, and God teaches us truths such as the end of the church age.  We understand it because He gives us ears to hear the voice of truth, and we believe it.  In that way, we “see” it.  So this is telling us that the elect people of God will see and understand.  There would come a day when we would possess the understanding that Jerusalem (the corporate church) is compassed with armies.  And then it goes on to say in Luke 21:20-21:

… then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto.

That is, the church age is over.  Judaea is a “byword” and a “parable” because God has judged it, and He told us that very thing at least two times in the Old Testament regarding the fact that if Israel and Judah continued to be unfaithful, He would judge them and make them a “byword” and a “parable.”  And that is exactly what happened.  And they represent something else, which is the nature of a parable, and what they represent is the New Testament corporate church.  This is not telling us about the literal historical land of Judah, or the literal city of Jerusalem, but it is spiritually pointing to the churches and congregations of the world at the time of their end because this must identify with Revelation 20 when Satan was loosed – that is when the beloved city was compassed about.

The language that says, “Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out,” ties into Matthew 24, the parallel chapter where Christ was answering the disciples’ question: “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”  And keep in mind that their question was prompted by what we read in Matthew 24:1-2:

And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.

Then they asked, “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”  God is connecting the total destruction of the temple (not one stone left upon another), and since Christ spoke in parables, the “temple” is pointing to the churches at the time of the end of the world.  Do you see how it is connected to the throwing down of the temple and to Christ’s coming at the end of the world?  Remember, judgment begins at the house of God, and immediately following that Tribulation, there is the final judgment of the nations (Gentiles) of the world.

Going back to Luke 21, it says in Luke 21:22-23:

For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days…

Keep in mind Deborah, the nurse, and the word translated as “nurse” also means “suck.”  The Word (Deborah) gives suck.  That is what a nurse does, and that is why it so definitely connects with what would happen at the time of the end and the end of the church age.  It is the end of the Word providing “suck” to the spiritual children, which we also discussed several studies ago.  The church age is likened by God to a time of providing the “milk of the word” because the churches only had partial understanding, or partial knowledge, just as little children have partial understanding.  As children grow, they grow in knowledge and understanding.  God used the entire church age as the time for “children,” and the time of the end would be the time of maturity when the elect children of God grow in the grace and knowledge of God, and we move on from the milk of the Word to the meat of the Word.  Again, it says in Luke 21:23-24:

But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.  And they shall fall by the edge of the sword…

The word “edge” can also be translated as “mouth,” and we realize that the word “sword” is used as a figure of the Word, so it makes sense when it provides the spiritual translation: “…they shall fall by the mouth of the Word.”  Then it goes on to say in Luke 21:24:

…and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

again, Jerusalem, a type of the corporate church, is trodden down.  And we could insert “trodden under foot of the Gentiles, which is the way it is translated in Revelation 11.  So this ties directly into Revelation 11 and Revelation 20, so we understand exactly what is in view because the Lord has opened our eyes to understand these things at the time of the end.

Again, this particular word. “pat-eh'-o,” is used five times, but we have only looked at two, so we will pick this up, Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study in the book of Genesis.