Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #18 in Genesis 35, and we will read Genesis 35:16-20: 

And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour. And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also. And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin. And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.  And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day.

I will stop reading there.  Last time, we were just starting to look at this sad historical event that took place in the lives of Jacob and the children of Israel.  Jacob was married to Leah and her sister Rachel, and Rachel had given birth to Joseph earlier, and after Joseph was weaned, Jacob departed out of Haran and headed back home.  From everything we can gather, this is the same year (1907 B. C.), and it was a very eventful year with the things that took place in Shechem. 

Deborah Rebekah’s nurse had died and was buried under an oak.  We spent a great deal of time going over that, so if you are just joining us, you can go back to the earlier studies.  But Deborah’s name means “word,” and she was a nurse, the one who gave “suck,” and the Word of God gives “suck” with the “milk of the word.”  And that was especially the case over the course of the church age, so the death of the Word within the churches and congregations relates to the death of the “two witnesses” that we read about in Revelation 11.

So as we continue this spiritual picture of the end of the church age over the course of the Great Tribulation, we read in Genesis 35:16:

And they journeyed from Bethel…

And “Bethel” literally means “house of God,” and the New Testament church represented the house of God, so journeying from Bethel points to coming out of the churches.  So they were coming out of the house of God on their way to Ephrath, which was “but a little way.”  And I did look on the map in the back of my Bible, and they did look fairly close.  I also said that I “googled” the distance, and it indicated 250 miles, but it was not correct.  This was my error in not looking more carefully.  It is not 250 miles, but is actually a much shorter distance, and I am not going to be specific, but it is not that far to go to Bethlehem, and Ephrath is called Bethlehem, so they are the same place.  (So please make that correction in the previous study.)

Again, it said in Genesis 35:16:

And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour.

They were on the way, and it was not far to Bethlehem, but that is when Rachel began to travail and have hard labor.  It should be noted that the Hebrew word translated as “travail” is Strong’s #3205, and the word “labor” is the same word.  In the next verse it says, “And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her,” and that word “midwife” is also the same word, #3205.  This word is translated in a number of ways, like “begat,” “bear,” “birth,” “deliver,” “midwife,” “travail,” etc.  So we see it used three times in verses 15 and 16, and it is translated as a different English word in each case, so keep that in mind.

So Rachel “travailed.”  She was giving birth, or delivering, and she had hard labor, or hard delivery, and the midwife would have been a woman who specialized in helping women deliver babies.  Rachel travailed enroute to Ephrath, so she never made it to Bethlehem, even though there was just a little way to go.  She had left Bethel, but did not make it to Bethlehem, so it was in between the two that she had hard labor.  It says in Exodus 35:18:

And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.

She was dying, and she called his name “Benoni,” which means “son of my sorrow.”  But his father Jacob called him “Benjamin,” or “son of the right hand.”  Then we read in Exodus 35:19:

And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. 

Again, she was not quite there, but in the way there, and we will try to understand what that could mean.  And Benjamin is a son that was not born in Bethel, nor was he born in Bethlehem, but he was born in the way.  We will look at that another time, but for now we are going to look at “Ephrath,” which is also spelled “Ephratah,” but it is the same Hebrew word.  Why would the translators take the same Hebrew word and translate it slightly differently?  I do not know.  Let us go to Ruth 1:1-2:

Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehemjudah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons. And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehemjudah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there.

They were Ephrathites.  They were of Ephratah, which is Bethlehem.  So Naomi and the man she married were from the city of Bethlehem.  We also read further on in the book of Ruth, in Ruth 4:10:

Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this day.

The man who is speaking is Boaz, a type of Christ.  Then it says in Ruth 4:11:

And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said, We are witnesses. JEHOVAH make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem:

Do you see how Ephratah and Bethlehem go hand in hand?  Then it says in Ruth 4:16-17:

And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it. And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

I wanted to read this because we read of David in 1Samuel 17:12:

Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehemjudah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons: and the man went among men for an old man in the days of Saul.

Jesse was an Ephrathite of Bethlehemjudah, and therefore, so was David an Ephrathite of Bethlehemjudah, and he was also a great type of Christ.  He was of Bethlehem, the “house of bread,” just as the Lord Jesus would later be born in Bethlehem.  But before we look at the Scripture in Micah, let us turn to 1Chronicles 4, and I think we will see how Ephratah came to take the name of “Bethlehem.”  It says in 1Chronicles 4:4:

And Penuel the father of Gedor, and Ezer the father of Hushah. These are the sons of Hur, the firstborn of Ephratah, the father of Bethlehem.

You know, this verse is not as easy as it sounds regarding who is the father of Bethlehem.  Go back to 1Chronicles 2:50:

These were the sons of Caleb the son of Hur, the firstborn of Ephratah…

And Ephratah was a woman that a man named Caleb took to be his wife, and that is why it says these were the sons of Calab the son of Hur, the firstborn of Ephratah.  Then it goes on to say in 1Chronicles 2:50-51:

… Shobal the father of Kirjathjearim, Salma the father of Bethlehem, Hareph the father of Bethgader.

Then it says in 1Chronicles 2:54:

The sons of Salma; Bethlehem…

So Salma is a son of the woman Ephratah, and Salma had a son named Bethlehem, so that is why it says, “the firstborn of Ephratah, the father of Bethlehem.”  Is this proof that this is the reason for the name?  No, I do not think so.  It could be that they named their children because the city had this name, but it is something to take into account.  I do not want to get too much into that, but we do understand that Bethlehem means “house of bread.” 

The word “Ephratah” is Strong’s #672, and it comes from a word, #6509, which means “to be fruitful,” “to increase,” or “to bring forth.”  So the idea of “house of bread” and “fruitfulness” go together, spiritually. 

So Ephratah is the same as Bethlehem, and we read in Micah 5:2:

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

We can quickly see that this Bible verse is Messianic, referring to the birth of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is quoted in Matthew 2 when the wise men came to Jerusalem.  It says in Matthew 2:1-8:

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel. Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.

The wise men found this Scripture we read earlier in Micah 5:2, and they were given understanding, and they recognized that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, the house of bread.  The spiritual leaders, the chief priests and scribes, told Herod, and he informed the wise men from the east, and they went to Bethlehem.  And they did find the young Messiah because the star they had followed to Jerusalem led them to the house, and they went in and worshipped Him.  But God warned them not to return to Herod, as it says in Matthew 2:12:

And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.

Then Herod realized the wise men were not coming back.  He realized they were “on to him,” and it says in Matthew 2:16:

Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.

All the young children of Bethlehem were slain by this evil man Herod, and Herod would be an obvious figure of Satan.  But here is where it brings us back to Rachel, as we simply followed the name Ephratah in the land of Bethlehemjudah.  It led us to Matthew 2 and the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to the slaying of the children two years and under in Bethlehem.  God also says in Matthew 2:17-18:

Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

Rachel is weeping for her children.  You see, since Rachel died in childbirth on the way to Bethlehem with just a little way to go, so she had become associated with the city of Bethlehem, and with sorrowing over children.  She was in hard labor, and in her departing from this life, she named her son Benomi, “son of my sorrow.”  And notice that it says, “In Rama was there a voice heard,” and Rama identified with the place that the prophet Samuel was from.  This is just a sidenote, but remember that Hannah was married to a man of Rama, as we read in 1Samuel 1:1:

Now there was a certain man of Ramathaimzophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite:

Then we are told that Hannah had no children, and then God heard her prayer and she returned to her house in Rama, as it says in 1Samuel 1:19.  When her son Samuel was weaned, he was taken to serve in the ministry under Eli the high priest.  Again, it says in Matthew 2:17-18:

In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

This verse is a quotation from Jeremiah the prophet, in Jeremiah 31:15:

Thus saith JEHOVAH; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.

And “Rahal” is the same word translated as “Rachel.”  Curiously, the King James translators have translated it as “Rahal” rather than as “Rachel” as it is translated everywhere else.  Why make that distinction?  There is absolutely no reason, but they did.  Again, it said in Jeremiah 31:15-17:

… Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not. Thus saith JEHOVAH; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith JEHOVAH; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith JEHOVAH, that thy children shall come again to their own border.

Now that is interesting.  We can clearly pinpoint Rachel weeping for her children because it is quoted in Matthew 2 regarding the birth of the Messiah, and the slaying of the young children in Bethlehem, but there is more to it than that because God said, “Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith JEHOVAH; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith JEHOVAH, that thy children shall come again to their own border.”  It does not fit perfectly because in our historical account in Genesis 35, Rachel did weep, and she was certainly sorrowful as she departed in death, and that is why she named her son Benomi, “son of my sorrow.”  The childbirth was a sorrowful thing, but the son did not die – Rachel died.  And that is an important distinction.  As we go forward, and as we look at “travailing,” or “delivering,” in the Bible, we will see that it does identify with judgment and tribulation.  It can be the judgment and tribulation on the churches, and it can also be the judgment and tribulation on the world in our present day.  And I think we will see that what fits best in Rachel’s case is the judgment on the churches, the Great Tribulation, as she was a woman in travail that did give birth, but she died in the process.

But we will have to pick this up when we get together in our next Bible study in the book of Genesis.