Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #19 in Genesis 35, and we are reading Genesis 35:16-19: 

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. 

In our last study, we looked at several Scriptures that tied together Ephrath, or Ephrata, with Bethlehem, and it was the home of David, the son of Jesse.  It was the place where Boaz and Ruth had their son Obed, and it was also the place that Micah 5:2 refers to regarding the birth of the Messiah, the entry of the Messiah into the world in Bethlehemjudah.  I will read that verse again, 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 saw how that Bible verse was quoted in Matthew 2 when the wise men went to Bethlehem in response to Micah 5:2 and the direction given there.  They were warned by God not to return to Herod, and they departed another way.  Herod was furious; he felt he was mocked of the wise men, and he sent forth his soldiers, and they slew all the children in Bethlehem of two years old and under, according to the time he had ascertained from the wise men regarding when they first saw the star.  And it was a terrible slaughter of these poor little babies, so the statement was made as the Lord quoted from Jeremiah 31 in Matthew 2:18:

In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children…

We saw there was similarity because Rachel did have tremendous sorrow in the birthing process as she was giving birth to her son Benomi, which was what she called him.  But Jacob changed the name Benomi (son of my sorrow) to Benjamin (son of the right hand.) 

So there was a difference.  Historically, when Jesus was a young child, it was the children that were slain in Bethlehem, not the mothers.  And yet in our account, it is Rachel herself who died, and in her departing she called her son Benomi.  The son lived.  The son did not die. 

So what is in view as we look at Genesis 35?  We want to try to understand the spiritual meaning, and what is going on as they came out of Bethel, spiritually pointing to leaving the “house of God,” the corporate church.  And they were on their way to Ephratah, or Bethlehem, which we understand to be going to the “house of bread,” or going to the place of “fruitfulness.”  And that is the spiritual picture at the time of the Great Tribulation when the house of God (the churches) came under judgment, and God commanded His people to get out and to go out into the world where the Latter Rain was falling.  There was bread in Egypt (the world), as we learned in the historical parable of the seven-year famine in the time of Joseph.  There was famine in Canaan, representing the churches, but there was bread in Egypt,  typifying the world.  We were to go out of Canaan, leaving the churches and going out into the world to find spiritual bread, and that is a similar picture here where they were leaving Bethel and going to Bethlehem.

But during the trip, Rachel travailed, had hard labor, and she died in childbirth, but not before she named her son Benomi.

Let us look at the word “travail.”  As I mentioned before, the Hebrew word translated as “travail” is Strong’s #3205, and it is used often in the Old Testament.  It is translated as “begat,” “bear,” “birth,” “deliver,” “labor,” “midwife,” “travail,” and a few other ways.  It is found three times in our passage, but is translated three different ways, as “travail,” “labor,” and “midwife,” the one who delivered.

We are going to follow this word “travail” in the Bible where it is also translated as “travail” in other Scriptures, to see what we understand that may be in view here.  What we will see as the Bible reveals to us through following this word is that to “travail,” or to “give birth,” is something the Lord identifies spiritually with times of judgment, the time of judgment on the churches in the Great Tribulation, and the final judgment of the world in our present time in Judgment Day.

First we will see how this word “travail” is used in connection with judgment on the churches.  Let us go to Jeremiah 6:22:

Thus saith JEHOVAH, Behold, a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth.

The land of Judah lay to the south, and to their north was Babylon, so this is a reference to Babylon.  And God did bring Babylon against Judah, so the Babylonians were the people that came from the north country.  Then it goes on to say in Jeremiah 6:23-24:

They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roareth like the sea; and they ride upon horses, set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion. We have heard the fame thereof: our hands wax feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, and pain, as of a woman in travail.

Then it says in Jeremiah 6:26:

O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.

They are likened to “a woman in travail,” and then it is related to mourning and most bitter lamentation.  The book of Lamentations is all about this very thing.  It is describing the tremendous sorrow because of the judgment of God upon the nation of Judah as He raised up King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians to assail them, and to compass them about, and to destroy them.  It was an awful tragedy, and there was grievous sorrow in seeing Jerusalem and the temple destroyed, and so many people carried off to Babylon, or put to death by the sword.  It was extremely terrible, and it was certainly a time of “most bitter lamentation.”

And that is what we see with “a woman in travail,” is it not?  A woman is going through tremendous difficulty, or hard labor.  Her pains are upon her, and that fits the whole idea of “tribulation,”  and “great tribulation, especially when God brought judgment on the corporate church, and He called it “great tribulation.”

Also, we find the word “travail” in Jeremiah 13:20-21:

Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock? What wilt thou say when he shall punish thee? for thou hast taught them to be captains, and as chief over thee: shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail?

Again, those that “come from the north” would be Babylon, historically, as it came to judge Judah.  And that would be saying the same thing I just mentioned.  The tribulation is sorrowful.  It is a pitiful thing to see a nation that you love, and a nation that represented God’s kingdom, being destroyed by wicked men that are enemies of the kingdom of God.  The enemy was victorious.  And  it was very, very sorrowful.

We are also going to see how the word “travail” is used in relationship to the judgment on the world.  And keep in mind that we are going to read about Babylon again, and we will read that Babylon also has an enemy that would also come from the north.  Let us go to Jeremiah 50:41:

Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. They shall hold the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not shew mercy…

Do you see how similar this is to what we read in Jeremiah 6?  And that is why Mr. Camping thought that Babylon was a figure of the corporate church, because it was a people coming from the north against Babylon, just as a people came from the north against Judah in Jeremiah 6.  And it also used the same language that they were cruel and would not show mercy.  So Mr. Camping determined that “Babylon” was the corporate church, and it can represent that.  It is very complex, but in Jeremiah 50 it is not the corporate church, but the kingdom of Satan.  And the reason that the language in these verses is similar about the enemy coming from the north is that the Medes and the Persians were north of Babylon, and the Medes and the Persians represent the wrath of God against the kingdom of Satan in the Day of Judgment.  We will see that.  We can prove that from the Bible, but I just wanted to point that out now in case you noticed the similarity in the language.  But in Jeremiah 50, it is not referring to the churches, but it is the language of “tribulation.”

And it is very similar if we think of the “two tribulations” that come about at the time of end of the world.  The first tribulation was the Great Tribulation.  It was judgment upon the churches, and there was no longer salvation within the churches once God’s Spirit departed, and Satan entered in.  There was no mercy.  Then on May 21, 2011, God stopped all activity as far as evangelization on the earth, and there was no more salvation anywhere in the world.  There was no more mercy for the world.  Both were spiritual in nature, and both were revealed in the Word of God, so we can see why there is very similar language because they are very similar judgments, as God said in Jeremiah 25, “First take the cup of my wrath and give it to the city called by my name (the corporate church), and then take that same cup and give it the nations.”  It was the same cup of wrath, and therefore, it was similar spiritual judgment, the removal of any possibility of salvation.  Also, there is similar language of the enemy coming from the north.  First, it was the kingdom of Satan and the Gentiles coming against the corporate church.  But when it was time for judgment on the world, how would that be typified?  It would be by another nation (the Medes and the Persians) that did historically conquer Babylon.

So let us continue and read Jeremiah 50:42-44:

They shall hold the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not shew mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, every one put in array, like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon. The king of Babylon hath heard the report of them, and his hands waxed feeble: anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail. Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan unto the habitation of the strong…

Do you see how God says that the king of Babylon heard the report, and his hands waxed feeble, and anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail?  Since the king of Babylon typifies Satan, how can we understand this?  We have to recognize the synonymous statements the Lord makes in Mark 3 between “house” and “kingdom,” and “Satan.”  He said in Mark 3:24-26:

And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end.

A house, a kingdom, and Satan are synonymous here as things divided that cannot stand.  So the kingdom of Satan can be identified with him, as he is the representative of that kingdom, just as Adam was the representative of the human race.  So if we read of the king of Babylon, or of Satan, that his hands waxed feeble, and anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail, he would represent all the unsaved of the earth that are in this condition of being like “a woman in travail.”

By the way, the word “pangs,” as the pangs of a woman in travail, is also found in Isaiah 13.  And how does that chapter begin?  Look at Isaiah 13:1:

The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.

And what is the burden of Babylon?  It says in Isaiah 13:6-7:

Howl ye; for the day of JEHOVAH is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore shall all hands be faint…

Remember, it said “hands waxed feeble,” of the king of Babylon, in Jeremiah 50.  Then it says in Isaiah 13:7:

… and every man's heart shall melt:

It is not just the king, but every man.  Then it says in Isaiah 13:8-9:

And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames. Behold, the day of JEHOVAH cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

Well, one might say, “That poor nation of Babylon!  God is really going to destroy them in the day of JEHOVAH, but it is a good the rest of the nations of the world are not destroyed!”  No – it is not just Babylon.  Look at the verses in Isaiah 13:10-11.   First, let us read Isaiah 13:10:

For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

Where have we read similar things?  It is in Matthew 24:29:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light…

And what was the tribulation?  It was the judgment of God upon the corporate church.  And how did He accomplish it?  He loosed Satan, as typified by the king of Babylon.  He was historically represented by the king of Babylon and that nation coming against Judah.  But this is after the Tribulation, and after the “seventy years” in which Babylon historically overcame the nation of Judah.  Then out of the north arose the Medes and the Persians, and they are also mentioned here in Isaiah 13:11:

And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity…

It is not just the nation of Babylon, but it is the whole world because Babylon represents the world here.  In this judgment of God upon the world, lo, and behold, the Medes and the Persians show up in Isaiah 13:16-17:

Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished. Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.

So the historical situation of the Medes and Persians conquering Babylon in Isaiah 13 is proven to represent the wrath of God that comes against the world in the Day of Judgment, the day of JEHOVAH.  And at that time it can be said of the unsaved inhabitants of the earth that their hands will be faint, their hearts will melt, and  they will be afraid; and pangs and sorrows will take hold of them, and they will be in pain as a woman that travaileth, or a woman that is about to give birth.  And the tribulation will lead up to the “delivery.”

Look around the world today.  Are we seeing tribulation?  That is what all the trouble is about, and it is what all the division is about.  “Babylon is fallen, is fallen.”  A house divided cannot stand, and if you cannot stand, you are fallen.  And if Satan is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end.  It is the end of the world.  It is the end of the evil kingdom of darkness of this world, and the nations of the world have fallen, and the evidence of their fall is the chaotic madness and divisiveness that is in all the nations.  It is not so much nation against nation as it is that the people of the nations are against their own governments and their own people.  It is an evil that is going from nation to nation as we hear of the severe troubles that are tormenting the peoples of the world since May 21, 2011.  That is what is in view.

Let us look at one more thing before we close our study.  Let us look at Isaiah 21, where we will see similar language.  It says in Isaiah 21:3-5:

Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it. My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me. Prepare the table, watch in the watchtower…

And in this context, it goes on to say in Isaiah 21:8-10:

And he cried, A lion: My lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights: And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground. O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of JEHOVAH of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.

There is the reference to the “pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth,” and then there is the refrain, “Babylon is fallen is fallen.”  It is the judgment of God upon the world.

We have run out of time, but we went to a couple of verses that spoke of a woman travailing and her pangs, and these verses dealt with judgment on the churches, and then we went to similar verses regarding judgment on the world.  In our next study, we are going to go to 1Thessalonians 5 that tells us about the day of the Lord.  And if you remember, God said in 1Thessalonians 5:3:

For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

We will take a closer look at that verse, and try to understand a little better what God has in view.