Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #30 in Genesis 37.  In the last couple of studies, we have taken a detour to 2Kings 6 because that chapter uses the word “Dothan,” and Elisha was in Dothan when the king of Syria sent his army to apprehend him and bring him back.  Then Elisha prayed to the Lord, and the army of the Syrians was struck with blindness.

Then we saw that the word “blindness” used twice in 2Kings 6 is only found in one other place, which is in Genesis 19 where the men of Sodom wearied themselves to find the door after God (in the form of the two “angels”) struck them with blindness. 

From there, we began to discuss how only God is able to blind men, and we saw the Scripture in the book of Exodus where God assumes full responsibility:  “Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I JEHOVAH?”  God is the only one who has the power to blind men, whether it be physical blindness or spiritual blindness.  It is only God, and that means that it is God who is being referred to in 2Corinthians 4:4:

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

It cannot be Satan in any way because Satan does not have that kind of power.

Then we realized in Genesis 19 that it was God who blinded the men of Sodom, and the men of Sodom can spiritually represent those in the churches at the time of the end because God identifies the churches at the time the “two witnesses” were killed, in Revelation 11, as “Sodom.”  We saw that God blinded the men of Sodom, and He blinded the Syrian army after Elisha prayed, and we discussed the type of blindness it was. 

The Syrians came against Dothan to apprehend Elisha, a type of Christ, and Dothan identifies with the commandments of God.  We saw it had a root word “dawth,” which identifies with “commandment,” “law,” and “decree.”  So there is a definite similarity regarding God blinding the men of Sodom and God blinding the Syrian army under the authority of the king of Syria, who typifies Satan.  Sending the Syrian army against Dothan (where Elisha was), we can liken to coming against the commandments of God where you would typically find Christ.  And this would typify Satan’s assault against the churches and congregations at the time of the end.

And from there we turned to 2Thessalonians 2 because that chapter tells us about the “man of sin,” Satan, who would take his seat in the temple, the corporate church, showing himself that he is God.  That all ties in with the end time plan of God to loose Satan to come against the camp of the saints.

Another figure that describes the very same thing is “Gog and Magog” in Revelation 20, so the Syrian army was like “Magog” operating under the instruction of “Gog,” Satan.  Satan and his Gentile forces, the unsaved of the nations, came against the camp of the saints, the churches and congregations.

Then we saw that it said in 2Thessalonians 2:9-12:

Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Here we see, once again, that it is God who is actively sending “strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.”  And that fits in perfectly with the idea of “blindness,” because spiritual blindness has to do with a lack of understanding.  It has to do with not recognizing the truth, but rather holding onto that which is a lie as if it were true.  Remember Ephesians 4:17-18:

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

Spiritual blindness, or blindness of the heart, means they are unsaved, and that will show itself in the area of their understanding, which will be darkened.  If your understanding is darkened, you cannot see the truth.

Earlier in Ephesians 1 God speaks of that in Ephesians 1:17-18:

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

Having the “eyes of your understanding” enlightened means you can now see, as the song says: “I once was blind, but now I see.”  What do I see?  I see the truth.  I can read and understand the Bible correctly.  I am seeing with eyes of understanding what God has written on that deeper spiritual level.  The mysteries of the Bible have opened up to my sight as far as being able to possess knowledge of them, and to understand what God is saying in a right way.  Spiritual sight is to properly understand the hidden truths of the Word of God which is not lying on the surface.  Yes, there are certain things we can learn on the surface because it is God’s Word, but the abundance of spiritual riches of the Word lie beneath the surface, hidden in parabolic form.  That is why Christ spoke in parables, and these truths are withheld from the ungodly, as explained by Jesus when His disciples asked Him why He spoke in parables.  “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.”  

That is, in fact, the very same thing God tells us in Daniel concerning the Word that was sealed up until the time of the end.  Then the implication is that at the time of the end, it would be unsealed and opened up.  And the wise will understand because God has saved them and given them eyes of understanding.  But for the wicked, none of them will understand.  They cannot, which reveals that the character of the information that was sealed and hidden on the pages of the Bible is spiritual information, and the natural-minded man has no ability to discern spiritual things.

Going back to 2Thessalonians 2:11, it said, “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.”  The word “strong” is a Greek word, “en-erg'-i-ah,” and it is translated as “working” in this same chapter in 2Thessalonians 2:9: “…whose coming is after the working of Satan.” 

So this is the operation of God, and it something that He is going to work, and He will invest His power into sending them a “working delusion.”  The word “delusion” is a word that is translated as “error” a few times.  For example, let us go to 1John 4, and in the context of the antichrist, it says in 1John 4:3-6:

And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

It is a spirit of error, a spirit of deceit, the spirit of lies.  This word is translated as “delusion,” so it is strong error.  It is to have an incorrect understanding of a verse, passage, chapter, or books of the Bible.  They have it wrong when they say, “You can accept Christ.  You can control your own salvation.”  That is a strong error, and hundreds, upon hundreds of millions of professed believers believe it.  It has led to their destruction.  And it is also true of many other things like speaking in tongues, and falling over backwards, and all that takes place in the charismatic churches at the times of the end.  These are “after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders.” 

And God sent them strong delusion.  Who are those being referred to?  They are those professed Christians that number as many as two billion people that make up the corporate church.  They shall believe a lie.  God sent them a strong delusion, a “working error,” that they would believe a lie.  They believe it is a sign of having the Holy Spirit if you “speak in tongues.”  That is a lie.  It is actually a sign that you are not a true believer.  We read that in 1Corinthians 14:22:

Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.

It is a sign of an unbeliever, and it is part of the “strong delusion” that God has sent, and so many people think, “If I speak in tongues, that is an indicator that I have the Spirit.  I could not speak in tongues if I did not have the Spirit.”  That is wrong,  You have opened yourself up to the working of Satan, as it says in 2Thessalonians 2:9:

Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

It is a lying wonder if you speak in tongues.  It is a lying wonder if you “fall over backwards.”  Again, they are deluded into thinking, “To be slain in the Spirit means that the Holy Spirit has come upon me.”  But the spirit that has come upon them is not the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God.  But it may very well be the power of the evil spirit, if you are engaging in that kind of activity.  It has nothing to do with the true Gospel of the Bible.   If you believe it, and if you trust it to be the true Gospel, and you think, “I am a Christian, and my church is true, and all my friends involved in this are true,” it is because God has sent you strong delusion that you should believe that which is not true.  You are believing a lie. 

Let us look at one more verse regarding this before we move on.  Let us go to Isaiah 30 where God speaks to this matter, in Isaiah 30:27-28:

Behold, the name of JEHOVAH cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire: And his breath, as an overflowing stream…

God’s tongue and breath identify with His Word.  Again it says in Isaiah 30:28:

And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.

God is sending err.  God is sending strong error that they should believe a lie.  It is the operation of His Word at the time of the end, and it is all part of His judgment against the house of God, the corporate churches that have all become unfaithful and apostate, and they have fallen away.  “You have lusted after these things.  So have them to your fill.”  And they ran after tongues, falling over backwards, and the free will gospel’s “easy believe-ism.”   And it has ruined them.   It has destroyed them so that they believe a lie. 

We see this terrible result in the next verse for those that believe the lie.  It says in 2Thessalonians 2:12:

That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Horrible!  Horrible!  Yet this is exactly what God has done to all the world’s churches in the time of His judgment upon them.