Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #2 of Genesis, chapter 5 and we will read Genesis 5:3:

And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

In our last study we mentioned that this is the first age given by God in the Bible. It is a very key age. It is an age that is full of spiritual meaning. It is “130” or “10 x 13” and the number “13” points to the end and the number “10” points to completion, so what is in view is the completeness of time or the completeness of the end for all things related to this creation. That is why the year 1988 was so important. It was the 13,000th year of earth’s history and today all of us stand in relationship to the year 1988 much in the same way that people stood in relationship to the year 13BC from the time of creation.

This is something we are going to go over and spend some time in, Lord willing, as we go through the genealogies to re-confirm theses dates, but creation occurred in 11,013BC and the year 13BC was the 11,000th year of earth’s history. And 2,300 days from 13BC brings it to 7BC, a Jubilee Year in which Jesus was born. Then 2,000 years later in 1988, which is exactly 13,000 years from creation and you go 2,300 days from that point it brings it to 1994, another Jubilee Year. From 7BC to the cross in 33AD was 40 calendar years or 39 actual years. And from 1994 to the date 2033 is 40 inclusive years and 39 actual years. It does not mean that Christ will come at that time, but we cannot help but notice these similarities in time where the people of God would have been standing in relationship to the Biblical calendar in the time of Christ’s birth and the early years of the New Testament age up until 33AD and where we stand in relationship to the 13,000th year of earth’s history and the Jubilee Year of 1994, and so forth. We are in a parallel position that are separated by exactly 2,000 years. The 13BC identifies with 1988 and the 7BC identifies with 1994 and 33AD identifies with 2033AD, with each of the dates separated by an even 2,000 years.

So, then we see that Joseph was given two dreams that made his brothers jealous and greatly troubled. The first dream regarded 11 stars (his brethren) bowing down to him and the second dream involved 11 stars, the sun and the moon for a total of 13 bowing down to him. Both the numbers “11” and “13” are the focal points of God’s calendar of history and they have always been. As a matter of fact, Joseph was the 11th son born to Jacob and his death age was 110 or “10 x 11.” He was also a type and figure of the Lord Jesus Christ. What was his first dream? It was of 11 brethren bowing down to him and Christ came into the world after 11,000 years. Then he had a second dream of 13 bowing down to him and we find that this is the focus of history, as we lay out the Biblical calendar.

We cannot help but notice that it is at the point of the 13,000th year of earth’s history in 1988 that the corporate church was destroyed, spiritually, across the face of the earth, as God had said would occur at the time of the end. There would be a “falling away” first before Christ would come, as it says in 2Thessalonians, chapter 1. There would be false Christs and false apostles and false gospels, and so forth, and there would be an abounding of iniquity and we have seen all these things. Let us face the facts. We are the generation living on the earth at a time when men are marrying men and women are marrying women and it is not only acceptable, but is being encouraged as a good and moral thing, so we can know we are living at the end of the world. It so happens that these things, like the church apostasy and the multiplication of iniquity in the world, are all happening when we have reached the 13,000th year of earth’s history. Is this a coincidence? No – there is no such thing when it comes to the Bible.

God knows the end from the beginning and God caused Joseph to dream very specific dreams concerning the two comings of Christ:

1. one that involved the number “11”:
2. one that involved the number “13.”

God very specifically made sure that He would not appoint “another seed” instead of Abel until Adam reached age 130 because it would be then that you would lose your children and find others: “And whence came they?” They are the great multitude that suddenly appeared because God had another seed He would save outside of the churches and congregations.

I am not saying there is not another instance in the Bible where the number “130” is found, but from what I could find, it is very central in four different places. One of them is here in Genesis 5, verse 3 and this is a very significant spot for God to give us this number. It is the first date ever given in the history of the world and it ties right into the end of the world. It is also given at a time when Cain had slain Abel and the reference to “the end of days,” and we have already talked about it.

Three of the four references where we find the age “130” are in the Book of Genesis. The second time this number is seen is in Genesis 11:26:

And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

This is an unusual reference because, typically, when a man begat someone, they list one individual, but here it is three sons and Abram was not one of a set of triplets, so it is not the case that all three of these sons were born at the same time, so there is some other teaching that is involved when Terah was 70 years old. Actually, Abram was not yet born when Terah was 70 and we can know this because it says in Genesis 11:31:

And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

So Terah was 205 when he died. If Abram had been born when Terah was 70 (as it seems to say in verse 26), then when Terah was 205 Abram should have been 135 years old, but in the next chapter after the death of Terah Abram entered into the land of Canaan and it says in Genesis 12:4:

So Abram departed, as JEHOVAH had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

Abram was 75 and Terah is already dead at age 205, so you can see how it is not possible for Terah to have been 70 when Abraham was born. And, yet, for some reason God lists all three of the sons as begotten when Terah was 70. So one of these sons was born when Terah was 70, but it was decades later when Abram was born, so why would God list Abram first? It is not clear, but it could be due to Abram’s significance in the Bible. Also, God hides things and He “clouds the issue” for people that are not careful with the Bible; anyone could easily conclude that Terah was 70 when Abram was born, but that would be a miscalculation. If you look at his death age and Abram’s age upon leaving Haran after Terah was dead, it is not possible that Abram was born when Terah was 70. Actually, since Terah died at age 205, the implication is that as soon as he died in the land of Haran, then Abram departed, taking his wife and Lot his nephew, at age 75. So if we take Terah’s age of 205 and subtract 75, we find that Terah was 130 when Abram was born, just like when Adam was 130 and Seth was born. So there is a similar age relationship between Seth and Adam and Abram and Terah.

A long time ago, Mr. Camping wrote the book, “Are You Ready?” in 1994. He said that Terah and his family lived on the other side of the flood or on the other side of the Promised Land and that Terah’s three sons were a figure of mankind. Of the three sons, Abram was a child of God, whereas Nahor and Haran never made it into the Promised Land. Only Abram crossed over the river into the Promised Land. He departed out of Haran. So Mr. Camping pointed out how that agrees with the Bible’s figure where God breaks up the human race into “two thirds” and “one third,” with the “two thirds” representing the unsaved and the “one third” representing the saved. Of Terah’s three sons, there was that “one third” and “two thirds” relationship, so, again we can see that Abram was like Seth in the sense of a promised seed. Abram was a man of God and God had a great deal of wonderful things to say about him and the family of Abram, who later became Abraham, the father of a great multitude. Abraham was born when his father was aged “130,” so we can see a relationship. There is so much Biblical history that involves Abraham, it is not as clear as the limited history between Seth and Adam. The latter just stands out, but we can see that Abraham, who becomes the father of a multitude, has relationship to the end of time because he was born when his father was 130. Again, the number “130” is “10 x 13,” representing the completeness of the end of time and all things for this world. This is the second place that the age 130 is found.

A third place in the Book of Genesis involves Joseph and his father Jacob. It says in Genesis 45:1-8:

Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Here, we have this wonderful, true and historical account of Joseph. He had a troubled life. At this point, of course, it is wonderful. It is incredible that he is second in command to Pharaoh and, yet, we cannot forget that at the young age of 17 his own brothers betrayed him and desired to kill him. Instead, they sold him into Egypt and he worked in Potiphar’s house as a slave for some time and then things got even worse when Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him of adultery and he was thrown into prison. While he was in prison, Pharaoh’s butler and baker were also in prison accused of certain crimes. Each of these individuals had a dream one night and Joseph interpreted the dreams that involved three days when the butler would be lifted up and restored to his butlership and the baker would be put to death and it happened according to the interpretation. The butler was restored to his butlership and another Pharaoh came to power, but Joseph remained in prison until the age of 30.

Is that not interesting? Joseph was sold as a slave at age 17 and all these horrible things happened to him until he was age 30. How long was it from the time he was thrown into that pit until he came out of prison? It was 13 years. There is the number “13” again. Then Pharaoh had some troubling dreams and Pharaoh was disturbed and called for his wise men and magicians to interpret his dream, but they could not. Even though Joseph had asked the butler to remember him the butler had forgotten him, but when the butler heard that Pharaoh desperately desired an interpretation of his dreams, the butler’s memory was sparked and he recalled Joseph, the Hebrew man who had an uncanny ability to interpret dreams. So Joseph was hastily called out of the prison and he did interpret Pharaoh’s dreams.

Pharaoh’s dreams were twofold:

1. there were seven good ears of corn swallowed up by seven thin ears and
2. seven fat cows that were devoured by seven skinny cows.

God granted Joseph the ability to interpret the dream and to tell Pharaoh that the dream was “one.” The seven good ears and the seven fat cows related to seven years of plenty and the seven thin ears and seven skinny cows represented seven years of famine. And so it was. There was seven years of plenty and they had an abundance of harvest and they stored up a good part of the grain against the coming famine. The seven years of famine were according to the Bible – it was not according to a theologian and it was not according to some church or anything a man might reason or theorize. The fact is, according to the Bible, the seven years of famine represented the Great Tribulation that would come at the time of the end of the world. We can say this because of what we read in Acts 7:11-14:

Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph's kindred was made known unto Pharaoh. Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.

Here, in verse 11 it said there was a dearth and “great affliction.” The two words translated as “great affliction” are identical to the two words translated as “great tribulation” in Matthew 24. It is also translated as “great tribulation” in Revelation 2 and Revelation 7. It is “megas” for “great,” and “thlipsis,” for “tribulation.” Whenever those two words are found together it identifies in every case with the “little season” of the Great Tribulation that comes at the end of the world. Here, God identifies the dearth or famine that came upon the world of that day with the Great Tribulation, so it is God Himself, the Author of the Bible, who is telling us that when we read of Joseph at a point two years into the famine there would be five years more of famine and that the dividing point after the first two years would be vastly different than the remaining five years of the “great tribulation” for the family of Jacob because Joseph had revealed himself to his brethren, just as God revealed Himself during the time of Great Tribulation when He opened up the Scriptures. Joseph is a type and figure of the Lord Jesus Christ and Joseph had been “hidden” to Jacob and his family. They did not know where he was and Joseph was certainly not in the land of Canaan, just as Christ was no longer in the churches. Joseph had come out of the land of Canaan, just as Christ had departed out of the churches. It was in the land of Egypt (which represented the world) that Jacob and his family finally discovered Joseph outside of Canaan, like Christ outside of the churches, at the dividing point of the famine or “great tribulation.”

We will have to talk more about this when we get together in our next Bible study.