Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #15 of Genesis, chapter 7 and we are going to read Genesis 7:13-16:

In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and JEHOVAH shut him in.

In our last study we were looking at the word “entered” in verse 13 where it says that Noah and his family entered into the ark. We saw that this Hebrew word is the same word that was used in Genesis 19, verse 23 when Lot entered into Zoar and it was also the same word used in Isaiah 26:20-21:

Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, JEHOVAH cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

Clearly the context here has to do with the final judgment of the people of the world because God said, “For, behold, JEHOVAH cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.” The only time that this will take place is during the time of the final judgment at the end of the world, so verse 20 relates to Judgment Day and God speaks to His people and He says, “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.” I mentioned how well that fit with what took place with the building of the ark and the entering in of Noah and his family and how they remained in that safe place, which was their “chambers,” in a sense, until the flood was finished about a year later. After that year, God’s indignation or wrath was over and they came out of the ark.

Likewise, at the end of the world (which is the time we now live in) God’s final judgment will be finished at some point and all the elect will enter into the new heaven and new earth. That is the picture.

We were talking about the word “hid” or “hide” at the end of the last study and we went to Zephaniah 2:2:

Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of JEHOVAH come upon you, before the day of JEHOVAH'S anger come upon you.

That would be the “indignation” mentioned in Isaiah 26. Then it says in Zephaniah 2:3:

Seek ye JEHOVAH, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of JEHOVAH'S anger.

Do you see how closely it identifies with Isaiah 26, verses 20 and 21? The day of JEHOVAH’S anger is Judgment Day. It is the final judgment of all the inhabitants of the earth. This verse was beseeching people to seek the Lord and approach God’s throne of grace before that day. The word “before” was used three time times in verse 2. That would have been the time for seeking God’s mercy and seeking grace that could have been extended in salvation. That was the “day of salvation” and it was before the “day of JEHOVAH’S anger.” That was the acceptable time wherein a man or woman could have found the merciful God and God may have granted salvation. It is salvation that hides a person in the day of God’s anger: “it may be ye shall be hid in the day of JEHOVAH'S anger.” Again, when we compare that to Isaiah, chapter 26: “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.” It is being “hid in the day of JEHOVAH’S anger.” That is what it means and it does not mean that we have to be silent when it comes to the Bible, as some think. It does not mean that we cannot speak publicly the things of God and share what the Bible teaches, but the meaning is really defined in Colossians 3:1-3:

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

This is speaking to those that are saved and “ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”

Then it says in Colossians 3:4:

When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

God grants salvation to His elect which number a great multitude all over the face of the earth and, yet, only a tiny remnant of the whole of mankind. At the moment the elect become saved their lives are “hid with Christ in God” and they are now “hid” or protected in the day of God’s anger. The great multitude are left and remain alive on earth while God implements His judgment program and God began that process by shutting the door of heaven and ending His salvation program. Now is the Day of Judgment. The time to have sought the Lord while He could be found was before the time of His anger – Judgment Day is the day of His anger. It is not the time to seek His mercy and to seek to be “hid” in Christ. That time was before Judgment Day began. You do not seek to enter into the “ark” once the rain begins. Once the rain began, the door of the ark has been shut by God and everyone inside has already entered in and are safe inside of the ark. God did not open the door again after “the seventeenth day of the second month” of Noah’s 600th year.

The Lord is very orderly. He does everything according to His program of times and seasons. God opened the great and effectual door wherein the early rain went forth and saved His people over the course of the church age. Then at the proper time, He shut that door to the churches and congregations and they became in spiritual famine because there was no more salvation taking place within the churches. Then at the proper season God, once again, opened the door of heaven in a tremendous way for the “little season” that took place during the second part of the Great Tribulation period and He saved the great multitude. While that door was open, people could seek the Lord and God’s people witnessed and testified to others of this fact as we implored people to go to God and beseech Him for mercy. We told them if anyone told them not to call on the Lord, we told them to cry all the more, like blind Bartimaeus who was crying out during a proper season. People told him to be quiet when he cried out for mercy, but he was crying out in a proper season, so he cried out all the more because God, peradventure, might grant mercy to the one approaching boldly to His throne of grace.

But all is done in the proper time and season and God shut the door of heaven on May 21, 2011 exactly 7,000 years from the flood on a day that had the underlying Hebrew calendar date of “the seventeenth day of the second month.” It matched with the day that God had shut the door of the ark in Noah’s time. Then God shut the door of heaven and the evangelization program on earth ceased. God’s sending forth the Gospel unto salvation in order to seek the lost sheep of the house of Israel came to an end. All the elect whose names were recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life had been found and safely brought into the kingdom of God in salvation and their lives were “hid with Christ in God.” They now had the security of God’s salvation, the security that was typified by the ark that protected the people of God from the flood. Likewise, God began the final judgment of the world that will utterly destroy all the (unsaved) inhabitants of the earth and the earth itself, but it cannot harm or destroy God’s people because their lives are “hid with Christ in God.” That is the idea behind the fact that God could do nothing until Noah entered into the ark and until Lot entered into Zoar. It is the same idea in the parable that God gave concerning the ten virgins. I want to spend a little time on this, so let us start with Matthew 25:1:

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

To begin with, what does the Bible tell us about lamps? The Bible says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,” and, therefore, God associates His Word, the Bible, with a lamp and all ten virgins had lamps, so these ten virgins are those that identified with the Word of God. We would say they are “Christians.” The number “10” points to completeness.

Then it says in Matthew 25:2:

And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

Now we know that of the ten virgins, there are some that are saved; they are wise and Christ is the essence of wisdom, so anyone that possesses Christ is counted “wise” by God. Those that lack the Spirit of Christ lack wisdom and are considered foolish.

Then it says in Matthew 25:3:

They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:

We know the lamps represent the Bible and “oil” identifies with the Holy Spirit. When a prophet, like Samuel, would anoint a king, like David, he would anoint him with “oil,” signifying that the Spirit of God had come upon him. The foolish or unsaved individuals that profess to be Christian have Bibles and we see that all around us in the churches; these professed Christians do not have “oil” with them. They have the name of Christ and they have the Word of God, but they do not have “oil,” the Holy Spirit, because if you are not saved you do not have the Holy Spirit.

Then it says of the “wise” that do have the Spirit of Christ, in Matthew 25:4:

But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

The “oil” is associated with being wise because it represents the Holy Spirit. They have “wisdom,” the Spirit of Christ. The elect of God have the name of Christ and they are “virgins.” They have lamps, the Word of God. They also have the Spirit of Christ which is doubly emphasized because they are “wise” and they have “oil.”

Then it says in Matthew 25:5:

While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.

The bridegroom is Christ. While these professed Christians and these true Christians all waited for the bridegroom, they all “slept.” Both the wise and the foolish slept. The saved and the unsaved slept while waiting and this sleeping identifies with what we read in the parable of the wheat and the tares, where it says in Matthew 13:25:

But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

In this particular parable, the Lord is telling us about the church age and how it was that so many unsaved people came to be associated with the churches and congregations – it was while men slept that Satan came and sowed tares among the wheat. During the church age was when Satan was actively sowing tares and it was the time that men “slept,” so when we read of the ten virgins that slumbered and slept while the bridegroom tarried, it had to do with the church age. During the 1,955 years of the church age, this was the situation as the wheat and the tares grew together and, spiritually, God indicates that all were asleep during the time they were expectantly waiting for Christ to come, but He tarried in that time – His second coming did not occur during the church age.

Then it says in Matthew 25:6:

And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

The word “midnight” is a word that identifies with the time of judgment and, in this case, it has to do with the judgment of the Great Tribulation on the churches. The Great Tribulation occurred at the same time that judgment began at the house of God, so during the time of judgment upon the churches during the Great Tribulation a cry was made that the bridegroom cometh. Was there such a cry made during the time of the Great Tribulation? Yes, of course, there was a worldwide proclamation that Christ was coming (as Judge) on May 21, 2011. This cry went out during the period of the Great Tribulation for several years while that period was still ongoing, so it was a cry made at “midnight” during the time that God was judging the churches.

The decree, “Go ye out to meet him,” relates to other information that came forth during the judgment on the churches. People were commanded to come out of the churches and go out into the world. They could not meet the bridegroom if they stayed in the churches. God warned His people to come out of the churches and congregations. Remember, the ten virgins that were all in the churches together and they were to hear the cry that the bridegroom was coming and they were to depart out. That is exactly what happened when the information concerning the end of the church age was declared and, almost on the heels of that, Judgment Day was declared as being May 21, 2011. Those two pieces of information came forth almost together.

Then it goes on to say in Matthew 25:7:

Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.

The reference to “all those virgins” includes both the wise and the foolish. They all heard the cry that the bridegroom was coming and the command to go out to meet Him. In response, all the virgins arose and turned to their lamps. Again, what are the lamps? It is the Word of God that is a “lamp unto my feet.” So all the wise turned to the Bible and the foolish also turned to the Bible, but not in a proper way, and they came up with different conclusions. And the reason why is stated in Matthew 25:8:

And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.

Again, what is the “oil?” It is the Holy Spirit. If you have a lamp, it does not do any good if you lack the oil to light the lamp. If you do not have oil, your lamp will stay dark and it will enlighten nothing because you need the oil to light the lamp in order to see. The “wise” had the oil, but the “foolish” had no oil, so it is as though the elect are saying, “We see in the Bible that the church age is over because our lamp is lit. We see that Christ is coming.” And it is as if the foolish virgins turn to the elect and they say, “Well, show us. Give us this oil so we can see these things, too,” but the response comes in Matthew 25:9:

But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.

It is as if the elect are saying, “I cannot open your eyes. I cannot show you what the Holy Spirit is showing me because it would take the Holy Spirit in you in order for you to have your own ‘oil’ to see these things.” So the wise direct the foolish to where they can get “oil.” They are referring them to the Triune God: “But go ye rather to them that sell.” God likens Himself to a merchantman in the Book of Isaiah. The foolish are to go to God and “buy and sell.” In other words, God has the ability to give you this “oil” to light your lamp so you can see the time in which we are living – it is “midnight” and the judgment has begun on the churches and Christ is coming.

Then it says in Matthew 25:10:

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came…

What this indicates is that God’s people directed the foolish to God, but the foolish go to their pastors and their church elders because they had long mistaken the corporate church for God and whatever their churches said was the Word of God to them. So they went there and they reasoned with one another and while they were so doing, Christ came and their lamps were never lit to see that the things that had been proclaimed were true and faithful. So Christ came and there they were, completely unready. It goes on to say in Matthew 25:10:

… and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.

We have run out of time and, Lord willing, we will pick this up in our next Bible study.