“And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.” - Isaiah 49:23
Note to readers: Because of the length of this devotional, I have decided to split it up into seven parts. I will also have a link that contains the entire devotional.
The Scriptures above describe a time that is coming that will happen after the 7-year time of Jacob’s trouble, during which time God will judge Israel for its disobedience to Him and their rejection of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. During this 7-year time period, also known as the tribulation period, God will also judge all of the nations of the world who, like Israel, also will choose to remain in their sin instead of accepting Jesus’ free gift of salvation of sins. During this time period, God will preserve a one-third remnant of Israel, who will be put through the fire but will come out refined as gold. Afterwards, Israel will finally be gathered together in the land that God gave them, and He will replace the sons and daughters that they will lose during their time of trouble, and those sons and daughters will be from the Gentile/non-Jewish nations. This whole chapter of Isaiah is specifically speaking of Jesus and His coming redemption of Jacob and Israel, I want to take the time to study about the nation of Israel and how it came about with the Biblical patriarchs, beginning with Abraham, his son Isaac, his son Jacob, and his sons that became the twelve tribes of Israel. Thus, I will be doing a deep-dive into their family history. Are you ready? Let’s begin our study of the patriarchs of Israel.
Long ago before the time of Isaiah the prophet, the Bible tells us in Genesis about a promise that God had made to a man named Abram, who was 75-years old at the time and was married to his wife, Sarai, who was 65-years old. They were living with Abram’s family in his father Terah’s, house in a land called Haran. When Terah died, something happened:
“Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the LORD has spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance [possessions] that they had gathered, and the souls [people] that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem [or Shechem], unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed [descendants] will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.” (Genesis 12:1-7)
In the promise of God to Abram above, God told Abram that He would make of him a great nation, meaning Abram would have many descendants, i.e., children, that would be born of him and Sarai. However, years passed by and they were both getting up in age and still they had no children. Growing impatient, Abram asked God if one who was named Eliezer, who was a servant born in his house, should be his heir because God had not given him any children yet. However, God told him no, Eliezer was not his heir, and God reconfirmed what He had previously told Abram, even saying to Abram:
“And he [God] brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell [count] the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness. And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?” (Genesis 15:5-8)
God then reconfirmed his covenant with Abram by a blood covenant, as described in Genesis 15:9-21. A blood covenant was normally performed by two parties; however, the blood covenant that God made with Abram was sealed by God Himself, for He had put Abram into a deep sleep before God sealed the covenant. Thus, God made this covenant by Himself; it is a unilateral, unconditional covenant. It was when God made this blood covenant with Abram that this happened:
“And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance [possessions]. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace [die and join your ancestors]; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full [complete].” (Genesis 15:13-16)
God told Abram that his descendants would be slaves in a foreign nation for 400 years and God would judge that nation. God also told Abram that after 400 years, his descendants would come to the land that God gave to Abram and his descendants, the land of Canaan. God was going to wait 400 years for the Amorites, the people living in the land of Canaan, to change their wicked and evil ways, before God would bring Abram’s descendants into the land. Because God knows all things, He knew that the Amorites would not change their ways. Thus, He was giving it to Abram and his future descendants for an everlasting possession. That is exactly what happened, and we will read about what happened prior to that in Egypt with Abram’s great-grandson, Joseph.
When Abram and Sarai had lived in the land ten years and still had no heir, no child of their own, Sarai decided to take matters into her own hands and told Abram he should have have sexual intercourse with her handmaid, Hagar, in order to produce an heir. Hagar got pregnant, and afterwards, she despised Sarai. Let us read what happened next:
“And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee: I have given my maid into thy bosom; and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes: the LORD judge between me and thee. But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly [harshly] with her, she fled from her face [presence].” (Genesis 16:5-6)
This is a perfect example of what happens when we ignore God’s promises and commands to us and decide not to trust in Him but to take matters into our own hands; we mess things up, big time. This is what happens when we don’t want to wait on God and we want things to be done according to our own timeline. Let us finish reading about what happened with Hagar:
“And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain [spring] of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. And he said, Hagar, Sarai’s maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed [descendants] exceedingly; that it shall not be numbered for multitude. And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael [God hears]; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of his brethren. And she called the name of the LORD that spake unto her, Thou God seest me: for she said, Have I also here looked after [seen the back of] him that seeth me? Wherefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi [Well of the One Who Lives and Sees Me]; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered. And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son’s name, which Hagar bore, Ishmael. And Abram was fourscore and six [86] years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.” (Genesis 16:7-16)
13 years later, when Abram was 99-years old (Genesis 17:1), God appeared again to Abram, reconfirming His promise to Abram that He would not only make of him a great nation but many nations:
“And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God [El Shaddai]; walk before me, and be thou perfect [blameless]. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, as for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither [no longer] shall thy name any more be called Abram [Exalted Father], but thy name shall be Abraham [Father of a Multitude]; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed [descendants] after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:1-8)
God told Abram that He would multiply him tremendously so that he would be a father of many nations. God also stated that the covenant He was making with Abram was an everlasting covenant, meaning it could not ever be broken. God also told Abram that the land He was going to give to Abram and his descendants would be theirs forever. It wouldn’t matter if Abram and his seed were disobedient to God, and they were disobedient to Him and still are today; no, the land would always be theirs, for it is “an everlasting possession.” There was nothing conditional about these covenants that God had made with Abram. God also changed Abram’s name accordingly. Next, God then made a covenant that required Abraham, and notice that this is the first time that God used the new name He gave to Abram, and his descendants to keep:
“And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in [throughout] their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token [sign] of the covenant between me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man [male] child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul [person] shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.” (Genesis 17:9-14)
Next, God then spoke to Abraham about his wife:
“And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah [Princess] shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of [by] her: yea, I will bless her; and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.” (Genesis 17:15-16)
Can you imagine that you are Abraham, who is 99-years old, and here God is telling you that you and your wife, who is 89-years old, are going to have a son? What would your response be? I can’t even imagine a woman who is that age having the strength not only to be able to endure the demands of pregnancy but also to deliver a child. But with Almighty God, there is nothing impossible for Him to do, for He created the heavens, the earth, the seas, and all that is in them, including mankind. What do you think Abraham’s response was to God? Would it be similar to yours and mine? Let’s read what he said to God:
“Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?” (Genesis 17:17)
I absolutely love the Bible’s honesty, and how it doesn’t try to make people seem perfect and always trusting in God. Though we should always trust in God, God knows that we are humans and prone to sin and trying to do things our way. He also knows that we think in terms of our own ability and not His. God has told us:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:8-11).
Still thinking in his own limited human ability and still doubting what God had just told him - that he and Sarah would have a son in a year’s time - Abraham came up with a plan to make this happen and told it to God:
“And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!” (Genesis 17:18)
Abraham was telling God that the son He spoke of would be Ishmael and not a biological son born of him and Sarah, for Abraham was not thinking in the way that God thought but in his own human, limited way. God then told Abraham:
“And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed [descendants] after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. And he left talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.” (Genesis 17:19-22)
God was making it very clear to Abraham that it would be the son who could come from the biological union of Abraham and Sarah who would be the heir and the one with whom the covenant with God would be established, and the son would be named “Isaac.” God made it clear that His covenant was not with the son whose name was Ishmael, who was born of Abraham and Hagar. Abraham then did as God commanded him and had all males in his household, including himself, circumcised.
Next we are told in Genesis 18:
“And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward [to] the ground., and said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away [on by], I pray thee, from thy servant…” (Genesis 18:1)
Abraham obviously was honoring to these men to the extent that he bowed to them. I agree with gotquestions.org (See: https://www.gotquestions.org/three-men-Genesis-18.html) that one of the three men was either God taking on the appearance of a man, a theophany, or it was Jesus Himself, a Christophany, which is Jesus appearing in His pre-incarnate body. In the book of Revelation whenever John fell down on his knees to worship an angel, he is told not to worship him but to “Worship God.” (Revelation 19:10 and 22:9) Thus, if all three of these men were angels, I do not think they would have allowed Abraham to worship them and would have told him to worship God, as the angels in Revelation told John. I also believe with the referenced article that the other two men were angels, per Genesis 19:1.
Abraham invited them to wash their feet, rest, and eat with him. He had Sarah makes cakes for them and he had a calf killed and cooked for them. Then we are told:
“And they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the tent. And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him.” (Genesis 18:9-10)
Clearly, this is God talking to Abraham, for it is God Himself who came and visited Sarah after she bore Isaac, which we’ll read about in a minute. Let us read what happened next:
“Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women [Sarah had passed the age of childbearing]. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed [grown] old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also? And the LORD said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he said, Nay; but thou didst laugh.” (Genesis 18:11-15)
I must admit, after having gone through childbirth myself, I can’t even imagine having a child at 90-years old and my reaction may well have been the same as Sarah’s. Did you notice that it says she laughed “within herself,” meaning not out loud? However, God knows everything about us, including the thoughts we think in our minds. God asked Abraham why she did it, and I’m guessing Abraham didn’t even try to answer that question. I love God’s next statement to him: “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” No, there is nothing too hard, nothing impossible for God; He is Almighty God! If he wanted to have a woman bear a child at 90-years old, He would make it happen. Did you catch that Sarah denied that she laughed and that God called her out and told her she did laugh. God sees, hears, and knows everything we do, before we even do it, and He made that known to her.
Before continuing on with Abraham and Sarah, I want to mention something else, and that is that the three men also warned Abraham that He was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of their grievous sins:
“And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD. And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure [suppose] there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? and the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.” (Genesis 18:20-26)
Abraham then asked God if He would spare the place for 45, then 40, 30, 20, and finally then 10 righteous people, would He still destroy the place. God said He would not in each case. However, as you may know, God did destroy both Sodom and Gomorrah, meaning there were not even ten righteous people in those places. We can tell from God’s conversation with Abraham that Abraham had a heart for people who were righteous and did not want them destroyed. Now, we know that every single person alive is a sinner, but here Abraham was referring to certain people as “righteous,” who were separate and apart from the “wicked.” It tells us that though we may live in a wicked place, and many of us, it not all of us, do, it is still possible that there be righteous people living there, people who are appalled with what is happening in their town and city. Abraham asked God if He would spare the righteous from His judgment, saying, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” That is a very bold question that Abraham asked God. God’s answer to Abraham is an example of how God is willing to delay or stop His judgment from happening if there are righteous people still present. This reminds me of when God told Abraham that his descendants would be slaves in a foreign land for 400 years before they would come again to the land of Canaan that He was giving to Abraham and his descendants because “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full [complete].” (Genesis 15:16) God was giving the Amorites a very long time to either turn from their wicked ways or until there was not anyone left who was not wicked. This reminds me of another statement of God through the apostle Paul, and that is way forward in time in the book of Romans:
“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness [hardening] in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” (Romans 11:25)
I believe the fullness of the Gentiles Paul spoke about in the above Scriptures refers to the time after Jesus came to earth the first time, offering salvation first to His own people, the Jews, who as a nation rejected Him, after which He turned His attention and message of salvation to the Gentiles. We have been in that time ever since. I believe the fullness of the Gentiles will happen when God sees that the people on the world at that time will have been given the chance to turn to Jesus and be saved and who have not done so. It will be at that time that He will turn His attention back to the Jews and the 7-year time of Jacob’s trouble will happen. During that time, God will send a series of judgments not only upon the Jews but upon the entire unbelieving world. Until then, God is delaying His judgment to give people time to turn to Him and be saved. I personally do believe, based on Scripture, that people can and will be saved during the time of Jacob’s trouble, but it likely will cost them their physical lives here on earth; they will be martyred because of their faith in Jesus. Again, we can clearly see that God is not quick to judge; no, He delays His judgment in order to give us time to change our sinful ways and turn to Him.
Now, let us return to Abraham and Sarah. As He promised He would, God did appear to Sarah after she bore her and Abraham’s son, Isaac:
“And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah are to him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac, being eight days old, as God had commanded him. And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him. And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck [nurse children]? for I have born him a son in his old age.” (Genesis 21:1-7)
On the day that Isaac was born, Sarah indeed saw with her own eyes that nothing was too hard for God. Abraham named the son, “Isaac,” which literally means “laughter.” Lest we ourselves sometimes doubt that God has forgotten about us, we who love Him and who are called according to His purpose, let us remember that God does things according to His ways, which are not our ways, and according to His timing, which is always perfect.
Isaac grew, and on the day he was weaned from his mother, Sarah, Abraham made a great feast. Next we are told that Sarah saw the son of Hagar, who was the Egyptian handmaiden that had born the son to Abraham, was mocking them:
“Wherefore she [Sarah] said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. And the thing was very grievous [distressing] in Abraham’s sight because of his son. And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed [descendant]. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle [skin] of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child [youth], and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.” (Genesis 21:10-14)
Again, God made it clear to Abraham that, though Abraham grieved over the situation between his wife Sarah and his son from Hagar, he was not to be the heir of Abraham and that it was Isaac who would be his heir. God told Abraham to listen to his wife, and he did, and sent Hagar and her son away. After traveling sometime, Hagar ran out of water for her son and she put him under one of the shrubs and went away from him, not wanting to see her son die. After she cried out and wept:
“And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileen thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the land where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in [with] thine hand; for I will make him a great nation. And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle [skin] with water, and gave the lad drink. And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran: and his mother took him a wife out of the land of Egypt.” (Genesis 21:17-20)
God had compassion on both Hagar and her son and provided water for them, saving their lives. We read in Genesis 25:12-17 about Ishmael and how, as God promised (Genesis 17:20), he would have twelve sons, whom the Bible calls “twelve princes according to their nations.” (Genesis 25:16) Ishmael would live to be 137-years old before he would die. It is interesting to me that both Ishmael and Jacob, who would be Isaac’s son, had twelve sons, but Jacob’s twelve sons would become the twelve tribes of Israel.
It is interesting to note that in Genesis chapter 21, God never refer’s to Hagar’s son by his name of “Ishmael”; rather, He refers to him as her son or Abraham’s son. I suspect that is because God wanted to differentiate clearly between Isaac and Ishmael: Ishmael was not to be the heir of Abraham; he was not to be the recipient of the covenant that God had made with Abraham and his descendants. The mocking that Ishmael did toward Isaac and his family has never ceased. To this day, there is hatred not only from the descendants of Ishmael but from much of the world, toward the descendants of Isaac. This hatred seems to be coming to a boiling point, so much so, that Israel may be ready to make a covenant with the one who promises to bring peace but in fact, seeks only their destruction.
Returning to what happened after Hagar and Ishmael left, we read something shocking. after waiting so long to have children and finally having had his son Isaac with his wife, Sarah, one day God said to Abraham:
“Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” (Genesis 22:2)
Did you notice that in the above Scripture verse, God referred to Isaac as Abraham’s “only son”? That is because in God’s eyes, only Isaac was Abraham’s true son, the son whom God had promised and miraculously provided between an old man and an old woman, who was way past her childbearing age. Ishmael had been born by sinful human intervention and not according to the promise of God. Ishmael had been born because Sarah had grown inpatient as she waited for God to act. Instead of remaining steadfast in the promise of God to him to provide a son, Abraham had agreed with her and had sexual relations with Hagar. Thus, God wanted to know whether Abraham truly trusted in Him, and God was going to test him. There are many similarities between what followed next and when Jesus Christ came to earth the first time and was crucified, and because of that, I want to read the relevant Scriptures in their entirety. Let us read what happened next:
“And Abraham rose up early in the morning , and saddled his ass [donkey], and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave [split] the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And Isaac spoke unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh [The LORD Will Provide or See]: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen. And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed [descendants] as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies: and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed: because thou hast obeyed my voice. So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba.” (Genesis 22:3-19)
After waiting so long to have Isaac, here was Abraham, willing to sacrifice his beloved son because he trusted in God’s promises to him. God had told Abraham that of his seed, he would make a great nation and that it would be through his son, Isaac. Thus, Abraham trusted that even if he were to sacrifice his own son, God would fulfill his promises to him. We read about Abraham’s faith in God in the New Testament book of Hebrews, in what is known as the “Hall of Faith” chapter. The chapter opens with these words:
“Now faith is the substance [realization] of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed [prepared] by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear [are visible].” (Hebrews 11:1-3)
In order to have true faith, we must trust in God, even when we can’t see things with our own eyes and we can’t understand the ways of God in our own minds. Abraham had trusted in God when He had told Abraham to leave his father’s house and go into a land that God would show him. Abraham likely had never been to that land and knew not what lied ahead of him, but he took his wife, his nephew, Lot, and all that he had and moved to that land, as God had commanded him. Abraham could have ignored God’s commandments to him and refused to go, but he didn’t; he had faith in God:
“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went [where he was going].” (Hebrews 11:8)
Though Sarah had stumbled and sinned when she grew impatient and decided to take matters into her own hands, God forgave her, and miraculously enabled her to conceive a child by her husband, Abraham. Sarah, too is mentioned in the hall of faith:
“Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of [bore] a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.” (Hebrews 11:11-12)
If Isaac had been born of a man and a woman of childbearing ages, it would not have been anything special. However, Isaac was born of a man who, as the Scripture reads above, was good as dead, and a woman who was approximately 50 years past her childbearing age when bore Isaac at age 90. This clearly illustrates to us that God doesn’t work in the natural but in the supernatural. God truly is in the business of working miracles, with the purpose of bringing glory to Himself, for He is God and there is no other. We are to give glory to Him and to no other.
Now, let us read what is written about Abraham’s faith when he was tested by God to sacrifice his son, Isaac:
“By faith Abraham, when he was tried [tested], offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure [figurative sense].” (Hebrews 11:17-19)
In the Scriptures from Genesis 22, can you see the parallels between Abraham and Isaac and God the Father and Jesus Christ? Just as Abraham offered up his only begotten Son, so too, did God the Father, when He offered up Jesus Christ. Just as God spared Isaac from being sacrificed and provided a lamb, so too, did God provide the Lamb of God as a sacrifice to spare all who believe in Jesus Christ. Just as Isaac had to carry the wood on which he would be sacrificed, so too did Jesus carry the wooden cross, on which He would be sacrificed. Gotquestions.org has an article that lists other parallels. (See: https://www.gotquestions.org/Abraham-Isaac.html) Clearly, God was showing us a picture of Jesus Christ in the book of Genesis, long before Jesus would come to earth the first time, and would be rejected by His own people, crucified, give up His life on a cross, but would be resurrected to life three days later, and ascend to heaven 40 days thereafter.
As Hebrews 11 attests to, if our faith is only in what we can see with our own eyes, it is not faith but it is only trusting in the known. Faith is obeying God’s commandments to us, even when we don’t understand why, even when it makes no sense to us. Faith in God is trusting in the unknown circumstances, and knowing that the One we know, Almighty God, knows what we cannot know, and that He has a plan for us and for our lives, just as He did with Abraham and Sarah. May we live by our faith in God and not by our sight.
Sarah would die before Abraham, at the age of 127 years. When Isaac was of marrying age, Abraham didn’t want him to marry a Canaanite woman but a woman of the land where his father’s family lived, before God brought him to the land of Canaan. Abraham made an oath with his lead servant to go to the land of his father and find a woman who would marry Isaac:
“And the servant said unto him, Peradventure [perhaps] the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land: must I needs bring [take] thy son again unto the land from whence thou camest? And Abraham said unto him, Beware thou that thou bring [take] not my son thither again. The LORD God of heaven, which took me from my father’s house, and from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, and that sware unto me, saying, Unto thy seed [descendants] will I give this land; he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence. And if the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath: only bring [take] not my son thither again.” (Genesis 24:5-8)
Abraham made it clear that if a woman was found but was not willing to leave the land where she lived and come to the land where Isaac was, then Abraham’s servant would have fulfilled his duty to Abraham. Abraham was clear that Isaac must remain in the land that God gave to Abraham and his descendants and not to go and live in the land where Abraham used to live.
The servant took men with him and ten camels, and they went to the land of Abraham’s father’s house, to the city of Nahor in Mesopotamia. Before going into Nahor, the servant came to a well of water outside the city, where the women went to draw water. He then “made his camels kneel down” (Genesis 24:11). The servant then prayed to God and asked for a sign: that when he would ask a woman to give him a drink of water and if she did and also offered to provide water to his camels, then “let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shewed kindness unto my master.” (Genesis 24:14) Before he had finished speaking this prayer to God, a woman named Rebekah came to the well “who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, with her pitcher on her shoulder.” (Genesis 24:15) Thus, she was the great-niece of Abraham and second cousin to Isaac. Rebekah not only gave water to the servant but also to his camels. The servant then wondered if this truly was the woman that God wanted Isaac to marry. The servant then gave her a golden earring and two bracelets of gold for her hands and asked her whose daughter she was, and she told him. He asked her if her father had room in his house for him and his men to lodge in. She told him who her father was and that they had enough room and food for him. What did the servant do next?
“And the man bowed down his head, and worshipped the LORD. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute [forsaken] my master of his mercy and his truth: I being in the way, the LORD led me to the house of my master’s brethren.” (Genesis 24:26-27)
The servant knew that it was only by the power of Almighty God that He had led him to his master, Abraham’s family, and he gave thanks to God. May we remember to give thanks to God for the prayers He answers in our own lives and acknowledge who He is, that He is God and there is none else and none like Him. (Isaiah 46:9)
Rebekah then went to her house to tell her family about all that had happened, including her brother, Laban. Laban ran out to meet the servant at the well, and Laban invited him to come into their home and to shelter and feed his camels. The servant and his men fed their camels, washed their feet, and came into their house. They offered to feed the servant a meal, but he told them he would not eat until he told them why he had come. He told him about his master Abraham and why he had sent him, and how he had prayed to God for a sign so that he would know whom would be the woman God chose to be Isaac’s wife. The servant then said that after he had come upon Rebekah, who offered to provide water to him and his camels:
“And I bowed down my head, and worshipped the LORD, and blessed the LORD God of my master Abraham, which had led me in the right [true] way to take my master’s brother’s daughter unto his son. And now if ye will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me: and if not, tell me; that I may turn to the right hand, or to the left.” (Genesis 24:48-49)
Let us read what happened next:
“Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, The thing proceedeth from the LORD: we cannot speak unto thee bad or good. Behold, Rebekah is before thee, take her, and go, and let her be thy master’s son’s wife, as the LORD hath spoken. And it came to pass, that, when Abraham’s servant heard their words, he worshipped the LORD, bowing himself to the earth. And the servant brought forth jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment [clothing], and gave them to Rebekah: he gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things.” (Genesis 24:50-53)
When it was time for the servant and the men who were with him to leave, Rebekah’s brother and mother asked the servant to let Rebekah stay at least ten days, but he told them not to delay him so that he could return to his master. Laban and his mother then asked Rebekah to see if she was ready to leave, and Rebekah told them, “I will go.” (Genesis 24:58) Rebekah and her nurse were ready to leave with the servant and his men, but before they left:
“And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed [descendants] possess the gate of those which hate them. And Rebekah arose, and her damsels, and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man: and the servant took Rebekah, and went his way.” (Genesis 24:60)
Little did they know but when they blessed Rebekah, their words that they spoke, specifically, “and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them” were the same words that the angel of the LORD had spoken to Abraham, when Abraham was willing to sacrifice his only son, Isaac: “and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.” (Genesis 22:17) Thus, we can clearly see that it would be through Isaac and his wife Rebekah that the promise of God to Abraham would be fulfilled.
Rebekah was willing to give up everything she had known all of her life to go and marry a man she didn’t even know, nor had never met. Though her mother and brother wanted her to stay longer, she was ready to go, without even any hesitation. It reminds me of another account in the Bible when Jesus came to earth the first time and began preaching and choosing His apostles:
“From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand [near]. And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.” (Matthew 4:20)
Rebekah’s words also remind me of the account of Ruth in the book of Ruth. Ruth was from Moab, and she married an Israelite son. Her father-in-law was Elimelech, and her mother-in-law was Naomi, and they lived in the country of Moab. Elimelech and Naomi had left their homeland of Judah due to famine and had moved to Moab. Naomi also had another son who was married to another Moabite woman named Orpah. Elimelech had died prior to his two sons being married to the two Moabite women. Sometime later, Naomi’s two sons also died, leaving just Naomi and her two daughters-in-law. Upon hearing that the famine in Judah was over, Naomi decided to return to their. On their way to Judah, Naomi thanked her daughters-in-law for dealing kindly with her family and herself and told them that they should return to their people, for she was too old to marry again and bear children and have sons whom they could marry. Orpah and Ruth wept for their mother-in-law. Orpah decided to leave, but Ruth clung to Naomi, and then:
“And she [Naomi] said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law. And Ruth said, Intreat me not [urge me not] to leave thee, or to return from [turn back] following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou longest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: where thou diest, I will die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.” (Ruth 1:15-17)
Ruth would go on to marry Boaz, who was a family member of Naomi’s deceased husband, Elimelech. Boaz was very wealthy and purchased all that Elimelech owned, including Ruth. Boaz and Ruth’s son, whose name was Obed, would become the father of Jesse, King David’s father. It would be through the line of David that Messiah, Jesus the Christ, would come, and He too, like David, was born in Bethlehem Ephratah. Here we see that although Ruth was a Moabitess, because of her faithfulness to the one true God, He used her in a mighty way:
“And Boaz said unto the elders, and unto all the people, Ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilean’s and Mahlon’s [Elimelech’s two deceased sons], of the hand of Naomi. 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, from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this day. And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said, We are witnesses. The LORD 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: and let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, of the seed [offspring] which the LORD shall give thee of this young woman. So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bare a son. And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the LORD, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman [redeemer], that his name may be famous in Israel. And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him. 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. Now these are the generations of Pharez: Pharez begat Hezron, and Hezron begat Ram, and Ram begat Amminadab, and Amminadab begat Nahshon, and Nahshon begat Salmon [Salmah], and Salmon begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed, and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David.” (Ruth 4:9-22)
In all three of these accounts of Rebekah, Simon (Peter) and Andrew, and Ruth, we see that they were willing to give up everything and to trust in God and to go where He was leading them. These are three wonderful examples of how we should live our lives, as believers in Jesus Christ.
Returning to Rebekah, she and her nurse, the servant, and his men, after leaving Rebekah’s home, drew near to the place where Isaac lived. Isaac was in the field meditating, and he looked and saw the camels coming. Rebekah saw him and asked the servant who the man was, and the servant told her it was Isaac. She came off the camel and met Isaac, who took her into his mother’s tent. Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to be his wife and he loved her. The Bible also tells us that “Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.” (Genesis 24:67) Isaac and Rebekah wanted to have children but she was barren, unable to have children. Isaac then pleaded with God, and sometime later, Rebekah conceived. The Bible tells us:
“And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so [well], why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau [Hairy]. And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau’s heel; and his named was called Jacob [Supplanter or Deceitful, lit. One Who Takes the Heel]: and Isaac was threescore years old when she bare them.” (Genesis 25:22-26)
The boys grew, and Esau was a skilled hunter and loved being outdoors, whereas his brother Jacob was a mild man who dwelled in tents. The Bible tells us “Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob.” (Genesis 25:28) One day when Esau was out in the field, he came in the house and was feeling faint. Jacob had cooked a red stew, and Esau asked Jacob to give him some of the red stew because he was feeling faint. The Bible tells us of Esau, “therefore was his name called Edom [Red].” (Genesis 25:30). Instead of just giving Esau some of the stew, Jacob proposed a trade for it:
“And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he swore unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage [stew] of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.” (Genesis 25:31-34)
We have two very different types of personalities here. First, we have Esau, who was being very dramatic because he was hungry, even claiming he was going to die if he didn’t eat some of the stew. We have on the other hand, Jacob, who instead of just giving his brother some of the stew, took advantage of the situation in order to get something he wanted, something very important, and that was Esau’s birthright as the eldest son of Isaac. Birthright is very important in the Bible. There is a good article from gotquestions.org that explains it (See: https://www.gotquestions.org/birthright-Bible.html), but in summary, when the father of a family dies, the oldest son assumes his authority and responsibilities, and the oldest son also received a double portion of the father’s belongings. In the times that Esau and Jacob lived, they knew the importance of birthright. However, Esau desired more to fill his stomach with food than to receive his birthright from his father, which he would have to wait to receive until his father Isaac died; Esau wanted things immediately and didn’t want to wait a period of time to receive his birthright. He did not take his birthright status seriously. In a sense, Esau was living in a fast-food mentality, whereas Jacob was looking at the big picture. How many people today are living like Esau, with their minds focused on the here-and-now rather than looking at the big picture, looking at their eternity?
Next, we are told that there was a famine in the land in which Isaac and his family lived, and Isaac went to the king of the Philistines, king Abimelech, in Gerar:
“And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father; and I will make thy seed [descendants] to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries [lands]; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” (Genesis 26:2-5)
God had reiterated to Isaac the covenant that He had made with his father, Abraham. Isaac did as God commanded him to do and did not go into the land of Egypt but lived in the land of Gerar.
Many years prior, Isaac’s father Abraham, who was still called Abram at that time, had gone with his wife Sarai and family to Egypt because there was a famine in the land in which they lived. Because Sarai was a beautiful woman and fearing that the Egyptians would want to take her and kill him, Abram asked Sarai to tell them that she was his sister. She did, and Pharaoh brought her into his house and treated Abram well because of her. However, God sent plagues upon Pharaoh because of Sarai, and Pharaoh went to Abram and asked why he had told him Sarai was his sister and not his wife, which caused the plagues to be sent. Abram told him because he feared for his life. Pharaoh told Abram to go get his wife and leave, and they did and took all of their belongings. (Genesis 12:9-20) In another instance when Abraham and Sarah came to the land of Gerar, they came to Abimelech, the king of Gerar, and once again, Abraham said Sarah was his sister instead of his wife, and Abimelech took Sarah. God appeared to him in a dream and told him he would be a dead man because the woman he took was married. Abimelech told God that he did not know she was married and that Abraham had said she was his sister. God also told him:
“And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.” (Genesis 20:6-7)
Abimelech then told all his servants what happened, and he also called Abraham to him and asked him why he had done this to him. As before, Abraham told him why, and Abimelech not only gave Sarah back to Abraham but also gave him livestock and menservants and womenservants and told them:
“…Behold, my land is before thee: dwell where it pleaseth thee.” (Genesis 20:15)
Abraham then prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife and maidservants, of whose wombs God had closed because of Sarah.
Returning to Isaac, like his father had done twice before, Isaac deceived the men in Gerar and told them that Rebekah was his sister and not his wife. They lived there a long time until one day, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, saw Isaac caressing her and he knew that she was not Isaac’s sister. He called Isaac to him and asked him why he had lied to him. Like his father had done twice before, Isaac told him he lied because he was afraid they would kill him because they would want his wife. Abimelech then told all of his people not to touch Isaac or Rebekah or his people would be killed. They did leave them alone, and Isaac’s wealth increased 100 times in one year and even more so over time. He became so wealthy that the Philistines envied him and filled the wells that Abraham’s servants had dug long ago with dirt to force them out. Abimelech told Isaac to leave them, “for thou art much mightier than we.” (Genesis 26:16) Isaac took his family and all that he had and moved to the valley of Gerar. Isaac and his servants dug new wells of water. However, two times the other people that also lived there claimed that the water was theirs and quarreled with him. Finally, he moved a third time and no one argued with him about the water. He named the well “Rehoboth,” which means “Spaciousness,” and said, “For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.” He then went to Beersheba and God appeared to him that night and told him:
“I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham’s sake. And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac’s servants digged a well.” (Genesis 26:24-25)
Did you notice that God told Isaac not to fear? I think God was preparing him for what would happen next. God also reconfirmed His covenant that He had made with Abraham, Isaac’s father. Next, Abimelech, the man who previously had told Isaac and his family to leave, came with his friend and the chief captain of his army, to where Isaac and his family now lived. That must have been a bit unnerving for Isaac, and I believe that is why God told him not to fear. Let us read what happened next:
“And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore ye come to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you? And they said, We saw certainly that the LORD was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant [treaty] with thee; that thou wilt do us no hurt [harm], as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace: thou art now the blessed of the LORD. And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink. And they rose up betimes [early] in the morning, and sware one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace. And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac’s servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, We have found water. And he called it Shebah [Oath or Seven]: therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba [Well of the Oath or Well of the Seven] unto this day.” (Genesis 26:27-33)
Abimelech and his friend, and his chief captain of the army had seen how the Lord God was with Isaac and had blessed him. It appears fear had been in them and they were concerned what God might do to them. Thus, they wanted to make a peace treaty with Isaac, and Isaac did so.
In Genesis 26:34-35, we are told what Esau, Isaac and Rebekah’s oldest son did:
“And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite: which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah.” (Genesis 26:34-35)
The next thing we read in the Bible about Isaac is that he was old in age and could not see, and he called Esau to him and told him he wanted to bless him before he died. He told Esau to go in the field and hunt venison for him and cook it for him, and then he would bless Esau. Before reading what transpired, let us first remember what had happened to Rebekah when she was still pregnant with her twin boys, Esau and Isaac:
“And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so [well], why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD. And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.” (Genesis 25:22-23)
Because God knows everything, including things that will happen before they happen, He knew that it would not be the oldest son that would be blessed by Isaac but the youngest son, and that the oldest son would serve the younger son. That is exactly what happened. Let us read how it came to fruition. When Rebekah heard that Isaac wanted to bless Esau, she told Jacob about it and told him to go kill two goats and she would cook them and then Jacob could bring the food to Isaac. Jacob then told his mother that Esau was hairy and that Isaac would know he was not Esau and “I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing.” (Genesis 27:12) Rebekah took Esau’s clothing and goat skins and had Isaac put them on his hands and neck in case Isaac would touch his son. She gave Jacob the food, and he went in to see his father. His father recognized that it was not Esau when Jacob spoke to him and said, “who art thou, my son?” Jacob told him he was Esau and that he had brought the savory food that he liked. Isaac asked him to come near to him so he could feel him. Isaac said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he discerned [recognized] him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau’s hands: so he blessed him.” (Genesis 27:13-23) Isaac kept having doubts that the son speaking to him was Esau, but after he felt his hands, he asked Jacob to bring the food, and Isaac ate it. He asked Jacob to come kiss him, and when Jacob came near, he smelled the clothing, which was Esau’s, and recognized it as Esau’s. Isaac then blessed Jacob and said:
“See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed: therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn [grain] and wine: let people [peoples] serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.” (Genesis 27:27-29)
The words of Isaac above are a prophecy given to him by God that has not fully happened yet but will happen in the future. The prophecy was reiterated in Isaiah 49:23, and it will come to pass. Before discussing this prophecy further, let’s read about what happened after Isaac had unknowingly blessed his younger son, Jacob. Let us also remember that God knew this would happen before it happened, and it was God’s plan all along that the elder would serve the younger. I am taking this deep-dive into the history of Jacob and his family because it is through the lineage of Jacob that Messiah would come.
Immediately after Isaac blessed Jacob, Esau, who had no idea what had just happened, came in from hunting. He cooked the venison he had gotten and brought it to his father. He told his father it was ready for him to eat and asked him to bless him. Isaac, being confused, asked who he was, and Esau told him he was his firstborn son, Esau. Isaac told him he had already eaten the venison and had blessed him who had brought it. Esau then let out a great and bitter cry and told his father to bless him too. Isaac told Esau that his brother had deceived him into blessing him. Esau then said that Jacob was rightly named, for his name means “supplanter,” and he had supplanted him twice, the first time when he took away his birthright. However, we must remember that Esau’s birthright meant nothing to him, for he was quick to give it away for a bowl of red stew. God knew this about Esau, and that is why God did not let Esau be blessed by Isaac. Esau asked his father again to bless him too and started to weep again:
“And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth [of the fertility], and of the dew of heaven from above; and by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion [become restless], that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.” (Genesis 27:39-40)
Esau then planned in his heart to kill Jacob after his father died. He also told his mother what he planned to do. Rebekah told Jacob that his life was in danger and told him to leave and go to her brother, Laban’s house in Haran, until Esau’s temper would cool off and he would come to his senses. She told Jacob she would notify him when it was safe to come home. However, before Jacob left, Isaac called him to him. Isaac commanded Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman, and instead, to go to his mother’s brother’s house and marry one of his daughters. Isaac then told Jacob:
“And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people; and give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.” (Genesis 28:3-4)
Next we are told that upon hearing the blessing that Isaac gave to Jacob and his commandment not to marry a Canaanite woman, Esau, after having already married a Canaanite woman named Judith, decided to rebel against his father and marry another Canaanite woman:
“And Esau, seeing that the daughters of Canaan pleased not Isaac his father; then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto [in addition to] the wives which he had Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.” (Genesis 28:8-9)
It seems that Esau was quick to act on impulse, to react quickly based on feelings instead of thinking things through and what the consequences of his actions might be. I believe it’s yet another reason as to why God did not choose Esau to receive the blessing that normally the eldest son would receive from his father.
I am spending time on the account of the lineage of the Israeli people because in order to understand what is going on in our world today, we must know our history. We must know and understand that God called His people, Israel, to be separate and apart from the rest of the world, for it is through the nation of Israel that all nations will be blessed through Jesus Christ, who many years later after Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, would come and offer salvation first to His own people, Israel, and then to the rest of the world, the Gentiles, after His own rejected Him. Now, let us continue reading from Genesis 28:11-22 that describes what happened after Jacob left his father’s house in Beer-sheba and was going to his uncle Laban’s house in Haran:
“And he lighted upon [came to] a certain place, and tarried [stayed] there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father; and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed [descendants]; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful [awesome] is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Beth-el [House of God]: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God: and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth [a tithe] unto thee.” (Genesis 28:11-22)
In his dream, God told Jacob that He would bring him back into the land where Jacob had laid his head to sleep, the land that He had promised to give Abraham, Jacob’s grandfather and Abraham’s descendants. It was then that Jacob realized the power of God, saying to himself, “Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.” (Genesis 28:16). Jacob continued on his way to Haran and drew near to his uncle Laban’s house:
“And he looked, and behold a well in the field, and, lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it; for out of that well they watered the flocks: and a great stone was upon the well’s mouth. And thither were all the flocks gathered: and they rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well’s mouth in his place. And Jacob said unto them, My brethren, whence be ye? And they said, Of Haran are we. And he said unto them, Know ye Laban the son of Nahor? And they said, We know him. And he said unto them, Is he well? And they said, He is well: and, behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep. And he said, Lo, it is yet high day [early in the day], neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together: water ye the sheep, and go and feed them. And they said, We cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together, and till they roll the stone from the well’s mouth; then we water the sheep. And while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep: for she kept them. And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept.” (Genesis 29:2-11)
In the above Scriptures we read of when Jacob first saw Rachel, who was taking care of her father’s sheep. However, I believe there is a deeper meaning to the Scriptures above, and it relates to Israel and Jesus Christ. We are told that Jacob first saw three flocks of sheep lying by a well. I don’t think it’s coincidence that it specifically says Jacob saw three flocks of sheep. I explain below why I believe three flocks are mentioned and what they represent. We are also told that normally all of the flocks would be gathered by the well and then the stone would be rolled away from the well in order to give water to all of them. Jacob then asked the men that he saw in the field where they were from. When they said they were from Haran, he asked if they knew Laban and if he was well, and they said yes, they knew him and that he was well. They then told Jacob that Laban’s daughter was coming with the sheep. Then Jacob said something that struck me as a little odd. Here Jacob, who had just met these men, began to tell them that they should water Rachel’s sheep and then go and feed them. However, they told him that it wasn’t time yet, for they would wait until all of the flocks would be gathered together and then they would roll the stone from well’s mouth and water all of the sheep. Then something happened that, to me, was very significant, and that was when Jacob went and rolled the stone away and watered the sheep that Leah was tending, which belonged to her father Laban. Now, this is what I believe this may be the deeper meaning of what is written in Genesis 29:2-11, and I believe it is a foreshadowing of the first and second comings of Jesus Christ. It is through the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that Messiah, Jesus Christ, would come.
In Genesis 29:2-11, we are first told that normally the shepherds wait until all of the sheep are gathered together in the field before they are watered. Let us contrast that to what happened when Jesus came to earth the first time. When He came the first time, He came to offer salvation to His own, the people of the twelve tribes of Israel, most rejected Him, but some did believe in Him, including some people who were not Jewish, including the Samaritan woman, whom He met at Jacob’s well. Jesus came upon her and asked her to give Him a drink of water:
“Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle [livestock]? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well [fountain] of water sprinkling up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.” (John 4:9-15)
Next, Jesus then told the woman to go call her husband, and she told him she had no husband. She must have been shocked that Jesus then said to her that she told the truth and that she had had five husbands previously and the man she was currently with was not her husband. She responded by saying, “Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.” (John 4:19) Let’s read what happened next:
“Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.” (John 4:20-25)
Here Jesus was speaking to a woman that the Jews at that time would never think of speaking to, for she was a Samaritan woman, meaning she was half Jewish and half Assyrian, and was shunned by the Jews. But Jesus did speak to her, and He also told her that only He can give her living water. He also told her that He IS the Christ.
Now, returning to what I believe the Scriptures from Genesis 29:2-11 represent. I believe the three flocks of sheep that Jacob saw are represented as follows:
The first flock represents all those who believed in Jesus at His first coming, which included some Jews and, as we read above, those who are a mixed race of Jews, including the Samaritans. We also have Biblical accounts of Gentiles, non-Jews, who believed in Jesus at His first coming and before His death and resurrection. Jacob made sure this first flock of sheep, which belonged to Laban and were kept by Rachel, were watered. Jacob was acting as a good shepherd of the sheep and made sure that this flock was watered. Just as Jacob rolled a stone away in order to water the sheep, acting as a shepherd to the sheep, a stone was rolled away at Jesus’ tomb after the third day of Jesus’ death. Jesus, who is THE Good Shepherd, was not found in the tomb, for He had resurrected to life, and it is He who gives living water freely to anyone and everyone who believes in Him. As Jacob watered this first flock of sheep, Jesus didn’t wait to give living water to those who believed in Him at His first coming.
“Then said Jesus unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” (John 10:7-11); “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold [flock], and one shepherd.” (John 10:14-16)
The second flock represents primarily the Gentiles who have been saved after Jesus’ ascension to heaven after His first coming and who will be saved up until the end of the 7-year time of Jacob’s trouble. This represents the time of the Gentiles as discussed by the apostle Paul in Romans 11:25.
The third flock represents the one-third remnant of the Jews that will be saved by Jesus Himself at His second coming after the 7-year time of Jacob’s trouble. This is discussed in Zechariah 13:8-9.
It is interesting to me that Jacob first saw Rachel in the field, when she came with her father’s sheep to a well to water them. In a similar circumstance, Abraham’s servant first saw Rebekah at a well drawing water, and Rebekah eventually married Isaac, Abraham’s son and Jacob’s father. Many years later, it would also be at a well that Moses would see the seven daughters of Jethro, the priest of Midian, drawing water from a well to water their father’s flock. The shepherds would drive the women away, but Moses would help the women and water their flock. Moses would go on to marry one of the daughters, Zipporah. (Exodus 2:15-21). Water represents life, and without it, our physical lives would end. Living water represents spiritual life, and as Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well, only Jesus Christ can give it:
“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly [heart] shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:37-38)
Now, let us return to Jacob. Genesis 29:11 states, “And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept.” Clearly, Jacob was happy to be there, having arrived at his uncle Laban’s house. Jacob told Rachel who he was, and she went and told her father, Laban. It was there that Jacob would realize that his uncle Laban was a lot like himself. Laban had two daughters, the oldest being Leah and the youngest was Rachel. Jacob liked Rachel, and she was the one whom Jacob had seen first when he arrived in Haran. After Jacob stayed at Laban’s house for a month:
“And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother [family], shouldest thou therefore serve me for nought [nothing]? tell me, what shall thy wages be? And Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah was tender eyed [delicate or soft]; but Rachel was beautiful and well favoured [of form and appearance]. And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter. And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another man: abide with me.” (Genesis 29:14-19)
Thus, Laban and Jacob made an agreement that Jacob would serve Laban seven years and then Laban would give Rachel’s hand in marriage to Jacob. After the seven years had passed, Laban made a feast with Jacob and all the men there. However, in the evening when it was dark, Laban brought not his youngest daughter, Rachel to Jacob but his oldest daughter, Leah, without Jacob realizing it was Leah. They had sexual intercourse that night, and in the morning, Jacob realized that it wasn’t Rachel but Leah. Jacob then confronted Laban:
“…What is this thou hast done unto me? did not I serve with thee for Rachel? wherefore then has thou beguiled [deceived] me?” (Genesis 29:25)
Jacob must have felt like his father Isaac had felt when Jacob had deceived him into believing that he was Esau in order to receive his father’s blessing. Let us read Laban’s response to Jacob:
“And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country [place], to give the younger before the firstborn. Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years. And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to [as] wife also.” (Genesis 29:26-28)
When Laban had given Leah to Jacob, Laban had given one of his handmaids, Zilpah, to Leah. When Laban gave Rachel to Jacob, Laban also gave to Rachel his handmaid Bilhah. Finally, Jacob was with the wife he loved, Rachel, and they had sexual intercourse. Jacob stayed there another seven years. What followed was a sad story of how Leah loved her husband Jacob but he loved Rachel. At that time, Leah was the only daughter who conceived children with Jacob. She felt unloved, and God had opened her womb, but Rachel was not able to conceive. Rachel envied her sister because she was able to give her husband children but Rachel was not able to. Like his grandmother, Sarah had done with Abraham and her handmaiden, Rachel told Jacob to have sexual intercourse with her handmaiden, Bilhah. Then Leah also had Jacob have sexual intercourse with her handmaiden, Zilpah. Ultimately, Rachel was able to conceive and bore Jacob two sons. It was as though Leah and Rachel were in a competition as to who could have the most children between themselves and their handmaidens. All of this is detailed in Genesis 29:31-30:24. Ultimately, Jacob had twelve sons and one daughter. I have listed by their birth order their names and the Scripture references below. I have put in bold font the names of the twelve sons who were born to Jacob:
1-Reuben (Leah’s firstborn son; Genesis 29:32); 2-Simeon (Leah’s second son; Genesis 29:33); 3-Levi (Leah’s third son; Genesis 29:34); 4-Judah (Leah’s fourth son; Genesis 29:35); 5-Dan (Bilhah’s first son; Genesis 30:4-6); 6-Naphtali (Bilhah’s second son; Genesis 30:7-8); 7-Gad (Zilpah’s first son; Genesis 30:9-11); 8-Asher (Zilpah’s second son; Genesis 30:12-13); 9-Issachar (Leah’s fifth son; Genesis 30:17-18); 10-Zebulun (Leah’s sixth son; Genesis 30:19-20); 11-Dinah (Leah’s only daughter; Genesis 30:21); 12-Joseph (Rachel’s first son; Genesis 30:22-24); 13-Benjamin (Rachel’s second son; Rachel died after giving birth; Genesis 35:17-18)
When I first read this, it was surprising to me to know the details about how Jacob had twelve sons. I naively thought that everyone in the Bible must have been perfect in their ways in order for God to use them. However, we see time and time again that God knows that we are not perfect and yet, He still uses us to accomplish His plan for mankind and for His glory. I am thankful for the honesty in God’s word. Oftentimes in historical records, humans try to cover up the sordid details and make people look much better than they truly were, but God doesn’t do that. He shows us that even though we may not be perfect, if we are faithful to Him, He can still use us in many ways, just as He did with Jacob.
After Rachel’s first son, Joseph was born, Jacob went to Laban and asked him to let him, his wives, and his children leave so that he could finally return to his father’s house. Once again, Laban resisted Jacob and asked him to stay longer because he knew that God had blessed him after Jacob came. He told Jacob to name his price to stay and he would pay it. Jacob responded by saying:
“Thou shalt not give me any thing: if thou wilt do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep thy flock: I will pass through all thy flock to day, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle [sheep], and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats: and of such shall be my hire [these shall be my wages]. So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come for my hire [about my wages] before thy face: every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me. And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word.” (Genesis 30:31-34)
Thus, Laban agreed to give all the speckled, spotted, and brown sheep and goats to Jacob, which apparently were fewer in kind than the other colors of sheep, thus the deal would seemingly benefit Laban. Genesis 30:35-36 tells us that Laban took the speckled, spotted, and brown sheep and cattle and gave them to his sons. Laban then went a distance of three days’ journey away from Jacob, while Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks, meaning those that weren’t speckled, spotted, and brown. We read how Jacob did something with rods of green poplar, hazel, and chestnut trees and peeled the bark to create white streaks in them. Then he took the rods and put them in the gutters of the watering troughs, for he believed this would result in the solid color sheep and cattle breeding and producing speckled, spotted, and brown offspring, and that is exactly what happened. There is in fact a type of sheep called the “Jacob sheep.” (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_sheep) Jacob also used the rods for the stronger females and not for the weaker females. We are told in Genesis 30:43 that Jacob “increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses [donkeys].”
Jacob heard Laban’s sons complaining that Jacob had taken away all that belonged to Laban and had gotten all the wealth. Jacob also noticed that Laban did not look at him with favor as he previously did. Next, we are told:
“And the LORD said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee.” (Genesis 31:3)
Jacob then called Rachel and Leah to him and told them that he could see that their father was unhappy with him and that he had deceived Jacob but God prevented him from hurting Jacob. Jacob told them that God has been with him. He then told them of a dream he had dreamt:
“And it came to pass at the time that the cattle [flocks] conceived, that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and, behold, the rams which leaped upon the cattle [flocks] were ringstraked [streaked], speckled, and grisled [gray-spotted]. And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob: And I said, Here am I. And he said, Lift up now thine eyes, and see, all the rams which leap upon the cattle are ringstraked, speckled, and grisled: for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee. I am the God of Beth-el, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out of this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.” (Genesis 31:10-13)
Rachel and Leah said there was no inheritance left for them at their father Laban’s house. They told Jacob “For all the riches which God hath taken from our father, that is ours, and our children’s: now then, whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do.” (Genesis 31:16) Jacob then took his wives, children, servants, and all his goods and flocks and left for the land of his father, Isaac, in the land of Canaan. Afterwards, Laban went to shear his sheep, not knowing that Jacob, Rachel, Leah, and his grandchildren had left. Without telling Jacob, Rachel had taken with her the idols/false gods of her father Laban. Three days later, Laban found out that Jacob and his family had left. Laban took men with him and pursued Jacob and his family. Seven days later they came upon Jacob and his family. “And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said unto him, Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad.” (Genesis 31:24) When Laban came to Jacob, he asked him why he had left secretly and had not allowed Laban to kiss his daughters and grandchildren and say goodbye to them. He told Jacob he could hurt him but God had told him in a dream the night before not to speak either good or bad to Jacob. He also asked Jacob why he had stolen his gods. Jacob told him that he had left secretly because he was afraid that Laban would take Rachel and Leah by force from him. Regarding the stolen gods, Jacob told Laban, “With whomsoever thou findest thy gods, let him not live: before our brethren discern [identify] thou what is thine with me, and take it to thee. For Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them.” (Genesis 31:32) Laban then went and searched Jacob’s tent, then Leah’s tent, and the two maidservant’s tents but did not find the gods. He then went into Rachel’s tent:
“Now Rachel had taken the images [household idols], and put them in the camel’s furniture [saddle], and sat upon them. And Laban searched all the tent, but found them not. And she said to her father, Let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up before thee; for the custom of women is upon me. And he searched, but found not the images.” (Genesis 31:35)
By this time, Jacob was furious and confronted Laban and told him that he had served him twenty years, and yet it wasn’t enough for Laban. Jacob said if it wasn’t for God’s provision, he would have nothing:
“Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.” (Genesis 31:42)
Laban responded by saying that Leah and Rachel, his grandchildren, and the flocks were all his, and everything that Jacob saw was also his but what could he do to his daughters and grandchildren. He then proposed to make a covenant with Jacob, and Jacob agreed. Laban told Jacob not to afflict his daughters or take any other wives besides them, and that God was a witness of their agreement. They set a pillar before them and each swore to God not to pass over the pillar. Jacob then offered a sacrifice and called his brethren to eat bread together. The next morning, Laban kissed his daughters and grandchildren goodbye and blessed them, and then went back to his home.
Next, we read that Jacob went on his way and that angels of God met him. “And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God’s host [camp]: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim [Double Camp].” (Genesis 32:2). Jacob then decided that he wanted to reconcile with his brother Esau. He sent messengers to Esau, “…unto the land of Seir, the country [field] of Edom.” (Genesis 32:3) He told them to tell Esau that he had lived with Laban until now and that he now has livestock and servants and hopes that Esau will forgive him. The messengers went to Esau and returned to Jacob. They told him that they did meet with Esau, who came with 400 men to meet them. Upon hearing the number of men Esau had, Jacob was filled with fear. He then came up with a plan to protect himself and his family. He divided the people with him into two camps, in case Esau struck one of them, the other would escape. Jacob prayed to God to deliver him from the hand of his brother, for he feared Esau would come and kill him, his wives, and their children. He repeated to God the words He had said to Jacob in a dream after Jacob had obeyed his father Isaac and went to his uncle Laban’s house to take a wife there:
“O God of my father, Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite [attack] me, and the mother with the with children. And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.” (Genesis 32:9-12)
Jacob spent the night there and decide to give as a present much of his livestock to his brother Esau. Jacob gave the livestock to his servants and told them to go before him in multiple droves, or groups, leaving space between the droves. He told them that when Esau would see and come to them, they were to tell him that the livestock are a present to him from his brother Jacob. Then, still in fear of his brother and his possible retaliation against him, Jacob sent his wives and children away from him, until finally Jacob was left all alone:
“And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking [dawn] of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched [struck] the hollow [socket] of his thigh [hip]; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel [Prince with God]: for as a prince hast thou power with God [for you have struggled with God] and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel [Face of God]: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. And as he passed over Penuel [Face of God] the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh [limped on his hip]. Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew [muscle] which shrank, which is upon the hollow [socket] of the thigh [hip], unto this day: because he touched [struck] the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank.” (Genesis 32:24-32)
How many of us have been in a situation like Jacob’s above, where we are wrestling with our fear, doing all that we can in our fallen human nature to protect ourselves, ending up all alone with only God by our side?Like Jacob, how many of us have wrestled with God, not wanting to surrender to Him? It literally came to the point in Jacob’s life that God had to wrestle with Jacob all night long, with God striking Jacob’s hip and making it come out of the socket. Still, Jacob did not let go of Him until God blessed him. God gave him a new name, the name of Israel, and then God blessed him. Jacob came to the realization that he wasn’t wrestling with a man but he had wrestled with God. Let us read again from the prior Scripture I included above and how Jacob had addressed God when he asked God to deliver him from the hand of his brother Esau: “O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac…” (Genesis 32:9) Notice that Jacob did not say “O my God,” no, Jacob at that point did not consider God to be his God. But after Jacob wrestled with God Himself and had met Him face to face, now, He was his God. Jacob acknowledged this by naming the place where he had wrestled as Peniel, also spelled Penuel, which meant “Face of God.” How many of us have had a moment like that where our lives were forever changed after God met with us in our own lives, when it was only Him and us, and we came out of it knowing Him as our God? I had a moment like that, and it changed me forever.
After Jacob wrestled with God and received His blessing, he opened his eyes and saw his brother, Esau, and the 400 men, coming with him. Jacob then took Leah and her children and his wife Rachel and her children, and the handmaids and their children and put them into groups, with the first group being the handmaidens, then Leah, and Rachel toward the back:
“And he [Jacob] passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept. And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant.” (Genesis 33:3-4)
Though Jacob had feared that his brother Esau would want to kill him, that did not happen. Instead, Esau ran to meet him and embraced Jacob. Jacob’s wives and children and their maidservants and their children also came and met Esau and they all bowed to him. Then Esau asked Jacob:
“What meanest thou by all this drove [company] which I met? And he [Jacob] said, These are to find grace [favour] in the sight of my lord. And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; keep that thou hast unto thyself. And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand: for therefore I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me. Take, I pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee; because God hath dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough [all]. And he urged him, and he took it. And he [Esau] said, Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before thee.” (Genesis 33:8-12)
It seems that Jacob had become a changed man after his encounter with God. Jacob acknowledged that it was God who had dealt graciously to him and had allowed Esau to forgive him. Jacob wanted to give Esau the present of livestock, and Esau agreed to take them. Jacob didn’t need all of the livestock that he had and wanted to give a large portion of it to Esau. Finally, Jacob was content with what he had. There are two lessons we can learn from Jacob, and the first is that after we ourselves meet God, we should begin to see a change in our lives. We will still make mistakes and sin, but we should begin to live our lives in a way that glorifies God. The second is that we should acknowledge that it is God who has given us grace and not anything we did or could ever do.
Esau volunteered to go with Jacob to where he was going. However, perhaps because Jacob was still a little leery of his brother and not sure if he would yet still retaliate against him, Jacob told him to go on without him because his young children and young livestock would need to take it slow. Esau went on his way to Seir. However, instead of meeting Esau in Seir, Jacob took his family and they went "“to Shalem, a city of Shechem, in the land of Canaan,” (Genesis 33:18) where he bought a piece of land from the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father. Jacob erected an altar and called it El-elohe-Israel, which means God, the God of Israel (Genesis 33:20).
Jacob’s only daughter, Dinah, whose mother was Leah, went out to see the women of the land, and she was raped by Shechem, Hamor’s son. Genesis 34:3 tells us that he was attracted to her, loved her and spoke kindly to her afterwards, and told his father to get her so he could marry her. Jacob found out that Shechem had raped her but didn’t say or do anything about it until his sons came back from the field. Hamor then came to talk with Jacob. In the meantime, Jacob’s sons found out what had happened to their sister and were grieved and very angry. Hamor then talked with them and told them how his son longed for Dinah and that he prayed they would give her to be his wife. He also said to Jacob’s sons:
“And make ye marriages with us, and give your daughters unto us, and take our daughters unto you. And ye shall dwell with us: and the land shall be before you; dwell and trade ye therein, and get you [acquire] possessions therein. And Shechem said unto her father and unto her brethren, Let me find grace [favour] in your eyes, and what ye shall say unto me I will give. Ask me never [ever] so much dowry [bride-price] and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife [as a wife].” (Genesis 34:9-12)
We are told in Genesis 34:13 that Jacob’s sons “answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully because he had defiled Dinah their sister.” They told Shechem and his father Hamor that they could not give their sister to one who is uncircumcised. Jacob’s sons then told them that if they and every male would circumcise themselves, then they would give their daughters to them and receive their daughters and would become one people. Otherwise, they would take Dinah and leave. Hamor and Shechem then went and told all of the men of their people what Jacob’s sons had proposed and said it would be good for them because of all the livestock and goods that Jacob and his family had. The men agreed, and all of them were circumcised. On the third day after they had been circumcised and were in pain, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, killed all the men with a sword, and then went and killed Hamor and Shechem and took their sister Dinah from Shechem’s house. They then plundered the city and took all their livestock. They also took the women and the children captive. Next we read what Jacob said when he found out what had happened:
“And Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, Ye have troubled me to make me to stink [obnoxious] among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizites: and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me, and slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I and my house. And they said, Should he deal with our sister as with an harlot?” (Genesis 34:30-31)
Next we are told that God then spoke to Jacob and told him to go to Beth-el, where Jacob had gone to when he had fled from his brother Esau. Jacob did as God told him to do, and Jacob told his family:
“…Put away the strange [foreign] gods that are among you, and be clean [purify yourselves], and change your garments; and let us arise, and go up to Beth-el; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.” (Genesis 35:2-4)
Regarding the foreign gods that are mentioned above, I don’t know if these belonged to the women and children of Shechem that were taken into captivity and/or if they belonged to some of Jacob’s own family members or servants. However, we do know that when Rachel had left her father Laban’s house with Jacob and her sister Leah, Rachel had taken some of her father’s images or idols, false gods, (Genesis 31:19) and had hidden them under the camel’s saddle. The Bible does not tell us that Jacob knew about these idols of Rachel’s. However, he is aware now of these false gods, and he told all who were with them to leave them behind.
As Jacob and all who were with him journeyed, “…the terror of God was upon the cities that were found about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.” (Genesis 35:5) They arrived at Beth-el, in Canaan, and Jacob built an altar there and called it El-beth-el, which means God of the House of God. Next we are told:
“And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padan-aram, and blessed him. And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; and the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him.” (Genesis 35:9-13)
God confirmed what He had previously told Jacob, that his name would no longer be called Jacob but “Israel.” God also confirmed His promise to Abraham and Isaac and now to Jacob that He would make of him a great nation and many nations. I don’t know why God confirmed it to Jacob, but perhaps it was because Jacob had doubt in his mind, just as he had doubted whether his brother Esau had forgiven him. I know in my own life that when God has called me to do something and I begin to do it, I oftentimes wonder if I am doing what God called me to do. When God has confirmed to me that it is what He wants me to do, then it helps me to remove the doubt that I had and to trust in Him.
God also told Jacob that kings would be his descendants. God reconfirmed that He was giving to him the land that he had given to his father, Isaac, and to his grandfather, Abraham. Though many people in the world today want us to believe that God did not give the land to Israel, the Bible clearly tells us otherwise. After God spoke to him, Jacob set a pillar of stone where God had talked to him and poured a drink offering and oil upon it.
After leaving Beth-el, they were nearing a place Ephrath, which we are told in Genesis 35:19, “which is Beth-lehem,” that Rachel was in hard labor with her second son. Rachel’s midwife told Rachel, “Fear not; thou shalt have this son also.” (Genesis 35:17) Rachel did have her son, but because Rachel was dying, she named him Ben-oni, which means Son of My Sorrow. However, Jacob called him Benjamin, which means Son of the Right Hand. Rachel passed away, and Jacob set a pillar on her grave, which the Bible tells us is still standing to this day (Genesis 35:20). There are a couple of things I want to mention before continuing in Genesis 35. The first is that the Beth-lehem Ephrath that is mentioned in Genesis 35:16 and 19 is the same town of Bethlehem Ephratah that was prophesied by the prophet Micah as the town from which Messiah would come. Micah prophesied that Messiah would be great upon the earth. This prophesy will be fulfilled after the coming 7-year time of Jacob’s trouble, when Jesus, Messiah, will bring back the remnant of Israel, whom He will save during their time of trouble, into their land. It will be at that time that Jesus will finally be great upon all the earth:
“But thou, Beth-lehem 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. Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. And he shall stand and feed [shepherd his flock] in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God: and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth.” (Micah 5:2-4)
The second thing I want to mention is that this is not the last time we read of Rachel. The prophet Jeremiah wrote of her when he prophesied that the captives of Israel, who were conquered and taken to Babylon for a period of seventy years, would return to their land and that Jerusalem and the temple would be rebuilt. They would have again have hope:
“Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel [Rachel] weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not. Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end [thy future], saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.” (Jeremiah 31:15-17)
Jeremiah’s prophecy above was a dual prophecy, with the first fulfillment being when Israel returned from Babylon to Israel after 70 years. We are told in Matthew how this prophecy was also fulfilled a second time. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the puppet king of Israel, King Herod, had wise men of the east come to him and ask him, “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.” (Matthew 2:2). Herod told them to go and search for this child so that he could worship Him. However, that is not what Herod wanted to do. The wise men did go to Jesus but were warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, and they obeyed God. Joseph, Jesus’ step-father, was warned by an angel in a dream that he must take his family to Egypt because Herod wanted to destroy the child, and Joseph did as he was told. King Herod feared that his power as king was threatened by this child, and Herod sought to kill him:
“Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked [deceived] of the wise men, was exceeding wroth [angry], and sent forth, and slew all the children [male children] that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts [districts] thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy [Jeremiah] 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.” (Matthew 2:16-18)
I can’t even imagine the sorrow and anguish of all of the mothers of those male babies that had been killed, all because Herod felt his power and authority were threatened by Jesus. He had all of those poor children killed, and by the power of Almighty God, Jesus was saved. Time and time again, mankind has tried to stop the plan of God from being carried out, and the source of these attempts is Satan. Satan did not want Jesus Christ to come to earth the first time, and he certainly does not want Jesus to return to earth at His second coming. Satan is doing everything in his power to stop that. Time and time again, Satan’s wrath has come against the Jews and also against Christians. However, as the Bible tells us in the book of Revelation, Satan will not prevail.
Now, let us return to Genesis chapter 35. It is there that for the first time, we read of Jacob being referred to in the Bible by his new name of “Israel.” Though God had previously told Jacob that he was giving him a new name of “Israel” in Genesis 32:28, this was the first time that He had referred to Jacob as “Israel”:
“And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar [or Eder]. And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine: and Israel heard it.” (Genesis 35:21-22)
Reuben, who was Jacob’s firstborn son, had committed a horrible deed against his father by having sexual intercourse with his father’s concubine. We don’t read about any action or reprimand Jacob took against Reuben until when Jacob was dying and prophesied to his twelve sons of what would happen to them in the last days, he had this to say to his oldest son:
“Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power: unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to the father’s bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.” (Genesis 49:3-4)
As we have read, Jacob and his family traveled a lot during his many journeys. I was interested in seeing where he went, and found this link that shows possible routes of Jacob’s many travels: https://i.pinimg.com/736x/40/49/24/404924225d1be52de535d3a76ebb46cd.jpg
In Genesis 35:27-29, Jacob, along with his family and all that he had, finally returned to his father, Isaac, in Hebron, “where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned.” Isaac died at the age of 180 years, and Jacob and Esau buried him. Long ago, after Jacob had left his father’s house, fleeing from Esau, to go to his uncle Laban’s house, the vow that Jacob had made with God had come to pass. Let us read it again:
“And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace; the shall the LORD be my God…” (Genesis 28:20-21)
God was with Jacob the entire time during all of his travels and fed and protected him, and God had brought Jacob back to his father’s house in peace.
Before we read about what happened next to Jacob, let us read what God’s word says about his brother, Esau:
“And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts [animals], and all his substance [goods], which he had got in the land of Canaan; and went into the country from the face of [away from the presence of] his brother Jacob. For their riches were more than that they might [possessions were too great for them to] dwell together; and the land wherein they were strangers could not bear [support] them because of their cattle. Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir: Esau is Edom.” (Genesis 36:6-8)
Though Jacob and Esau had made amends with one another, Esau’s descendants would be the peoples known as the Edomites, and they would constantly be at war with the Israelites. The prophets Jeremiah and Obadiah prophesied destruction for the Edomites, which later became the Idumaeans. Let us read Obadiah’s prophecy:
“And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining [survivor] of the house of Esau; for the LORD hath spoken it.” (Obadiah 18)
Gotquestions.org has an article that describes what eventually happened to the Edomites. (See: https://www.gotquestions.org/Edomites.html)
There is much more to write about how the nation of Israel was created by God, and before returning the focus to today’s Scripture from Isaiah 49:23, I wanted to write about Jacob and his twelve sons and how they became the twelve tribes of Israel. I am absolutely fascinated by God’s word, and it is critical to understand how the nation of Israel came about and the reason why in order to understand what is happening in our world today, because it all centers around Israel.
After returning to his father, Isaac’s land in Canaan and after Isaac died, Jacob and his family lived there. Genesis 37:2 tells us that one day, Joseph, Jacob’s oldest son from his beloved wife Rachel, who was 17-years old at that time, was feeding the flock with brothers when he gave a bad report of them to his father. Afterwards we are told:
“Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat [tunic] of many colours. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance [bowed down] to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance [bowed down] to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying [kept the matter in mind].” (Genesis 37:3-11)
Having a sibling of my own, I am sure it must have hurt Joseph’s brothers that they could clearly see that their father Jacob, now called Israel, loved Joseph more than he loved them, especially when Jacob made a special coat for Joseph. Because of this, they hated Joseph, and things only worsened after Joseph dreamt the two dreams and then told his family about the dreams, which were not well-received, even by Jacob.
Joseph’s brothers left to go feed their father’s flock in Shechem. Israel told Joseph to go and check on his brothers and the sheep. Joseph did as Israel told him to do, and Joseph came across a man and asked him if he had seen his brothers. He told Joseph they had gone to Dothan, and Joseph went there. Joseph’s brothers saw him coming, and called him a “dreamer” to themselves. They plotted to kill him and throw him into a pit:
“And Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands; and said, Let us not kill him. And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid [deliver] him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again.” (Genesis 37:21-22)
Hoping they would agree with him and throw Joseph in the pit, Reuben intended to go back later and save Joseph and take him back to their father. When Joseph came to them, they took of his coat of many colors and threw into the pit, which had no water in it. They then ate a meal together and saw a group of Ishmeelites coming with their camels to sell their goods in Egypt. Judah asked his brothers what would it profit them if they killed their brother and hid his blood, and said they should sell him to the Ishmeelites. Like his brother Reuben, he didn’t want to kill Joseph and said, “…let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh.” (Genesis 37:27) His brothers agreed, and they sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver. The Ishmeelites then took Joseph to Egypt. Upon returning to the pit, Reuben, who had not been with his brothers when they sold Joseph, saw the empty pit and he tore his clothes in grief. The brothers then killed a goat and dipped Joseph’s coat in the blood. They returned home to their father and showed him the coat and asked if he knew if it was Joseph’s coat. Israel recognized it as his son’s and said that a wild animal had surely killed Joseph and torn him into pieces. Israel tore his clothes in grief and mourned many days for his son. All of his other children tried to comfort him, but he refused and said, “For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. (Genesis 37:35). Next, we are told that the Midianites sold Joseph to Potiphar, who was an officer and captain of the guard of the Pharaoh of Egypt. Before we read more about that, the Bible tells us about Israel’s son Judah.
We are told that after the brothers sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites, who took him to Egypt and sold him to Potiphar, that one of the brothers, Judah, went away from his brothers and apparently remained there and made a friend named Hirah, who was an Adullamite. Judah married a daughter of a Canaanite man whose name was Shuah, and they had three sons named Er, Onan, and Shelah. Time passed, and Judah found a wife named Tamar for his oldest son, Er. The Bible tells us that Er “was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew [killed] him.” (Genesis 38:7) As was tradition during that time, Judah told his middle son to take his brother’s wife and marry her so that she could have a child. However, Onan did not obey God, which displeased God and He killed Onan as well. Judah then told Tamar to go to her father’s house until his youngest son Shelah grew up and could marry her. Tamar did go to her father’s house, and in the meantime, Judah’s wife died and he mourned. He decided to go visit his friend Hirah who lived in Timnath. Tamar heard what happened to Judah, and she decided to go to Timnath and disguise herself as a prostitute, “for she saw that Selah was grown, and she was not given unto him to wife.” (Genesis 38:14) Judah saw her but did not know she was his daughter-in-law because she had hid her face with a veil. Judah went to her and asked her to let him have sex with her. She asked him what would he give her, and he said he would send her one of his goats. She asked him to give her his signet, bracelets (cord), and staff as a pledge for the goat, and he agreed. They had sexual relations, and Judah left, still not knowing it was Tamar. Judah returned to his friend, Hirah, who then took the goat and went and looked for Tamar to give it to her. He asked some men if they had seen a harlot, and they said there was not one in that place. Hirah returned and told Judah that he could not find the harlot. Three months later, Judah heard it said, “Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom [harlotry]. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.” (Genesis 38:24) Let us read what happened next:
“When she was brought forth, she sent to her father in law, saying, By the man, whose these are, am I with child: and she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, and bracelets, and staff. And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more.” (Genesis 38:26)
I must admit that when I first read this, I thought to myself, how could this possibly be the son of Israel, from whom Messiah would come, the lion of the tribe of Judah? It was only when I read it again that I realized a couple of things. The first is that when God came down to earth as a human being, Jesus, He would be formed in the womb of His mother by God, where God provided the seed through the Holy Spirit and the woman, Mary, conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit upon her. Both Jesus’ step-father Joseph and His mother Mary have the lineage of Judah in their bloodlines. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, sin has been passed down to mankind, and that includes sin in the man Judah. However, God chose Judah to be the son out of Jacob’s twelve sons, from whom Jesus would come. Secondly, we see here how Judah could have denied that the items that Tamar had as proof of the man who impregnated her were his, but instead of denying them, he acknowledge them as his own. We also have his admittance of his guilt in not giving his youngest son, Shelah to Tamar to be her husband, as Judah had previously told her he would do. We also read that Judah even said that she was more righteous than he was. We are also told that after all of this happened, Judah did not know her again, meaning he did not have sexual relations with her anymore. I love the fact that instead of leaving out these not-so-favorable accounts of history, the Bible includes them, and it shows the sin of humanity but how God can still show grace to those who admit their mistakes, as Judah did.
The Bible goes on to tell us that Tamar was pregnant with twin boys. When Tamar was in labor, one of the twins put out his hand and Tamar’s midwife put a scarlet thread on his hand to denote which son would be delivered first, which one would have the birthright. However, the baby went back inside the womb and the other baby came out first:
“…and she [the midwife] said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez [Breach or breakthrough]. And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand: and his name was called Zarah [Zerah].” (Genesis 38:29-30)
It is from the lineage of Pharez (Phares in the Greek) that Jesus Christ would come, as documented in Matthew 1:3 and Luke 3:33. The account of the twins of Tamar reminds me of the twin boys that Rebekah had, where Jacob, the younger son, would be the one to be blessed by his father Jacob instead of Esau.
Next we read about Joseph and what happened after he was sold in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard. God tells us in His word that He was with Joseph and prospered him in Potiphar’s house, so much so that Potiphar gave Joseph great responsibility over his house. As the overseer, Joseph was responsible not only for Potiphar’s house but for everything Potiphar had in the house and the field:
“And he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand [care]; and he knew not ought [anything] he had, save [except] the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person, and well favoured [handsome in form and appearance].” (Genesis 39:6)
Potiphar was married, and his wife lusted after Joseph and came to him one day and said to him, “Lie with me.” (Genesis 39:7) Instead of agreeing to have sex with her, Joseph refused and told her that his master, meaning her husband, trusted in Joseph with everything he had and that he could not betray her husband by lying with her. Joseph said his master had not held anything back from him except his wife. Then Joseph said to her:
“…because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9)
Joseph acknowledged not only that it would be a wicked thing for him to sleep with his master’s wife, but also, and more importantly, that he would be sinning against God. How many people in our world today think about what sinning would do not only to them but also to people around them and how many actually fear God and what the consequences of their sin may be? Here we see that Joseph was a man of integrity, one who could be trusted. I think that is why God had given those dreams to Joseph when he was a young man. Potiphar’s wife did not like being rejected by Joseph. One day when she was alone in the house with Joseph, she took Joseph’s clothing and told him again to lie with her. This time, Joseph said nothing to her but fled the house, leaving his garment in her hand. She then went and told the men in the house, “See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock [laugh at] us; he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice: and it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled, and got him out.” (Genesis 39:14-15) When her husband came home, she told him the same thing. Potiphar then had Joseph put in prison and bound. However, as God had done when Joseph first came to Potiphar’s house, God showed mercy to Joseph. The ruler of the prison showed favor to Joseph and put him in charge of all the prisoners:
“The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the LORD was with him [Joseph], and that which he did, the LORD made it to prosper.” (Genesis 39:23)
While Joseph remained in prison, the Pharaoh of Egypt was offended by his chief butler and chief baker. We aren’t told what had offended Pharaoh but only that he had them put into the same prison as Joseph. Joseph was still in charge of all the prisoners. One night, the butler and baker each dreamt a dream and woke up the next morning feeling dejected. Joseph noticed this and asked why they were so sad. They told him that they both had dreamt a dream and that there was no one there who could interpret what their dreams meant. Before continuing with this account of what happened next, I want to say that I am absolutely in awe of God’s word. I have heard that prophecy is pattern in the Bible, and it is true here, for what we read in Genesis is very similar to what is in the book of Daniel, and that is that God Himself gives the ability to interpret dreams to whom He chooses, to His people, which I will discuss further. Now, let us read Joseph’s response to them:
“…Do not interpretations belong to God?” (Genesis 40:8)
The chief butler told Joseph that he had dreamt about a vine that had three branches that budded and had blossoms bloom and then brought forth grapes. The butler dreamt that he had taken the grapes and squeezed the juice into Pharaoh’s cup, which he gave to Pharaoh. Joseph told the butler that the three branches represented three days, and that within three days, Pharaoh would free the butler from the prison and restore him to his position he once had in Pharaoh’s palace. He also asked the butler to remember him after he would be freed and to mention him to Pharaoh and bring him out of prison. Joseph also told the butler, “For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews: and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.” (Genesis 40:15) The chief baker then told Joseph that he had dreamt about three white baskets, meaning three baskets of white bread, on his head. He had dreamt that the top basket had all kinds of baked goods in it for Pharaoh and then the birds ate the baked goods while the basket was on his head. Joseph then told the baker that the baskets were three days and within three days, he would be killed by Pharaoh, who would hang him on a tree and the birds would eat his flesh. Three days later, it was Pharaoh’s birthday, and he took the chief butler and baker out of prison. As Joseph said would happen in the interpretation of their dreams, Pharaoh did indeed restore the butler to his prior position, and the butler gave the cup to Pharaoh, and Pharaoh did indeed hang the baker. Though the butler was restored, he did not remember Joseph but forgot him.
Two years went by and Joseph was still in prison. Pharaoh then dreamt a dream that troubled him when he woke up. He summoned the magicians and wise men to him and told them his dream, but none of them could interpret the dream. The chief butler then told Pharaoh that when he had been angry with him and the chief baker and had imprisoned them, they each had dreamt a dream. The butler told him there had been a young Hebrew man imprisoned with them who had interpreted the dreams and what the Hebrew had said would happen did come to pass. Pharaoh then summoned Joseph and told him he had dreamt a dream and had heard that Joseph could interpret dreams. Now, let us compare Joseph’s reply to Pharaoh to what Daniel the prophet many years later would tell the King of Babylon when the King sought someone to interpret his dream:
“…It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” (Genesis 41:16)
“Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew [declare] unto the king; but there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.” (Daniel 2:27-28)
Both Joseph and Daniel knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that any ability they had to interpret dreams did not come of their own ability but by God alone. May we ourselves remember Joseph and Daniel when it comes to any ability that God has given us. Now, let us continue with Pharaoh’s dream. He dreamt of standing by a river and seeing seven fat, well-fed cows grazing in a meadow, and then he saw seven emaciated cows that came after them, such that he had never seen before in Egypt. He saw the emaciated cows eat the fat cows and afterwards, the emaciated cows still looked unchanged; they were that thin. Pharaoh had awakened from his dream and then dreamt another dream. This time, he saw seven heads of grain that came up from one stalk that were healthy, and then he saw seven withered and thin heads of grain that were blighted, badly damaged, by the east wind, that came up after them. He saw the thin and weak heads of grain devour the seven healthy heads of grain. Joseph then interpreted Pharaoh’s dream:
“And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one: God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good kine [cows] are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one. And the seven thin and ill favoured kine that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted [blighted] with the east wind shall be seven years of famine. This is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh: What God is about to do he sheweth unto Pharaoh. Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt: and there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land; and the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous. And for that the dream was doubled [repeated] unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.” (Genesis 41:25-32)
Joseph then proposed to Pharaoh that he appoint officers who would take a fifth part (20%) of the land during the plentiful seven years and the food grown in that 20% of land and store it in the cities. Thus, when the seven-year famine came, the people would have food to eat. Pharaoh and all his servants agreed with Joseph’s proposal. Then:
“And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet [as discerning] and wise as thou art: thou shalt be over [in charge of] my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his ring [signet ring] from his hand, and put it upon Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in vestures [garments] of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck; and he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee [without your consent] shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.” (Genesis 41:38-44)
Once again, but to an even greater extent, Joseph was given great responsibility, but this time it was under Pharaoh. It would be upon Joseph’s shoulders to ensure the food would be collected and stored during the coming seven years of plenty, and Joseph was ready to take on such a responsibility. Next, we are told that, just as had happened when the people living in Judah and Jerusalem were taken into captivity in Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh called Joseph by a different name, an Egyptian name of Zaphnath-paaneah, which the Authorized King James Version Bible that I have says “Probably Egyptian for God speaks and he lives.” (Genesis 41:45) Pharaoh also gave to Joseph a wife named Asenath, whose father was Poti-pherah, priest of On. We are told that at that time, Joseph was 30-years old. Joseph then went out to all of Egypt and gathered up the food which was to be stored during the 7-years of abundance. During this time, Joseph’s wife bore him two sons, whom Joseph named in a way that honored and thanked God:
“And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh [Making Forgetful]: For God, said he hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house. And the name of the second called he Ephraim [Fruitfulness]: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.” (Genesis 41:51-52)
Next came the 7-years of famine, and it was severe not only in Egypt but across all the earth. Joseph then opened the storehouses and sold the food to the Egyptians. In addition, all countries came to Egypt to buy food. The famine even stretched to where Joseph’s father and brothers still lived. Joseph’s father, Jacob had seen that Egypt had food and told his sons to go there to buy food so they would not die. Ten of Joseph’s brothers went, but Jacob kept Benjamin, the youngest son, home with him, for fear that something would happen to him, as it had happened to Joseph. Let us read what happened next:
“And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all people of the land: and Joseph’s brethren [brothers] came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.” (Genesis 42:6)
Here were Joseph’s ten brothers bowing down before him. The same brothers who had mocked Joseph and hated him because of the dreams he had dreamt, and not only had his brothers mocked him but also his father, Jacob. It was his father who had mockingly asked Joseph if he, Joseph’s mother, and all his brothers should bow down to him. Little did they know then that Joseph’s dreams would come to pass. Joseph saw his brothers, but he acted as though he did not know them and spoke harshly to them. He asked them where they had come from and why they had come. Genesis 42:9 tells us, “And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, Ye are spies; to see the nakedness [exposed parts] of the land ye are come.” His brothers said no, that they were there to buy food and that they were honest men and not spies. They said they are twelve brothers, all the sons of one man who lives in Canaan, and that their youngest brother was with their father and one of their brothers was no more, meaning he had died. Joseph told them again that they were spies and in order to see Pharaoh, they must be tested to determine if they were telling the truth. He told them to send one of their brothers to their father to bring their youngest brother, while the rest of them would be imprisoned. He then put them all into prison for three days. It seems Joseph then had a change of heart:
“And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do, and live; for I fear God…” (Genesis 42:18)
Before we read what Joseph told them to do, I wanted to say that Joseph’s statement to them, “This do, and live; for I fear God” reminds me a lot of what Jesus told a man who was a lawyer who wanted to know what he should do in order to have eternal life. Let us read that account from the book of Luke:
“And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted [tested] him, saying, Master [Teacher], what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He [Jesus] said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing [wanting] to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment [clothing], and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound [bandaged] up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow [next day] when he departed, he took out two pence [money], and gave them to the host [innkeeper], and said unto him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.” (Luke 10:25-37)
Jesus showed the man that though the man who was from Jerusalem and went to Jericho was robbed and beaten, with even his clothes taken, and left for dead, was seen by people of his own faith, a priest and a Levite, they did not even attempt to help the man and merely walked to the other side of where he was, ignoring him in his time of need. However, it was the kindness and compassion of a Samaritan man who had helped him in his time of need and had shown him great mercy. I am reminded of this when I read Joseph’s words to his brothers. His own brothers had taken the coat of many colors his father had given him, thrown him into a pit with no water in it, and wanted to let him die in it, and that likely would have happened if his brother Judah hadn’t said they wouldn’t profit anything by letting him die and instead they sold Joseph to the Midianites. One of his brothers, Reuben, went away from his brothers and warned them not to shed Joseph’s blood. Reuben had intended to go back and get him out of the pit, but when he returned, his other brothers had already sold Joseph and he was gone. No mercy was shown to Joseph by his own brothers, and now Joseph, who was second in charge in Egypt and completely in charge of the food supply, had a decision to make: would he show his brothers mercy, though they had shown him none? It is clear by his words to his brothers that he would show them mercy because of what he said to them: “This do, and live; for I fear God.” Joseph knew that he was accountable to Almighty God, and he likely remembered all that God had done for him in his life, and that God had shown him mercy many times.
Joseph then told them to leave one of their brothers there in prison and for the nine other brothers to take food to their families in Canaan and to bring their youngest brother to him, and that they would not die. It was then they realized their guilt in what they had done to Joseph, their own brother:
“And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore this distress is come upon us. And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child [boy]; and ye would not hear? therefore, behold, also his blood is required. And they knew not that Joseph understood them; for he spake unto them by an interpreter. And he turned himself about [away] from them, and wept; and returned to them again, and communed [talked] with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes.” (Genesis 42:21-24)
Joseph then instructed his men to fill the sacks of the men of Canaan with grain, and to put the money they had brought to pay for the grain into their sacks, and to give them food for their trip back to Canaan. Joseph’s brothers then loaded the sacks onto their donkeys and left for their home. When they arrived at an inn to spend the night, one of his brothers opened a sack to get food to feed his donkey and saw that some of the money they had brought to pay for the food was in the sack! He told his brothers, and they all were afraid, and said, “What is this that God hath done unto us?” (Genesis 42:28) This is an example of what guilt does to us, when we know that we have done something wrong and we worry, we anticipate the consequences of our wicked actions. When the brothers arrived home, they told their father, Jacob all that had happened and that the ruler of the food supply, who unbeknownst to them was their brother Joseph, had told them to bring back their younger brother, Benjamin, to him, and then he would know that the brothers were honest men and not spies and he would allow them to trade in Egypt for food. As they emptied their sacks of grain, they realized that every brother had money in his sack, and they and their father were afraid. Jacob, however, did not agree to send his son, Benjamin, to Egypt. Reuben told his father that he could slay his own two sons if he did not return from Egypt with Benjamin. Jacob, thinking that, like Joseph, Reuben was also dead, was not willing to take a chance with Benjamin and thus did not agree to send him to Egypt.
Time went on, and Jacob and his family ran out of food. Jacob told his sons to return to Egypt and buy more food. Judah reminded him that they would not be able to buy food from the ruler unless they brought their brother, Benjamin to him. Jacob was upset at them that they had told the man about their brother, and they told him that the man had asked them about their family. They had told him, not knowing that he would want them to bring their brother to him. Judah told his father to send Benjamin with him so that they could go and buy food to save their family. If he did not bring his brother back, then he (Judah) would bear the blame forever. Finally, Jacob agreed and told them to take some of the best fruits, nuts, spices, balm, and myrrh to the man, along with double the money they had previously taken. Then Jacob told them:
“And God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” (Genesis 43:14)
Jacob knew that he was at the point where he had to trust God, no matter the outcome. How many of us have ever been in a similar situation? I know I have, and it was a turning point in my life, one that I will never, ever forget. With Jacob in agreement, the nine brothers left for Egypt with their youngest brother, Benjamin, along with the gifts and money. They arrive in Egypt and went to see Joseph. When Joseph saw them, he told the ruler of his house to slay an animal for them to eat, and that they would eat lunch with him at noon. The man invited the brothers into Joseph’s house. However, instead of feeling comfortable about eating with him, the brothers were afraid that he was going to imprison them because of the money that had been put in their sacks when they left Egypt the first time. They decided to address the situation head-on. When they got to Joseph’s house, they told the steward about the money they had found in their sacks when they returned home and that they had brought the money back to return it. They also said they had brought more money to buy more food. The steward then told them:
“…Peace be to you, fear not: your God, and the God of your father, hath given you treasure in your sacks: I had your money. And he brought Simeon out unto them.” (Genesis 43:23)
We know that in Genesis 42:25, Joseph had commanded that his brothers’ money be put in their backs before they had returned to their home in Canaan, but here was his steward saying he had their money. Whatever his reason for doing it, it was God that made it happen; thus, the steward spoke the truth. All of Joseph’s brothers’ worrying had been for nothing, for he had intentionally returned their money to them before they left Egypt the first time. How many of us have worried about something that we needn’t worry about? Here was an Egyptian who was telling them about their God - Almighty God - who had given them back their money. Joseph’s steward then brought them into Joseph’s home, and he washed their feet and fed their donkeys. Let us read what happened next:
“And when Joseph came home, they brought him the present which was in their hand into the house, and bowed themselves to him to the earth. And he asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your father well, the old man of whom ye spake? Is he alive? And they answered, Thy servant our father is in good health, he is yet alive. And they bowed down their heads and made obeisance [prostrated themselves]. And he lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and said, Is this your younger brother, of whom ye spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son.” (Genesis 43:26)
Finally, Joseph was able to see his younger brother, Benjamin. Joseph was filled with so much love in his heart for Benjamin that he left the room and went to his chamber and wept, for his brothers still did not know that he was their brother Joseph. He washed his face and returned to his brothers, for it was time to eat. The Hebrew brothers ate separately from the Egyptians, for we are told it was an abomination to the Egyptians to eat with Hebrews. Joseph gave five times the serving of food to Benjamin than he did to the other brothers. Joseph then told the steward of the house to fill the men’s sacks with as much food as they would hold and to put the men’s money they had brought with them back into the sacks. Joseph also told his steward to put his (Joseph’s) silver cup into Benjamin’s sack. In the early morning, the brothers left for their home with their sacks of food and their donkeys. Now Joseph wanted to test his brothers, for still they had not recognized him as their brother, and he told his steward to go and follow after the men and when he caught up to them, he was to say to them, “Wherefore have ye rewarded [repaid] evil for good? Is not this it in which my lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth [practises divination]? ye have done evil in so doing.” (Genesis 44:4-5)
The steward did as Joseph commanded him. When he caught up to the brothers, he asked them what Joseph had told him to ask them. The brothers asked him why he would ask them such a thing, and said they had returned the money they had previously found in their sacks the first time and asked him why would they steal from his lord’s house silver or gold. They told him that if the cup was found in any one of the sacks, then the one who has the sack should die and they would be his lord’s slaves. The steward said to them that if the cup is found in a sack, the one whose sack it was would be his slave but the other brothers would be blameless. He then searched the brothers’ sacks, starting from the oldest brother to the youngest brother, and he found the cup in Benjamin’s sack. His brothers then tore their clothes, and they returned to Egypt. Judah and his brothers fell before Joseph, who asked them why did they do what they had done. Judah replied to Joseph, saying:
“…What shall we say unto my lord? what shall we speak? or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants: behold, we are my lord’s servants, both we, and he also with whom the cup is found.” (Genesis 44:16)
Joseph replied by saying that only Benjamin, the one in whose sack the cup was found, needed to stay and be his servant and the rest of his brothers could leave. Judah then pleaded with Joseph and told him that it would literally kill his father if Benjamin remained with Joseph as his servant, for Benjamin was the only surviving son that remains from his mother. Judah told Joseph of how Jacob had reluctantly agreed to let Benjamin come with them the second time in order to buy food and save their family. Judah then asked Joseph to let him remain as his servant and let Benjamin return to his father. Joseph had reached the point that he could no longer conceal his identify from his brothers. He was torn up inside seeing the anguish his brothers were going through and that they loved their father. Finally, he told the Egyptians who were with him to leave the room, and he was left alone with his brothers. Joseph cried out loud and the Egyptians in his house heard him. Joseph then said to his brothers:
“…I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled by 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 [plowing] nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity [remnant] 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. Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt: come down unto me, tarry [delay] not: and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children’s children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast: and there will I nourish [provide for] thee; for yet there are five years of famine; lest thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty. And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you. And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen; and ye shall haste and bring down my father hither. And he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck. Moreover he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them: and after that his brethren talked with him.” (Genesis 45:3-14)
What an amazing account we just read of how God works in our lives! First, Joseph told his brothers not to be angry with themselves because they had sold him because God had used their actions to preserve life, to preserve the lineage of Jacob. God sees what we cannot see, and God knows what we cannot know. God knew before Jacob and his sons were even born that it would be through Jacob that Messiah would eventually come, and God made that possible through Joseph. It was Joseph who would be sold and taken to Egypt, where God would prosper him in all he did, even in the times of his bondage in prison. It was God who would ensure that Jacob’s family would not die of starvation during the 7-year famine, and He did that through Joseph. Joseph could have been bitter and could have hated his brothers for what they did to him. He could have had them killed or permanently imprisoned. He could have said something like “let them starve, for they cared nothing about me,” but he didn’t. He wasn’t out for vengeance; no, because he loved them and he showed mercy to them. Though he did not reveal himself to them when they came to Egypt the first time, it was because he was testing them. Through this testing, he saw that they truly loved their father Jacob, and also their youngest brother Benjamin. Joseph saw that Judah had told Jacob that he would take the blame forever if anything happened to Benjamin, and that Judah was also willing to give up his life and be Joseph’s servant so that Benjamin could be returned to Jacob. Joseph also knew and plainly stated that it was God who used him in order to preserve their family line, and he knew that because he had remembered his dreams that he had dreamt of his brothers and his family. Through Joseph’s difficult times in his life, we have a lesson that we can learn from him, and that is to trust in God no matter what happens in our lives. Things may happen to us that we don’t understand why they are happening, but we must trust that there is a greater purpose that God has for us, one that is beyond what our eyes can see and beyond which our minds can comprehend.
As I am editing above what I wrote previously, I realize that the same words also could apply to Jesus Christ. The first time He came to earth, His own brethren, the ones He came to save - the Jews - betrayed Him. They mocked and scoffed at Him. While Jesus never Himself outright said to the Jews who did not believe in Him as their Messiah, their Savior, that He is the Messiah, He did agree in at least two instances with two people who were seeking their Messiah. One instance is the Samaritan woman at the well, whom we read about earlier, said she knew that Messiah, who is called Christ, was coming and when He does, He would tell them all things. Jesus responded to her, saying, ”I that speak unto thee am he.” (John 4:25) A second time was when Jesus asked His disciples, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” They said that some people say He is John the Baptist, some Elijah, some Jeremiah, while others said He is one of the prophets. Jesus then asked them, “But whom say ye that I am?” Peter, being full of faith in Jesus said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:13-16) Jesus responded to Peter, who was called “Simon,” saying:
“…Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 16:17)
Like Joseph had tested his brothers and didn’t tell them who he was, Jesus didn’t just come outright and tell people who He is but instead waited to see if they were looking for the Christ to come, and if they believed in Him as the Messiah, the Christ. Just as Joseph saved not only Egypt, but more importantly, his own family line, during the 7-year famine, Jesus will save a one-third remnant of the Jews during the 7-year time of Jacob’s trouble. Just as Joseph had to suffer all that He did in order to save his family line and to bring glory to God, so too did Jesus suffer all that He did to save His people, which are not just the Jews but all people who put our faith and trust in Him to save us, and to bring Him glory. As Joseph revealed himself when his brothers came to him a second time, so too when Jesus comes to earth the second time, He will reveal Himself to His brethren, the remnant of Israel. As Joseph showed love, grace, and mercy towards his brothers when he revealed to them that he was their brother, instead of holding the remnant of Israel accountable for all that they did to Him, Jesus will show them love, grace, and mercy when they realize who He is and that they had had Him crucified:
“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirt of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness [grieves] for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddo.” (Zechariah 12:10-11)
Returning to Joseph, in Genesis 45:16, we read that the Egyptian servants in Pharaoh’s house heard that the men who had come from Canaan were Joseph’s brothers and that it pleased not only them but also Pharaoh:
“And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Say unto thy brethren, This do ye; lade [load] your beasts, and go, get you unto the land of Canaan; and take [bring] your father and your households, and come unto me: and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat [best] of the land. Now thou art commanded, this do ye; take you wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come. Also regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours.” (Genesis 45:17-20)
Joseph did as Pharaoh commanded him to do, and he also gave his brothers changes of clothing. However, to Benjamin he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of clothing. His brothers left Egypt, and when they arrived at their home in Canaan, they told their father that his son, their brother, Joseph was alive! They told him not only was he alive, but he was governor over all the land of Egypt. Scripture tells us that Jacob did not believe them. They then told him the words of Joseph and showed him the wagons Joseph had sent to bring Jacob to him. After seeing all that Joseph had sent:
“And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die. And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beer-sheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac. And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I. And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes [will close your eyes when you die].” (Genesis 45:28-46:4)
Almighty God had just reiterated to Jacob the promise He had previously made to Jacob’s grandfather, Abraham, and to his father, Isaac, which was that He would make their descendants into a great nation. Now God was telling Jacob to go into Egypt but that he would bring him up again, meaning that God would bring Jacob and his descendants back into the land of Canaan that He had given them. Genesis 46:8-27 tells us the names of each son and Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, and the names of all of their sons who came with Jacob to Egypt, for a total of 70 people. Jacob then sent Judah to Joseph to direct him to the land of Goshen.
“And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen, and presented himself unto him; and he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while. And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive.” (Genesis 46:29-30)
The words that Jacob spoke to his son, Joseph remind me of the words spoken by a man named Simeon many years later when he finally saw the face of his Savior, Jesus Christ, when He was brought to the temple by Joseph and Mary:
“And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.” (Luke 2:25-32)
What a wonderful reunion that must have been for Jacob and Joseph! God had made it possible for Jacob to be reunited with his beloved son in a way that no one would have possibly expected. Joseph then told his family that he would go tell Pharaoh that his family had arrived and that from the time of their birth, they have been shepherds and that they brought their flocks with them. He said that when Pharaoh calls them to him and asks them what is their occupation, they should tell him the truth so that they could live in the land of Goshen. Joseph said that every shepherd was considered an abomination to the Egyptians, and Goshen would be a place where they could dwell. Joseph then went to Pharaoh and told him that his family had arrived. He also took five of his brothers to Pharaoh, who asked them what was their occupation, and they told him they were shepherds and had brought their flocks because the land where they lived was barren. Pharaoh told Joseph to let his family dwell in the best of the land of Egypt in Goshen. Pharaoh also told Joseph to let his brothers be rulers over Pharaoh’s cattle, as well as their own flocks. Joseph then presented Jacob to Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Pharaoh asked Jacob how old he was, and Jacob answered that “few and evil” were his days, and that he had not lived as long as his fathers (Genesis 47:9). Jacob’s father, Isaac was 180-years old when he died (Genesis 35:28) and Abraham was 175-years old (Genesis 25:7). Clearly and understandably, Jacob’s life was deeply affected after his other sons had told him that Joseph had died and Jacob had been separated from him for all those years.
Joseph took his father and his brothers to the best of the Egyptian land, “in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.” (Genesis 47:11). As Joseph had correctly interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, the famine continued in Egypt and in Canaan, and it grew even more severe. It was so severe that the people of Egypt and Canaan spent all the money they had to buy grain from Joseph on behalf of Pharaoh. When they ran out of money, they sold all their livestock for grain. When they had no more money or livestock, they sold their land and themselves to be servants to Pharaoh in exchange for seed to sow, except for the priests who retained their land, as they were given a ration of food by Pharaoh to eat. Joseph also had the people move from the rural areas into the cities. Joseph told them to sow the seed and that a fifth part, or 20%, of whatever they reaped must be given to Pharaoh, in addition to making it a law. The Bible tells us:
“And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years. And the time drew night that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt: But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their buryingplace. And he said, I will do as thou hast said. And he said, Swear unto me. And he swore unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed’s head.” (Genesis 47:27-31)
What Jacob had Joseph do when he had Joseph put his hand under Jacob’s thigh was the ancient Hebrew way of a man making an oath to another man. Gotquestions.org has an article that explains this further. (See: https://www.gotquestions.org/hand-under-thigh.html) Jacob wanted to be taken back to the land of Canaan after he died, and Joseph took an oath, promising he would do that for his father. Some time later, it was told to Joseph that his father was sick, and he took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and went to see Jacob:
“And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, and said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed [descendants] after thee for an everlasting possession. And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reuben and Simeon; they shall be mine. And thy issue [offspring], which thou begettest after them, shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance.” (Genesis 48:3-6)
Jacob told Joseph that he was adopting Joseph’s two sons as his own. Jacob then told Joseph to bring his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, to him so that he could bless them before he died. He told Joseph that he never thought he would see him again and yet, here he had not only seen Joseph but “God hath shewed me also thy seed.” (Genesis 48:11) Next, we read:
“And Joseph brought them [his two sons] out from between [beside] his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.” (Genesis 48:12)
I do not know if this is Jacob bowing to Joseph, in thankfulness to him for all he had done for him and blessing him with his two grandsons, or if it was Joseph bowing to Jacob, in an act of reverence to his father. I have read several commentaries, where some say it’s Joseph bowing and others say it’s Jacob. When it came time to bless his grandsons, because Jacob could not see, for his eyes were dim due to his age (Genesis 48:10), Joseph placed his sons so that the oldest, Manasseh, would be placed “toward Israel’s right hand” and Ephraim, the younger son was placed toward Jacob’s left hand. (Genesis 48:13) However, the Bible tells us:
“Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands wittingly [knowingly]; for Manasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head. And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head. And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh. And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bring you again unto the land of your fathers. Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.” (Genesis 48:14-22)
No matter what Joseph wanted, God had led Jacob to bless Joseph’s youngest son, Ephraim, and not the elder son Manasseh. God doesn’t go by mankind’s plans but by His own plans, just as it had been foretold to Rebekah, Jacob’s mother that the elder son, Esau would serve the younger son, Jacob (Genesis 25:23). We also see this years later when God chose the young David, the youngest of all his brothers, to be anointed and who became King of Israel (1 Samuel 16:13). As the word of God tells us, God looks at the heart and not one’s outward appearance.
Before Jacob died, he called all of his sons to him, and said to them, “…that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.” (Genesis 49:1-2) He then told each of his twelve sons that which would come upon them. Gotquestions.org has a good summary of what Jacob told each of his twelve sons and the fulfillment of those prophecies. (See: https://www.gotquestions.org/Jacobs-prophecies.html) As gotquestions.org indicates, while Reuben was Jacob’s firstborn son, he gave up his birthright when he had sexual intercourse with Bilhah, his father’s concubine (Genesis 29:32, 49:3-4). Thus, the birthright was then passed to Jacob’s oldest son he had with his wife, Rachel, who was Joseph. Joseph received a double portion. Per gotquestions.org, when Israel received the territory in the Promised Land, Ephraim and Manasseh were named as two of the twelve tribes, with some Scriptures referring to the tribe of Ephraim as the tribe of Joseph, and his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, would be two of the twelve tribes of Israel. (See: https://www.gotquestions.org/twelve-tribes-Israel.html)
Returning to Jacob’s prophecies to his sons, I won’t list all of them, but I do want to us to read what Jacob said to Judah and to Joseph. First, let’s read what Jacob prophesied about his son Judah:
“Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in [on] the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’ s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped [crouches] down, he couched [lies down] as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering [obedience] of the people be. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: his eyes shall be red with [darker than] wine, and his teeth white with [whiter than] milk.” (Genesis 49:8-12)
Jacob prophesied that of all of his sons, it would be Judah whom they would praise. It would also be from the tribe of Judah that Messiah would come, and not from the tribe of Joseph. I must admit that my first choice would have been Joseph and not Judah. While Messiah would not come through the lineage of Joseph, as we previously read, God had an amazing plan for Joseph. It would be through him that the lineage of His people would be preserved, for without Joseph, they would most likely have died from famine. By placing Joseph in a superior position in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh, God ensured that Joseph was able to save his family. Through them, and specifically from the tribe of Judah, the scepter, representing kingship and authority, would not depart, and that King is Jesus Christ. Jesus - the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Lion of the tribe of Judah - came to earth the first time, born of a virgin in Bethlehem Ephratah in Judah, offering salvation to all who believe in Him. As the Bible prophesies, He will come again, and the second time He comes, He will return in judgment of the world, and particularly Israel. It is at His second coming that Jesus will take His rightful reign upon the earth and will righteously rule from Israel with a rod of iron for 1,000-years:
“Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of israel, (for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father’s bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel: and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright. For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph’s:)…” (1 Chronicles 5:1-2)
“Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops: he hath laid siege against us: they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. But thou, Beth-lehem 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 [the days of eternity].” (Micah 5:1-2)
“…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 [Ruler], that shall rule [shepherd] my people Israel.” (Matthew 2:5-6)
There is so much prophecy packed into the words that Jacob spoke to his son, Judah, including prophecies that have not happened yet, but will at some point in the future. One of the prophecies that has already been fulfilled is just absolutely beautiful. Let us read what Jacob said to Judah:
“The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering [obedience] of the people be. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine…” (Genesis 49:10-11)
This prophecy was repeated by the prophet Zechariah:
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just [righteous], and having salvation; lowly [humble], and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” (Zechariah 9:9)
Now let us read from the book of Matthew that describes how these prophecies from both Jacob and Zechariah were fulfilled. The account of Matthew describes what Jesus makes what is known as His triumphal entry into Jerusalem:
“And when they drew night unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against [opposite] you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose [untie] them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say ought [anything] unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek [lowly], and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, and brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.” (Matthew 21:1-7)
While we don’t know exactly when the book of Genesis was written, it is estimated to have been written between 1440-1400 BC. (See: https://www.gotquestions.org/when-was-Genesis-written.html). The book of Zechariah is estimated to have been written in two segments, between 520-470 BC. (See: https://www.gotquestions.org/Book-of-Zechariah.html) The book of Matthew is estimated to have been written between 55-65 AD. At His first coming, Jesus, the King of kings, came riding into Jerusalem not upon a horse, indicating He is a warrior, as many wanted him to do, but upon the colt, a young male donkey, indicating He is One who brings peace. The prophecy was fulfilled exactly as both Jacob and Zechariah prophesied. Also notice that Jacob said a foal, which is a young ass (donkey), and the foal would be a colt, indicating a male foal, would be bound not only to a vine but the choice vine. We likely wouldn’t know what that meant but Jesus Himself told us this:
“I am the true [genuine] vine, and my Father is the husbandman [vinedresser]. Every branch in me that bearers not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth [prunes] it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through [because of] the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:1-5)
The colt was untied from where it, and it and its mother donkey were taken to Jesus, who is the choice and true vine. The colt was in a sense bound to Jesus, as Jesus sat on the colt’s back, likely being led with some sort of bridle or rope.
I also want to write about what I believe is a prophecy from Jacob that has not been fulfilled yet and which is spoken in the book of Revelation. Let us read Jacob’s words and how I believe it is also written about in the prophetic books of Isaiah, Joel, and Revelation:
“…he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:” (Genesis 49:11)
“Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth.” (Isaiah 63:1-6)
“Let the heathen [nations] be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen [nations] round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press [winepress] is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of [a shelter] his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.” (Joel 3:12-16)
“And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast [the coming antichrist] and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture [full strength] into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” (Revelation 14:9-11)
“And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without [outside] the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.” (Revelation 14:14-20)
“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture [robe] dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite [strike] the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture [robe] and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” (Revelation 19:11-16)
Just as Jacob prophesied to Judah, it will be the Lion of the tribe of Judah, Jesus Christ, that will prevail and will loosen the 7-seals on the scroll written about in Revelation 5:5, that will begin the 7-year time of Jacob’s trouble, also known as the Day of the Lord. It will be Jesus who will “treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” Jesus will give mankind every opportunity to turn to Him and be saved from the wrath that is to come. Mankind will have a choice: will they serve Satan and his antichrist, or will they serve Jesus Christ, Almighty God? The unbelieving world will reach the fullness of its wickedness, just as grapes reach their point of ripeness and are ready to be reaped, and it is at that point that Jesus will thrust in His sharp sickle and reap the earth. God’s word is simply amazing, and it all fits together, from the beginning in the book of Genesis, to the end in Revelation! God has told us His plan for mankind from the beginning to the end, even in the words that Jacob spoke to his son Judah, from whom the Lion of the tribe of Judah has come and will come again and reign as King of kings and Lord of lords.
Now, let us read Jacob’s blessing to his son Joseph, who had saved his family from death:
“Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall: the archers have sorely [bitterly] grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: but his bow abode [remained] in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:) Even by the God of thy fathers, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under [beneath], blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: the blessings of thy father have prevailed [excelled] above the blessings of my progenitors [ancestors] unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.” (Genesis 49:22-26)
Jacob acknowledged that though Joseph was hated and attempts on his life had been made, Joseph remained strong, and that it was the God of Jacob who had strengthened him. It would be the same God who would continue to bless Joseph and his family with grandchildren and future generations of children. Though was separated from his family for much of his adult life, it was through Joseph’s authority as a leading ruler in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh, that Joseph was the one who decided to whom food would be sold during the 7-year famine. It was through Joseph, by the power of his Almighty God, that he was able to save not only Egypt but more importantly his family. Joseph truly was a fruitful bough. Jacob told his son that God had blessed him more than his forefathers, and that blessing was through his own twelve sons and his two grandchildren whom he had adopted from Joseph.
After Jacob prophesied to his twelve sons of what would happen to them in the last days, we are told:
“All these are the twelve tribes of Israel; and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.” (Genesis 49:28)
Jacob then commanded them that after he died, they were to bring his body back into the land of Canaan and have him buried in the field of Machpelah, which his grandfather, Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite. It was in that field that Abraham and Sarah, his father and mother, Isaac and Rebekah, and his wife Leah were all buried. Jacob then died, and Joseph cried and kissed his father. He then commanded his Egyptian servants who were physicians to embalm Jacob, and they did. The Egyptians mourned for Joseph’s father: ”And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.” (Genesis 50:3) After the mourning period, Joseph asked Pharaoh to let him honor his father’s command to go and bury him in the land of Canaan, and that he would return to Egypt afterward. Pharaoh granted Joseph’s request. Joseph went with a great company of Egyptian servants and elders, including elders of the house of Pharaoh, and his brothers and their adult sons, in chariots and on horses:
“And they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore [solemn] lamentation: and he made [observed] a mourning for his father seven days. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: where the name of it was called Abel-mizraim [Mourning of Egypt], which is beyond Jordan. And his sons did unto him according as he commanded them: for his sons carried him into the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a burying place of Ephron the Hittite, before Mamre.” (Genesis 50:10-13)
It is profound that not only did Jacob’s family mourn him but also the Egyptians. They must have felt very much indebted to him, as the father of the one, Joseph, who saved them from death during the 7-year famine. So profound was the mourning of the Egyptians that even the Canaanites in the land of Canaan saw their great mourning and named the place where they saw them in the floor of Atad, “Abel-mizraim,” meaning the Mourning of Egypt.
After Joseph and his family buried their father in the place where Jacob had told them to bury him, they returned to Egypt. The realization of Jacob’s death soon hit his brothers, and once again, their fear of retaliation by Joseph began to fill them for what they had done to him long ago when he was still young. Instead of discussing this with their brother Joseph face-to-face, they did this:
“And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.” (Genesis 50:16-18)
Joseph’s brothers clearly still feared what he might do to them, and that he only had not retaliated against them previously because their father was still alive. This is what sin and lack of trusting in God does to us: it makes us paranoid, so we are always on the lookout for something bad to come against us. Never once in the Bible does it tell us that Joseph sought to hurt or kill his brothers because they had sold him into slavery and had told their father that he had been killed. On the contrary, the Bible shows us that not only did Joseph not seek to hurt or kill them, but that he sought to save them and all of his family who were starving in Canaan. It only shows us the love of Joseph to his brothers. Once again, we see Joseph’s brothers bowing down to him, just as he had dreamt long ago would happen. Let us read Joseph’s response to his brothers:
“And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought [intended] evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish [provide for] you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.” (Genesis 50:19-21)
Joseph knew that what they had done to him long ago was in fact intended for evil, to cause him harm, but God used it for good, which was to use the situation Joseph was in to save his family. By saving Joseph’s family, it would bring Messiah, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, at His first coming, and again at His future second coming. In a sense, the words of Joseph also remind me of the words of Peter, after he and the other apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit of God 50 days after Jesus resurrected and ascended to heaven. The apostle Peter had just healed a man who had been lame, unable to walk, from the time he was born, and people ran over to Peter and John in amazement:
“And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly [intently] on us, as though by our own power or holiness [godliness] we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.” (Acts 3:12-15)
Like Joseph had done when he had spoken to his brothers, Peter acknowledged that evil had been done, which was when the Jews had Jesus Christ crucified. Like Joseph, Peter acknowledged that it was by the power of God, and not of any power of their own, that had healed the lame man and more importantly, it was by the power of God that had resurrected Jesus Christ, the Prince of life. God knows the end from the beginning, and He knew that Joseph’s brothers would sell Joseph into slavery, but God used their evil act for good, just as many years later, God used the evil act of Israel, when they turned Jesus over to Pontius Pilate and demanded that He be crucified, not realizing that God would resurrect Jesus three days after Jesus gave up His life, and that through His precious, sinless blood, He would save many.
Joseph lived until the age of 110 years, seeing his grandsons born to his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. Before he died:
“And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die [I am dying]: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.” (Genesis 50:24-26)
Something I noticed in Genesis 50 after Joseph died is that it does not record that there was a mourning in Egypt for him, as there was for his father, Jacob. Perhaps there was and it is just not recorded. That seems very odd to me, considering it was Joseph who had correctly interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams, by the power of Almighty God, and through Joseph, Egypt had been saved from the famine. Maybe it was because Joseph had received much glory during his life in Egypt that God did not feel the need to write about any mourning for him.
Joseph’s life was a perfect example of a man who stayed with God his entire life, never turning from Him in the difficult times, and he had many difficult times in his life. He didn’t hold bitterness in his heart against his brothers. When he was reunited with them, he didn’t seek to kill them because of what they had done to him, and he could have easily had them killed. When the lustful Potiphar’s wife kept coming after him, he fled from her, giving us a perfect example of what we should do when temptation comes our way: flee from it! God used Joseph in a mighty way, with a single goal in mind: save the people of Israel from famine so that Messiah could come!
After Joseph died, the descendants of Jacob’s family, called Israel, that lived in Egypt grew mighty in numbers. By that time, all of Joseph’s brothers had also died and all of their generation, but the people of Israel had grown significantly in numbers, so much so that the new Pharaoh, who did not know Joseph, feared that Israel would come against Egypt and side with its enemies. Pharaoh decided to enslave the people of Israel, and he caused them much affliction. The book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible, tells us of how the people of Israel eventually left Egypt through the leading of another man whom God used in mighty ways, Moses. It would be Moses who would lead Israel out of Egypt after they had been there 430 years:
“Now the sojourning [time of stay] of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 12:40-41)
Once again, we see that God always fulfills His promises. God kept His promise He had made long ago to Abraham, then called Abram, that his descendants would be slaves in a foreign land for 400 years but would return to the land of Canaan. Before Israel left Egypt, God instituted the Passover. God had previously sent nine plagues upon Egypt, for Pharaoh would not release God’s people. God then prepared His people for the tenth plague, the death of all the firstborn, both humans and animals. God told Israel, “This month shall be unto you the beginning of the months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.” (Exodus 12:2) God told His people that on the tenth day, they were to take a male lamb without blemish, from sheep or goats, and keep it until the 14th day. On the evening of the 14th day, they must kill the lamb. God then told them:
“And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it…and thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD’s passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. And the blood shall be to you for a token [sign] upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul [person] shall be cut off [put away] from Israel.” (Exodus 12:7, 11-15)
The people of Israel did as God instructed them, and Pharaoh finally agreed to let God’s people go after his firstborn son died. In the institution of Passover, we see parallels to what Jesus Christ would go through when He came to earth as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. How He would suffer, though He never sinned, be crucified, give up His life, be buried, but three days later, He rose again, was resurrected, and forty days later ascended to the right hand of God. It is only by His unblemished, perfect, and sinless blood that we can be saved from all our sins:
“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest [revealed] in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.” (1 Peter 1:18-21)
Through the power of Almighty God, Moses led the people out of Egypt by dividing the Red Sea, after which the sea swallowed up the Egyptians who were in pursuit of them. However, it would be another 40 years before the people of Israel would enter the Promised Land, the land that God had given to Abraham and his descendants long ago. Upon first arriving to the Promised Land, Israel had sent twelve spies into the land, who checked it out for 40 days. Ten spies came back with a bad report, saying the people were huge in size compared to them, but two spies, Joshua and Caleb, said they should go into the land. Let us read of the difference in the reports of the land between the ten men and the reports of Joshua and Caleb, how ten were fearful and did not trust in God and how Joshua and Caleb did not fear and did trust in God:
“And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron [Moses’ brother], and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Pagan, to Kaddish; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land. And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely [truly] it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the HIttites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan. And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess [take possession of] it; for we are well able to overcome it. But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil [bad] report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up [devours] the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants [Nephilim], the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. And all the congregation lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured [grumbled] against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness! And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt? And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt. Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces [prostrated themselves] before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.” (Numbers 13:26-14:5)
Here we see the children of Israel, who had just seen with their own eyes how Almighty God had sent ten plagues upon Egypt in order to cause Pharaoh to finally release them out of their bondage of 430 years, and how God had used Moses to divide the Red Sea and lead them through it, and bring them to the border of the Promised Land, and yet, how quickly their memories of this faded. Now, they could only see the giants in front of them, from the bad report of the ten men; they could not see the good report from Joshua and Caleb, who had remembered what God had just done for the children of Israel. Joshua and Caleb knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that God is bigger than any giant, and He is able to bring down the giants. But the children of Israel did not want to hear their report and did not want to follow the lead of Moses anymore. Instead, they wanted to put someone else in charge of them, a new captain, and bring them back into their bondage in Egypt. How absurd is that?! However, before we judge them too harshly, let us examine our own selves, myself included, and consider how many times has God brought us through something, and we knew that it was only by His awesome power that we got through it, only to be filled with fear when the next difficult time, the next crisis, arose in our own lives. How many times did we revert to fear, as did the children of Israel, instead of being filled with the faith of God in us and HIs promises to us, as Joshua and Caleb did? May we, myself included, be more like Joshua and Caleb.
Let us continue reading what happened next:
“And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent [tore] their clothes: and they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land. If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence [protection] is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not. But all the congregation bade stone them with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel. And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? “ (Numbers 14:6-11)
Moses continued leading the children of Israel but because of their rebellion against God, He caused them to wander in the land for 40 years, one year for each day they had spied the land. Except for Joshua and Caleb, God allowed only those younger than 20 years of age to enter it; all who had rebelled against God died off and did not enter the Promised Land. It would be Joshua who would lead Israel into the land and conquer it. When they had finally conquered it from the people whom God gave 400+ years to change their ways, we read this:
“And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. And the LORD gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand. There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.” (Joshua 21:43-45)
Ah, now we have read about the Biblical patriarchs, how the twelve tribes of Israel came about, and how God had promised to give them His land, the land of Canaan, forever. We have seen how God keeps His promises. As the Scripture above says, not a word of God failed that He had spoken to Israel. We must remember this, for there are many things in the Bible that have not come to pass yet, but will, for God is a promise-keeper. I have learned so much by reading about this, and not just reading it, but studying it. Hallelujah! This brings us back to today’s Scripture in Isaiah 49:23. I want to compare the blessing of Isaac upon his son Jacob, whom the aged Isaac thought was Esau, in which he prophesied that nations would bow to him, to today’s Scripture verse:
“See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed: therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn [grain] and wine: let people [peoples] serve thee, and nations bow down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee.” (Genesis 27:27-29)
“And kings shall be thy nursing [foster] fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.” (Isaiah 49:23)
Just as the promise of God went not to Abraham’s firstborn son, Ishmael, but to Isaac and his descendants, so too, was the promise of God not given to Isaac’s firstborn son, Esau, but to Jacob and his descendants. It would be through Jacob, whom God later called “Israel,” that the twelve tribes of Israel came about. It is through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that Messiah would come, the One whom the prophet Isaiah wrote about, and which I wrote about in earlier devotionals, from Isaiah 49d:6:
“And he [God, speaking to Jesus] said, It is a light thing that thou [Jesus] shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6)
Because it was through the nation of Israel that Messiah would come, and He did and will come again a second time, Satan has tried to destroy Israel ever since God called it into existence. There has not been any other nation in the earth that has been so hated by mankind than Israel. Many nations have tried to eliminate it, and have failed every single time, for God has always preserved a remnant of Israel, just as He promised us in His word that He would do. That promise is still true to this day. There is soon coming the time in history when Israel will go through the 7-year time of Jacob’s trouble, when God turns His attention from the Gentile church and turns it back to Israel, during which God will judge Israel severely, as well as all nations for their rejection of Jesus Christ and choosing instead to remain in their sin. However, as God promised, God will refine Israel in the fire of testing and they will finally turn to Jesus Christ and believe on Him as their Messiah. It is this remnant of Israel - all of it - that will be saved. Israel will be protected by God Himself against all the nations who will once again seek to destroy Israel in Jerusalem. Finally, after the 7-years of tribulation upon the earth, Jesus will return to earth, with all believers in Him, and He will righteously reign on earth for 1,000 years. Israel will finally be gathered together in the land that God gave them long ago, and they will live in all of the land that He gave them, not just a small portion of it. People from the Gentile nations all around the world will come to Israel, and will bow down to the people of Israel, fulfilling Isaac’s prophecy to Jacob and Isaiah’s prophecy in Isaiah 49:23 and also in Isaiah chapters 60 and 55, for they will know that it was through Israel, the nation that suffered so much for so long, that Messiah came and saved them by His precious blood:
“And the sons of strangers [foreigners] shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote [struck] thee, but in my favor have I had mercy on thee. Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces [wealth] of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought [led in procession]. For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted [ruined]. The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box [box tree] together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious. The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending [bowing] unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations.” (Isaiah 60:10-15)
“Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.” (Isaiah 55:5)
As the Scriptures in Isaiah 49:20-22 tell us, many of Israel’s sons and daughters will die in the 7-year time of Jacob’s trouble. However, kings and queens of the Gentile nations will bring their own sons and daughters to Israel, who will be the children of Israel; all will be as one people, with our King of kings and Lord of lords reigning from Israel. Hallelujah!!!
“That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Galatians 3:14)
“For ye are all the children [sons] of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond [slave] nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:26-29)
The time period that Isaiah 49:23 speaks of will occur at the end of the 7-year time of Jacob’s trouble, and it will be the remnant of Israel that will finally turn to their Messiah, Jesus Christ, their Deliverer and Redeemer. As God says in Isaiah 49:23, “and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me,” and in Isaiah 60:16, “Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of kings: and thou shalt know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.” Not only will the Gentiles flow to the land of Israel, as their spiritual sons and daughters, in Christ, but they will also bring their wealth with them.
Long before God chose Israel to be the people from whom Messiah, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, would come to earth the first time, He knew that Israel would sin against Him, many, many times. God knew they could never keep the Law that He had given them after He brought them out of Egypt, which is why He sent Jesus to earth: to offer salvation to ALL who will believe in Him:
“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts [mind], and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
“And now, saith the LORD that formed me [Jesus] from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength. And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. Thus saith the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him [Jesus] whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation [Israel] abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee. Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable [a favourable] time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish [restore] the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages… ” (Isaiah 49:5-8)
“And he [Jesus] took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament [covenant] in my blood, which is shed for you.” (Luke 22:19-20)
Though many people in the world in which we live today might want to think that God has forgotten His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that the land that He gave to them long ago is not theirs, the Bible tells us otherwise, and the Bible is ALWAYS correct:
“Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth [disturbs] the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the city shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner. And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to [turn toward] Goath. And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.” (Jeremiah 31:35-40)
“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits [opinion]; that blindness [hardening] in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.” (Romans 11:25-27)
Let us read from the last chapter of the book of Isaiah, and what it says about Israel, Jesus, the time of Jacob’s trouble, and what happens after it:
“Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed. A voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the LORD that rendered recompense to [fully repays] his enemies. Before she travailed, she brought forth [gave birth]; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth [give birth] in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the birth [time of birth], and not cause to bring forth [delivery]? saith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God. Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her: that ye may suck [feed], and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations [consolation of her bosom]; that ye may milk out [drink deeply], and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck [nurse or feed], ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And when ye see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb [grass]: and the hand of the LORD shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation toward his enemies. For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all [judge all] flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.” (Isaiah 66:5-16)
God tells us that Jesus will appear to Israel, the ones who were were hated, to their joy, and the ones who hated them will be ashamed and will receive God’s wrath upon them. Next, it talks about a woman travailing. The woman is Israel. Read closely what it says: “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child.” (Isaiah 66:7). Notice it says that before she travailed, she gave birth to a man child. Jesus Christ came to earth the first time as a human being, born of a virgin named Mary, who conceived Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. As we know, this happened long ago, nearly 2,000 years ago. But the Scriptures say that before she travailed, she gave birth. This travailing is not speaking of the childbirth that Mary went through when she bore Jesus, the only begotten Son of God. No, this is speaking of the travailing of Israel, which happens after Jesus came to earth the first time. In the Scriptures above, Israel as a nation will not travail until it goes through the 7-year time of Jacob’s trouble. This is the final seven years of human history before Jesus returns to earth the second time, when He will destroy everyone who will choose to remain in their sin rather than choosing to turn to Him to forgive them of their sins by His precious blood. Afterwards, Jesus will begin His 1,000-year reign on earth as King of kings and Lord of lords. Thus the “travailing” of the woman comes after she, Israel, gave birth to Jesus, in the time period known as the 7-year time of Jacob’s trouble and the Day of the Lord:
“The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book. For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my [back from captivity my] people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. And these are the words that the LORD spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah. For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear [dread], and not of peace. Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child [male can give birth]? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail [childbirth], and all faces are turned into paleness? Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him [enslave them]: but they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them. Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I will make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure [justice], and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.” (Jeremiah 30:1-11)
“The lofty [proud] looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low…” (Isaiah 2:11-12)
“And the loftiness [pride] of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols he shall utterly abolish. And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth [to make the earth tremble]. In that day a man shall cast [cast away] his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of [why should he be esteemed]?” (Isaiah 2:17-22)
In the Scriptures from Jeremiah 30 above, God is telling Israel that because of their sins against Him, He will cause them to undergo this time of Jacob’s trouble. However, God will save a one-third remnant of Israel, that He will put through the fire, to refine them as gold. (Zechariah 13:8-9) It will be this one-third remnant that returns to the land of Israel. No more will they be held captive by other nations and peoples, such as is even being down now by Hamas, and none shall make them afraid. Notice also that in the Scriptures above in Isaiah 2, it will not just be Israel that goes through the time of Jacob’s trouble, also called the tribulation period, but it will be everyone living on the earth at that time. God mentions the pride of men several times in the Scriptures above. God hates pride. It was pride that caused Satan’s fall; he wasn’t satisfied with all that God had given him, no, he wanted more and most importantly, he wanted to be like God. Are we not seeing people today, especially with those who call themselves “the elite,” who are never satisfied with all that they have and are trying to be like God, such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and many others who want to be rulers of the world? If they do not turn to Jesus Christ and ask Him to forgive them of their sins, they are setting themselves up to brought down low, to be humbled by Almighty God Himself, and it won’t end well for them. I have included Psalm 2 before in prior devotionals but I want to include it again, for it is very relevant to this discussion:
“Why do the heathen [Gentiles] rage [throng tumultuously or restlessly] and the people imagine [plot] a vain [empty or worthless] thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed [Messiah, Christ], saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex [distress] them in his sore [deep] displeasure. Yet have I set [installed] my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen [nations or Gentiles] for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son [An act of homage and submission], lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” (Psalm 2)
I want to mention something else about Isaiah 66 verse 8, which says, “for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” Notice it is now plural, “children” instead of the singular “she was delivered of a man child” meaning Jesus, whom she, Israel, brought forth in verse 7. At the end of the 7-year time of Jacob’s trouble, she will bring forth her children. These children are all believers in Jesus Christ, who are the spiritual sons and daughters of Israel mentioned in Isaiah 49:21-22. These sons and daughters will be given to Israel, who will have lost many of their own sons and daughters during the tribulation period. The Gentile nations’ kings and queens will come to Israel and will be the foster fathers and nursing mothers to these sons and daughters, and they will bow down to Israel, for they will know that it was through Israel that Messiah, our eternal King, has come. It will be at this time that the remnant of Israel will finally know their God, Jesus Christ; He will be their God, and they will be His people. No longer will Israel need to be ashamed of their sins, for Jesus will forgive them of all their iniquities:
“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up [heal] the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto [console] them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified. And they shall build the old wastes [ruins], they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste [ruined] cities, the desolations of many generations. And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers [Servants] of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves. For your shame ye shall have double [double honour]; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them. For I the LORD love judgment [justice], I hate robbery for [in] burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make [cut] an everlasting covenant with them. And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD hath blessed. I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace [keep silent], and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah [My Delight is in Her], and thy land Beulah [Married]: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace [keep silent] day nor night: ye that make mention of [remember] the LORD, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” (Isaiah 61:1-62:7)
As we just read in the above Scriptures, it is God who has set watchmen over Israel, over Jerusalem, and it is God who will protect her and save a remnant of her in their time of trouble. This remnant will be the beautiful “crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.” For those nations today, including many people in America, who believe that God is finished with Israel, I ask them again: have you read the Bible? God called Israel to be a special people to Him, and made an everlasting covenant with them. God chose them to be the people from whom Messiah would come, and He, Jesus Christ, did, and He is coming back a second time at the end of the 7-year time of Jacob’s trouble, at which He will put an end to all who will choose sin over salvation. I believe that we are so very close to the start of the 7-year time of Jacob’s trouble, also known as Daniel’s 70th week (Daniel 9:27), that will commence when one who will be the final antichrist makes a 7-year covenant (treaty) with”the many,” which I believe is Israel or at least includes Israel. On April 22, 2025, it was announced that a new proposal was set forth by Egypt and Qatar with the headline of “Report: Egypt and Qatar push bold 7-year truce in new ceasefire proposal”: (See: https://www.jfeed.com/news-israel/egypt-qatar-propose-bold-gaza-truce)
“Mediators from Egypt and Qatar have put forward a new ceasefire proposal aimed at ending the ongoing war in Gaza and securing the release of hostages, according to a report by the BBC citing a senior Palestinian Arab official involved in the talks. The proposed agreement reportedly includes a ceasefire lasting between five to seven years, the release of all Israeli hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, a formal end to the conflict, and a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.”
I haven’t heard anything about the proposal since it was reported. Will something like what was proposed above eventually lead to the covenant that the coming final antichrist will make with Israel for one week, which is known in Israel to be a period of seven years, and which will begin the time of Jacob’s trouble? Time will tell. I do know this, that we are drawing oh, so near to the time in which the prophecies of Daniel, Isaiah, Zechariah and the other prophets that speak to the Day of the Lord and the time of Jacob’s trouble will be fulfilled. I don’t know exactly how they will be fulfilled but that they will be fulfilled. Things are happening so quickly around the world that it’s becoming very difficult to keep up. There are many, many pressures being put on people: economic, the threat of increasing capabilities with artificial intelligence, near constant bombarding of possible pandemics on the verge, apostate churches, the seemingly never-ending Israel-Gaza crisis, wars and rumors of wars around the world, increasing crime and corruption; to sum it up, it’s everything the Bible said would happen in the end times just before the time of Jacob’s trouble, the tribulation period, begins. If you have not accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, I pray and I urge you to turn to Him, before it’s too late and you no longer have anymore time to decide. 🙏🏻 ✝️
