It’s the sacrificial system. But sometimes in the world where they try to say this is the 10 Commandments, that this is the law and it’s been done away with and it was a shadow of something better to come, but now you’re not under it... until you ask them, “Oh, it’s okay to murder? It’s okay to steal? I can go out and take your car? ...commit adultery?”
“Oh no, those are good laws.”
It’s the Sabbath they can’t stand.
For the law having a shadow of good things to come... it was the Levitical priesthood. It is an awesome things as you grow...and when you understand the sacrificial system... every bit of it
pictures a part of God’s plan foreshadowing things that are to be done that God is going to fulfill through time. There wasn’t a thing done in the tabernacle that didn’t have great significance.
It’s a beautiful picture.
Think of the Day of Atonement and the separation of the tabernacle itself.
The tabernacle was divided into two sections.
In the first two-thirds of it was an area where the priests went every day to perform service, that was pictured as service toward God; but there was a veil separating the last third; that was where the ark of the covenant and where the law was, the tablets, and, as it talks about, Aarons rod that budded, the manna, the jar, and all those things that were there... two angelic beings covering the ark that picture God’s throne.
And it said, the high priest was only able to go in there once a year; and we know when that was, it was on the Day of Atonement. They had no service that they were to do back there day by day like they did in the first section. And it talks about how that the way to the Holiest of Holies had not yet been made manifest until Jesus Christ came.
And that’s why that curtain, that partition ripped upon the death of Jesus Christ. It’s a beautiful picture in the temple, because now it showed, and God revealed to mankind, now there is a way – day by day by day before God’s very throne into the Holiest of Holies through Jesus Christ.
Awesome!
But everything in the tabernacle pictured something as a part of God’s plan and when you study into some of those things, or when you learn about some of those things there isn’t a thing in the tabernacle service that didn’t have incredible meaning and purpose of something to be fulfilled later on.
So that’s what it’s talking about here when it’s talking about a ‘shadow’ for the law, the law of sacrifices, the sacrificial system is what it’s talking about...having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of those things,...so it’s talking about the sacrifices,which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
It never gave perfection to anyone! It never forgave sins! And then it goes on to explain more of the story here of the
entire process.
Beautiful picture!
Verse 19 – Having therefore, brethren, boldness, and that word means ‘liberty, freedom’, to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Christ.
That’s what’s been given. We have that ability through Christ to enter in before God. You can pray at any moment, at any time in your life and if you have repented,been forgiven of your sins, received the impregnation of God’s spirit, it’s God’s promise, it’s His covenant with you as you made a covenant with Him at baptism – that you’re always able to enter in before His throne and be able to continue to be forgiven of sin and to continue to have God live and dwell within you.
It’s God’s promise. And so it is a freedom, to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Christ, by a new and living way which He has consecrated for us, that is, as it shows here, through the veil, that was rent in two, that is to say, His flesh. That’s what He gave so that we could have this given to us.
And having a High Priest over the House of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
What does that mean? It means you’re able to be forgiven of your sin. That’s why I talk about so often, when you go before God’s throne asking for forgiveness of sin – generally I like to keep that right up front, to ask God to forgive me of my sins; because I want to be heard by God and I realize that’s the only thing that can get in the way, that can block that communication, that can hurt that relationship
with God, it is sin! That’s what cuts us off from God.
And so very early on, seeking forgiveness of whatever sins – because we sin as human beings. I don’t care how long you’re in God’s Church and are refined in your life –you still have sin. You have human nature and as long as you have human nature you will sin!
You’re going to think wrong toward someone else; you’re going to say something wrong; but most assuredly you’re going to think wrong at different times.
That’s why I try to get it down to simple language sometimes that we can all understand.
I don’t care if you’re driving down the road; it doesn’t take very long out here in any city driving on the freeway, to sin, to think badly about someone else, toward someone else. To be walking in a shopping mall and before long if you’re not careful you’re going to have a wrong thought and a wrong attitude about someone else that’s wrong, that needs to be repented of.
It doesn’t take long does it?
Hebrews 7, this is building up to the things that Paul is going to be showing to the Hebrews, to those who have that background in Judaism. Chapter 7 is building up to that, talking about Melchizedek, talking about the need for a new way...because they didn’t grasp the need for the Passover who was made the High Priest.
They didn’t grasp that and didn’t understand that so he’s using much reasoning that has to do with Judaism and the teachings that they have to show what is true.
Hebrews 7:12 - ...the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also in the law.
For He of whom these things are spoken pertains to another tribe of which no man gave attendance at the altar. Paul is talking about the Levitical system back and forth here.
For it is evident, now it’s talking about Christ...For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah.
He was a Jew! He was of the tribe of Judah. He wasn’t of the tribe of Levi who received tithes.
Here’s an individual that wasn’t even of the Levites who is the High Priest to whom tithes are to be given to, the Body of Christ, the Church of God – that’s what it’s talking about here.
For it’s evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood, but Jesus Christ had to come from the lineage of David and of the tribe of Judah. And so it’s making a point here about priesthood. Here is one who wasn’t of the priestly tribe.
Verse 15 – And it is yet far more evident; for that after the similitude of Melchizedek there arises another priest, after the likeness of. He wasn’t Melchizedek. It would have been easy to say, “Melchizedek arises again... He’s risen again.” It wasn’t about Jesus Christ being Melchizedek, but God’s showing a plan about a High Priest that God intended from the very beginning.
And so, one made like unto Melchizedek there arises another priest, who is made not after the law of a carnal commandment, not after the sacrificial system and the laws that they had here that are... if you go back in the Old Testament and read about that; all the sacrificial system and the intricacy of all those laws that were associated with it and how they were to do various things – it was quite meticulous, but all picturing something very great.
Verse 16 - Who is made not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. For He testifies, You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
It’s a beautiful picture –that which God gave to Abraham when He began to work with one individual and then two that would lead into a nation of people and then lead finally into one being born who was to receive all this through Him for all mankind, but still coming from the lineage of Abraham and He talks about this process then,You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, that there would be a High Priest that would fulfill what God began to reveal from the very beginning.
Verse 18 – For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.
Not of the 10 Commandments!
They’re powerful! It’s a way of life. I feel sorry for people when they go through and they try to use scriptures like this and say, “See, it says that the law... there’s a disannulling of it, a doing away with it.
It’s unprofitable, and it’s weak. It’s better to just love Jesus and have faith in Him.” And they don’t understand, No, that has everything to do with the law; how you live your life toward other people, how you treat, how you respond toward God...that He is first.
The first 4 Commandments and how you worship God; and the Sabbath being one of those.
If you want to have a right relationship with God you do what God says on the time that God gives to you – the Sabbath, the High Days, the Holy Days and on and on it goes. ...And then of course the last 6 Commandments having to do with a relationship with one another.
And then Jesus Christ came along and showed the spirit of that, and refined it even more to show about our attitudes – that it’s not just
the outward thing of killing someone that’s murder.
God says, “If you fail to love your brother, you are a murderer!” Those are powerful words.
We’ve just gone through another series haven’t we, talking about relationships, talking about our Passover and talking about the importance of how we think toward one another.
Especially within the Body, within the Church; and toward people in the world. If you understand somebody can’t understand the truth, you’re not going to treat them in a wrong way –you’re going to have mercy upon them because they can’t see what you see. You’re not going to judge them harshly and be cruel to them.
You’re going to look forward to the day that they’re going to see what you see. That’s love.
And because of that you’re going to treat them differently, you’re going to have patience and mercy that you otherwise might not normally have. And then with one another in the Body even more so, to love each other.
What an awesome thing that God shows – the spirit of the law to not murder someone is that if we fail to love them when we know how to love, when God has shown us how to love and we fail to do it – God says, “You’re a murderer and a liar.” I don’t want to be a murderer and I don’t want to be a liar. None of us do. So that means we have to repent when we see we have wrong attitudes and wrong thinking toward anyone.
That’s why it blows my mind sometimes when someone isn’t getting along with someone else in the Body of Christ, in the Church of God. I understand how it happens, but it’s so contrary to this way of life, it is so diametrically opposite of what we profess, of what we believe that it’s sometimes difficult to comprehend and understand (yeah, I do) why it exists; because it just shouldn’t exist in the Church of God – ever!
How we can take the Passover and that week have something contentious happen with someone else in the Body – maybe your own mate!! It’s wrong! It’s sick!...and it’s murder. And it’s hard for us to see things the way God wants us to see them.
For the law made nothing perfect, that’s right, the whole sacrificial system never made anyone perfect.
Only by choice are we made perfect through time, we’ll never be perfect in this physical life. It’s an amazing thing isn’t it? What an awesome thing that you can be baptized, you go under the water and you’re able to be forgiven of all your sins; and you come up out of that water and you’re clean.
Before God you are clean. Not because you are, but because of God’s plan and because of what it means in the spirit – that you understand why you went under the water, that you wanted to bury the old self and you want to come up out of the water and you have determined, your desire is, your commitment is, “I want to walk in newness of life. I don’t want to live the way I’ve lived in the past. I don’t want to live in rebellion against God. I don’t want to live in disobedience before God in anything.”
And so we begin with the Sabbath, we begin with the Holy Days, we begin with things like tithing and then everything else begins to be added into it because those are the areas where we’re tried and tested first. We start this process and soon afterwards – it might take a little while in some cases...till maybe if it’s in a swimming pool somewhere and there are a bunch of people around and they’re never going to see you again and somebody puts you under the water and says certain things to you and you come up out of the water and then you go off someplace else and they lay hands upon you and they ask God to give you the impregnation of His holy spirit. That’s when you’re begotten of God.
That’s when, with the spirit essence that’s in your mind, that God couples it with His holy spirit, with the spirit essence of life that
begins to grow in you. And that’s something that’s difficult for us to comprehend. You see, if a woman becomes pregnant in time you begin to see the change.
In us, it’s different. You don’t see a physical change; you don’t experience something that’s physical. It’s by what God gives you in your understanding, in your mind and you begin to make change. But you begin to grow and God gave that example of something that’s very physical to understand something that is very spiritual of how God works in our life. A process begins of growth – a new life.
A new life! How awesome is that? ...that you begin in your very mind, in your very being to have a new life that’s growing in you. And just like the umbilical cord – there is that relationship with God Almighty and the spirit that is able to continue to come into your life.
That’s why I love how it’s translated in so many different words in the New Testament: the word ‘to abide’; same Greek word as ‘to remain’ as ‘to dwell in’ as ‘to continue in’. Those words that are translated into English – the same Greek word to express something that happens in our lives – that God’s spirit, once it begins coming into our life, continues to come into our life. God dwells in us!
That’s why Jesus Christ died! Isn’t that what it says in John 14-15-16-and 17 over and over and over again?
Beautiful scriptures! ...where God reveals that His desire is to live in human life, to dwell in us, to make us something different – by our own free choice and because we say we want it, “I want that. I want to be in Your Family.”
And so God starts a life within us after baptism – an impregnation, that’s what He calls it, a begettal; and from that moment on we have choices to make and we have this battle that we fight and we resist because of our human nature. “The carnal mind,” it says, “is enmity to God.”
An enemy to God! “It’s not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”6 ...until we’re impregnated with that spirit. And then we can begin fighting that battle that Paul talks about.
What a process that God gives to us! And so we begin to live such a life and we begin to grow and through time we can look back at our life and see growth – and hopefully others around us can see growth as we grow.
And we make changes. That’s what encourages my wife and I so much when we go around to different areas. With some areas we may not be there for several months and we go back and we see changes in people’s lives, we see growth – and it’s encouraging, it’s inspiring to see what God is doing with the Church and the changes that take place in people’s lives and how through conversation or through their actions in their life and so forth there are things we see.
And we see the Body becoming closer, knit together more closely, greater unity; and it’s a beautiful thing.
But sometimes in our life we may not see certain things and we have to be reminded to look back; and it’s 6 Romans 8:7 good for us sometimes to look back and see where God has brought us...and what we see now that we didn’t see a few months ago or a few years ago.
Jesus Christ died so that He and His Father could dwell in us and the only thing that gets in the way of that is self – sin. And when you sin you cut off the flow, just like the umbilical cord, of that life giving power to you, to that which is growing in you. That’s a horribly dangerous state. That’s why we have to repent as quickly as we can of sin – so He’ll continue to dwell within us.
An incredible process that we continue to go through; and it is beautiful. Everything is so beautiful that God has given and how we’re made perfect in time. We grow more and more in character. Something that’s awesome to understand – every time you repent, do you know what you’re acknowledging?
You’re actually growing every time you can admit and accept your own guilt, your own fault, your own flaws and tell God Almighty, “I am guilty of breaking Your law. Forgive me please! Help me so that I don’t think that way! Help me so that I don’t do those things! Help me so that I’ll not sin!”
And you may have to do that several times in the same day on the same thing. And you grow and you become stronger through time and you keep fighting that battle and you keep acknowledging that; but every time you acknowledge that you’re able to grow spiritually.
You’re growing in character. God can’t give you character; you have to grow in that. God can’t just make us spirit beings in His Family, otherwise we would have rebellion like what happened in the angelic realm. That’s why He’s insuring that it can never happen in Elohim; it can never happen in the God Family.
Everyone who comes into the God Family will have grown to a point where God is able to say just like He did to Abraham, “Now I know you. I know you.” So that when He changes that body and gives him eternal life, He knows what he will do with that same mind, with that same spirit because he’s already gone through the process of choices.
Every time you make a choice and you say that you’re wrong and God is right you’re agreeing with God’s law, you’re coming into greater unity with God – that God is right and you are wrong, your nature is wrong, your resistance is wrong. We don’t want it, we abhor it, we abhor when we resist God; but in human life we resist and fight against God, we truly do.
That’s what Paul talked about, “Oh wretched
man that I am...” I marvel that God used that same word that’s used in Romans when He talked to Laodicea, the last era of God’s Church that we lived through and He said, “because you can’t see that you are wretched...”7 What a horrible thing when human beings can no longer grasp and comprehend their wretched spirit as a human being. You don’t want to save this. I don’t want to save this carnal human nature! I don’t want to save this attitude! I don’t want to save this kind of carnal thinking.
That’s why Paul said, when he’s in essence, the same mind, “I rejoice in the inner man.” In other words, with what God is giving in the mind.
That’s what we rejoice in and what God is giving up here. And that’s what we hold onto. That’s what I want! I want the unity and oneness of life that comes in agreement with God!
To understand that it’s His laws that bring about peace, eternal peace, fullness of life that human beings can’t give each other, that human beings can never have of and by themselves.
That’s why no government has ever succeeded on this earth; because it’s carnal, selfish.
Verse 19 - For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by which we draw nearer unto God. Our hope; it’s in what God has given to us through Christ in the Church, that we can change, that we don’t have to stay this way, that we can become different, that we can walk in newness of life and that this nature can be changed. And we can make big changes in our lives.
The more we draw closer to God, the more at one with God, the greater life becomes, the more meaningful, the more exciting life become. It truly does. The better relationships become, in marriage and family and in life that you can’t begin to come close to in a physical world, in a physical life, in physical families
otherwise.
Verse 20 – And inasmuch as not without an oath He was made priest: (for those priests were made without an oath...) the Levites.
That couldn’t take away sin anyway; the entire sacrificial system didn’t make people right with God. (...but this with an oath by Him who said unto Him, The Lord swore and will not repent...) will not change in other words, (...You are a priest forever after the order of
Melchizedek.) That comes from Psalm 110:1, 4. God made it clear, inspired David to see and understand something was given prophetically to show what was to be given to the Christ, to the Messiah, to the Passover Lamb, that He would be a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.
He wasn’t Melchizedek, but after the order of – something that God gave in the very beginning that we read about that was shown to Abram...that this is how God works with man; through a High Priest and it’s through that High Priest that we’re able to become a part of the God Family in time.
By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better covenant. See? Can’t be saved through that which was in the Old Testament. You can’t be saved by how well you keep the Levitical system and obey the law and everything else; because you can’t do it right, you can’t do it perfectly; and what do you do when there’s sin?
And there’s plenty of sin; and nothing takes away the sin, and if you can’t take away the sin then where is your hope?
Verse 23 – And they truly were many priests, because they were not allowed to continue by reason of death.
So again here, it’s talking about a process here that went on generation after generation... but this, as it says here man, because He continues forever, continues on, there’s no ending, has an
unchangeable priesthood.
But the other priesthood, it did. Different ones coming along, different ones and so forth... wherefore He is able also to save them to the uppermost that come unto God by/through Him seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them.
So for the last 2,000 years Jesus Christ has been doing a great work. That’s why I love going through Leviticus 16 on Atonement and read about everything the high priest did on that day; the two goats, the one that was for the azazel, and the one that was going to be put out in the wilderness and so forth; the other one that was to represent Christ and how that the high priest... all these things that were pictured by things that the high priest did, pictured Jesus Christ. Everything he did in Leviticus 16, we’ll just go back there...Leviticus 16; it’s easier just to read it. It talks about different offerings and so forth that were given and different things the high priest did.
I love verse 11 – And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering which is for himself, and shall make an atonement for himself and for his house.
So here the high priest is making an atonement, first of all for himself, and for his house; and it pictures Jesus Christ,of what He had to do first of all and what He had to go through in His life to become our High Priest,taking upon Himself the sins of all the world, of all mankind, dying for the sins of all.
And then there was something He was to do for His House, the Body of Christ, the Church of God. He was made the head of the Body of Christ, of the Church of God. And this is a part of what it’s talking about here and it goes
through and talks about some of these things and then we go farther down and it brings up verse 16 –And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of the transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness.
So again, things that were being done by the offerings here, by the high priest and so forth.
And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goes in to make an
atonement in the holy place, until he comes out, until He returns. It’s talking about the work He’s been doing for 2,000 years for the Church. The vast majority of the 144,000 who are coming out of that period of time and it says, until he come out and has made an atonement for himself and for his household and for all the congregation of Israel. It’s a beautiful picture in what’s being given here.
Verse 20 – and when he has made an end of reconciling the holy place and the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar and shall bring the live goat... going back and forth here over and over again, talking about Jesus Christ returning and symbolizing His return to this earth and things that He’s going to do and continue on then with God’s plan and that great resurrection that’s going to take place
in the Family, and those that He’s atoned to Himself fully through time.
Powerful, powerful things that are taught throughout scripture and part of this here in Hebrews 7. Paul is showing here that there was that which was made by an oath. In other words, when God says something is absolute, it’s absolute.
When God says something is going to come to pass, it’s going to come to pass. Verse 22 - By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better covenant. And they truly were many priests... verse 25 – Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uppermost that come to God through Him seeing that He ever lives to make an intercession for them.
So he continues on...For such a High Priest became us, who is holy, in other words, for us, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needs not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for His own sins and then for the peoples; for this He did once, when He offered up
Himself.
So again, it’s showing everything that Jesus Christ fulfilled once, and entered into the holy place once to fulfill this, to accomplish all this; where the high priest had to come in every year, once a year, and it just was pictured over and over and over again until Jesus Christ fulfilled it.
For the law makes men high priest; and so the Old Testament, there was that system, there was the sacrificial law and it made men high priests, it made the Levitical system here, established it; which have infirmity, weakness, but the word/logos of the oath, which was since the law, makes the Son who is consecrated for evermore.
Throughout the book of Hebrews is a beautiful picture showing Jesus Christ who’s become our High Priest and the change being made in the priesthood not in the law of tithing.
Some of these things go on and talk about that which was given to Melchizedek – it’s to continue to be given to Melchizedek. That never changes. The change that was made, that some in the world don’t understand when they read these verses, was in the priesthood; from the Levitical system to Jesus Christ who fulfilled it all anyway. It was about Jesus Christ from the very beginning.
He foreshadowed it all as our High Priest.
Let’s go on to Genesis 28. It’s amazing here; a story that goes clear back to Genesis that God brings up and talks about later on – has tremendous significance about this Melchizedek, that wasn’t for a long, long time until Paul came along and wrote to the Hebrews, that meaning and the explanation of these things was given; because you can’t find it in other places in scripture.
You can’t understand the process there until we come to the New Testament and things that Jesus Christ fulfilled and what Paul began to explain throughout the book of Hebrews actually.
Here is another example – Jacob, whose name was later changed to Israel, and this unique occasion where tithing is mentioned here.
Genesis 28:1 – And Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him and said unto him, You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethel, your mother's father; and from there take a wife of the daughters of Laben your mother's brother.
There are some who have read this in times past and think this has to do with a matter of different prejudices or thoughts of race or of family line or whatever in the sense of strictly a family line; and it’s not about that at all.
That’s not what it’s about; and people miss the mark in so much of what the Old Testament discusses when it discusses some of these things. Some people have come along in times past even, have had difficulties with some of the things because it was like if you’re not an Israelite then what are you?
We’re all different. But nowhere are there things like that that are a matter of prejudice that come from God or from situations like this concerning Abraham,or Isaac, or whatever.
It had to do with what was being taught in the families; it had to do with the principles and truths that some were still teaching and passing along; it had to do with others who had already embraced in a very powerful way false religious beliefs!
That’s what God was most concerned with in these matters! Truly! Far more than the other! But sometimes people go off in left field and don’t understand what God is doing and why God is doing it. And so some read things into this.
There have been a lot of prejudices passed down in some things called Christianity, that are filled with prejudice when it comes to different peoples of the world, different families of the world –sick, sick, sick; it truly is! People have used religion sometimes to try to push God into their own prejudices and make the religion around their prejudices as well. It’s sick!
Verse 3 – And God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful, to multiply you so that you may become a multitude of people; and give unto you the blessing of Abraham. He’s showing here there’s that which is going to pass on through you – yes, a physical nation of people; but most importantly there is the one seed; there’s the one seed that’s going to be the blessing to all nations – speaking of that which was going to come out of Judah in time, speaking of the Christ, the Messiah.
Had to come from some family, and that’s where God began to work – with a family, with one, in this particular case – Abram on down, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and so forth. And so he says, and God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful, to multiply you so that you may become a multitude of people: and give unto you the blessing of Abraham; and to your seed with you; that you may inherit the land wherein you are a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.
Verse 5 – And Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Padanaram, unto Laban son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob and Esau’s mother. And when Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padanaram to take him a wife from there; and that as he blessed him... so this is something that he saw, he witnessed or whenever, he became aware of it in knowledge...and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge saying, You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan; and that Jacob obeyed his father, and his mother...there was some jealousies going on here – family jealousies and it caused a lot of problems; and this is a part of this – see; of something that he witnessed; his brother receiving something that he’s not receiving, and the problems that happen in some things in family sometimes because of certain things; but this is something that God was working out and so being carnal as he was and knowing human nature – this is the spinoff of it.
Verse 7 – And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, good ole Jacob, there he goes – Daddy’s favourite... going on here... sometimes people get caught up on squabbles and things that happen and they’re carried down sometimes for generation to generation. There are nations that have come out of such things and things that are passed down.
Incredible! I think of Reuben. I think of the coat of many colours. I think of being sold into slavery and some of the things that were passed down to generations that are still with us to this day! In attitudes that are out there... France and the U.S. and Israel and different ones... things never changed.
Different prejudices, different jealousies that continued on through time. Amazing what is passed down from a family that can go on for generation after generation after generation.
And so he said he saw these things that had been told to him and that Jacob was obeying his father and he’d left, he’d gone to Padanaram.
Verse 8 – Since Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please Isaac his father; then Esau went to Ishmael, his uncle, and added unto himself of the wives which he already had.
So he already had some wives and he’s going to pick another one, and he’s going to do exactly the opposite of something that was not within the wishes obviously of what he saw that was between Isaac and Jacob here.
And so he did something that he thought would, in essence, agitate, stir up problems, not try to make things better in the family. That was his response. And so Esau went to Ishmael, in other words his uncle, and added unto himself of the wives which he already had Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife.
Verse 10 – And Jacob went out into Beersheba,and went into Haran. And he arrived at a certain place and stayed there all night because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place and put them at his head, in other words, for pillows as the King James says, to lie down.
He arranged some of the stones on the ground and one particular stone here in particular he adjusted it in a certain way and that’s where he put his head; because this has to do with where the head is. ...and he layed down in that place to sleep.
An incredible story unfolds here that has tremendous significance; just like the one about Melchizedek; but now we have another story here of someone who was heading down the road to pick a wife, obeying his father and all of a sudden he comes to this location and he sets up this area to sleep and it says, and he had a dream; 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 Eternal stood above it and said, I am the Eternal God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereupon you lie, to you will I give it, and to your seed; and your seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and that’s a lot of dust! It’s a lot of seed!
Through time you can’t number it; it’s going to be so great – it’s going to be like the dust of the earth. The point being is you can’t number it, it’s going to be so great, so massive and it’s going to come from you, through you.
And you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and what do we see today?
To the east, to the west, to the north and to the south – far beyond our understanding sometimes. ...and in you, and in your Seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
He wasn’t telling him that in his lineage, through a physical Israel – all the earth is going to be blessed; but rather through his seed specifically.
We’ve read other scriptures that talk about that. It makes it very clear here that it was talking about a specific seed, a specific one who was to come in time; that through Him all nations of the earth, all peoples in time would be blessed.
Because no one comes into God’s Family except through this one that was to come in time – Jesus Christ; who was to come out of the tribe of Judah.
Awesome story!
Verse 15 – And behold I am with you and I will keep, this word meaning ‘to keep’ indeed, ‘to guard, to preserve’ you in all the places you shall go, and will again bring you into this land; for I will not leave you until I have done that which I have spoken to you.
And God hasn’t finished it all. It’s not over until
it’s over. And a lot of it does have to do with physical blessings and physical fulfillment and God did promise certain physical things that would happen all the way to the end, and even beyond – it would still be done in a physical nation of people; it’s just a reality.
There are certain prophecies that had to be fulfilled in time – that God hadn’t even given yet, that would come in time, that would come a long time after Israel was dead; that would come a long time after the children of Israel were brought out of Egypt; that would come a long time later on – finally through prophets, through David himself as a king who was also a prophet...and then through some of the other prophets toward the end. God foretold things that would happen with the nation of Israel, and what would take place that would lead all the way to what we call ‘the end’ here, the end-time, the end of this age.
Promises were given to the tribes; Ephraim, who would be a commonwealth, it talks about, of nations – great, mighty on the earth. And then there would be one, Manasseh who’d become the greatest of all in power and might – the United States. Awesome!
The world doesn’t see it, the world doesn’t grasp;but because there are certain things that have to be done physically in the world to fulfill certain things, to accomplish certain things. It’s happened through families because of a way that God has worked in time to bring about an end, or a beginning.
And in time all people will be blessed to have an opportunity to become a part of His Family.
Everything that has to lead up to the end of this age is very much about what has happened to Israel through time, promises that God gave and the prosperity that God promised to this nation. God gave it to us [SPIRITUAL ISRAEL].
Verse 16 – And Jacob woke from his sleep and he said, Surely the Eternal is in this place; he had this dream, it was so vivid, this vision, this thing that took place in his mind that was so powerful.
How could you describe it? Something that God puts in your mind that is better than any flat screen TV you’ve ever seen; it’s like you’re there, you’re living it and you see this and you’re in the midst of it all and yet it’s a dream. None of you have ever had a dream like that. But he did. And so he awoke from the dream.
...he said, Surely the Eternal, he was so moved by this... Surely the Eternal is in this place and I wasn’t even aware of it! He just happened to sleep in the place that the Eternal was! This is what he’s thinking, you know? ...and he was afraid and he said, How fearful/awesome is this place! This can be none other than the dwelling place of God and the gateway to heaven!
That’s how moving it was to him because of what he experienced; something of this magnitude that had just taken place in his life.
He’d never heard any stories like this from his forefathers; and yet he lived this, he experienced something that no one had ever experienced! Incredible!
And Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put for his pillow and set it up as a pillar, and he poured oil upon it, anointed it! He was so moved by this...and he was moved by God’s spirit too to do these things; because this was going to have great significance through time.
Incredible how God inspires some things to take place and people don’t even know why. And he didn’t know why, but he was moved to do exactly what he did...and he lifted up this big stone that weighed over 300 lbs, 336# to be exact, and he poured oil on top of it and anointed it and set it up like a pillar...and he called the name of the place Bethel: which means ‘house’ or ‘dwelling place of God’.
Beth-el, the dwelling place of God. He was so moved because of where he was and what he experienced and he said, this rock that I layed my head upon... that’s what it signifies. ...but the name
of that place was first known as Luz. ‘The almond tree’, the place of the almond tree. So he changed the name of it to Beth-el.
This is the rock that the Israelites carried with them through the years until the time of Jeremiah (an awesome story), when he took ‘Jacob's Pillar Stone’, that’s what it was known as, Jacob's Pillar Stone or also known as ‘The Stone of Destiny’, along with Zedekiah’s two daughters, eventually arriving in Ireland where they fled in time. Zedekiah had been blinded, if you know the story of the kings of Judah and their defeat and what had taken place here. They had been defeated, conquered; Zedekiah was blinded and in time died; his sons were all killed because they were going to kill off the royal line.9 But Jeremiah 9 Jeremiah 52 had escaped with the daughters who were descendants of King David, of the royalty of Judah.
So it continued on; they didn’t kill it out, they didn’t destroy it, it continued on. And that stone, like I said,
weighing 336 pounds, 156 kg, today bears the name ‘The Stone of Scone’. It’s farther north in Scotland.
It’s commonly known as ‘The Stone of Destiny’ again, or ‘The Coronation Stone’. It’s an awesome story.
I remember when we went to England back in the 1970’s when I went to college there, you could go to Westminster Abbey where the old throne is; it’s an old, old, old, old throne where so many kings and queens have had their coronations and at the bottom of that throne they made a special slot to hold
that stone. Incredible story!
And that stone was there until of recent time. I think it was only 1996 when it was finally taken back to Scotland, but it’s an incredible story.
It was the same stone that kings in Ireland and Scotland were coronated. King Edward I conquered Scotland in 1296 and took control of the stone at that time, removing it from the control of the Scots. I think he left it in Edinburgh if I remember the history correctly, for a time there, but kind of rubbing it in their noses that they’d been conquered by the English, in the south there, the Scots had.
And so in time they took the stone away; but some had said that this wasn’t the real stone – so there’s this battle that goes back and forth as to whether it was the stone or not. It was taken in 1996 back to Scotland; because it had been down there in that coronation chair for a long, long time, several hundred years and anyway, it was moved back to Scotland in 1996 and before that kings and queens of Britain had been coronated using it as well. So quite an incredible story!
What an awesome thing that the very stone that had to do with Israel that was going to emerge in time, and a promise that God gave of a lineage, that there would be one who would come in time, who would be the Messiah, through the lineage of David... that He had to be of the lineage of David to be the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one; to be what? The anointed one means The Messiah; it means to be king, to be ruler of all the earth. That’s what the anointing was about; and that He would set up, in time, the Kingdom of God.
And so the Jews have different ideas about that and have changed it at different times throughout history, but again here, what an incredible story to understand the lineage and what took place. And to this very day, God said that in time when Christ returned, He would take back that throne; that the Messiah would receive back that same throne that David sat upon, that there would be a lineage unbroken through time; that when the Messiah returned, of the same lineage – He would come back to the same throne! And if God is not alive, if God is not real, then that obviously couldn’t be accomplished. But God is powerful and all mighty and He brought these things to pass.
And Jesus Christ is going to return to that throne. Awesome to understand that He’s going to take over that same line of order that has existed through time and coronations that have taken place through time, and that which still exists. Can you imagine? I know that they don’t like it, but the royalty today is Jewish blood.
They’re not Ephraim. And they don’t understand – what an incredible thing to understand they are of the tribe of Judah, that they’re descended from King David. It’s an awesome
story! And to have some of that with them in history through time, that they were even coronated on top of the stone? What an awesome thing! And that from the time going back to Jacob, because of a dream he had... it’s very moving, it really is. It’s an awesome story!
Continuing in the story... Genesis 28:20 - 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 clothing to put on, So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Eternal be my God: And this stone, which I have set as a pillar, shall be God's house: a representation, a reminder; and of all that You shall give me I will surely give the tenth, the tithe, unto You.
It’s amazing how that when you read a story like this and we read some of the first two accounts here about tithing, of how important it is as a part of God’s plan; and about a response from those with whom God is working and moulding and fashioning; and it starts out with Abram. And then we have this incredible story of something we see to this very day, of a stone, that I carry a picture of it with me in my Bible. Coronation Chair; and up until 1996, that stone was there
and when I was in college it had a sign underneath it, (I think it was), ‘Jacob’s Pillar Stone’... to that day.
Incredible!
Same stone through time, passed down from generation to generation to generation and how God saved a family line because the Messiah is to return to take over that same throne. Inspiring!
Awesome!
Isn’t it amazing? These two stories that have such a powerful impact on things that are taught in scripture; that start out talking about Melchizedek, and it brings in the subject of tithing. Because it starts out with a comprehension that each individual must have about God; that everything belongs to God, that God indeed is God Almighty and we exist here and we are able to be blessed by what He has planned for us.
Two incredible stories that carry through in time in a very powerful way, that bring in something as simple as a subject of tithes, a tenth.
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