Study of Genesis: revelation of God

How did Rebekah know of the emergence of two nations in her womb? ‘She went to enquire of the Lord(Ge.25:22)’.

In this context let us refresh our mind with the creation calendar. ‘And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night and let them be for signs, and for seasons..(Ge.1:15)”

There are two kinds of revelation. One is public and the other personal. When God made the sun and the moon as signs we have an apt example in the rainbow as a natural phenomenon and as a sign. A rainbow is formed by dispersion of light through the medium of moisture in the air. The colors are incident in the way these impinge on the retina of the eye and no two persons see it the same. That is Science. After the deluge God set the bow in the sky as a covenant he made to Noah and it implies both mercy and judgment. In the latter sense we have a vision of St John. The mighty angel coming down from heaven is shown with a rainbow (Re.10:1). The Spirit uses signs with a purpose and the rainbow that was set in his vision of God’s throne signified his Mercy. It being the testimony of Jesus Christ he is referring to the nature of his Father (Re.4:3). Naturally the revelation is a private one ‘to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass (Re.1:1)’.

Revelations of God are always clothed with Nature as a backdrop. In the same sense when God set up a vision to Jacob to which we shall come by and by revelations are always user friendly as it were. Nature is amenable to acquaint a child of God instinctively God’s purpose in so many ways. It is God’s sovereignty that made a land fertile or poor as a sign. We read of instances at the times of the Kings when He stopped the rains to show his displeasure. Nature is a prop for revealing his purpose and it was in this sense He sent Moses to the Promised Land. “And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey (Ex.3:17)”.

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When God separated light from darkness he saw it was good. It gave the earth a form and his glory was not scattered in vain but brought results that at the end of each day he could affirm it was good. In the Creation Day when the glory of God gave a form to the earth the Spirit instructs us that what was visible did attest to it.(Ro.1:20). When He led the children of Israel to a land flowing with milk and honey it was conditional. The visible abundance of the Promised Land refers to His glory. Shape of the promise lay in peace and prosperity. If the people followed His commandments it would be their portion. It was thus his promise to Abraham. It was conditional. God informs Rebekah of two nations before her delivery. Israel and Edom were the two nations. In the case of Jacob in the pre-natal state imbibed as though it were, naturally pursued birth-right even after delivered from their mother’s womb. Whereas Esau dismissed his birth right as a trifle Jacob profited from it. “Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them (Mt.13:12-NIV)”.

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Joseph and Jesus

Just one point

Joseph was the first son born to Rachel, and the eleventh son of Jacob. The name Joseph signified May God add to me another (Ge.30:24). Rachel meant thereby to imply that the name was drawing attention not for itself but  something looking to future. Joseph is by all accounts an antitype of Jesus. For example we have the sons of Jacob selling  their brother to the Ishmaelite-Midianite caravan for 20 pieces of silver. Consider Jesus was betrayed for 30 pieces, which of course is higher in value that owes to exchange rates of the time. “And they (chief priests) covenanted with him (Judas Iscariot) for thirty pieces of silver (Mt.26:15)”Jesus came unto his own, and his own received him not(Jn.1:11).

benny

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The Role Signs play in the Bible

A sign is a devise in the Biblical narrative always set by God in order to affirm his authority, in order to increase the faith of man employed for a task at hand or as marker. Of the latter I shall take up first. Having set a rainbow in the sky God said,’..I do remember My Covenant which is between Me and You every living creature of all flesh.(Ge.9:12-17) This is different from the sign he employed to equip Gideon for his task. (Jud.6:36-40)

Here I want to focus on the office of the Holy Spirit in order to show a sign is employed as a starting point, which subsequently runs into many other agencies. Firstly let us read God’s covenant with Noah, ‘Noah, and with your seed after you… to every beast of the earth.’ Ge.9:8-10) The covenant with Noah enfolds all living things on the earth as well. In similar vein God’s promise to Abraham (Ge.12:1-3) covers not only Israel but all families. ‘In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.(Ge.12.3, 28:14) God’s promises are universal and all inclusive and not limited to a few. As a sign of this divine nature we can understand the purpose of the lights from opening chapter of the Creation Account.

‘And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs…(Ge.1:14).’ When Jesus announces ‘I am the light of the World..(Jn.8:12)’ we need to see he was a sign. ‘Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel(Is.7:14). Holy Spirit is Spirit of Truth. When God the Spirit states in the Creation Account light as a sign the redemptive nature of the Son of man is implied there.

In my book Marginalia- a concise guide to the Bible I have covered at length  the manner God the Spirit has set the divine Will in signs, symbols and such like. Thus both standpoints of the God the Father and of the Son are clothed in a language which is Truth.

benny

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Sheldonia- Cartoons

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