Secret References to Christ In the Old testament Scriptures. Kenneth B. Alexander

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СКАЧАТЬ “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. “Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of  Bethuel your mother’s father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother. “May God Almighty [El- Shaddai] bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples.“May He also give you the  blessing of Abraham, to you and to your descendants with you, that you may possess the land of your sojournings, which God gave to Abraham” (Gen 28:1-4). On the other hand Esau took another course: “Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take to himself a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he charged him, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,”. Esau, displeased, did the opposite: “and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram. So Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan displeased his father Isaac; and Esau went to Ishmael, and married,  besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael” (Gen 28:6-9). To spite his father he not only married a Canaanite but a daughter of Ishmael, the false son.

      Then Jacob departed from Beersheba. As he slept he had a dream: “behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. “Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out  to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and  in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. “Behold, I am with you and  will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Gen 28:12-15). “Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it” (Gen 28:16). He made an altar there and called the place Bethel (the house of God).

      This dream is interesting in that it is prophetic of the coming Kingdom of God. Jesus said: “Your Kingdom, your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven” Matthew 6:10). In other words Jesus was proclaiming the coming oneness of the spirit realm (heaven) and the earth. There is to be no distinction or separation of the two realms. The fact that Jacob saw angels descending and ascending, from heaven to earth, is a sign of the days when the unification of the two realms will be a reality. He also received a Word from God similar to the ones given to Abraham, showing the unification of the first family with one another. In that day there will be no more death; the separation between God, His hosts and man will be done away with so there is only one spiritual Kingdom—on earth as it is in heaven.

      Jacob went on to Laban, his mother’s brother, and got some of his supplanting thrown back in his face. Jacob met Rachel and immediately fell in love with her. “Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. And Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful of form and face. Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, [to Laban] “I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel.” Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man; stay with me.” So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her” (Gen 29:16-20).

      God puts His chosen through severe dealings to test their faith. Becoming a Son of God is like boot camp of the Navy Seals today. Now Laban was a treacherous man. After the 7 years labor “Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, [Rachel] for my time is completed, that I may go in to her” (Gen 29:21). However Laban had other ideas. He prepared a wedding feast “but in the evening he took his daughter Leah, and brought her to him; and Jacob went in to her” (Gen 29:23). “So it came about in the morning that, behold, it was Leah! And he said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you deceived me?” But Laban said, “It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before the firstborn. “Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you shall serve with me for another seven years” (Gen 29:25-27). Jacob’s treachery had been turned against him. But “Jacob did so and completed her week, and he gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife” (Gen 29:28).

      Leah conceived and bore Reuben, Simeon, Levi then Judah. With each birth she thought it would bring her closer to Jacob since she knew he loved Rachel. But Rachel was barren. Now when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she became jealous of her sister; and she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die.” So Rachel gave her maid Billah to Jacob and she bore two sons Dan and Naphtali. “When Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, she took her maid Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife” (Gen 30:9). Zilpah bore 2 more sons: Gad and Asher. Leah then obtained some mandrakes grown in the field from Rachel. A mandrake is an aphrodisiac Hebrew dudaim. The weight of authority is in favor of its being regarded as “a near relative of the night-shades, the ‘apple of Sodom’ and the potato plant.” It possesses stimulating and narcotic properties (Gen. 30:14–16). The fruit of this plant resembles the potato-apple in size, and is of a pale orange color. It has been called the “love-apple.” The Arabs call it “Satan’s apple.” After taking the mandrakes Leah gave birth to two more sons Issachar and Zebulun. She also gave birth to a daughter Dinah. At this time God opened Rachel’s womb and she gave birth to Joseph.

      To show how God chooses imperfect men to be Hi Sons Joseph the supplanter had one more trick up his sleeve. Laban begged Jacob to stay but Jacob wanted to take his family and animals home. On his way out He made a deal with Laban as to what flocks he could take. But through a complicated breeding trick he actually outsmarted Laban and left with more premium sheep than he should have (Genesis 30:25-43). So through trickery “the man became exceedingly prosperous, and had large flocks and female and male servants and camels and donkeys” (Gen 30:43). Laban was exceedingly mad when he realized he had been tricked and pursued Jacob. But eventually Laban and Jacob reached an agreement, Jacob went on and Labaan went home.

      Jacob knew he would encounter his brother Esau on his way home. He didn’t know if Esau was still angry at him and he feared what Esau might do to his small band of travelers. Before he met Esau Jacob had a meeting with God in the night. “Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he [the Lord] touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. Then he [the Lord] said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” But he [Jacob] said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” So he [ the Lord] said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; [Heb. “he who strives with God”] for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed” (Gen 32:24-28). So began the nation of Israel which means “striving with God”.

      Jacob and his sons would become the sons of Israel and would eventually inhabit the Promised Land promised by God to Abraham. They would be, as He said to Abraham, a great nation. Even though God had crippled Jacob in his hip, God considered Jacob’s struggling all night a victory. “So Jacob named the place Peniel, [Heb. “the face of God”] for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved” (Gen 32:30). Very few men in the scriptures can claim they saw God face to face so the meeting was significant in the overall plan of God.

      Jacob went on and was very apprehensive about meeting Esau his brother. But “Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, and  fell СКАЧАТЬ