The travels of the Children of Israel

Front matter

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Class Book

CHAPTER I. Shades and Shadows 7

The Trinity in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob 8

Rebekah, the New Jerusalem 15

Joseph and Benjamin 16

The Blessing in the Seed of Abraham 17

Jacob Goes After His Bride 18

The Seven Years for Each Wife 19

Jacob Lives With Laban 20

The Three Days Journey 23

Chapter I. Shades And Shadows

To be able to study intelligently shades and shadows of the Scriptures is the highest order of study in which God's children may engage. The study of the Travel of the Children of Israel is the study of the Christian's life from the time God begins the work of regeneration until it is complete in the saving grace of Christ as his Saviour. This work of regeneration begins as a shadow or shade which throws its impressions from Christ as its substance on back to the beginning of the time when God began the work. All this subject of regeneration begins with the travel of the children of Israel when Joseph was sent by his father Jacob to see his brethren who were herding the sheep. This subject, therefore, is a type or shadow which must be properly understood in order to understand how it may apply to our lives as Christians. Thus, we will have to define characters all along in order to keep abreast with the Travel of the Children of Israel.

It will be proper to state also that we will not be expected to refer the reader constantly to certain passages of Scripture in order to verify our position; but the subject should be carried on as a connected whole, so that it will not be difficult to refer to the subject in the Bible to find the substance of our discussion. To illustrate, you must refer to the Bible to find that God named Jacob Israel ; and that from this reason Jacob's children would necessarily be called the Children of Israel. What will make this book of interest to you will be the study of these characters as shades or shadows of a substance of which the Bible student will feel an intense interest.

In order to understand Jacob, we will have to refer to his ancestry as far back, as at least, to his grandfather Abraham, and then to his own father, as well as to his brother Erau. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are used here to represent the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost. These three are one in substance, but in office they are three, each one filling his station in the Godhead. It will not be difficult to see the true application as is made here, if we refer to the Scripture describing what each one did in life ; that is, what each man accomplished in order to jutify the character he represents. Each subject of itself is complete in its type.

THE TRINITY IN ABRAHAM, ISAAC AND JACOB.

Abraham represents God in the Trinity, because he offered his son as a sacrifice, and also because he is called the Father of the Faithful. He represents God because he sent his old servant down in his own country among his kindred to the house of Laban for a bride for Isaac. The manner in which Abraham sent this servant for the bride for his son demands some explanation. In the first place the servant had to swear to

Abraham that he would not select a bride from the Canaanites among whom Abraham lived. While God is the maker and creator of all mankind, and preserves them alike with all natural blessings, when it comes to the choice of a bride for his Son, we learn that the selecteion comes from the same family for the whole Trinity. Abraham selected Sarah down there; Isaac had his own bride out of the same family, and so did Jacob. The counterparts to the Son and the Holy Ghost are types of a different law to that for which Isaac and Jacob personify. Abraham, typifying God, lives among the Canaanites, but will not have one of these women for a bride for his son. She must be a type of the spiritual, and we know that Canaan at this time was not spiritual ; yet it was a land of promise, while the people of that age were not of that promise.

This old servant represents the Gospel minister and had his misgivings about the bride going with him in just the same way that the Gospel minister has to-day about the children of God going with him to his Master. "If the woman will not follow thee, then thou are clear from this oath; but don't carry my Son back there again." This is a type of Christ having once been offered for sin cannot be brought back to suffer again or be recrucified for the bride, as Isaac was already offered before this transaction of the servant with Abraham. It may as well typify the covenant of redemption before the world was made. In either event it would be impossible in this oath the servant took to require Isaac to come back for the bride. We are taught that this office belongs to the Holy Ghost or Comforter after the death of Christ. The old servant was practically a messenger sent by Abraham to the house of Laban to convey the io THE TRAVELS OF

message that Isaac wanted Rebekah to come with the servant and be his bride. So this is the office of the Minister of the Gospel to go to the bride through the Holy Ghost to come to Jesus. The old servant had the presence of the Spirit on his journey to the house of Laban. These are shadows pointing to the Church even two htousand years in advance of that time; or, rather, pointing back to that time. We are taught — "Because of the new we may walk on the old." The children of God, like Abraham, worshiped Him by faith with the guidance of the Holy Spirit ; and this is also the way in which they do it now, while the Church of Christ was not established at that time. These shadows point forward to Christ, just as they do now backward to Him. They were saved then by the promises of Christ in the same covenant of redemption which saves all God's children to the end of time. The salvation through his life on earth will be discussed later on.

A manifestation of a child of God to the minister, in just the way Rebekah did, constitutes the Church militant. She went with the old servant to meet Isaac his master. Yet Rebekah represents the spiritual bride in that she informed the servant that there was room in her father's house for lodging for them, and straw and provender for the camels. Her father's house was the law house from which all the brides or the Church in all ages comes. The camels represent the law, or the Ten Commandments, which find lodging in the house from which the bride Rebekah came, therefore, satisfies the thirst and hunger of both the servant and the ten camels, which takes place in the organized body.

We notice also that her brother Laban and her mother wanted the servant to remain with them for at least ten ii days, which is a type of the Church in the law dispensation, or the child of God rather in the law dispensation; but we notice that the old servant did not remain the ten days, which is a shadow of the minister of the Gospel in the Gospel age. Yet the bride returned with them, with her servant, on the ten camels or commandments until she comes in sight of Isaac, when she throws a veil over her whole person, after lighting off the law covenant, and goes to meet Isaac, who is a type of Christ. This veil is the same type of the glass through which we see Christ darkly. Rebekah asked the old servant whom Isaac was; she had never seeen him before.

It is under the Gospel that we learn or teach the little children of God what Christ is after they see Him. The minister, under the guidance of the Spirit of God, can teach the body of Christ or the Church so that it grows in grace and a better knowledge of Christ. In fact, we find Him only at the end of the law, just as Rebekah did when she lighted off the camels and met Isaac in the field.

It must be remembered that Rebekah was of Abraham's kindred, and that Isaac accepted her and loved her when they were brought together by the old servant of God. This can have reference to no other idea than to the predestinated purposes of God in regard to the Gospel age. This veil is thrown over the Church, or, rather, over the Spiritual body, until the power of God through the Gospel reveals the merits of Christ as the hope of life eternal as well as temporal. Of course, Rebekah was Abraham's kindred before she met Isaac, as well as was she the kindred of Isaac.

Eternal salvation was in the promise of Christ before the world was. Now His life on earth is only a manifestation of what we should do to glorify God and be blessed while here in the world. It is now the union of Rebekah and Isaac that constitutes the marriage relations which is the Church organic — the building process from which Jacob and Esau came. Jacob takes the spiritual leadership in this family of Isaac. All the spiritual blessings come through him as a type of the Spirit of God. He traded with his brother when Esau was faint with hunger, when Jacob gave him the mess of pottage for the birthright. This is only in accordance with our experiences with the two spirits contending within us. We all acknowledge the supremacy of Jacob in us ; and he takes his position in our lives by an honest deal with the natural man. After the trade is made it stands for all time that the birthright is transferred to the stronger man that is within us. Sometimes the yoke is broken when Esau takes the ascendency. Then we are yielding ourselves to Esau &nd we have: "To whomsoever we yield ourselves servants to obey to him we are his servant." But the fact stands out without contradiction that Jacob owns the birthright of Esau and that Esau cannot recover it.

The whole transaction between Jacob and Esau was to illustrate through this allegory the very principle we advance that there are two principles in every child of God. Read what Paul says about it. This only treats of eternal life — how it works in the child of God. Jacob and Esau are two characters here in this story; but they blend into one man and mean one individual. They are two men naturally; we must not look at them from a natural standpoint in order to get the spiritual meaning in this figure of speech where we have the dual man — the two in one. Yet we have to get the spiritual meaning from the likeness the natural dealings imply, or the lesson taught by the transaction. I believe that when two men make a trade on fair terms, like Jacob and Esau did, that the trade should stand fixed. The pottage and the birthright are figures used to show the dealings of the Lord with the two elements in the regenerated person. It is carried out all the way through this story in each one of Jacob's and Esau's family. Unless we make a spiritual meaning to every transaction, we would not be supposed to be studying Scriptures. For we are taught that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." Paul says the Scripture is given for these purposes above mentioned, and we must take what Paul says as authority. Therefore, because one may hold that this Bible, or any part of it, is only a simple transaction without any dual meaning, does not agree with what Paul says about it.

The pottage always goes to the natural man ; the children of Israel longed for the fleshpots of Egypt, after they had been delivered from the bondage of death in Egypt. It is in accordance with the divine law that the natural man must be provided with the things that belong to him. The birthright belongs now, or rather goes, to the stronger man in the person of Jacob. It belongs to the natural man by natural birth. While these brothers are twins, yet the birthright belonged to Esau because he came into the world first. It is in accordance with the wisdom of God to make the spiritual or never dieing part of man to be the stronger man. Therefore, if he be wiser and stronger, because stronger means wiser in this sense, we must acknowledge that it is proper for Jacob to have control of the birthright of himself as well as of his brother. This birthright leads directly up to the fact that Jacob should have the blessing from his father on the same principle. In fact, the blessing came through their mother, Rebekah, who is a type of the Church or bride of Christ. She was the one who managed the affair for Jacob. She clothed Jacob with harry skins like his brother Esau naturally had, so as to deceive Isaac, their father. Isaac was like Christ, just before His death; He wanted to give the blessing to the natural man by avoiding death ; but when He, like Isaac, saw the blessing went to Jacob, He cried out not my will but thine be done. This is the only acceptable prayer to God. We learn from this figure, then, that it is proper to carry out the will of the Lord, when we know it, under all circumstances. God teaches in other Scripture that "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated."

This blessing then comes through the arrangements of the mother of us or the bride of Christ, which is the New Jerusalem ; but the fact comes that Isaac gave the blessing and not the Church. Eternal life comes through Christ in order to bless the never-dieing element in the man. After Isaac realized what had been done he says that Jacob is blessed ; when Esau cried out, "is there not another blessing, my father?" Then Isaac blessed Esau with all the natural blessings of earth, all the good things of which this earth can furnish. But the special blessing in which Esau must bow down to Jacob went to the latter, just in accordance with the plan of God. To the natural view there was some apparent injustice done to Esau, but when we look at it from the Providences of God* it was in accordance with God's plan, and thus it was not unjust at all. God, as a sovereign, has the right to do all things according to His own pleasure; and, like the potter's vessel, we have no right to say why God made us thus.

REBEKAH, THE NEW JERUSALEM.

Rebekah represents the New Jerusalem, because Isaac carried her to his mother's tent after Sarah was dead. His mother represented the law dispensation or Old Jerusalem, accoring to this allegory. It is said, too, that Isaac loved Rebekah, as no doubt Abraham loved Sarah just as well; but the two women each represents the Church in two eras here mentioned. We learn, too, that all the wealth of Abraham went by inheritance to Isaac, and that this wealth was in the hands of the old servant to offer to Isaac's bride. So all the wealth of Heaven belongs to the New Jerusalem, or the spiritual body of the Church of Christ. God put the idea of coming to the well and giving the servant and his camels water into the heart of the woman. So that the work of God was only manifested to the minister of the Gospel, as a type in the old servant, as evidence, and was satisfactory to this servant as the work of the Lord. The water of salvation, or the cleansing element of the Church triumphant, comes to the militant body. Rebekah drew the water and watered both the servant and his camels. Rebekah also was the one who sent the old servant away by agreeing to go with him as the bride to be of Isaac. We conceive the idea that Rebekah was not yet in possession of Isaac as his bride. She is now to fill the station in which Sarah occupied as the Church triumphant. She triumphs through Isaac, as her husband, who carries her first to

Old Jerusalem, just where Christ carried the Church first. We learn, however, that Abraham sent the servant for this bride for his son, just as God sends his prophets in advance of the disciples, both of whom are the foundation for that house not made with hands. Naturally the disciples are the bride of Christ, but the Church triumphant is Rebekah, who represents the saved out of every nation. These are God's kinsfolks in the allegory.

When Abraham dies and leaves his estate to his son Isaac the spiritual significance implies that at the coming of Christ God places all his possessions in the hands of Christ, who carries the Church in its redeemed state to Old Jerusalem, or the tent of Sarah. Sarah represents the law Church or law dispensation here in just the same way that Leah does, Rachel taking the same office as Rebekah does. Jacob being the type of the Spirit, has two wives. One of his wives and her posterity must be one organic body in the law dispensation.

JOSEPH AND BENJAMIN.

Rachel takes the body of the Church in the type of the organic body of Christ's Church, the apostolic age, or Gospel age. We can carry the type on, say in Rachel, to her death, when Benjamin was born, who takes the type of the Spirit, his brother Jospeh being Christ. This idea of the figure is verified by the fact that we die daily. Joseph here takes the type of Christ, because Joseph was the one to preserve life in Egypt for the children of Israel. The word preserve here precisely illustrates the office of Christ in the predestinated purposes of God. Just why God has this order in the arrangement of his purposes is the object of this book to try to show.

THE BLESSING IN THE SEED OF ABRAHAM.

Isaac is the natural seed of Abraham, and the blessing of all nations comes through Isaac, because Isaac takes the type of Christ in this allegory. This idea is carried out from the fact that he went to Gerar, where Abimelech was king over the Philistines. Here God directed him in a dream to not go to Egypt, that he would give all that country to his posterity, having reference to the family of Jacob. It is generally construed that as Christ came through the heredity of Abraham this Scripture is applied only to this fact ; but it goes without saying, that all the steps in the allegory lead up to Christ finally as the great blessing with which God intended to bless all nations. Here it has reference as a type of Christ in Isaac, Abraham representing God.

Here in the plains of Gerar he redug the wells of his father Abraham, which had been filled by the Philistines. When he redug one the Philistines strove with his herdsmen and gained it, and, also, the second well. But when Isaac dug the third one the Philistines did not strive for it.

These wells represent the three dispensations of God. The first one is the law dispensation which Christ redug ; the second well was the dispensation in which Christ lived ,and the third one is the Gospel or Spiritual age for which the natural man does not strive to obtain. It is foolishness to him — he cannot understand it.

JACOB GOES AFTER HIS BRIDE.

After Jacob had received the blessing, Isaac sends him to the house of Laban for his wife, the same house where his father and grandfather married. Jacob assumes the office of the Spirit, and, unlike the manner in which his father married, he goes alone to seek his bride. We conclude, therefore, that the work of the Spirit is a separate and distinct work in which the old servant could not partake. The old servant is to organize through the direction of the Spirit, who directed him on the way ; but the Spirit is to take the things of God and show them to us. Christ had disciples who were to preach the Gospel, which is to collect the children of God in an organized body; but the Spirit is to take the things which God would have us know and show them to these disciples of Christ. Therefore, Jacob goes alone to seek his bride, and, too, must have two brides for apparent reasons.

While God was directly over the children of Israel, directing them in all their movements, yet it was through the promises of Christ before the world was that this work in the law era was performed. The travel of the children of Israel verifies the fact that man alone cannot please God. So we have a prefigure of the Spirit of Christ ruling over two wives from the same family. The children of Israel under the law dispensation are the same body under Christ or the Christian dispensation ; but under the latter the child of God looks to Christ as his mediator, the one coming between us and the vengeance of God. He satisfies God in our behalf for what we could not do. Here Jacob takes both the law and the redeemed bride and presides over them as one family, as the husband of both. Abraham had two wives for a similar reason ; but his inheritance went to Isaac as the type of Christ. Yet Abraham gave gifts to the children of his other wife, just as Jacob has children from both Rachel and Leah, but loves Rachel and her children better than he did Leah and hers.

THE SEVEN YEARS FOR EACH WIFE.

Jacob contracted with his uncle Laban seven years' work for Rachel for his wife. They agreed to the conditions which Laban made by which Rachel was to become his wife. This contract, unlike many we make, allowed Jacob to become in possession of his wife at once, instead of waiting till the expiration of the seven years. Like Christ, when he woke the next morning he found that Leah was the woman given him to wife; and like Christ, he agreed to serve another dispensation for the bride he loved. So we see that the promises of Christ in the plan of redemption purchased the bride over which His spirit presides in both law and Gospel ages. They are each a complete cycle of time, and hence are both His, one as much as the other. Then we learn that Jacob, according to the law under which the family existed, had to take Leah as well as Rachel in this figure. The contract no doubt was made in day time, but it was night when Jacob came first in contact with the first wife. So it was with the Spirit of Christ. He came in the law of dispensation and perfected the law, just as Jacob took Leah to comply with the law. Christ lived out a complete cycle or completed the cycle of the law rather, before the bride he loved came in his possession. Jacob fulfilled Leah's week after marrying her before Laban gave Rachel to him to wife. This carries out the constructions above put on the subject about Christ coming in the end of the law. In fact, He came as the end of the law to them that believe. That is this : To them that believe in God, He came as the end of the law to this individual, and hence this individual can believe in Him when He is revealed to such.

JACOB LIVES WITH LABAN.

Jacob not only lived seven years each for the brides in the two dispensations, that is, seven for Leah and seven for Rachel; but he lived six other years for the cattle of Laban, making twenty years in all that he lived in the house of Laban. The six years he served for the cattle meant that the works of the law were also perfected by the Spirit which he also bought. The six days represent the work days of the week and the seventh is the day of rest; the application here is that the seventh is the day in which we find rest. The dispensations are completely bought by the Spirit as applying to the brides; but the seventh year is a type of the rest which we find by our own effort, by working out our own salvation. Even in the latter case, we are directed by God himself. Jacob here worked seven years before Leah came in his possession, just as Christ lived on earth and completed the law work at His death ; and the seven days in which Leah was to fulfil her week refers to the time after the death of Christ until the Spirit was manifested to all nations. It was now that Jacob becomes in possession of the second bride in Rachel as the type. Those who fear God and work righteousness now are accepted of God ; and it was verified just after Peter had this experience when all nations were gathered together and the house was filled with the Holy Ghost. This house has reference to the completion of the work of Christ in which He promises to send the Holy Ghost after His death, completely filling the house, a perfected work in visiting the elect of God from every nationality. Peter thought before this time that the Gospel was to the Jews only. He did not understand the miraculous event of the sheet being let down on the housetop and the different animals of the earth being presented to Peter as meat for him. Some of the meat here in this sheet was not fit meat for the Jew ; but when God cleans the works of all nations that fear Him they are not unclean. It's those that fear God and work righteousness that He accepts. The literal meaning is that God cleans the work of the individual, as is illustrated by Jacob working the six years for the cattle of Laban.

The covenant made between Laban and Jacob when they made an altar of stones and ate on it was at the parting of the ways. Jacob was leaving the law house of Laban, and was under the protection of the Lord, because Laban was intent on having trouble with Jacob, until the last night before he caught Jacob the next day, when the Lord appeared unto him in a dream and told him to do neither good or bad to Jacob. Now, then, the work of the Lord with the Spirit is taken away from the law dispensation, or the house in which both brides lived and carried to the house of Isaac as a type of Christ.

It should also be mentioned that the conditions of trade between Laban and Jacob were changed ten times. This has reference to the Ten Commandments, as also the ten sons of Jacob, except the sons of Rachel, which latter are a type of Christ and the Spirit.

These changes are all made by Laban with the intention of benefiting himself; but the Lord favored Jacob and made the results of every change go in his favor. When Jacob had finished his purchase price for the two houses or the two wives, he would not hire again to Laban. He is now to provide for his own household. Because when he began work with Laban, his father-inlaw had but little, but when the time was out of the hire Laban was a wealthy man in cattle. So Jacob makes the conditions in this deal of the six years' work in this way : Jacob is to work for Laban for a certain part of the increase of the flocks. After taking out of the sheep and goats all the spotted and speckled and the brown and turning them over to Laban, who gave them to his own sons to keep them a three days' journey away, then Jacob was to take the rest of the flocks of plain sheep and goats without specks and spots and without being even brown among the sheep ; and was to have all the increase in the spotted and speckled and brown from those which were of a uniform color. It was through the management of Jacob that the increase was mostly spotted and speckled and brown that made him immensely wealthy. Laban acknowledged that all his wealth up to this transaction was due through Jacob from the Lord; and was on this account the reason he wanted to retain the services of Jacob over his flocks. We learn that the increase is from the Lord. This principle is carried out all the way through the Levitical law.

The change, therefore, in this deal with Laban and Jacob must necessarily be changed ten times, because it is impossible to keep the law without violation ; it requires the Spirit of God to perfect it, and all the increase from it, therefore, belongs to God and not to Laban. If one of these ten laws is violated the vengeance of God is on the violator, and hence he is as guilty before God as if he had violated the whole Ten Commandments. We may now understand why Laban made ten contracts with Jacob and broke all of them.