I Show You A Mystery

Genesis 46: 8 – 27

I show you a Mystery

8 Now these were the names of the children of Israel, Jacob and his sons, who went to Egypt: Reuben was Jacob’s firstborn. 9 The sons of Reuben were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. 10 The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman. 11 The sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. 12 The sons of Judah were Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan). The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul. 13 The sons of Issachar were Tola, Puvah,Job, and Shimron. 14 The sons of Zebulun were Sered, Elon, and Jahleel. 15 These were the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Padan Aram, with his daughter Dinah. All the persons, his sons and his daughters, were thirty-three. 16 The sons of Gad were Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli. 17 The sons of Asher were Jimnah, Ishuah, Isui, Beriah, and Serah, their sister. And the sons of Beriah were Heber and Malchiel. 18 These were the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter; and these she bore to Jacob: sixteen persons. 19 The sons of Rachel, Jacob’s wife, were Joseph and Benjamin. 20 And to Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On, bore to him. 21 The sons of Benjamin were Belah, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard. 22 These were the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob: fourteen persons in all. 23 The son of Dan was Hushim. 24 The sons of Naphtali were Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem. 25 These were the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, and she bore these to Jacob: seven persons in all. 26 All the persons who went with Jacob to Egypt, who came from his body, besides Jacob’s sons’ wives, were sixty-six persons in all. 27 And the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two persons. All the persons of the house of Jacob who went to Egypt were seventy.

Here are a couple of questions for you to ponder. Have you ever thought or had someone ask you these questions;

1. Since we live in a time after our Lord Jesus came to earth and sacrifice His life for us, what about those people who lived before and never heard of the gospel, what happens to them?

2. The bible was written by 40 writers over a period of 4000 years. They are only a bunch of myths and fables put together. How is God involved?

3. If the bible is complete how come, we find the mention of ‘mysteries’?

4. What is the purpose for all the listings of names throughout the bible?

Let me quickly answer all 4 questions then elaborate on them.

In question #1 you may be surprised that since the beginning of time all of mankind had the Gospel preached to them.

We read in the book of Hebrews chapter 4 verse 2, “For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.

Galatians 3 verses 8 and 9, “For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. So, then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.”

So, the scripture says that they did receive the Gospel. The question then you ask is how. Where is the proof. I will get to this for you.

Let me continue to address the 4 questions. Here is one for you to make a mental note. Question # 2 is answered by question # 3. Say what?

In the 2 letter to Timothy chapter 3 verse 16 we read, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”

This verse says that when those 40 writers penned the words they had our Precious Holy Spirit speaking to them what to write. Now you might be thinking, ‘hold on there captain. That’s a pretty big statement. Prove it.’

Okay, in doing this, I will also answer question # 4.

Let us go back to Genesis chapter 4 and look at the names of the descendants of Cain. You will note that Cain had a son who then fathered a son and so on down the line. Now here we see that without even this race of fallen men our Precious Holy God spoke to the minds of these men in naming their sons. For example, He inspired Cain to call his son Enoch. By doing so we can see our Holy God speaks about the outcome of those who rejected God and made their lives here on earth. The outcome is the end of their family existence. I am going to list this portion of Scripture and then list in descending order each son. Then I will show you what that name means. We can then put them all together and reveal the mystery of their names.