Genesis 40 Series, Part 41, Matthew 14:3

Hello, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis. Tonight is study #41 in Genesis 40.

We are going to start where we left off in our last study. I was explaining the spiritual connection between three main things we find in the Genesis 40 account. Pharaoh is a type of Satan. The butler and baker were in prison. And on Pharaoh’s birthday, he “lifted up the head” (removed his head) of the baker and hanged him, and he was accursed. We saw the relationship to what it says in Matthew 14 about what happened on Herod’s birthday. It says in Matthew 14:3:

For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife.

Then it said in Matthew 14:6-12:

But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod. Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask. And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger. And the king was sorry: nevertheless for the oath's sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her. And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison. And his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother. And his disciples came, and took up the body, and buried it, and went and told Jesus.

So John was placed in prison, and then came Herod’s birthday, which is a big tie-in with Pharaoh’s birthday in Genesis 40. If you look up the word “birthday” in the Bible, you will find only a reference to Pharaoh’s birthday and Herod’s birthday, two men in positions of power. Pharaoh was king of Egypt, and Herod was a tetrarch, and they both typify Satan. And on their birthdays, they both brought forth their prisoners, and Pharaoh beheaded the baker, and Herod beheaded John the Baptist.

We went to Revelation 20 where we saw that Christ laid hold on the dragon (Satan) and cast him into the bottomless pit, which is the word “deep,” and it identifies with death and hell. After a figurative thousand years, which represents the entire 1,955 years of the church age until its end, Satan was loosed. Satan was bound in 33 A. D. when Christ went to the cross, and he was loosed in 1988 when the church age ended. Satan was loosed, and a big proof of that is found in Revelation 11 where it speaks of the “two witnesses.” It says in Revelation 11:6:

These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.

This is telling us what happened over the course of the church age. And then it says in Revelation 11:7:

And when they shall have finished their testimony…

This is the end of the church age, and that is how we know that Satan was loosed at the end of the church age because the testimony of the “two witnesses” was carried out during the church age.

Again, it says in Revelation 11:7:

And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit …

This is described in Revelation 20:2:

And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up…

Here, Satan is not called the “beast.” He is called the dragon, a serpent, the Devil, and Satan, but these four names are not the only names that God calls Satan. The “beast” is a name that is assigned to him in the period of the Great Tribulation, the time of the judgment on the churches. Once the church age ended in 1988, the 23-year Great Tribulation period began.

Who else could this “beast” be? Who else did God tell us was bound and cast into the bottomless pit? Again, if we go back to Revelation 20, we can see that this is the same one who was cast into the bottomless pit because it references the “thousand years” in Revelation 20:7:

And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

The two witnesses finished their testimony when the church age ended. And that is when Satan was loosed, and it says in the next verse in Revelation 20:8:

And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog…

Here, Satan is given another name, Gog. And Magog are the nations. It goes on to say in Revelation 20:8-9:

…to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city…

The camp of the saints and the beloved city represent earthly Jerusalem, the corporate churches. It is the beloved city of God, representing the churches and congregations of the world.

We also read of the beast in Revelation 13:1:

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea…

And what did he do when he had risen up? It says in Revelation 13:5-7:

And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them…

Satan was loosed. Gog and Magog compassed the camp of the saints. In Revelation 13 the beast came up out of the sea, and it is the same spiritual picture. Remember that “bottomless pit” is also translated as “the deep,” and it is the word “ab'-us-sos,” from which we get our English word “abyss.” We are familiar with that word. The deep part of the ocean is an abyss where you can go down and down for miles. In the Bible the sea pictures “hell,” and God’s wrath. Satan was cast into the bottomless pit, the deep, meaning that he was spiritually cast into the condition of hell and death.

And yet he was later loosed, and he immediately came against the camp of the saints, and that is why it says in Revelation 11:7:

And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

Satan overcame the “two witnesses,” or the camp of the saints.

You know if someone would chart these things in a notebook, they would start seeing how these things tie together. Often people do not thoroughly study the Bible, and they do not see these things. And this can even happen to a child of God if you do not take notes. You know, if you were in medical school or law school, and if you were studying some of the most complicated things of the world, would you just listen to the instructor and not take notes? And the Bible is far more complicated than trying to learn earthly things. It operates on various levels. There is the surface meaning of scriptures, and that alone can keep people “busy” just looking at all the surface meanings, as evidenced by the commentaries of theologians. They write volumes and volumes about the historical and moral meanings. 

But the far more complex aspect are the deeper spiritual meanings of the Bible. First, one must learn a new language, the spiritual or heavenly language of the kingdom of God. Then comparing spiritual with spiritual, the Holy Spirit teaches spiritual truths. And one must thoroughly study the Bible to become familiar with its spiritual language. Unless a person has total recall ability, I do not see how they can just listen to a Bible study without taking notes. Notes are much superior to our memories. I find it is true when I write a note in the Bible, perhaps referencing another scripture, and then a couple of weeks go by and without that note I would have completely forgotten all about it. And that point that had occurred to you would have been gone but now you can come back and reference your notes – it is a constant reminder. I think it is necessary for any serious Bible student. If you do not want to write in the Bible itself, then use a notebook.

I know some people do study by taking notes, but I think that too many that engage in Bible study have not seriously committed to doing this. It is like when you are in school and you have to study for a test. It is a different level of studying, is it not? All through the semester you may been sitting there, and some of the lectures just “went in one ear and out the other.” But when you have a week left before the test, you start pouring over the textbook and digging into it. And the Bible does require dutiful study in order to be blessed by it. The more we study, the more we will see, and the more we see the more we learn.

Anyway, getting back to Revelation 11, Satan rose up out of the bottomless pit, or the deep, after having been bound for a thousand years. So the loosing of Satan corresponds to the death of the two witnesses, the end of the church age. Again, it says in Revelation 11:7-9:

And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.

Three times we read of “dead bodies” in reference to the two witnesses. The Greek word translated as “dead bodies,” is Strong’s #4430, and it is the Greek word “pto'-mah,” and this word is only found five times in the New Testament. Three of the five are used here, where it has to do with the end of the church age, the loosing of Satan, the Great Tribulation, and judgment beginning at the house of God. It is the same word we see in Matthew 24, the chapter dealing with the Lord’s answer to the question of what would be the sign of His coming and of the end of the world. The Lord discusses the judgment on the churches and the time of the Great Tribulation, and it says in Matthew 24:28:

For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.

The Greek word “pto'-mah” is translated here as “carcase.” What is a carcase? It is a “dead body.” So this fits, and we can understand it as the eagles, or vultures, that swoop down upon a dead carcase in a field. It is a “dead thing.” So again, we find the word “pto'-mah” that was used three times in reference to the two witnesses. 

And the other time we find this word used concerns Herod bringing forth John the Baptist from prison and beheading him. Speaking of Jesus, we read in Mark 6:15:

Others said, That it is Elias. And others said, That it is a prophet, or as one of the prophets.

Then it says in Mark 6:16-21:

But when Herod heard thereof, he said, It is John, whom I beheaded: he is risen from the dead. For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife: for he had married her. For John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife. Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him, and would have killed him; but she could not: For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly. And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee;

Remember we are looking at what took place on Herod’s birthday, as we are looking at what happened on Pharaoh’s birthday in Genesis 40. Then Herodias’ daughter danced for the king, and it pleased him, and he said to her, “Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee.” Then it says in Mark 6:24-29:

And she went forth, and said unto her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist. And she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist. And she went forth, and said unto her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist. And she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist. And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath's sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her. And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought: and he went and beheaded him in the prison, And brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel: and the damsel gave it to her mother. And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb.

The word “corpse” is the word “pto'-mah.” Now let us put this altogether. In Genesis 40 Joseph interpreted the baker’s dream to mean that his head would be lifted up from off him the third day. He was executed, and his head was lifted up, and he was hanged. In case you are wondering, when you are hanged it is often by the neck, and one needs the head for that. But you can also hang just the carcase, and it is not necessary to have a head in order to be hanged. In Genesis 40, we do not know the order of things, but the language is clear when it says, “Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee.” That is a beheading. 

Then we see the similarity with Herod representing Satan, as well as Pharaoh representing Satan. And then we see that when Satan was loosed he came against the camp of the saints. He came up out of the bottomless pit, or the deep, and he killed the two witnesses, and their “dead bodies,” or carcases, are laying in the streets. It is the word “pto'-mah.” And what do we know about John’s corpse? It was headless. There was no head. The head was placed on a charger and given to Herodias. She had John the Baptist’s head. The corpse that the disciples came and took up had no head. The “pto'-mah” had no head.

We can take that understanding back to Revelation 11 where we read three times of the dead bodies of the two witnesses. They have no head, and we understand that spiritually because Christ was the head of the church, and when Christ departed from the churches at the end of the church age they had no head, as it were. They were then easy prey for Satan who came against the camp of the saints. The church itself was a “headless corpse.”

So I think we now have a good understanding, and we can see the relationship with the beheading and the tie-in to Satan’s loosing at the time of the end, as well as the baker representing the churches. John the Baptist also represented the corporate churches at the time of the end. John himself was a faithful man of God, an elect child of God, and he identified with the Word of God. So too the two witnesses were faithful in their time of ministry, but then they were killed and beheaded at their end.

We have one more question but we will have to wait until the next study to answer that question. The last question we want to discover the answer to is why God is painting this picture as happening on Pharaoh’s birthday and on Pharaoh’s birthday. It is the same spiritual picture, and the consistent thing is that it was their birthdays. Since both Pharaoh and Herod point to Satan, what would be Satan’s birthday? How can we understand the idea of Satan having a birthday? That is not an easy question because he is a spirit being that was created way back in the beginning when we read of him in the Garden of Eden. Because he is a spirit being, he does not have a body, and he continued to exist for thousands of years. Of course there was a major change for him on May 21, 2011, when he was defeated and deposed. There was also a major change at the time of the cross in 33 A. D. when he was put into the condition of death. But he did not actually die, and he continued to exist and go about as a roaring lion over the course of the church age, even though the Bible says he was bound. 

But we are concerned with one question because it is the focus of Genesis 40, and that is the fact that it was Pharaoh’s birthday, or Satan’s birthday. How can we understand that? Lord willing, when we get together in our next study, I will try to explain that.