Jeremiah 31:7-17 “For thus says the Lord: "Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations; Proclaim, give praise, and say, 'O Lord, save Your people, The remnant of Israel!' (8) Behold, I will bring them from the north country, And gather them from the ends of the earth, Among them the blind and the lame, The woman with child And the one who labours with child, together; A great throng shall return there. (9) They shall come with weeping, and with supplications I will lead them. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble; for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn. (10) "Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, 'He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd does his flock.' … (15) Thus says the Lord: "A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are no more." (16) Thus says the Lord: "Refrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. (17) There is hope in your future says the Lord, that your children shall come back to their own border.”
Before we discuss the second coming of Christ, we need to discuss what will happen to all children when the church is caught away in the rapture. It is important to note that before the church is removed from the earth that all children will need to be removed first. So why is that? There are a number of reasons why God will do this. The main reason is because when the rapture takes place, the gospel of salvation will no longer be proclaimed, because the day of salvation would have ended (2 Corinthians 6:2). In other words once the church is taken out of the earth, the Master of the house will stand up and shut the door, i.e. no more can be saved (Luke 13:23-25). And so if God were to leave the children behind, they would be unjustly condemned to eternal punishment. So why do I say that? I say that because unlike their parents, who would have had opportunity to believe the gospel proclaimed by the church, their children would have no such opportunity once they reach adulthood, because the church will no longer be present to proclaim the gospel to them. However God is not unjust, and will therefore not allow the last generation of children to be separated from Him in spiritual death, for Jesus taught us it is not the will of God that any children should perish (Matthew 18:14). It is important to note that God will not remove the children because they are part of the church however, because they aren’t. God will remove them because all children are born of God, and as long as they remain children (i.e. under the age of thirteen) they belong to Him. So how will God remove the children from the earth? The above quoted passage of scripture teaches us that they will simply die, for it declares that “a voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are no more”. Someone asked, but isn’t that passage referring to King Herod killing the children in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16-18)? The answer to that question is that this passage is referring to both events, i.e. the event of King Herod killing the children in Bethlehem and the event of all children dying at the end of the age. In order for us to understand that concept we need to discuss this passage in a bit more depth. In this passage God says that “He who scattered Israel will gather him”. So what does that statement mean? Because of their unfaithfulness in serving Him, God has scattered Israel among the nations of the earth and then after a period of exile He has once again gathered them from those same nations; and He has done that twice. The first time God scattered Israel among the nations was in the year 589 BC, when King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed both the city of Jerusalem and its temple[1]. After that, the first time God began to gather Israel from the nations of the earth was in the year 520 BC, after they had incurred seventy years of exile[2]. The second time God scattered Israel among the nations was in the year 70 AD, when the Roman Empire destroyed both the city of Jerusalem and its temple[3]. After that, the second time God began to gather Israel from the nations of the earth was in the year 1948 AD, after they had incurred nearly two thousand years of exile[4]. And so we see that this particular passage is prophesying about God’s gathering of Israel from the nations of the earth, nevertheless it is prophesying about both gatherings, i.e. the first gathering in 520 BC which has already been fulfilled, and the second gathering in 1948 AD which at the time of the writing of this section, is still in the process of being fulfilled. It is entirely scriptural for one prophecy to refer to two separate future events; for example the passage of scripture "They shall look on Me whom they pierced" (Zechariah 2:10), prophesied about two separate future events; the first event was fulfilled when Jesus hung on the cross and they looked on Him whom they pierced (John 19:37), and the second event will be fulfilled when Jesus returns and they will once again look on Him whom they pierced (Revelation 1:7). And so we see that in the same manner the section in the above quoted passage which declares that “a voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are no more”, is also prophesying about two separate future events; the first event was fulfilled when King Herod had the children in Bethlehem killed (Matthew 2:16-18), while the second event will be fulfilled when all children will die at the end of the age. So what will happen to the children who die at the end of the age? Because all children belong to God, when they die they go to be with the Lord in heaven, which is why the Lord comforts Rachel with the following words, “ Refrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears. … There is hope in your future says the Lord, that your children shall come back to their own border”. In other words the Lord is telling Rachel that she will see her children once again. And so once the children have been removed from the earth, God will close the wombs of that final generation and no more children will be born into the earth until after the Lord’s millennial reign. Because this particular truth is not really understood in the church, we will discuss it in a bit more detail in a later section when we discuss the millennial inhabitants.
Matthew 24:27-30 “For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. (28) For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together. (29) "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. (30) Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory”.
In an earlier section we saw the event of the Lord Jesus and the church leaving heaven to return to the earth; and so in continuation of that event, the above quoted passage of scripture describes the arrival of Jesus’ on the earth i.e. His second coming. As we can see from this passage, everyone on earth will see the Lord Jesus coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. This passage declares that all the tribes of the earth will mourn when they see the Lord Jesus’ second coming. In other words it will be a terrifying event for them to behold. The book of Revelation confirms that truth to us when it describes the same event, by telling us that the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?" (Revelation 6:15-17). We have mentioned in an earlier section that a period of three years will elapse between the rapture of the church and its triumphant return with the Lord Jesus Christ. During that time the unbelievers living on the earth would have been exposed to the outpouring of God’s wrath; a detailed account of which is recorded in the Book of Revelation. And so is it any wonder that their response to the Lord’s second coming will be to try and hide from His presence by seeking refuge in the caves of the earth? Notice that the perception of the unbelievers at that time is that the great day of the Lord’s wrath has come. In other words the unbelievers will be fully expecting to stand before the great white throne of God at that time to receive their eternal judgment. Obviously that will not be the case however; and so after an initial period of trying to hide from the Lord’s presence, their fears will eventually subside as they acclimatize themselves to the reality of the Lord’s millennial reign; a point which we will discuss in a later section.
Michael E.B. Maher
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