1Thess 4:18 comfort/mystery/trumpet/sound

Gleanings in First Thessalonians
Chapter 4

1Thess 4:18
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

So we are at the end of chapter 4. Long overdue.
“Wherfore”, i.e. why; for what reason.
The reason is to be comforted. So the Thessalonians would have comfort. So we would have comfort. We and they can have comfort that they will see their/our departed brothers and sisters in Christ again. Comfort that we all will be caught up together. Comfort that we will forever be with the Lord and none of us will be missing out on anything.
“with these words”, they are written down in your Bible, they are written down in First Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 13 through 18. Whenever we lose comfort, become deeply saddened, we can come back to these verses and these words and be comforted.
Remember that.

Now, I had said that this was closely related to First Corinthians 15 (both passages together are congruent and shed some additional light on each other), and I also said that this was ‘new’ information to the believers in Christ, referred to as “the body of Christ”. I may have said, I cannot remember, that this new information about this catching up of alive and dead believers came through the apostle Paul, and not through anyone else. The reason I say that is because Paul calls it “a mystery” in 1Cor 15:51:
“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,”
Now the Bible from the Old Testament into the New, speaks of resurrection. Resurrection was not a mystery; the Jews were expecting a resurrection – so resurrection is not new.
A “mystery” is something hidden, that eventually gets revealed. Scripture defines it as “hidden wisdom”:
1Cor 2:6-7
Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

So in scripture, and what Paul is referring to as a mystery is something (information, wisdom) that God kept hidden until it was time to reveal it, and there was no way for someone to know it because it was hid in God, and he would reveal it when he wanted to. In this case, it is the apostle Paul who is revealing this “mystery”. And Paul is revealing this mystery quite some time after Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry, and quite some time after the twelve apostles started their ministry in early Acts; Paul is writing about this mystery after he got saved (Acts 9) and well into the book of Acts (chapter 18, 19, 20+).
And this “mystery” is that there is now a group of people, people saved by the grace of God by believing in the substitutional death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, that this group is made up of living saints and saints that have died, that they would be caught up in the air and changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at some date that needs no prophetic timing associated with it, i.e. it is imminent, and that these people would get incorruptible, immortal bodies and forever be with the Lord... and nothing needs to precede it, no signs or anything.

The whole idea of something being a “mystery” is that it is hidden and unknown. Paul says “Behold”, take notice of this, “I show you a… MYSTERY”. And this “mystery” deals with the catching up of the body of Christ and the receiving of new glorified bodies. (sorry if I sound repetitive.)
1Cor 15:52-54
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

And the timing, sir? When will this happen? I am not going to discuss that just yet.

Trumpets
Old Testament: an interesting example of two trumpets
Num 10:1-2
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them: that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps.
I find this example of two trumpets used in the wanderings of Israel in Numbers very interesting. Just because of the two purposes of the trumpets: calling for the assembly, and, the journey after assembling.
Interesting. I can see the reasoning for communicating or announcing to a large body of people the activities to happen – first trump: dead and alive gather together for a journey; last trump: we are out of here.

NOTE: The “trump” in the passages we have been reading in First Thessalonians does not mean that they are related or have anything to do with any trumpets blowing in the book of Revelation; the “last trump” in First Corinthians does not mean it is the last trumpet, the seventh angel sounding, in the book of Revelation. If a person wants to adopt that and think that it is the same thing, by all means, go ahead, but to me they seem to be mutually exclusive events and times, and different peoples or audiences or recipients.

Sound
When Christ comes for his church, his body, it is described with some audibleness, possibly some volume, some noise.
Remember: with a shout, with a voice of an archangel, with the trump of God.
Some notable events in the Bible where sound plays a part:
Exo 19:16-20
And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.
And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.
And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.
Josh 6:20 after compassing Jericho six days with priests blowing trumpets, on the seventh day they blew and shouted, and the walls fell down flat.
Josh 6:16, 20
And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the LORD hath given you the city. ...
So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.

Psa 29:3-9
The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters.
The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.
The voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars; yea, the LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.
He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.
The voice of the LORD divideth the flames of fire. 8 The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness; the LORD shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.
The voice of the LORD maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests: and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory.

John 12:28-30
Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.
The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to him.
Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of me, but for your sakes.

I suppose I have gleaned enough so far in chapter 4.

Grace and Peace James