Gleanings in First Thessalonians
Chapter 5
1Thess 5:1-2a
But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
For yourselves know perfectly that...
(please note I truncated verse 2, and denoted it with an “a”, just dealing with the first part of that verse today.)
Times… and seasons…, folk artist/musician/songwriter Pete Seeger ripped off the King James Bible back in 1959 and added music to the verses in Ecclesiastes (author: Solomon), then the Byrds recorded a version of it in 1965 and scored a hit (Turn, Turn, Turn).
Ecc 3:1-8
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
All I can say is Pete knew magnificent writing when he saw it; unfortunately this was just one of many steps that society and culture took in shaping the sacred into the secular, and moving the holy toward the profane, innocent enough, but that was what was happening, and we are where we are now. But I digress.
I was reminded of that when I read the first verse of Chapter 5 for some unknown odd reason – oh, “the times and the seasons”!
So we start out again with a “But”(a conjunction): More; further; noting an addition to supply what is wanting to elucidate, or modify the sense of the preceding part of a sentence, or of a discourse, or to continue the discourse, or to exhibit a contrast. I take the “but” as exhibiting a contrast.
Paul just finished explaining to the Thessalonians the catching up, the gathering of the body of Christ, which they must have known something about when Paul was there for three weeks teaching them, but he provided comforting information in this epistle in regards to the dead in Christ (those asleep, dead believers) that had passed since Paul was there. So now he starts off his next statement and next topic, something else they must have asked about concerning “the times and seasons”. But Paul’s response is “I don’t need to write to you about that, because you don’t need me to”. Why? We ask ourselves. Well, first, Paul must have already gone over the information already (the prophecy information concerning the last times/Daniel’s 70th week, the time of Jacob’s trouble, etc.) and second, those “times” and “seasons” do not involve them/him/us/the church his body/the body of Christ. And we know that he taught them about it because he says: “For yourselves know perfectly…”(5:2a)
Two interesting passages have this phrase “the times and the seasons” or a close form thereof:
Dan 2:19-23
Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his:
And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:
He revealeth the deep and secret things: he knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with him.
I thank thee, and praise thee, O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee: for thou hast now made known unto us the king's matter.
In this passage it is dealing with Daniel getting the description of king Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and it’s interpretation. This was the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream:
Dan 2:31-35
Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.
This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
And all those metals and materials in that image were kings and kingdoms; gentile kings and kingdoms. Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold, the first king and Babylon was the first kingdom. This image and dream and prophecy covers the gentile kingdoms that would stretch through the years in “the times of the Gentiles”(Luke 21:24) until God sets up his kingdom (the stone that grows into a mountain), restores Israel to their place, and this kingdom and Israel’s position is maintained throughout eternity on earth. So when we are introduced to “the times and the seasons” it has to do with the timeline of the Gentile kingdoms and the culmination of the God’s kingdom on earth.
The second time is in Acts 1. After the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his ministry to the twelve (minus one) for forty days before he ascended into heaven. And they want to know when that kingdom (that was spoken of in Daniel’s prophecy, that is promised in the Old Testament, when Israel will be restored, with Christ sitting in the throne of David and ruling with a rod of iron) would be restored:
Act 1:6-7
When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
And Christ’s answer to them was “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons”. The eleven have the information that they have, they have the whole Old Testament scriptures, they have what Christ taught in his earthly ministry to them, they have the work before them to get Israel to repent of killing their Messiah – and that is it, they are not getting any more of a timeline and a date to when Christ will return and set up that kingdom on the earth.
But before that kingdom on earth comes, they still have to go through that last week of Daniel’s seventy week prophecy:
Dan 9:25-27
Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
So seventy weeks of years were prophesied to Daniel/Israel as they were coming to the end of their Babylonian captivity (for their rebellion against God) -i.e. 490 years [a week meaning seven, a week of years: seven years]. After 483 years (seven weeks of years and sixty two weeks of years; 49 years + 434 years), Messiah would show up and be “cut off”.
Remember when Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem and wept over the city?:
Luke 19:41-44
And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
That day was the consummation of the 483rd year of that prophecy, Jesus presented himself as their Messiah, the kingdom was an acceptance away – they should have known “this thy day” “the time of thy visitation”. But… they didn’t, and they “cut” him “off”.
So I see “the times and seasons” dealing with that final week of years – the falling away, Jewish persecution, the antichrist/the beast/the man of sin/the son of perdition, mark of the beast, more Jewish persecution, seals, trumpets, vial judgements, the wrath of God, battle of Armageddon, Christ’s return that every eye will see him, etc. and going into THE DAY OF THE LORD.
But Paul had already informed them of this information when he was there in Thessalonika, and said: “For yourselves know perfectly”. Also we see in Second Thessalonians when discussing the “man of sin, son of perdition”:
2Thess 2:5-7
Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
(Note: “let” is another one of those words that has multiple and morphed meanings; in this case: Let - To retard; to hinder; to impede; to interpose obstructions.- which definition now is obsolete, however, once we know these things we can deal with them.)
So Paul taught them quite a bit of information in that short time he spent with them that is not all recorded in the letters he wrote. I think he ran them through the prophetic timeline information that dealt with Israel and their chastisement and them being put on hold and the eventual earthly kingdom that will be restored to them. And as well as provided the new information dealing with the Thessalonians, and their position in the body of Christ and how to conduct themselves until the rapture.
That was a lot, and I am not sure if my thoughts were organized enough in my chaotic writing.
We will cover “the day of the Lord” next time.
Grace and Peace James
“To every thing there is a season”… “be instant in season, out of season”…”redeeming the time”
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