1Thess 5:12-13 beseeching admonishmental esteeming

Gleanings in First Thessalonians
Chapter 5

1Thess 5:12-13
And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you;
And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves.

Some word definitions (apologies if repetitious):
Beseech: To entreat; to supplicate; to implore; to ask or pray with urgency
Admonish: (1) To warn or notify of a fault; to reprove with mildness. (2) To counsel against wrong practices; to caution or advise. (3) To instruct or direct.
Esteem: To set a value on, whether high or low; to estimate; to value.

So verse 12, Paul is urgently asking, pleading with the Thessalonians to recognize those wh0 are doing the work among them, doing the work for the Lord, hence “are over you in the Lord”. So those in the local assembly that are in the leadership position or office; in Paul’s letters these are the “bishops”, “elders”, “overseers”, and “deacons”. (I would say “bishop” and “elder” are pretty much the same, and we would call them the pastor or preacher today. I think the “overseers” are a group of bishops, elders and deacons. And “deacons” are a step lower than the bishop/elder who is ready to fill in for him (not like you see deacons in the Baptist churches when I was growing up – these were the secret cabal of religious deep staters the imposed their will on the local assembly). I do not think churches these days function in the same capacity as they did back in Paul’s time, as they have grown into bureaucratic machines on business growth models and ecclesiastical regimes, but I digress.

So we should, as the Thessalonians, recognize, not the managerial bureaucratic stuff we have today, but, the real believers who are doing the work, the “labour”, among us(them) as Paul would have it being done.
How should it be done? Well, we have the Pauline epistles that are scripture and scripture has a certain attribute and is good for several things:

2Tim 3:16-17
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

So it is inspired by God, God breathed, God dictated and written down by man. However, it says that it is good for “doctrine”(teaching, whatever is taught, learning); “reproof”(to cast blame); “correction” (to bring back from error); “instruction in righteousness” (the act of teaching what is right)… those that “labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you”; seems to fit. And the blueprint is “scripture”, the word of God written down, your Bible that you have at your disposal.
Unfortunately, even before Paul was executed in the first century, the church system was developing and going downhill. We are still trying to pick up the pieces. But we have the Bible, complete, and intact, and preserved – so it is not a lost cause, it just requires work, diligence, effort, etc.

Getting back on track, but those that are doing it correctly, know them, recognize them, listen to them, and…
Verse 13 “esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake”. If they are doing the right thing in the right way, that is valuable, that has weight. It may not be profitable in an earthly, material sense, but that is the wrong scale to measure with.
Gal 1:10
For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

2Cor 4:17-18
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Gal 6:14-17
But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

Concerning “their work’s sake”, their “work” is labouring, and admonishing, teaching and preaching what Paul had instructed them about, and what to do with this new life they have in Christ, to continue in the faith, to not be troubled about other saints dying before the catching up or the day of the Lord coming, to love one another, to possess their vessels in sanctification and honour.

“And be at peace among yourselves.” You have to be at peace between you and God first. Get grounded in that fact. And then you can start having peace with your brethren. When you start realizing that these petty things are just that, petty; then, you can move on and do something for the Lord.
Rom 12:18
If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
(he gave you a way out here: “if it be possible…”)
We as members of his body should do what we can to provide the best example and make it as authentic as we can – not for gain – but because Jesus Christ suffered for us, and died for our sins, and rose again so we can have newness of life…
Rom 6:10-11
For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Rom 7:6
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

Grace and Peace James.
We have been beseeched
(I was a bit like a scattergun today)

1Thess 5:9-11 Wherefore comfort yourselves

Gleanings in First Thessalonians
Chapter 5

1Thess 5:9-11
For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

We have the statement or the reference to avoiding wrath again: “For God hath not appointed us to wrath” (note Rom 5:9 & 1Thess 1:10)

Rom 5:9
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

1Thess 1:10
And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.

Wrath is not something we are appointed to; we have been delivered from (past tense), and shall be saved from (future tense) obviously. And he starts out the phrase with a “For…” to give reason for our faith, love and hope. And then contrasts the sleeping drunken ones in the dark and in the night by the reason of obtaining “salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ”; not by anything we have done, by solely from the one we are trusting, the Lord Jesus Christ – we are saved from all this destruction because we are saved by Jesus Christ.

Why him? Paul reminds the Thessalonians (and us) again: because he is the one “Who died for us” and must be alive. Why must he be alive? Because we “should live together with him”; the only way to live together with someone is if they are alive. So Paul manages to put back into our memory, unless we have believed in vain, how that Christ died for our sins, according to scripture, and was buried, and rose again the third day, according to scripture.[1Cor15:1-4]
Paul also puts in here a “whether we wake or sleep” phrase, so even if we are not awake and sober and watching, we are in the age of grace, Christ has us covered.
That is not a license to just go our own way and be sloppy lousy crusty Christians, to just go and sin and forget what we have been translated to, but it does mean that God is true to his word and his promises to us and the members of the body of Christ, AND he does not lie…

Titus 1:2
In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

Heb 6:18
That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:

“Wherefore”…why, for which reason… “comfort”. Did we not here this in chapter 4? After hearing about the catching up of the body of Christ with the dead saints who are also members of that same body?

1Thess 4:17-18
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Then there should be comfort, and twice as much now! We are getting caught up in the air to meet the Lord (before the tribulation and judgments on the earth) and we won’t be appointed to wrath, but be saved from it.
Comfort together and edify together, one another; the local assembly (which is part of the larger assembly from the first century until today) should be telling, teaching, building each other up with these words, with the great hope that we have before us, that we posses today. Amen.
(Unfortunately most have abandoned these doctrines, forgot about Paul, and pursuing a big box, mass marketed “Christianity”.)
Hope – confident expectation of what we KNOW will come to pass; and we KNOW because of Faith: Gad said it; and God CANNOT lie.

Grace and Peace James 

More reasons to be around fellow believers

1Thess 5:8 suit up brethren

Gleanings in First Thessalonians
Chapter 5

1Thess 5:8
But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

We have the “But” return, we are contrasting something again:…“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.”
And this “But” is against what and supplying information to what? … (1Thess 5:7) “For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.”
“Us”… “of the day”…notice this is the second time he has referenced us with “the day” in contrast to “the night”, but not part of “the day of the Lord” – so “the day” here and being “children of the day” is something mutually exclusive to “the day of the Lord”, and it appears that “they” “of the night” will be associated with “the day of the Lord”.
What should we do? Even though we are not part of that event (the time of Jacob’s trouble: tribulation and the day of the Lord)
“be sober”, (the second time he has said it in this cluster of verses,) sure do not be drunk, drunken, etc. but be “Regular; calm; not under the influence of passion; as sober judgment; a man in his sober senses. Serious; solemn; grave”; be under control of yourself, you are children of the day, of light…be sober.
Phl 4:5
Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.
Keep a due mean between extremes. (it seems to me that the current environment in our culture today is working vary hard to keep people at one extreme or another; drama unfolds everywhere and is thrust down our throats and we are made to bathe in it; it is work to remain “grave”)

And now we run back into our three favorite friends that we ran into earlier in chapter 1: faith, hope and love.
1Thess 1:3
Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;

We see it in 1 Corinthians…
1Cor 13:13 (‘charity’ is the same as ‘love’)
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

We also see it in Romans…
Rom 5:1-5
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

And Colossians…
Col 1:3-5
We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,
Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,
For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;

Now in this verse setting it is “putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation”.
And we keep in mind what these elements are…
Faith is believing what God has said (not our feelings, or imagination, or twisting his words into something that fits our point of view), it keeps us seeing what we cannot see because God said it;
Love is the bond, the glue that holds things together, that produces our service, to give and keep giving by grace; it is like choice put into action.
Hope is the confident expectation of what God said would happen will happen, it keeps us thinking correctly and moving forward looking for the blessed hope.
Now the “breastplate”, as one can guess, covers and protects the chest, the heart, the vital organs – the stuff that keeps you moving. Paul said in chapter 3 he was going to complete something that was lacking in their faith:
1Thess 3:9-10
For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God;
Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face, and might perfect that which is lacking in your faith?

It would appear that the two things we (mainly me) have been spending most of our time on:
    (1) the catching up of living and dead members of the body of Christ, and
    (2) the information about the body of Christ not being involved in the tribulation/darkness/night time/the day of the Lord, is the additional faith components that needed “perfection”. Perfecting that faith, joined with the action and glue of love, should protect the doctrine and walk and sound words of the body of Christ community.
The “hope” is put on as a helmet, protecting the head, the brain, the mind, the thinking – not losing the confident expectation of those two truths. The faith and love keep us motivated and on the correct path.
The “salvation” here is the salvation from that wrath that is going to be poured out on those that are going to be subject to it; reference 2 Thessalonians…
2Thess 1:7-10
And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
(when, or if, we get to 2 Thessalonians we shall see that the Thessalonians appeared to let the helmet slip off their head)

Grace and Peace James 

Watch, be sober, suit up as we wait.

1Thess 5:6-7 sleepen & drunken

Gleanings in First Thessalonians

Chapter 5

1Thess 5:6
Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

The first word in the verse, “Therefore” – what you always have to ask when you see a “therefore” is: what is it there for?
THEREFORE: For that; for that or this reason, referring to something previously stated.
‘And what was previously stated’, we ask ourselves?
“But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.” (1Thess 5:4-5)
That we are not of the night, nor of darkness; that we are children of the day, and children of the light; that we are not in darkness; that that day will not overtake us as a thief.
For that reason, don’t “sleep”. Other people are and will sleep, but don’t you.
Now in chapter 4 I went to some effort to show that “sleep” was referring to “dead in Christ”, believers who had died.
I will not make that case here, nor will I make the case for regular physical sleeping for the tired physical body. I will make the case that these are people who are spiritually asleep, in darkness – they have no light. Look at the descriptors surrounding and contrasting:
“watch”, “be sober”, “darkness”, and in the next verse, “drunken in the night”:

1Thess 5:7
For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.

Someone is NOT PAYING ATTENTION nor possibly are capable of. They are oblivious, they choose to be oblivious, they just want peace and safety and are not concerned how it comes.

Here is a section of verses in Ephesians covering the same idea – pay attention to the contrasting words to the ‘sleeping’:
Eph 5:13-21
But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

Being awake, not asleep, means you have light, you are careful watching where and how you walk, wise and not a fool, not gluttonous or drunk, understanding God’s will, absorbing and exuding his word, giving thanks, submissive to one another, having the fear of the Lord. The opposite is true for those that are asleep.
“they that be drunken are drunken in the night”, they have every wrong thing going for them, adding insult to injury by suppressing their darkened circumstance by numbing themselves to it.
Much like the warning given to the twelve tribes before they went into the promised land:
Deut 29:18-20
Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;
And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:
The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.

This is serious stuff and these people are in a bad way. Someone is going to be on the short end of the wrong stick, and it will be too late, and there will be no escape.

So I say that these people in darkness, of the night, drunken in the night, sleeping, saying ‘peace and safety’ and will get caught unexpectedly are not the believing Thessalonians, is not you and me, is not the body of Christ; I believe these are the unbelieving Jews and false Christianity who will choose the wrong ‘messiah’ after the body of Christ is off of the earth “…a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (2Th 2:3-4) They will be thinking they are doing the will of God much like they did in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and Acts, holding on to their religion and temple service, and twisting of the scripture, “For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men,…” Mark 7:8.
But remember, Paul said earlier: (1Thess 5:1) “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.”

Time to do something I think. And what we do, do for the Lord. 

Grace and Peace James.

1Thess 5:3-5 destuctravail@night

Gleanings in First Thessalonians
Chapter 5

1Thess 5:3
For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

So what is with these birthing women?
It’s not really about the woman, it is about using the metaphor of child birth and the pain and work that persists for a time until delivery.
One might call it “travail”:
1. To labor with pain; to toil.
2. To suffer the pangs of childbirth; to be in labor.
Remember Paul said he experienced this toil: “For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.” (1Thess 2:9).
But this “travail” he is talking about in Chapter 5 is a bit different, measured on a different scale I believe.
And these people to whom it shall come “shall not escape.” Something bad is going to be coming upon them…“sudden destruction”. The man of sin, the son of perdition, i.e. the antichrist, i.e the beast, will betray them and subject them to persecution and great tribulation; then the day of the Lord will come down from heaven to the earth and more destruction will follow. It will not be pretty; it will not be a good time.

What was said in Jeremiah, in this same vein?
Jer 30:5-7
For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.
Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?
Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.

As a woman in travail….the time of Jacob’s trouble… and who is Jacob? Jacob is Israel and Judah. And a “time of” …“trouble”…Who is this written for?
Jer 30:4 

And these are the words that the LORD spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah.

You will run across these references throughout the Bible about travail as a woman with child and there like, and a lot of these passages are in reference to this time that is coming upon the nation and the remnant of Israel.
And not the “church, the body of Christ”, the “church his body” was a mystery not revealed until Paul.
Judgment will come on the world, and all the nations that will deal horribly with Israel at that time…
Isa 13:6-13
Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:
And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

The next verse in Thessalonians…

1Thess 5:4
But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

Back to the “ye” and “you” and away from the “they” and “them”.
Paul had no need to write to them about this; they were going to be ok; this is not applying to them (the Thessalonians).

1Thess 5:5
Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

“Ye” and then Paul includes himself with them with a “we”.
The Ye, You, We are brethren; Ye, You, We brethren are not in darkness, nor of darkness, not of the night; however Ye, You, We brethren are children of light, children of the day.
Now this darkness/light and day/night seem to be a positional thing. And Paul is making the case that our position is somewhere else where it is light; not “night” but “day”.

I will pause here for now. Please push back on anything.

Grace and Peace James.

1Thess 5:1-3 a thief cometh and where did thy safety go?

Gleanings in First Thessalonians
Chapter 5

1Thess 5:1-2
But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.
For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

Now we have looked at the phrase “times and seasons” and its connection to the establishment of kingdoms on this earth that eventually culminated in the final eternal kingdom to be set up, the kingdom of Heaven, here on earth with Christ sitting on David’s throne in Jerusalem/Zion.
Then we painstakingly went through a long study of the places where “the day of the Lord” appeared in the Bible and its context to understand what “that day” is and what it means. [FYI: we just covered the verses/context where the phrase was specifically used]
These are prophetic terms and events, that are closely related to the nation of Israel and their chastisement and destiny – something that will take place after the body of Christ is off the earthly scene. Paul just got through discussing the exit of the “church, his body” in the preceding verses in the previous chapter (1Thess 4:13-18).

When he starts this chapter, or when he starts this section, he begins with “ye have no need that I write unto you”, which is concerning the “times and seasons” and “the day of the Lord” (because he uses: “For yourselves know perfectly…” to tie them together).
Paul had already discussed these things with them. And this was also information already written in the scripture that the Jews possessed and that the Thessalonians were obviously familiar with and had access to (the 39 Old Testament books)…“no need that I write”…“For yourselves know perfectly”…
However, Paul DID need to write 4:13-18 about the “rapture” because they DIDN’T know about that – so that is why he wrote it…. It was NEW information, it was part of the MYSTERY. Part of the mystery that was new, and is independent of the eventual coming of the chastisement of the “little flock” nation of Israel that will be in God’s will and make it into the kingdom here on earth (Mat 6:10 “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”)

Now what Paul is explaining is that these events beginning the discussion in chapter 5, that were not a mystery, for they were prophesied in the Old Testament (OT), that when they happen will come “as a thief in the night”.
Now this does not mean that the Lord is going to take something that is not his, thus ‘steal it’, rather it is an idiom that refers to the suddenness of the event, to catch someone unprepared, catching them unaware and without seeing it coming. Obviously if you knew a thief was coming you would prepare to meet him and blow him away with your arsenal of weaponry; these people (not the Thessalonians) will be caught totally off guard.
How do we know?... next verse please.

1Thess 5:3
For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

Notice how it went from “ye”, “you”, “yourselves” to “they” and “them”. There are two distinct, mutually exclusive groups being delineated.
Someone is expecting, promoting, and saying “Peace and safety”, and the opposite will happen.
Mat 24:37-39
But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Maybe the time is during something like a covenant made like in Daniel’s 70th week prophecy, promises made by the “man of sin” to the Jewish nation?
Dan 9:27
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.

There are boatloads of passages we could look at, but I will refrain. But we get the gist, another group of people are living the good life, have made a deal to have that good peaceful and safe life – but it is not the body of Christ.

“then sudden destruction cometh upon them” – not good. And pretty sure they would have been warned – but the ‘good life’ and the ‘easy life’ gets them.
Prov 1:20-33
Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:
She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,
How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;
When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:
They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them.
But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.

Isa 13:6
Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
Eze 7:25
Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.
Mat 7:13
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Mat 24:15-22
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

All these connections, are dealing with the Jewish remnant going through their chastisement, through great tribulation, through Daniel’s 70th week, through the time of Jacob’s trouble to enter the kingdom.

We shall look at the next descriptor: “travail” next installment.

Until then…

Grace and Peace James.

1Thess 5:2b DOTL part ii

Gleanings in First Thessalonians
Chapter 5

1Thess 5:2b
… the day of the Lord …

(as noted before I truncated verse 2, and denoted it with an “b”, just dealing with the middle part of that verse today.)

Part 2 of DOTL study

Joel 2:30-32
And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.

Wonders in heavens and earth, blood, fire, pillars of smoke, sun turned to darkness, moon turned to blood before the DOTL comes.

Amos 5:18-20
Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.
As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him.
Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

The DOTL is darkness, not light, and with calamity.

Obad 1:15
For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.

The DOTL will be upon the heathen and they will be repaid for what they have done to Israel.

Zep 1:7-18
Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord GOD: for the day of the LORD is at hand: for the LORD hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests.
And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD'S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.
In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit.
And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD, that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish gate, and an howling from the second, and a great crashing from the hills.
Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off.
And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil.
Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation: they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.
The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.
And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.
Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

The DOTL is when the LORD is present i.e there. A day of punishment, noisy, people getting cut off, mighty men crying, a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, wasteness, desolation, darkness, gloominess, clouds, thick darkness, a day of the LORD’s wrath.

Zec 14:1-9
Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.
And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.

The DOTL will have all nations to battle at Jerusalem, city taken, the LORD fights, the LORD stands on the Mount of Olives and an earthquake, saints escaping from Jerusalem, strange illuminations, living waters flowing out of Jerusalem, and the LORD shall be king over all the earth.

Mal 4:5
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:

Elijah the prophet will be sent before the DOTL.

Act 2:16-21
But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

DOTL a restating of Joel by Peter at Pentecost: pouring out of the Spirit, visions, dreams, prophesying, signs in heaven and earth, sun turned to darkness and moon to blood before the DOTL.

1Thess 5:2
For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

The DOTL comes as a thief in the night.

2Pet 3:10
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

The DOTL comes as a thief in the night, heavens will pass away with a great noise, elements burnt up, earth and all the works therein burnt up.

So in summative conclusion:
Before the DOTL and when at hand, the prophet Elijah will come, the land will be in famine and starvation, there will be wonders in heaven and on earth, cosmic events, sun darkened, moon blood.
The DOTL comes as a thief in the night. And is great, and comes with a sword.
The DOTL is a day of wrath, of the fierce anger of the Lord, a dark, cloudy, gloomy, dreadful terrible day with cosmic events, heavens shaking, and the earth shaking, fires, earthquakes, pestilence, calamity, and punishment, the unfaithful being cut off.
The DOTL is a day of battle, a day with a lot of dead bodies, a persecution of Israel, a payback to the heathen that persecute Israel, a day when armies gather around Jerusalem, a saving of the Jewish remnant.
The DOTL is when the Lord is King over the whole earth, and restores Israel, and is at rest dwelling in Zion.
Most importantly, the DOTL is characterized by the LORD being present, when the Lord alone will be exalted, and everything high and lofty and proud will be brought down.

Grace and Peace James

1Thess 5:2b DOTL part i

Gleanings in First Thessalonians
Chapter 5

1Thess 5:2b
… the day of the Lord …

(please note I truncated verse 2, and denoted it with an “b”, just dealing with the middle part of that verse today.)

Part 1 (yes that implies that there will be at least one more part of “the day of the Lord” [DOTL] study.)

So we should know what the Bible refers to when it says “the day of the Lord”. This is a term that God started using in the Old Testament; we see it first in the canonical order showing up in Isaiah, up to Malachi, and then a few spots in the New Testament. So it is only mentioned in the Prophetic books (the Major and Minor Prophets, as it is so designated in ministry and theology classes), Acts, First Thessalonians and Second Peter (however, also note that these are the direct references of the phrase, once you look at the characteristics and attributes of this “day” you can see it is talked about in a multitude of other places, and once you start to peel that onion it can be very interesting and enlightening to your Bible understanding).

Let us learn what the Bible says about this “day”, i.e. the DOTL.

Isa 2:10-21
Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.
The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:
And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,
And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall,
And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.
And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
And the idols he shall utterly abolish.
And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

From this swath of verses we see that the DOTL is the day when:
the LORD alone shall be exalted; the proud and lofty is brought low; idols are abolished; the LORD will shake terribly the earth; men hide themselves.

Isa 13:6-13
Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.
Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:
And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.
Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.
And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

The DOTL is a day that is:
Destruction from the Almighty; men will have pangs as a woman in travail; men shall be burnt up; wrath an fierce anger of the LORD; sinners destroyed; cosmic disturbances; darkness; the proud brought low; the heaven and earth shaken.

Jer 46:10
For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord GOD of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.

The DOTL is a day of vengeance; the sword is satiated and drunk with blood.

Eze 13:5
Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the LORD.

The DOTL is a day of battle; a time when Israel is to stand.

Eze 30:2-3
Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Howl ye, Woe worth the day!
For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.

The DOTL is a cloudy day; the time of the heathen (for their destruction)

Joel 1:14-20
Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD,
Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.
The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

The DOTL is as destruction from the Almighty; when it is at hand, there will be famine and starvation in the land of Israel.

Joel 2:1-11
Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;
A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.
A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.
Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.
Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.
They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks:
Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.
They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.
The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:
And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

The DOTL is a day of darkness, gloominess, of clouds, of thick darkness, as morning upon the mountains; with an advancement of an army (referred to as “his”, the LORD’s, army), a burning of the land (Israel); earthquaking, heavens shaking, sun and moon and stars darkened – very great and terrible, who can abide it?

Grace and Peace James
Better to be in “the day of salvation” (2Cor 6:2)

1Thess 5:1-2a Times...Seasons...

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”

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