(1 Thessalonians 5:1-5) “Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labour pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness.”
Former US President Donald J. Trump has been elected once again to serve a second term. The moderate Arab nations are now hoping that President elect Trump will somehow be able to broker a Middle-east peace negotiation that will see Iran stalled in their malevolent militancy against Israel, against the Arab kingdoms on the Saudi Arabian peninsula, and towards America and the western democracies. Even Qatar had decided to disassociate or distance itself from the Hamas leadership and as a go-between of sorts between Hamas and the US Administration.
Israeli society is divided. Some want to see a cease fire and the hostages sent home which realistically would allow Hamas to regroup and re-gather what is left of their armed forces to continue attacking Israel. Most Israelis though want to see Hamas and Hezbollah completely destroyed, especially in light of the constant barrage of rockets and missiles continuously coming into Israel from Lebanon.
The Biden administration has been pushing for appeasement, a cease-fire and the establishment of a two-state solution all of which if brokered would put Israel in harm’s way and Prime Minister Netanyahu knows this well even if Biden and the European powers don’t or choose not to know. Also there are those within the Israeli government who do not support Israel’s continuing offensive against Hamas and Gaza.
We also know that Iran is the head of the snake and “the circle of hostile fire” that surrounds Israel. Iran funds Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, the contentious Arabs living in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and the terrorist organizations in Syria and Iraq. As yet the Iranian Nuclear facilities in Iran remain intact but this could change if Israel takes out those facilities. With Donald J. Trump, now once again in 2024 the elected President of America and very favourable towards Israel and its security, in itself may embolden Prime Minister Netanyahu to order an air strike on the Iranian nuclear infrastructure.
It was Donald J. Trump who brokered the Abraham Accords in 2020 which saw the normalization of Israeli relations with some Arab countries. The Abraham Accords were bilateral agreements on Arab–Israeli normalization signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and between Israel and Bahrain on September 15, 2020. With the election of Biden the Abraham Accords were stalled.
Now that Donald J. Trump is now going to be back in the White House the Middle-east may well see a peace deal that would bring some kind of relief from Iranian aggression. However, if there is a peace deal it will not be one that will last. The reality is you cannot make peace with Islam. Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran’s other terrorist proxies in Yemen, Syria and Iraq are not going to go away anytime soon. Now with the election of Donald J. Trump even Israel is hopeful that now they will have the full support of the United States not only to allow Israel to defend itself if attacked, which is already happening, but for the Israeli to take the fight to the Iranian regime big time and to take out the Iranian nuclear facilities, causing their nuclear development to be put back for a very long time, and the Iranian regime know this, even though they are still raining missiles down on Israel. If the Iranian nuclear facilities are not taken out then once Iran has nuclear capability it will become even a bigger threat to Israel, to the moderate Arab kingdoms on the Saudi Arabian Peninsula and to the western democracies primarily in Europe but not excluding America or Great Britain.
When we read what Rabbi the apostle Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-5. It would seem that a time will come when a form of global peace will come about. While there are other hot spots in the world the main hot spot is the Middle-East and the status of Jerusalem itself at the centre of the maelstrom (Zechariah 12:2-3). We also know from scripture that the time will come when all of the nations of the world will come against Jerusalem and at that time God will send the Messiah our Lord Jesus back to deal with Israel’s enemies and to establish the Messianic Millennial Kingdom on earth (Zechariah Chapter 14).
Of course the reality is that there can be no lasting peace in the world or in Israel until the Prince of Peace the Messiah our Lord Jesus has returned and sits on David’s throne at Jerusalem, ruling the surviving nations with a sceptre of iron and dispensing righteousness, justice, peace and prosperity to the surviving nations through the nation of Israel, the head and not the tail of the nations in that day (Isaiah 9:6-7) (Isaiah 2:1-5) (Micah 4:1-5).
Now there will be a false peace, unlike any other peace in modern times and everyone will breathe a sigh of relief and things will seem to get better overall in the nations, but it will not last. Not only the Gentile nations but also Israel will buy into this peace which scripture calls “a covenant of death” (Isaiah 28:16), because Israel as a nation by and large will still be hostile to the Messiah our Lord Jesus and be seeking security with Gentile nations supposedly onside and God is going to have to drastically deal with Israel to bring them to encounter the Messiah which they will during the Time of Jacob’s Trouble and to be saved out of it (Jeremiah 30:1-10). Let’s now look at the text in relation to this false peace and how things will end…
Exposition:
(1 Thessalonians 5:1-3) “Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you.”
The Lord Jesus said that no one knows the day or the hour of His return, however, He did not say that we would not know the signs of His return. In fact the Messiah Himself mentioned the “labour pains” of wars and rumours of wars, nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and famines and earthquakes in various places and pestilence and widespread spiritual deception (Matthew 24:7-13) (Luke 21:8-11). When a woman is pregnant and the labour pains start the contractions come intermittently and then increase in frequency and intensity and when they are coming one upon another you know that the baby is about to be born. Today these “signs” are conspicuous and they have always been there since the first century, however, today they are coming one upon another and this indicates the birth of the Messiah’s Messianic Millennial Kingdom on earth is about to occur. The false peace will come an then all hell will break lose, and if the Messiah our Lord Jesus does not come back no flesh would be saved, but for the sake of God’s elect saints He will cut those days short! (Matthew 24:21-22). The fact that Israel was reborn as a nation in 1948 after almost 2,000 years of exile is of prophetic significance. Today Israel is centre stage in world affairs. And then we read…
“For you yourselves know full well that the Day of the LORD will come just like a thief in the night.”
The day of the LORD is not a single day but a very short period of time at the very end of this age when conditions in the world will deteriorate and will see the breakdown of society and every level of society shaken (Isaiah 24:1-3). The bowls of God’s wrath will be poured out upon the inhabitants of the world without restraint as we see described in the Book of Revelation and in the prophets in the Old Testament. The plagues poured out upon Egypt (a type of the world at the end of this age) in the Book of Exodus are replayed in the Book of Revelation. Just as the Hebrews were protected by the blood of the lamb so every born again New Covenant believer, sheltering by faith under the redeeming, sanctifying, justifying blood of the lamb of God, will not experience this wrath (Romans 5:9) (1 Thessalonians 1:10. 5:9). Now when it says that this “Day of the LORD will come just like a thief in the night” it is not referring to a secret pre-tribulation rapture but referring to the unexpectedness of His Second Coming, and when He is least expected (Matthew 24:36-44).
“While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labour pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.”
In the time of Noah we are told that the wold was full of violence and sodomy and sexual perversion and immorality and that the imaginations of people were evil all of the time and that people were eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage with the mindset of “business as usual’ unaware of the watery deluge coming upon the whole world at that time. In scripture Noah is called “a preacher of righteousness” and for 120 years as he and his family were building that ark they were laughed at, ridiculed, and rejected by society, but the time came when they went into that ark of salvation and the rest of the world perished and were swept away in judgement (Matthew 24:40-41) compare: (Proverbs 10:25) (Psalm 28:3) (Zephaniah 1:2-3) (Proverbs 21:7) (Psalm 73:19) (Psalm 58:9) (psalm 90:5) (1 Samuel 12:25).
This is happening again today. Those who are saved and already in that ark of salvation through faith in the Messiah and in His shed blood for their salvation, and who are preaching the gospel of the kingdom, are being ridiculed, rejected, marginalised, persecuted and martyred. However, when the fiery wrath of God falls from heaven upon a Messiah hating, Messiah rejecting world the faithful remnant will be rescued from it, just as Noah and his family were rescued! When the deluge happened the people of Noah’s time were suddenly gripped by fear and a sense of coming doom and this was like labour pains suddenly coming upon a pregnant woman expectantly. So it will be when the unsaved are suddenly and without warning confronted with the day of the LORD! None will escape except the redeemed of the LORD! As Paul continues…
“But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness.”
If we are walking in the light of God’s Word, having been born again by the Spirit of God and cleansed in the blood of Messiah, having all of our sins forgiven and by that blood justified before God, then we will know what is happening in this world. We will not be in darkness and ignorance concerning the last days, but have His light being shed on what we see around us. If we do not know what the Bible says about the future events and especially Israel in the last days then we, like the unsaved in the world, will not know what is happening when the deep darkness descends as it did in Ancient Egypt in the time of Moses. Bible prophecy is like “a light shining in a dark place” (2 Peter 1:19). Without a basic knowledge of Bible prophecy, even if we are a saved believer, we will not know what is happening when “the night comes when no one can work” (John 9:4). This “night” alludes to the time of Great Tribulation which the faithful Body of Messiah will enter but be saved out of it before the wrath of God falls (Revelation 7:14-17).
Epilogue:
If we are waiting with expectant faith for the Second Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus to rescue us out of this present evil age according to the will of God our Heavenly Father then we will not be taken by surprise as those in spiritual darkness and ignorance, because we are children of “light” and not of “the darkness.” We are sons and daughters of the light, being the Messiah our Lord Jesus, “the Light of this world, the true light that enlightens all men” and that those who follow Him “will not walk in darkness but have the light of life” to lead and to guide them through this brief life on earth and especially in these last days leading up to His Second Coming. A false peace is coming to the world and it will sweep many into its clutches of deception; however, it will not last. Those who belong to the Lord Jesus and who know His Word regarding Bible prophecy will not be deceived by this false peace. Instead these will know that according to the Word of God there can be no lasting peace until the Prince of Peace reigns on the throne of David at Jerusalem.
As we read in the prophet Isaiah; “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this” (Isaiah 9:6-7).
