Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #20 in Genesis 35, and we will read Genesis 35:16-20: 

And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour. And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also. And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin. And Rachel died, and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.  And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day.

I will stop reading there. In our last study, we looked at the word “travail,” and it took us to several verses.  And we saw that this word “travail” identifies with times of judgment.  We went to a couple of places in Jeremiah where it was used to describe His judgment upon Judah, which in turn is spiritually describing the judgment on the churches at the time of the end when judgment began at the house of God.

We also saw that this word “travail” is used in relationship to the fall of Babylon, and since Babylon is a type and picture of the world, it is a picture of the world’s fall when the world is under the judgment of God.

So the word “travail” identifies with times of judgment, and the context determines which judgment is in view, whether it is the judgment on the “city called by God’s name, the “house of God,” which is the corporate church, or whether it is the judgment on Babylon, which typifies the whole world.  For example, we went to Jeremiah 50:41-44 where we read of “pangs as of a woman in travail” coming upon the king of Babylon.  And we read in Isaiah 13:8 that “pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth.”  And the context was the “day of the Lord,” the day of God’s wrath, when He punishes the world for their iniquity.  Babylon was in view in Isaiah 13 because the whole chapter is describing “the burden of Babylon.” 

Then we went to Isaiah 21:3-4:

Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travaileth: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.

Then not far away from this verse that describes “the pangs of a woman that travaileth,” we read in Isaiah 21:9:

Babylon is fallen, is fallen…

Again, Babylon is in view in relationship to a woman that is travailing.

Now I want to go to the New Testament because there is a passage that uses this same language.  It says in 1Thessalonians 5:1-4:

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. 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.  But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

Here, God is indicating that Christ would come as a thief in the night upon the ungodly wicked because none of them will understand the advance warning, or the foretelling that the Bible provided to the people of God as the Lord revealed His secrets unto His servants, the prophets, and His people would declare it, but the wicked would not hearken.  They did not, and cannot, understand, and they would be caught as when a thief breaks in, and they will be unaware.  It says here that they will experience “sudden destruction.”

This word “sudden” is a word that is only found twice in the New Testament, and the other place is in Luke 21, and we will go there shortly.  But also notice that it says in 1Thessalonians 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. 

The idea of escaping is tied to salvation in Hebrews 2:3:

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

That is, if we do not listen to the Word of God by taking warning and going to Him, beseeching Him for mercy “before the day comes,” as Zephaniah 2 encouraged all to do in Zephaniah 2:2-3:

Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of JEHOVAH come upon you, before the day of JEHOVAH'S anger come upon you. Seek ye JEHOVAH…

It must be done before that day comes.  And yet if you neglect, and you hear with your physical ears, but you do not hearken, and there is no obedient response, and you thereby neglect it, then it is impossible to be saved if you “neglect so great salvation.”  And many neglected the salvation that God made available to all, potentially from man’s perspective, and it would have behooved all men to have gone to God with the idea in mind that maybe God would save them.  “Let me cry out for mercy!”  But the majority of mankind did not do that.  Instead they neglected it.  They just “wrote it off.”  “I am not interested.  I am too busy with the affairs of my life.”  And the result is that they would not escape when Christ came as a thief in then night, and “then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.”    They would find no deliverance, or no salvation, in the Day of Judgment.

It is interesting that when we look up the word “escape” in the Old Testament, there are references to those that escaped when they went to Babylon.  So it is the same idea as with “travail upon a woman in child.”  There are two judgments at the end of the world, the first one beginning with the churches, and the second one with the world.  And it was possible to escape the first judgment because judgment began at the house of God, but God mercifully, graciously, and kindly revealed to His people that the church age was over and that the Spirit of God had departed the churches, and Satan’s spirit had entered in.  So He commanded the child of God to depart out and “flee to the mountains,” and outside the churches there was still the possibility of salvation.  God was sending forth the Latter Rain as He poured out His Holy Spirit the second time to save the great multitude outside the churches and congregations of the world.

But once May 21, 2011 came, the door was shut, and the wrath of God began to be poured out upon all the unsaved inhabitants of the earth, then “escape” was no longer possible.  None shall escape: “…and they shall not escape.”  And it is not only said here, but let us go to Luke 21. And remember that I said that Greek word translated as “sudden” is only found twice in the New Testament, and the second time is in Luke 21, and Luke 21 also mentions our word “escape” in the same passage. It says in Luke 21:34:

And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.

The word “unawares” is Strong’s #160 that was translated as “sudden” back in 1Thessalonians 5:3 regarding “sudden destruction,”  so we can understand it to mean “unaware destruction.”  And “unaware” would be a better translation than “sudden.”  When we look up this word in Strong’s Greek Concordance, it will show that it is a compound word, and it has the negative prefix attached that negates the word, the alpha prefix, which is like adding “no,” or “not.”  The word itself is Strong’s #5316, and that is translated as “appear,” and also as “seen,” as well as “shine,” and “think.”  But just think of it in terms of “seen.”  Literally, this word translated as “unawares” means “not seen,” so it would mean “not seen destruction,” if we would apply it to 1Thessalonians 5:3.  And also here in Luke 21:34, it could be said: “…and so that day (judgment day) come upon you not seen.”  And if something is not seen, it is invisible.  And what things are invisible?  The answer the Bible gives is that spiritual things are invisible.  God is the creator of all things visible and invisible.  There is the physical realm of existence and the spiritual realm of existence.  Spiritual things are invisible.  You and I have souls, and we cannot see them because souls are invisible.  God is Spirit, and we cannot see Him.  So God brought about a “not seen” destruction upon the world, and that fits in perfectly with our understanding of what happened on May 21, 2011, the beginning of Judgment Day.

So after saying, “and so that day come upon you unawares,” or “not seen,”  then it says in Luke 21:35:

For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.

And a snare is a trap, and certainly when we look back to the day after May 21, 2011, we remember that on May 22, the people of the world were partying, and they were saying, “We survived it!  It did not happen!”  And the churches were hand-in-hand with the world because they had become part of the world, and I do not mean that in a good way, but in a spiritually bad way.  The churches and the world were hand-in-hand rejoicing that Christ did not come.  Can you imagine the members of the churches that profess to desire the coming of the Lord being overjoyed at the idea that Christ did not come?  And as is typical to churches that had been struck blind in their spiritual understanding and are walking in spiritual darkness, they were wrong, right along with the rest of the unsaved world.  They were trusting their physical eyes as unsaved man tends to do.  They looked around, and they said, “There was no earthquake.  The ground did not shake.  The world is still here.  That’s it!  Never again will I listen to anyone telling me about Christ coming or Judgment Day.  We have won.  Let us just forget all about it!”

But at that very time, the judgment of God had commenced.  It was under way, and it is ongoing, and the events of these last few years have unfolded as God is working out His judgment program.  The Lord was quite content to allow man to think that nothing happened.  That fit right into His plan because His plan was to bring a “not seen judgment” on all inhabitants of the world as a snare, as it says in Luke 21:35:

For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.

It was a perfect trap that God had set, and it has caught all the unsaved in it.  Then it says in Luke 21:36:

Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

Here we see the word “escape,” which we knows identifies with salvation.  And we know it said of the ungodly, in 1Peter 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. 

There is no more salvation.  They will be caught in the snare of God’s wrath.  And yet Luke 21:36 is reverting back prior to this time and warning that the day will come unawares, or unseen, and it says in Luke 21:36:

Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things, and to stand before the Son of man.

That is, because it will come, watch before that time, and this would have applied all the way up to May 21, 2011.  It would have had application throughout the day of salvation because salvation would have brought deliverance and escape from this terrible situation that would come to pass.  And if God has bestowed the sceptre of grace to you by granting you forgiveness of sins through the faith of Christ, as a result you will “escape” all these things, and then you will be able to “stand before the Son of man.”  Remember what we learned about that in the Bible?  First, remember the question that was asked in Revelation 6:17 concerning the time of the wrath of the Lamb: “Who shall be able to stand?”  Then we learned in Psalm 1 that “the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment.”  Babylon would fall, and Babylon is made up of all the unsaved inhabitants of the earth.  They cannot stand before Christ in the Day of Judgment.

But God’s elect have also been left on the earth, the great multitude that has “escaped.”  They were saved out of the Great Tribulation when they were “delivered” by God (in salvation).  They are counted worthy because the worthiness of each elect child of God is found in Christ, and it is imparted to us when we receive His righteousness.  We are thereby counted worthy to stand before the Son of man.  We will endure to the end, and we will abide the Day of Judgment all the way to the finish.

But again, we see this reference to “travail,” as it says in 1Peter 5:3:

… then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child…

And it has to do with Judgment Day, our present period of time.

I want to look further at that, but I would like to go back to the Old Testament and look at some Scriptures related to the word “escape,” before we continue to look at this word “travail.”  So let us take a temporary detour, and go back to Jeremiah 50:28:

The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of JEHOVAH our God, the vengeance of his temple.

These represent the elect that have gone to “Babylon,” spiritually speaking.  They have come out of the churches, and they escaped to Babylon, and then they “come out of Babylon,” as the call of God came in Revelation 18:4: “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”  We are no longer a part of that kingdom of Satan even though we remain the world, and yet we are to “declare in Zion the vengeance of his temple.”  That is, historically, Babylon judged Judah, and destroyed the temple.   God then repaid, or recompensed, Babylon by causing their fall when the Medes and the Persians came against them, and Cyrus took the kingdom.  And it happened “in a night,” suddenly.  They came like a thief.  It was certainly unexpected, and it was immediate, which pictures the fall of Satan and this world on May 21, 2011.  “Babylon is fallen, is fallen!”  The people of God escaped through the salvation of God, and we are remaining on the earth, and one of our tasks is to declare the vengeance of God’s temple. 

But then look at Jeremiah 50:29:

Call together the archers against Babylon: all ye that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her: for she hath been proud against JEHOVAH, against the Holy One of Israel.

We escaped.  We found salvation.  But now God has said to shoot our arrows against Babylon, and “let none escape.”  And that can only mean that there is no possibility of salvation.  There was the possibility of salvation in the second part of the Great Tribulation with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit outside of the churches because the object of the wrath of God at that time was the corporate church, and not the world.  God saved a great many outside the churches.

But when it comes to the final judgment of Babylon, typifying the whole world, there is no place of salvation.  God had no plan for additional periods of spiritual rain, or of gathering “fruits” in salvation.  Therefore, none are to escape.  That is the emphasis.

Let us go to 2Chronicles 20, a chapter that is a historical parable picturing the fall of the world and the enemies of the kingdom of God that defeat themselves by destroying one another.  It says in 2Chronicles 20:23-24:

For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another. And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped.

None escaped.  There is that language again, and we can see it is used consistently, is it not?  There is the verse in Jeremiah 50 that says to let none of Babylon escape.  And here, concerning Ammon, Moab and mount Seir (Edom), none escaped.  They were all dead.  And that is illustrating the world in the Day of Judgment.  The world will kill themselves; they will be at each other’s throats.  There will be continuing division until the very last day, and none of them will escape.

Let us go to one last place in Joel 2, which is referring to “the day of JEHOVAH,” which we read in verses 1 and 2.  It speaks of “a great people and a strong,” which refers to the great multitude, the saints, as typified the locusts in Revelation 9.  We read in Joel 2:3:

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.

No one will escape.  That is the unfortunate fact at this time in God’s judgment program.