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First Thessalonians, part 12, The Second Coming

In order to understand the progression of events for Christ’s second coming, one should consider the prophetic types in the Old Testament. In this case, Jacob’s journey to and from the land of Haran gives valuable insights.

Jacob left Beersheba, “the well of the oath,” which represents the feast of Passover. From there he went to Bethel, where he had a Pentecostal experience and made a vow to God. This was comparable years later to Israel’s Mount Sinai revelation of the law and their vow in Exodus 19:8. Jacob then went to Haran, where he labored for the next 20 years.

His trip to Haran foreshadowed Christ’s first coming and the Spring feasts.

Division at Mahanaim

Jacob’s return to Canaan foreshadowed Christ’s second coming and the Autumn feasts. His first prophetic stop was at Mahanaim (“two camps”), where he divided his flocks and family. This foreshadowed the division at the feast of Trumpets, where the overcomers are separated from the rest of the church. In essence, believers are separated into “two camps,” the Leah company that suffers from blindness in part (Genesis 29:17), and the Rachel company that brings forth the birthright holder (Joseph).

Once this prophetic separation is made, the two groups are treated differently at the second coming of Christ. The limited resurrection will no doubt cause panic throughout the church, for they will wonder if they missed the “rapture” according to their viewpoint. They will be forced to rethink their entire eschatology during the next ten days—the period of time that the Jews call the “Days of Awe.”

Wrestling at Penuel

Jacob’s wrestling match with the angel represents the Day of Atonement, a day of fasting and repentance for the church. But for the overcomers, this will be a Jubilee, because both feasts occur on the tenth day of the seventh month. This will be the day when the believers will either qualify or not as an overcomer. It will also start the preparation for the feast of Tabernacles, which begins five days later.

Arriving at Succoth

Jacob’s next stop was at Succoth, “Booths/Tabernacles,” where he built a house for himself and booths for his livestock (Genesis 33:17). A booth is a temporary (moveable) dwelling, much like the tabernacle in the wilderness. By contrast, Solomon’s temple was an Old Covenant resting place (Numbers 10:33; Deuteronomy 12:11; Psalm 132:8). Yet when Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land, he, being a type and shadow, could not give them true “rest” (Hebrews 4:8). Only the true Joshua (Yeshua) could do this—at His second coming.

So the booths that Jacob built prophesied of believers who, like the original Old Covenant Israelites, will not enter into God’s rest (Jubilee) at Christ’s second coming. They will have to wait for another thousand years to receive their reward. But Jacob, now called by the birthright name, Israel, built a house for himself.

From tent (booth) to house is the progression. Both are good, but a house signifies “God’s rest.” It is linked to those who are given the Jubilee inheritance.

The Final Sequence

On the first day of Tabernacles, the 15^th day of the seventh month, the living overcomers will be “changed” (1 Corinthians 15:52). This change will allow them to become one body with those overcomers who were raised earlier on the feast of Trumpets. So Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4:17,

¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord.

Paul did not intend to set forth the details of Christ’s coming. His purpose was to provide us with the sequence of events. To understand the timing, one must study the Autumn feasts. But most believers, who have adopted Darby’s “rapture” view, have remained limited in their understanding, on account of his ignorance of the feast days.

I recall when I was young, the church taught me that all of these events will occur with seconds of each other. The dead will be raised (they said), and as they fly upward, we who are alive and remain will be right behind them, tickling their feet. It was not until many years later that I began to study the feast days. Gradually, I came to see that the Spring feasts prophesied of Christ’s first mission, while the Autumn feasts prophesied of His second work. Only then was I able to fit Paul’s teaching into the sequence of the feast days.

We know that Jesus was not raised on the same day that He died. We know that Pentecost had to wait for seven weeks after His resurrection. None of these events happened on the same day. The same is true for the Autumn feasts. It will take three weeks for the sequence to run its course, beginning with Trumpets and ending on the eighth day of Tabernacles, which is the 22^nd day of the seventh month.

Paul tells the Thessalonian believers that the dead will be raised as the first event. Hence, they need not worry that if they die before Christ’s parousia, they might miss out on these events. In fact, they will precede the living overcomers, who are not “changed” for another two weeks on the first day of Tabernacles.

In the interim, will we see these resurrected saints? The answer is unclear. Will we be able to touch them? I do not think so, for we have Christ’s example after His resurrection. Recall that He told Mary that she should not touch Him until He had ascended to present Himself alive in the temple in heaven. That moment was timed to occur when the high priest waved the sheaf of barley in the earthly temple at the third hour of the day. Mary encountered Jesus too early in the morning. But later that evening, He appeared to His disciples, and they were able to touch Him. Why? Because He had already ascended to complete the work required that day.

So it is likely that no one will be able to touch the resurrected overcomers until they (along with the changed living overcomers) are presented to God in the temple in heaven on the eighth day of Tabernacles.

The New Priesthood

One of the main purposes of the Autumn feasts is to bring forth a body (Hebrews 10:5) so that the Head (Christ) can be joined with it. A body without a head does not qualify as a priest. A priest must be complete in his parts to enter the veil (Leviticus 21:17-23). Under the Old Covenant, this applied to the Aaronic priesthood and the temple in Jerusalem. Under the New Covenant, this law applies to the Melchizedek priesthood and the temple in heaven.

God is building a heavenly priesthood to reign as “priests of God” (Revelation 20:6) in the Age to come. Revelation 5:10 says,

¹⁰ You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth.

The first step, of course, is to bring back all of the past overcomers, so that they may be alive on earth and receive their inheritance. As priests, they will be mediators, representing God to the people and the people to God. The common notion that at Christ’s coming, everyone will either go to heaven or be sent to hell is foreign to Scripture. This new priesthood will show by example how God’s righteous government is “the desire of all nations” (Haggai 2:7 KJV). It is what they always wanted but did not know how to get it.

The Birth of the Sons of God

The feast of Tabernacles extends for eight days, because it follows the law of the eighth day in Exodus 22:29, 30,

²⁹ You shall not delay the offering from your harvest and your vintage. The first-born of your sons you shall give to Me. ³⁰ You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep. It shall be with its mother seven days; on the eighth day you shall give it to Me.

The sons of God are those who have been begotten by the Holy Spirit, being impregnated, as it were, through their ears (by hearing the word). On a prophetic level, the birth of these sons of God is scheduled for the first day of the feast of Tabernacles. Then they must remain with their “mother” for seven full days before being presented to God on the eighth day.

It is unlawful to present the sons of God on any other day than the eighth day. Hence, when the living overcomers are “changed,” the countdown begins, but they must wait a full week. Not every event happens at once. The feast days set the timing of prophetic events.

The birth of the sons of God and their unification with the resurrected saints brings the body of Christ into its fullness—except that this body still lacks its Head. The purpose of Christ’s second coming is to join the Head to the body in order to be qualified for the Melchizedek priesthood.

So when will that joining occur? The only prophetic pattern that I have found is in John 7, where Jesus kept the feast of Tabernacles (John 7:2). He remained hidden until the middle of the feast, for we read in John 7:14,

¹⁴ But when it was now the midst of the feast, Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach.

This fulfilled Malachi 3:1, “And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple.” This appears to set the pattern for Christ’s second coming. Once the Head has been joined to the body, God’s priest can be presented “without blame in holiness” to God (1 Thessalonians 3:13).

This presentation of sons on the eighth day is what many call the “rapture.” Paul uses the term harpazo, “caught up” (1 Thessalonians 4:17). (The Latin translation reads rapto, from which the word “rapture” is derived.)

Consecration of the Priests

The feast of Tabernacles can also be considered to be the time of consecration to the priesthood. The Old Covenant pattern with Aaron and his sons is seen in Leviticus 8:33,

³³ You shall not go outside the doorway of the tent of meeting for seven days, until the day that the period of your ordination is fulfilled; for he will ordain you through seven days.

The ordained priests then emerged on the eighth day to bring the glory of God to the people. Leviticus 9:1 says,

¹ Now it came about on the eighth day that Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel.

They were instructed to offer certain offerings, “for today the Lord will appear to you” (Leviticus 9:4). We then read in Leviticus 9:23,

²³ Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting. When they came out and blessed the people, the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people.

In this case Moses was acting as a type of Christ, and Aaron embodied the priesthood. By emerging from the tabernacle, they enacted the prophecy of the new priesthood (Christ and His body) coming out of the temple in heaven and appearing to the people in the earth. This suggests that the overcomer priesthood will be “caught up” to the temple in heaven, where they will be ordained as a body to the Melchizedek priesthood.

On the same day (the eighth day in earthly terms) they will bring the glory of God to the earth to begin the Age of Tabernacles that will continue for a thousand years.