Matthew 24 - Part 13

In our examination of Matthew 24:7, we left off at the two “disasters” -  “pestilences” and “earthquakes”: “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.”

Pestilences [loimos:G3061] 

The Greek word, “pestilences” appears in two other passages; the first one is in the parallel verse, Luke 21:11, “And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.”  The second one is Tertullus’ unflattering accusation of Paul in Acts 24:5, “For we have found this man [a] pestilent [loimos:G3061] [fellow], and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes:” Since this expression has no apparent root word, it makes it difficult to search out in the Greek. This occurs with certain words, from time to time, and especially if there is no “ word bridge” to The Old Testament. (Incidentally, a “word bridge” is simply an Old Testament verse that is quoted in the New Testament, thereby allowing one to see how the same words are utilized by God in both Hebrew and Greek, which helps to expand our understanding of the two passages.) So, with that in mind, let’s turn our attention to see how God uses the English term, rendered “pestilence” in the Old Testament, as a means to hopefully shed further spiritual light on Matthew 24:7. This word is only found in the singular, and surfaces 47 times in the Old Testament, and in each case, it is always the word, “deber” (H1698). What’s interesting about this word is that it is identically spelled to “dabar” (H1696), which is predominantly translated as “speak” or “say,” (a verb) from which the identically spelled noun form, “word” is derived. Let’s consider some of the ways that God employs “deber” (H1698), which is always rendered as “pestilence”:

In Jeremiah 21:5-10, this expression, “pestilence” crops up in verses 6-7 and 9, in which we discover one of the hundreds of places where God commands the Israelites to go into captivity to Babylon, because God was using the Babylonians to bring judgment against Judah and Jerusalem (typifying the end-time institutional churches and denominations, which God commanded His elect people to leave at the start of the Great Tribulation, as we will discover as make our way through Matthew 24). In fact, in Jeremiah 21:5 God affirms that He will fight against His own corporate people: “And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath. {6} And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence. [deber:H1698] {7} And afterward, saith the LORD, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence [deber:H1698], from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life: and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy. {8} And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death. {9} He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence [deber:H1698] : but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey. {10} For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, saith the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.”

Earthquakes [seismos:G4578]

The word, “earthquakes,” occurs 14 times in the New Testament; once as “tempest,” and the other 13 times as “earthquakes(s).” And once again, we want to search for the deeper spiritual significance, as we did with both “famines” and “pestilences” which depict the bankrupt spiritual atmosphere of all the churches and denominations, once God abandoned them on May 21, 2011, after using them as His representation of the Kingdom of God on earth for 1955 years (since May 22, 33 AD - the Day of Pentecost). Once again this word appears in both Mark 13:8 and Luke 21:11, which are the parallel verses to Matthew 24:7. Revelation 8:5 coincides with the beginning of the Great Tribulation on May 21, 1988, in which this term is translated as, “an earthquake”:   By contrast, Acts 16:26 pictures the last of the elect being “set free” by the Gospel during the last 17 years of the Great Tribulation, known as the “latter rain”: “And suddenly there was a great earthquake [seismos:G4578], so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.”

Summary: The terms “pestilences” and “earthquakes” can refer to the period of the Great Tribulation in which the battle between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan raged as never before, and are focused on the judgment of God. At the same time the Gospel was going forth to reach the last of the nations of the elect, as typified by Acts 16:26.   

Prayer And Praise

• If you have been blessed by BMI in some way, would you share that with us by letter or email.
• Your prayers for our daughter Maria are very much needed and most certainly appreciated.

If God leads you to help Bible Ministries International out this holiday season, would you prayerfully consider the following needs:

1. A year-end gift.
2. If you are able to increase your monthly support to offset lapsed donors.
3. If you are not a monthly donor, please consider becoming one.
4. Mark Hewitt (our Board Member and Vice-President) and his large family are being displaced, and are in need of financial help to get into a rental home ASAP.
5. Consider shopping at smile.amazon.com, and select Bible Ministries International. The Amazon Foundation will donate 0.5% of your purchase to BMI.    

www.bmius.org/ourstorywww.bmius.org/donate