The Second Hebrew Idiom

Matthew 24:6-8



You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8All these are the beginning of birth pains.



Everyone realizes that World War One did not usher in the time of the end, for only 21 years later the world was plunged into World War 2. Jesus did not say the first sign would usher in the end, but said,"All these are the beginning of sorrows." This term 'beginning of sorrows' is the second Hebrew idiom Jesus used. It was used by four of the Hebrew prophets to describe a woman in labor and pain Israel will endure at the end of the age.

Unless a woman's labour is medically induced, her 'sorrows...in childbirth' mirror those of mother Eve after her sin and expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Her first birth pain does not mean her baby will be born immediately; in fact, she may have thirty of fifty birth pains, some of which are days apart, before giving birth. In most cases, these pains follow a pattern: The first birth pain warns her that her nine months of waiting are nearly over. Still, in most cases she does not look for the birth of the child immediately; she looks for another birth pain.And when it comes, she looks for another. When at last they become more intense and regular - usually three minutes apart for a period of ten minutes - then she and her husband know the birth is near.

World War I did not signal that we should look for the immediate coming of Christ of 'the end of the age.' It signaled that we should look for more birth pains. And it is my thesis that many other signs, or birth pains, have arisen during these more than eighty years since that 'Great War.' Many of them grew out of that first 'sign,' until today the 'brith pains' are very intense - and may even be in the last phase. If so, 'the end' may be rapidly approaching. In fact, it may be as Jesus said:"Near, even at the doors"( Matthew 24:33)

The First Idiom: A Special Kind of War

Once more recall Jesus' words from Matthew 24:7-8 in response to His disciples' question about the end of the age:

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.


Notice it's nation, not nations. Our Lord used two Hebrew idioms here that His Jewish friends would quickly recognize. The first, based on 2 Chronicles 15:1-7 and Isaiah 19:1-2, is "Nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom". He was speaking of a war started by two nations, each combatant soon joined by the surrounding kingdoms until all the nations involved in the prophet's vision are included. In Matthew 24 our Lord had the world in view. so He's saying, "When you see a war started by two single nations that is soon joined by the kingdoms of the world - followed by unprecedented famines, pestilence, and multiple earthquakes at the same time - you have the sign."


That is exactly what occurred in June 1914 when the Archduke of Austria, prince Francis Ferdinand, was shot by a Serbian zealot in the very area of the world where in these days UN preackeepers must be stationed to keep the Serbs and Croats from killing each other. One month later Austria declared war on Serbia, followed shortly by the other kingdoms of the world, until all but seven nations officially joined the conflict (and even the seven 'neutral' countries sent mercenaries). At first historians officially called it 'the Great War,' for indeed, to that point it was the greatest war in human history. the war involved more men in uniform(estimates total 53 million, 13 million of whom were killed) than all the troops in all the wars before it. But it didn't end there, for an incalculable number of civilians on both sides were injured or killed in the bombings and skirmishes. Not many years later the war's original title was replaced by the even more descriptive title, World War 1, thus fulfilling the first idiom our Lord used to describe 'the sign'.


If this were all that happened in 1914-1918, however, it would not be sufficient to fulfill all of our Lord's prophecy. Remember, He added,"There will be famines, pestilences...in various places." A look at history reveals that the flu epidemic of 1918 spread throughout Europe, Canada, and the US and took more lives than were lost on the battlefields. In Europe, much of this vulnerability to disease was caused by malnutrition and famine as a result of the war. In fact, because of this acute lack of food due to the first World War, farmers were exempted from military service in World War II.


So three parts of the first sign Jesus gave His disciples- a special kind of war, famines, and plagues-were fufilled at the beginning of the twentieth century. The fourth part, multiple earthquakes at the same time, is more difficult to pin down, but it's nonetheless fufilled. Major earthquakes have occurred since World War I in such various places as Kansu province, China; Tokyo, Japan; Persia;India;Peru;Taiwan;and southern California. The only known multiple earthquakes in history have been recorded since World War I. For example, during the Turkish earthquakes similar reports came in from Africa, S. America, S. Carolina, and S. California. During a prolonged quake in Helena, Montana, there were similar reports in New York and Honduras.

Something unusual is transpiring with planet Earth! One seismologist at the Scripps Research Center in La Jolla, California, said," It is almost as though the earth's plates are gyrating in anticipation of the world's greatest earthquake." In the book of Revelation, the apostle John forewarned that the worst earthquakes ever to hit the planet will occur during the Tribulation.(Please refer to the post titled New Testament Prophetic Event)

Now we know that these four parts of this 'sign' were fufilled, I believe is reasonable to conclude that our planet has already witnessed the beginning of the end.