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The title of my sermon tonight is Symbolism of the Rapture in Exodus. Symbolism of the rapture and of the second coming in the book of Exodus. Now we never want to base what we believe on symbolism because with symbolism you could interpret things the wrong way and get all kinds of wrong doctrine. So we always want to base what we believe on clear scripture, not symbols and figures. But once we base what we believe on clear scripture, symbolism and things that are figurative can really enhance our understanding or back up what we already believe and it just shows how amazing God's word is that when you learn about something, then you'll just find it all throughout the Bible. So when you learn about the second coming of Jesus Christ, you learn about the rapture, the tribulation, stuff like that, you'll start seeing it all over the Bible. You'll see it in the books of Moses, you'll see it in the book of Joshua, I mean you'll see it in the most unlikely places. You know, you start studying and preaching about the Trinity and it's just on every page, you're just seeing it everywhere. So let's start out before we get into the symbolism here with the clear scripture. Let's go to 1 Thessalonians 4 which is the most famous and clearest passage on the rapture. 1 Thessalonians 4 and this will give us a reference point, then we can go back to Exodus and see the symbolism that's there. Look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, the famous passage beginning in verse number 13, But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with Him. Now the first thing I want to point out, which is really interesting here, is that the Bible says them which are asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. And then it says the Lord Himself will descend in verse 16. So this is another great proof that Jesus Christ is God because it says God will bring them with Him and it's actually Jesus who's doing the bringing. And not only that, it says them which are asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. When Jesus comes and He brings them with Him, where is He coming from? He's coming from where? From heaven, right? This is the second coming of Jesus Christ. He's up seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven and when He comes He's going to bring people with Him. Now you know what that proves? That proves that the saved, the asleep in Jesus are in heaven right now. See people who believe in soul sleep like the Seventh-day Adventist, Jehovah's false witnesses, they believe that the saved are just in the ground right now, that they're just laying there and that their soul's asleep or whatever. But what we believe is that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord and that when we breathe our last breath our spirit will return to the God that gave it and we will be in heaven. Paul said I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ. To me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And so when the second coming of Christ happens it says those which are asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. So He's bringing them from where? Heaven with Him. Okay then in the next verse it says for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain under the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. Meaning we won't go before them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God. And then watch this, the dead in Christ shall rise first. Now that direction is what? From the earth going up. So in this passage we have the asleep in Jesus that are brought with Christ but then in the next breath He says the dead in Christ shall rise first. What's going on? What it is is that their soul is in heaven and their body is on earth. Their body is in the grave. And so the part of them that's asleep is the body. It's not a soul sleep, it's a body sleep, right? So their body is laying in the grave and when Christ comes in the clouds the trumpet sounds He's going to bring them with Him from heaven, talk about the souls, and then their bodies will rise. And they'll be changed in a moment in a twinkling of an eye to a glorified resurrected body. So it says the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words. Now it's pretty strange when people teach that there's no rapture because we just read about it right here in very clear terms. The word rapture simply means the catching away, being caught up together with them. See the Bible was in Latin for many years. That was the main language that the Bible was being printed in for a long time. And so a lot of people learned terms from the Latin Bible. So what we would say in English as caught up is what you would say in Latin with the word very similar to the word rapture. So it's just a Latin way when we say, because people say rapture is not in the Bible. Well caught up is. And that's all, rapture is just a Latin way of saying being caught up. And in fact we'll often even use the word rapture in a metaphorical sense of just saying like someone was enrapture. It means that they were just like carried away or caught up in the feeling or emotion or whatever. So the Bible is teaching here very clearly that Christ is going to come in the clouds, the trumpets going to sound, the dead are going to rise, those which are alive and remain in Christ are caught up together into the air to meet them in the clouds. I mean it's pretty clear. And please don't tell me that this happened in 70 A.D. because I'm just not buying it. Nothing like this happened in 70 A.D. Now in 70 A.D. the temple got wiped out and that's a whole other sermon. But this certainly didn't happen. And then he talks about the fact that it's going to come upon the unsaved as a thief in the night in chapter 5. But he says in verse 4 of 1 Thessalonians 5, But ye brethren are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of the light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. So it is not the rapture that's unbiblical, it is the pre-tribulation rapture that is unbiblical. The Bible clearly tells us in Matthew 24 that it's after the tribulation that the trumpet sounds, Christ comes in the clouds, and the elect are gathered. But a lot of people they throw out the baby with the bathwater, they learn that the pre-trib rapture is on scriptural, and they say oh there's no rapture. Well yeah there is a rapture, it's right here in the Bible. It's just the timing is off from what has been popularly taught. Now let's go back to Exodus 19 now that we've seen the main rapture passage. Let's go back to Exodus 19 and see the symbolic things that are there in Exodus chapter 19. I'm going to show you two different symbols in Exodus of the rapture. The first one is in Exodus chapter 19, and then the second one is later in the book of Exodus in chapters 24 and 32. But look at Exodus chapter 19 verse 9, and in this symbol we have the Lord coming down, and we have Moses going up. So in this symbol the Lord is representing Jesus Christ coming down, right? Coming into the clouds, and then Moses going up the mount is a picture of the believers being caught up together to be with the Lord, it's a picture of the rapture. Look at Exodus chapter 19 verse 9, and the Lord said unto Moses, lo, I come. So notice that word come, right? Because we're talking about the second coming of Christ. The Bible called the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4, the rapture was called the coming of the Lord. So here the Lord said unto Moses, lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud. So we have what? The Lord coming in a cloud. Sound familiar? That the people may hear when I speak with thee and believe thee forever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the Lord. And the Lord said unto Moses, go unto the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow and let them wash their clothes and be ready against the third day, for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. Now obviously this passage has nothing to do with the rapture, but even in this passage we see symbolism of the second coming of Christ and the rapture. This is a type or a figure or a symbol. You see all throughout the Bible we see the message of Jesus Christ on every page. The Bible says to him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. So even in the story of Adam and Eve, even when we get to Cain and Abel, Noah, the Ark, all that stuff is picturing Christ in some way. You know the Ark has the one door and Jesus is the door and if we go through the door we'll be saved, right? And you know Abel brings of the first things of the flock the blood of the lamb. That represents Christ. You know Cain brings the fruits and vegetables representing a workspace salvation of his own produce, right? When we get to the Tower of Babel, they're trying to build a tower to reach heaven. That's showing people trying to work their way to heaven, right? When we get to the part about Abraham having to sacrifice Isaac his son. It's a picture of the father sending the son to be the savior of the world. So Jesus Christ on every page. So this is symbolic because it says that the people are to be ready for when the Lord's going to come down. And how many scriptures are there in the New Testament admonishing people to be ready for the second coming of Christ. And one of the things that they're supposed to do to be ready here, he said let them be sanctified and let them wash their clothes. Well what does the Bible say about salvation? It says that we are sanctified by the offering of Jesus Christ once for all. And it also talks about the fact that we've washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Those of us that are saved, our robes have been washed white in the blood of the lamb and so we're ready for Christ to return. We will be caught up together with him because we're what? Saved. We're saved. So that's what that pictures. And then it says be ready against the third day for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people. And what does the Bible say about the second coming of Christ? He coming with clouds and every eye shall see him. And they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, amen. And so it's not a secret rapture because everybody's going to see him. The Bible makes it clear in Revelation 1 7. Now what is the significance of the third day? Well when the Bible says the third day it means something different than we would mean in our modern vernacular, okay? Let me give you an example. If I were to go to the third floor in a hotel, you know, I would count the floor that I walk in on as floor number one. And then if I went upstairs, I'm on the second floor. And if I went up one more flight of stairs, I'm on the third floor, right? Who agrees with that? Yeah, everybody, okay? Because we're in America. But if we go to Germany, that's not how they think. In Germany, if I'm on the lobby where I walk in, that's considered the ground floor. And if I go upstairs, I'm on the first floor. Now we don't understand that because when we go upstairs, we're on the second floor. But to them, they don't start counting until you go upstairs. So you got the ground floor, first floor, second floor. So what we call the third floor, they would call the second floor, and so on and so forth. Well, actually, that's the way the Bible counts things as well. And you can prove that because the Bible says that Jesus rose again the third day. But he actually rose after three days because he was dead for three days and three nights. Jesus said as Jonah was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, so shall the Son of Man, I'm sorry, I got that wrong, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. So when it says he rose again the third day, it's actually after three days. Also, the Bible says that Elijah prayed and it didn't rain on the earth for three years and six months. But yet it says that he went and presented himself to Ahab in the third year. So when the Bible says in the third year, it's actually after three years. Three and a half years is considered in the third year. Three and a half days is considered on the third day, you know, after three days. And so when the Bible says here, be ready against the third day, this is actually after three days because they're not counting until tomorrow is the first day, then the second day, then the third day. So therefore, this is symbolic, obviously, of the fact that Jesus Christ is going to come in the clouds and the rapture is going to take place shortly after the midpoint of Daniel's 70th week. It's going to happen a little more than three and a half years after the beginning of the tribulation. That's when the rapture takes place. So it's in the third year, which is represented here by the third day. Okay. Now look, if you would, at verse 16. And it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud. And that's obviously what it's going to be like when the rapture takes place, right? Sound of a loud trumpet. And then it says, so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. Now what else is going to happen according to the New Testament at the second coming of Christ? There's going to be a great earthquake, which is going to cause the earth to tremble. And the Bible says that the unsaved are going to be terrified at the second coming of Christ. They're going to be trembling. Men's hearts will be failing because of fear. They're going to be... Man, this fly is attacking me. They're going to be trembling. They're going to be weeping, wailing, scared to death, just like people here were scared when the trumpet sounded and the earth began to quake and there was the thunder and lightning. Verse 17. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God. And they stood at the nether part of the mount. And the mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke because the Lord descended, right? This is exactly what it said in 1 Thessalonians 4. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout upon it in fire. And the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace. And the whole mount quaked greatly. Again a great earthquake will take place at the second coming of Christ. And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake and God answered him by a voice. And at the second coming of Christ in the rapture, 1 Thessalonians 4, it says there's going to be the voice of the archangel and there's going to be the trump of God. And we see both of those elements here as well, the voice and the trumpet. What's interesting here is when it talks about how the trumpet sounded long and got louder and louder, which makes it seem like that's probably what it's going to be like when the trumpet sounds at the second coming of Christ because we don't get a lot of detail about that trumpet blast, but it's probably going to be a long blast that gets louder and louder if this is picturing that. And then it says in verse, and by the way, in 1 Corinthians 15 it says that it will be at the last trump, right? Now what's the difference between a trump and a trumpet? Well not much, but the trumpet is usually referring to the instrument itself and the trump is usually referring to the sound that the instrument makes, right? So the trumpet makes a trump. So it could be that the last trump is referring to the end of this long drawn out, you know, whatever it's going to sound like. Now some people will erroneously attribute the last trump to be the seventh trumpet in the book of Revelation. Here's how we know that's not the case because I can see where people are coming from with that. I mean, it makes sense like, oh, last trump, there's seven trumpets in Revelation. But keep in mind that when the apostle Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 15, the book of Revelation hadn't been written yet. So he's not referring to the book of Revelation that had not yet been revealed, had not yet been written. And what he's actually, and you say, well, I think he is. Okay, but here's the problem. If you actually look up the book of Revelation when the seventh trumpet happens and try to put the rapture there, it doesn't fit. It just doesn't add up because everywhere else is pointing to the rapture being at the sixth seal. Jesus said it would be when the sun and moon are darkened. When are the sun and moon darkened? The sixth seal. And when the sixth seal is open, sun and moon are darkened, they see the lamb, they're trembling, they're scared. What happens next in chapter seven of Revelation? A great multitude appears in heaven that no man can number. Obviously that's the rapture. So, you know, if you try to put the rapture at the seventh trumpet in Revelation, it's like putting a round peg into a square hole. It doesn't fit. It makes everything fall apart. So there has to be another explanation. There are actually several explanations. I'm not going to go into all the explanations about that, but I will say this. There's no way that it's referring to the seventh trumpet of Revelation, which the book that hadn't even been written yet. Now a lot of people just get hung up on the word last thinking, well, there can never be any trumpet after that, but that's not what last means. Okay. Last means it's the last in that particular series or sequence. Okay. So for example, Jesus Christ talks about raising us up at the last day, but is that really the last day, meaning that there are no days that come after? Because after that you have the millennium and how long is the millennium? A thousand years. Well, that's 365,000 and you know, however many days. That's a lot of days that come after the last day. So when we see last day, last trumpet, last Trump, because it doesn't say last trumpet. It says last Trump. It just means there's going to be a series of trumpet sounds and at the last one we're caught up. So it could be just a sequence right then and there or a long drawn out Trump and at the last of it we're caught up or, you know, there's a lot of different things I could say about that, but I'm not going to take too much time on that. But we see the trumpet in the voice. Look at verse 20 of Exodus chapter 19 and the Lord came down again. We see that theme over and over again upon Mount Sinai on the top of the Mount and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the Mount and Moses went up. So again, we have the Lord coming down and Moses going up, which is a picture of the rapture, Christ comes in the clouds, the Lord descends and then we're caught up together to be with him. So that's a great picture of the rapture. Now let's look at the next one. Look at Exodus chapter 24. Exodus chapter 24. So there are a couple of times that Moses goes up on the Mount and they both picture the second coming of Christ in a different way. Look at Exodus chapter 24 and in this symbol, the first symbol, we had the Lord coming down and Moses going up, Moses representing Christians, the Lord obviously playing himself, right? Jesus Christ. But in the second symbol, in this picture, Moses actually represents Jesus Christ in this next symbol. Look at Exodus 24 verse eight. We start out with verse eight and Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you concerning all these words. Now this is the old covenant, right? This is the old testament. He sprinkles the blood of an animal and sanctifies the old testament or the old covenant. Well Jesus Christ is the mediator of the new covenant, the new testament that he sanctified with his own blood. So the old covenant or the old testament is a picture or a symbol of what? The new covenant, the old covenant where they're killing animals is pointing us to Jesus Christ, the lamb of God slain for the sins of the world. And so it's a symbol. So here we have the blood of the covenant and the covenant being sanctified with blood in verse eight. Then look at verse 15 and Moses went up into the mount and a cloud covered the mount. So remember this pictures Jesus, right? Moses is picturing Jesus here. So Moses ordains the covenant and then he goes up in a cloud, right? What did Jesus do? Jesus sealed the new testament in his blood. He died on the cross. He was buried. He rose again. And then he was what? In Acts chapter one, he was received up into a cloud just like Moses went up in a cloud. So has everybody got the symbolism? So he's, Jesus Christ is up there right now at the right hand of the father. Now he's been up there a long time, hasn't he? You know, almost 2000 years he's been up there. Now what is people's attitude toward that? Some people's attitude is, you know, where is the promise of his coming? You know, here we are almost 2000 years later and they're starting to lose faith that he's ever coming back just because it's been so long, right? And the Bible prophesied that that would happen. The Bible said in second Peter three that people would have that attitude. Now some people will try to say, Oh yeah, all the apostles, they all thought Jesus was coming back in their lifetime. Really? That's what second Peter chapter three says. Second Peter chapter three says that in the last days, people will be saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. And then he said, know this, that a day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day. What's he saying? He's basically implying that Christ's coming may be at least a thousand years away. You know, hey, if it takes a thousand years, if it takes 2000 years, if it takes even longer than 2000 years to God, that's just like a couple of days. So don't give up on the second coming of Christ. He warns us in the first century AD in second Peter chapter three, that it could be thousands of years. There's a warning like that. So it's not like, Oh, they all thought it was going to happen back then. Really? No, that's not what it says. They said, Hey, it could be a thousand years from now. No man knows the day or the hour. We don't know when it's going to be. It could happen in our lifetime. I think those of us that are younger, it's likely to happen in our lifetime, but you know what? There's a chance that it will not happen in our lifetime and we shouldn't just be afraid to buy any green bananas or anything and, and just think like, Oh, it's going to happen in our lifetime. And that's how a lot of people are. It's like they don't even plan for the future because they just think, you know, rack up the credit cards and let the devil pay for them. You know, the rapture is going to happen anyway. But that's what people said in the 1970s. They said that in the 1980s, in the nineties, I mean, people are always saying that we don't know when it's going to happen. It could happen 20 years from now. It could happen a hundred years from now. We don't know. So we shouldn't pretend to know or presume to know. Now we can see some of the signs of the times that make it seem like it's probably sooner rather than later, but we don't know, do we? But what's the attitude of the heathen? Where is it? What's taking so long? Okay. Well, let's look in the Bible due to our Exodus chapter 32. Exodus chapter 32 verse 1. So remember, Moses represents Jesus. He sanctifies the covenant in blood. He ordains a testament. Then he goes up into a cloud and he's up there for a long time. And it says in verse 1 of chapter 32, when the people saw that Moses, what? Delayed. That's a key word. When they saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron and said unto him, up, make us gods, which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what has become of him. And Aaron said unto them, break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives and of your sons and of your daughters and bring them unto me. And all the people break off the golden earrings, which were in their ears and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool after he had made it a molten calf. And they said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. Now what is this picture? Toward the very end of Moses being up in the cloud, people are saying he's delaying his coming. They gather themselves together, the Bible says. And then Aaron fashions them a graven image. What is this picture? Well, this picture is out in the end times. The Bible teaches that all of mankind will unite. There will be a one world government, one world religion, one world financial system. And then they're going to make what? A great image to the beast. A great image to the antichrist, which is called the abomination of desolation. And that great image is going to be worshiped by the people of this earth. So in this symbolism, Aaron here would represent the false prophet. Now obviously we know Aaron's not a false prophet, but he's acting as a false prophet here because he's being manipulated and getting them into idolatry. So the symbolism, he pictures the guy in the book of Revelation known as the false prophet, right? Who gets everybody to worship this idol in Revelation chapter 13. So there's a lot of symbolism here that's similar, right? But remember how they said he delayed? Go to Matthew 24. Keep your finger in Exodus 32. Go to Matthew chapter 24. Of course, Matthew 24 is the famous passage on the second coming of Christ. It's the time that Jesus Christ, as you're reading the New Testament, first teaches on the end times. If you start in Matthew 1 and you're reading it cover to cover, this is where you get some really clear teaching on the end times, all the events of the tribulation, leading up to the rapture, and so forth. Well toward the end of that chapter, in verse 48, it's giving a parable about the second coming of Christ. And it says, but and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming. Does that sound familiar? Like when Moses was delayed? He says my Lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to smite his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunken. The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour that he's not aware of and shall cut him asunder and appoint him as portion with the hypocrites, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The same thing is in Luke 12, you don't have to turn there. But Luke 12 45, but if the servant say in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to beat the men servants and maidens and to eat and drink with the drunken, the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, et cetera, et cetera. And so we see here that just as when Moses was delayed in the mount, the people ate and were drunken. The people rose up to eat and to drink and they rose up to play. And that's what we see in this parable in Matthew 24, not a coincidence, nothing in the Bible is a coincidence. Isn't the Bible an amazing book that even in the book of Exodus written, you know, 1500 some odd years before Christ walked on the earth, it's already prophesying his second coming. It's so deep. There's so many layers of imagery. When you're reading the story, it's easy to just read over these things. There's just so much. Every time you read it, you see new things. And when it talks about him beating and smiting his fellow servants, you know, this is obviously referring to the wars that are going to happen in the end times. People are going to be killing each other, persecuting the Christians. There's going to be a lot of smiting going on in the end times. So go back if you would to Exodus chapter 32. So we see the symbolism of the false prophet, the abomination rising up to eat and to drink, and be merry partying tomorrow we die just not caring about, uh, obeying the Lord or serving God. But here's another interesting symbolism from Exodus 32. Look at verse 25. It says in verse 25 when Moses saw that the people were naked for Aaron had made them naked under their shame among their enemies. So one of the things that he finds when he returns is nakedness, right? Now think about this verse from Revelation 16 verse 15, behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame. So isn't it interesting that he refers to nakedness in regard to the second coming of Christ? You know, don't be caught naked. He's saying he's not talking about physically naked here. He's talking about spiritual nakedness here. So Moses saw that the people were naked. Christ warns, I come as a thief, blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame. The Bible says in verse 26 of Exodus 32, if you're there, then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. Now think about this. When Christ returns, when Christ comes down, what's going to happen? We're going to be gathered together unto him. So in this story, Moses, he sanctifies the covenant in his own or not in his blood, but in the blood of an animal representing Christ sanctifying the New Testament with his own blood. Moses does the covenant. Then he ascends up the mountain to a cloud, just like Jesus ascended up into heaven. He's up there for a really long time. People think he's delayed. So they end up partying, getting drunk. The false prophet comes along, the golden calf, the idolatry that's worshiped. The abomination of desolation is what's pictured there. Then when Moses comes down, he's angry. Well guess what? When Jesus comes back, he's going to be angry because the Bible says that when Christ returns that the great day of his wrath has come. Wrath is talking about anger and who shall be able to stand. The great day of his wrath has come and who shall be able to stand. And when he comes down in wrath, in anger, he gathers the righteous unto him, right? He gathers the saved. Now if you would, flip over to one more place. Keep your finger in Exodus 32 because we're going to come back there, but go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, because it says all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him, and that's representing of course the Christians are going to be gathered unto Jesus Christ at his coming. Look at 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 1. Now we beseech you brethren by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him, that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word, nor by letter as from us as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalted himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. So what we see here is we don't want to be deceived that the day of Christ is at hand because there are other things that have to happen first. There has to be the great falling away first, that day will not come until there's the falling away and the man of sin be revealed. So the Antichrist comes before the real Jesus Christ, which makes sense, he's pretending to be the second coming of Christ, he has to come first. So the Antichrist comes first, the imposter, then the real Jesus Christ comes at the sixth seal when the trumpet sounds, etc. That's Matthew 24, 29 through 31 and the book of Revelation and everywhere else. So the gathering together of the sons of Levi unto Moses pictures the gathering of the believers that we just read about in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and then the last verse I want to show you in Exodus 32 is verse 35 where it says and the Lord plagued the people because they made the calf which Aaron made. So after the believers are raptured, after the believers are gathered together unto Christ, then God pours out his wrath on the earth. That's when God begins to plague the earth and if you look at the judgments of God's wrath in the book of Revelation, the seven trumpets and the seven vials, they're very similar to the plagues of Egypt. Some of them are even the same. So these plagues that God sends where he plagues the people who worship the golden calf, you know, God's going to send a plague upon those who worship the Antichrist. Those who receive the mark of the beast are going to get sores, the Bible says. They're going to have a noisome and grievous sore in their body. They're going to get sores on them from worshiping the mark of the beast. So that's how God is going to plague them. There's a lot of symbolism here where you can, you know, put the dots together and connect things. And again, we don't want to base our doctrine on this. We don't want to base our timing of the rapture or base our second coming of Christ doctrine. But once you know about the second coming of Christ, once you're familiar with the key passages in Matthew 24, 1 Thessalonians 4, 1 Thessalonians 5, 2 Thessalonians 2, it's pretty cool to be able to go back into a book like Exodus and find everything matching up and all the symbolism being there. It's quite fascinating. And it just goes to show you what an amazing book the Bible is. You know, no man could write the Bible because you could spend your whole life studying the Bible and you're just always learning new things. And you're always finding new connections and new parallels. So when you're reading your Bible for the umpteenth time, there's always something new to learn. There's always something else that's going to jump out at you when you start seeing the different connections between, you know, even something as different as the book of Exodus. And then, you know, you compare that to Thessalonians. But yet it's like just hand in glove. It fits perfectly. Because the Bible is inspired by God. And because the Bible is the word of God. And so it all matches up as the perfect book. And so we are to patiently wait for the second coming of Christ. But of course we realize there are going to be some things that have to happen first. You know, there's going to be the tribulation first. The anti-Christ is going to be revealed. But after the tribulation of those days, Christ is going to come in the clouds. Don't let anybody talk you out of this and tell you that there's no second coming. There's a lot of doctrines like that out there now. Like, you know, the preterism says, hey, this all already happened. Or just other doctrines that deny the second coming of Christ or the rapture. There's too much scripture about it. It's too clear in the New Testament that it's going to happen. We don't know when, but it will certainly happen. Let's pray. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the word of God. And we thank you so much for the things that we can learn from it. And just how perfect it is and how everything fits together so well. And just what an amazing treasure we have in our Bible, Lord. Help us to read it and study it and learn as much as we can. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.