Like A Woman In Labor

Q

I enjoy reading your extensive bible studies and use them as a study tool. Because I am human, some areas I have pause, but in areas of doctrine I believe, using the Bible as the only true measure, that our views parallel. Therefore I am very interested in how you view the reading of Jeremiah 30:6. Just this morning it struck me that this passage seems to be describing someone suffering from poison, esp poison gas, like sarin.

A

Jeremiah was describing the physical effects of the terror people will feel at the outset of the Great Tribulation, which in verse 7 is called the time of Jacob’s trouble. Notice that Jeremiah 30:6 asks the rhetorical question, “Can a man bear children? Then why do I see every strong man with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor, every face turned deathly pale?”

In 1 Thes 5:3 Paul described this the same way, saying it will be a time of destruction coming on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman. Therefore it’s reasonable to assume that both Jeremiah and Paul were speaking of the same event.