The Beginning Of Sorrows!

Mark 13:5, “And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you: 6For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 7And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. 8For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.”

First, we must look at the context of these verses in relation to their immediate application. Christ was alluding to the immediate future when many of these circumstances would occur but also at the end of the age. We can conclude that these scriptures were partially fulfilled when the Romans destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem in AD 70. The Jews were scattered to every corner of the world and only began to return to their homeland in 1948. Since that time, God has been bringing them home.

The tribulations and calamities which preceded and accompanied the overthrow of Israel at that time are a sign and warning of the great and universal woes which will bring in the great day of the Lord and the judgment of God. The reference alludes to the beginning of something much worse which is yet to come.

Ellicott's Commentary states that the words, “the beginning of sorrows” mean strictly, the beginning of travail-pangs. Paul speaks of the whole creation as travailing in pain together. So a time of national suffering and perplexity is one in which the children come to the birth. Romans 8:22, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”

God has already begun to pour out His judgment upon this world and the birthing pains have begun. In light of these scriptures in Matthew and Mark, I must conclude that the Holy Spirit is connecting the “the beginning of sorrows” to the birthing process. The term “beginning of sorrows” is associated with childbirth and literally means the beginning of travail-pangs. we can conclude that the judgment we are seeing and will see in the immediate future is a prelude to the culmination of the birthing process. This birth will bring forth a new Israel reborn, a new kingdom (the implementation of the literal Kingdom of God) and a new world (new heaven and earth).

Let us understand that God will preserve His Church, the Bride of Christ through all the unrest and destruction coming upon our world. He will equip and empower His Church to rise up in His Name and do great things even in the midst of darkness and evil. He will preserve the Church until she has completed her mission in the earth and then He will rapture her away. In both Matthew and Mark’s writing, the “beginning of sorrows” described by Jesus is the beginning of something much worse which is yet to come.

Mark 13:19, “For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be. 20 And except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved: but for the elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days.”