Children You Shall Have After You Have Lost the Other
When Adam was 130 God blessed him and his wife (Eve) with a son named Seth:
Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:
Eve said that God had appointed her another seed instead of Abel –whom Cain slew:
Genesis 4:25 And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.
This reminds us of God's end time plan to save a great multitude of elect (children) after losing the former children (those within the corporate church):
Isaiah 49:20 The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.
21 Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?
The question asked in the verse above is similar to the question asked in Revelation 7 regarding the great multitude saved out of great tribulation:
Revelation 7:9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
We find a similar situation in the book of Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 31, verse 15, we read of Rachel weeping for her children refusing comfort – because they are not. They are dead. Just as was the case with Abel, and with the statement in Isaiah 49 (the children you shall have after you have lost the other). And yet again, in Jeremiah 31 we read of more children coming into view after the loss of the former. We can show from the Bible that Rachel (Strong's #7354) is a type of Christ. Her name means sheep – and is the same word translated as "sheep" in Isaiah 53:7 ("...as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth"). Therefore, the quotation of Jeremiah 31:15 in Matthew 2 of Rachel (Christ) weeping for her children and they are not because Herod slew all the children two years and under in Bethlehem – spiritually ties in with Christ weeping over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-44) at the point of God's visitation (judgment) upon it. This points to the death of those within the churches and congregations – or the loss of the children within the churches because the Church Age has come to a close. Judgment has begun upon the house of God.
So, once more we find the number 130 (10 x 13) and the time of the end in view with the birth of Seth after the death of Abel. For it was in the year 1988 (13,000th year of earth's history) that the Church Age ended. And we can say it was then that God lost His children.
But there was still hope. For God had another seed to give to Eve. Seth! The birth of Seth when Adam is age 130 points to the increase of children God had arranged to occur outside of the churches and congregations among the nations of the world.
Jeremiah 31:15 Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.
16 Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
17 And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.
These children, as Jeremiah 31:16 declares, will "come again from the land of the enemy". The land of the enemy is a reference to Babylon. The Lord further emphasizes this glorious truth in the next verse by saying, "thy children shall come again to their own border."
Their own border would be the border of the kingdom of God. They will not return to the outward representation of God's kingdom (which is the corporate church); but they will return to the actual kingdom of God.
They will come!
Isaiah 60:3 And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.
4 Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.
5 ... the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.
6 The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come:
7 All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee: they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory.
John 7:37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
But no man can come – except the Father which sent Me DRAW him (John 6:44).
John 21:10 Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught.
11 Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.
In a way, the unbroken net full of fishes – is as the children God has after the loss of the earlier children – or after the broken net of the first major fishing expedition (Luke 5:6).