A Thief in the Night

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians this about the Second Coming of the Savior: “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief” (1 Thessalonians 5:2-4).  Peter used similar analogy about a thief when he wrote this in his epistle, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night” (2 Peter 3:10).  In the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord used the same phrase when He talked about His coming: “And again, verily I say unto you, the coming of the Lord draweth nigh, and it overtaketh the world as a thief in the night—Therefore, gird up your loins, that you may be the children of light, and that day shall not overtake you as a thief” (Doctrine and Covenants 106:4-5).  The implication is that the coming of the Lord will surprise those who are not ready for it.    

It appears the first usage of this phrase, though, was by the Savior Himself during His mortal ministry when He taught His disciples.  In the JST we read, “And now, verily I say these things unto you, that ye may know this, that the coming of the Lord is as a thief in the night. And it is like unto a man who is an householder, who, if he watcheth not his goods, the thief cometh in an hour of which he is not aware, and taketh his goods, and divideth them among his fellows. And they said among themselves, If the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through and the loss of his goods” (JST Luke 12:44-46).  As I’ve pondered this description, I have wondered why the Lord would compare Himself to a thief, but reading more closely I don’t think He is: the thief is the event of the Second Coming and not the Savior Himself.  And what are the goods that these people will lose?  Perhaps one answer is our literal goods—just like at death, at the Second Coming all possession and property will become meaningless.  The earth will burn, the elements will melt together with fervent heat, and no man’s earthly, temporal possessions will remain.  The ”riches” and the “vain things of the world” will be gone for we cannot “carry them with [us]” (Alma 39:14).  Just as a thief in the night, our goods will be taken by the fact that the Second Coming arrives; earthly wealth at that point will have no value. 

If that is the case, though, how do we be the children of light and “watch” and stop the thief from breaking through and causing us to lose our goods as the parable suggests?  We will all lose our material goods at the Second Coming, but perhaps the message is that we should set our hearts upon those things that will endure at the coming of the Lord.  If our prized “goods” are the gospel and our families and our faith in Jesus Christ, if we treasure our relationship with God and our obedience and our love of the Savior, then surely all of that will indeed remain.  We prepare for the Second Coming by following the counsel the Savior gave to Emma: “Lay aside the things of this world, and seek for the things of a better” (Doctrine and Covenants 25:10).  We protect our goods by ensuring those goods are those things of eternal worth that cannot be taken by the thief in the night.