THE Holy Spirit ofttimes employs strikingly unique expressions in presenting the vital truths in the Word of God. Our present subject is an expression of this character. It leads us into a field of I study which is intensely interesting and exceedingly important, though sadly neglected. One of the members of the D. B. I. evening classes just recently bore testimony to the fact that previous to his enrollment in the Night School he had spent nearly forty-seven years in studying the Scriptures, during that time taking three of the outstanding theological courses offered in our country, and spending many years in private study; but that in all I those years he had been amazed to find such silence on the part of his instructors on the subject of the Great Tribulation, whereas the Holy Spirit had given such detailed attention to it in the Word of God. The truth concerning the Great Tribulation is the key which unlocks many of the mysteries of prophetic truth. Were it not for this fact, the title of this discussion would mean but very  little to the student of God's Word. But when this fact is once clearly seen, the meaning of the expression, "The Time of Jacob's Trouble," is self-evident.

"Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall he saved out of it" (Jer. 30:7).

By applying the principles of Bible interpretation to this passage, we find clear-cut evidence to prove that it is a direct reference to the time of the Great Tribulation. The first occurrence of the Word "Israel" in the Bible makes it synonymous with "Jacob" (Gen. 32:28). The immediate context of this passage also makes the names "Jacob" and "Israel" synonymous (Jer. 30:4, 10). And the agreement of the remote context also makes these two names synonymous (Dan. 12:1). Consequently, we unhesitatingly arrive at the conclusion that "the time of Jacob's trouble" is a unique experience in the history of Israel which the Word of God calls the Great Tribulation (Matt. 24: 21; Rev, 7:14)

Rev. C. H. Tillerton, M.A., B.D.,¹ makes this interesting comment on the passage under discussion: "The word translated in the A.V. 'trouble' comes from a root signifying to lay hold of, shut up, press, and so oppress, cause distress, vividly illustrated by the past condition of the Jews in the Pale of Settlement in Poland and Russia. The policy has been to press the Jews into cities, forbidding them to live on the land, and there naturally follows 'congestion' and 'distress,' the very word used here . . . Thus, the crisis of Jacob's distress would appear to take place when 'pressed into' Jerusalem and surrounded on every hand by hostile foes (Zech. 12 and 14) at Armageddon."

Three thoughts suggest themselves concerning this future age designated in the Bible as the Great Tribulation: First, it is to be a time of Spiritual Anarchy; second, it is to be a time of Physical Anguish; and third, it is to be a time of Kingdom Anticipation.

A TIME OF SPIRITUAL ANARCHY

EVEN today spiritual' conditions are appalling. Only the spiritually blind can fail to see that this old world has already plunged headlong into the awful maelstrom of apostasy. But when we stop to draw aside the prophetic curtain and view what God has revealed in His Holy Word about the days that are just ahead, we realize that these things are only dim foreshadowings of the incomparably worse conditions that shall prevail in the Great Tribulation. The man who now glibly says, "My motto is to 'live and let live,'" in speaking along religious lines, then immediately proceeds to deny the Word of God, the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, etc., ad infinitum, is manifesting nothing short of the spirit of him who is to be the great religious leader of the Great Tribulation, i. e., the Antichrist.

To rightly understand the spiritual condition which shall exist during those awful days prior to our Lord's return, we must understand something of the character and methods of the one who shall pose as the religious' leader. As we have already stated, this one is to be the; Antichrist. His character is revealed in a striking passage in Dan. 11:21, where it says that "he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries." He shall be suave and deceptive and his method of working shall be in accord with his character. He shall begin what later shall become an unspeakable reign of terror, such as the world has never before witnessed, by introducing a very religious program. He shall imitate: God's method of dealing with Israel in the past. God; made covenants with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Antichrist will make a covenant with Israel in the future presumptuous, blasphemous, counterfeit covenant. The best Satan can do is to imitate. But poor, benighted Israel will be blinded by this deadly foe, who will! parade as her best friend and succeed in getting her to enter into a compact with him. He knows the deep desire in the heart of the Jews. He knows that they are longing for restoration to the land of Palestine and the renewing of the daily sacrifices. And so he promises Israel all this, posing as their long-looked-for Prince and Messiah. He shall confirm the covenant with man) for one week (Dan. 9:27). But we learn that it is to be an agreement with hell that Israel enters into when she allows herself to be deceived by Antichrist. It is literally a compact with death, as it is clearly prophesied by Isaiah (Isa. 28:15).

Then, having gained the confidence of poor, deceived Israel with his diabolical covenant, the "man of sin" permits the daily sacrifice and oblation to continue for a period of ten hundred and ten days, after which time he reveals his true colors. He shall take away the sacrifice and oblation, and in its stead he shall have set up the "abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet" (Dan. 9:27; 11:31; 8:13-14; 12:11; Matt. 24:15). This event shall mark the climax of the Antichrist's religious regime. He shall regard neither God nor man, "for he shall magnify himself above all . . . and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things" (Dan. 11:37-38). In this connection. Bishop Horsley well describes the Antichrist as "that son of perdition, who shall be neither a Protestant nor a Papist, neither Christian nor Jew, nor heathen; who shall worship' neither God, angel, nor saint; who will neither supplicate the invisible majesty of heaven, nor fall down before an idol. He will magnify HIMSELF against everything that is called God, or is worshipped; and with a bold flight of impiety, soaring far above his precursors and types in the time of Paganism — the Sennacheribs, the Nebuchaddnezzars, the Antiochuses, and he heathen Emperors — will claim divine honors to himself exclusively, and consecrate an image of himself." He is determined to be worshipped, even if it means that he shall have to force men to it by the edge if the sword. He will rule with a high hand. Justice and mercy shall have no part in his program. It will be I case where "might is right," and since he shall be controlled by demon power, he shall exercises mighty power and supernatural strength. His attitude is foreshadowed by Mussolini's recent statement, "To me, violence is fundamentally normal." This spirit of anarchy shall be at its zenith in the Great Tribulation. Those who will not worship the Antichrist and his image shall suffer death.

A TIME OF PHYSICAL ANGUISH

"For thus saith the Lord; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.

"Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?" (Jer. 30:5-6).

COULD words be more graphic than these in describing the physical suffering that shall overtake men in the time of Jacob's trouble? The word "trembling" used in this passage comes from a Hebrew word, the root meaning of which is "to shudder or quake with terror." Only those who have experienced a shock which produced such physical reaction as this can appreciate what it means "to shudder or quake with terror." Only occasionally do we hear of people who go through this awful physical anguish because of some terrific shock which has come to them through life's exigencies. But this will be the common thing in the Great Tribulation. Fear, also, can produce terrible nervous reactions in these physical bodies of ours. To be sure, fear is mental, but is can easily find a reflex in some form of physical disability. And for a person not to have peace of soul can produce some of the most intense physical suffering imaginable. All this is but suggestive and leads up to the awful thing which the prophet describes in the words which follow. The Holy Spirit employs the figure of the pangs of child-birth as a means of expressing the intensity of the physical suffering that shall come upon men in the Great Tribulation. Notice, also, how universal shall be this condition: "Wherefore do I see EVERY MAN with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail?" (Jer. 30:6). And, again, notice the further reaction which is produced and with what vividness and power of description the Word portrays it: "And ALL FACES are turned into PALENESS" (Jer. 30:6). As bad as physical conditions are today (and they are heart-rending in spite of modern medicine), something worse awaits the age of unbelief which shall follow.

A further and more detailed description of the terrible physical anguish that shall come upon the inhabitants of the world during the Great Tribulation is given to us by the Saviour Himself in Matthew 24:

"And there shall be FAMINES, and PESTILENCES, and EARTHQUAKES, in divers places" (Matt. 24:7b).

"But all these things are the beginning of TRAVAIL. Then shall they deliver you up into TRIBULATION, and shall KILL you" (Matt. 24: 8-9a, R.V.).

"When therefore ye see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION, which was spoken of through Daniel the Prophet, STANDING IN THE HOLY PLACE (let him that readeth understand)" (Matt. 24:15, R.V.).

"And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!" (Matt. 24:19).

"For then shall be GREAT TRIBULATION, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh believed" (Matt. 24:21-22a).

There are three things that we should especially note from these Scriptures: First, the things which we look upon now as outstanding physical disturbances and of only occasional occurrence, such as famines, pestilences, earthquakes, and killing, shall, in the age which follows this one, be only the beginning of travail; second, this will begin when Antichrist, who shall pose as the religious leader of that time, sets up an image of himself in the Holy Place; and third, it shall be a time of physical tribulation such as the world has never known before or ever will know again — it shall be the time of the Great Tribulation.

Furthermore, physical suffering shall not be confined to human beings, but even the animal kingdom and the earth itself shall be afflicted, as the record in Joel 1:15-20 clearly indicates:

"Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

"Is not the meat (food) cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

"The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.

"How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.

"O Lord, to Thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.

"The BEASTS of the field CRY also unto Thee: for the RIVERS OF WATERS are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the PASTURES of the WILDERNESS."

Such is the extent to which physical anguish shall be inflicted upon this old world in the "time of Jacob's trouble."

A TIME OF KINGDOM ANTICIPATION

"Alas! for that day is great, so that none is' like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; BUT HE SHALL BE SAVED OUT OF IT.

"For IT SHALL COME TO PASS IN THAT DAY, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him:

"But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them" (Jer. 30:7-9).

THANK God for the bright side of this black picture! The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations (lit., "trials," or "tests") and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished (II Pet. 2:9). Oh the joy of anticipation in the midst of tribulation! the assurance of security in the face of sorrow! and the hope of reigning in the wake of ruin! Such shall be Israel's hope in the Great Tribulation.

Antichrist's covenant with Israel shall prove to be a yoke of bondage which is more than she can bear. Everything will look bright and hopeful when he shall promise to restore Israel to her land and renew the daily sacrifice and oblation. But, when the three and a half years are ended and Antichrist shall have polluted the sanctuary and taken away the daily sacrifice and set up in its place the "abomination of desolation," things take on a different color, and Israel awakens to the awful predicament she is in. The last half of this prophetic week, spoken of by Daniel, proves to be Israel's supreme test. "And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened" (Matt. 24:22).

The God of Israel is a great Deliverer. He will permit Israel to be sifted, and tried, and purged, only to reveal how great is His power to deliver. Yes, it will be the time of Jacob's trouble, but hear what God says in the midst of it:

"Therefore fear thou not, O My servant Jacob, saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I WILL SAVE THEE from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid" (Jer. 30:10).

This is a picture of Kingdom rest. This is what the | nation Israel is longing for — Kingdom rest and Kingdom blessings. What could be more wonderful to Israel 1 than to be restored to their own land and with "David! their king" on the throne.? Surely this would be a real Utopia for Israel. Can it be possible that poor, scattered, hated Israel shall once more be considered a nation? "Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one' day? or shall a nation be born at once?" (Isa. 66:8). And yet this is just what the Lord is going to do for, Israel. It will all happen at once. The Antichrist and his hosts shall be destroyed at the brightness of His coming (II Thess. 2:8).

"It shall be ONE DAY which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light" (Zech. 14:7).

With such an outlook in the midst of tribulation, it | is no wonder that the Holy Spirit, speaking through. Daniel, could say:

"Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the | thousand three hundred and five and thirty days" (Dan. 12:12).

The Kingdom follows the Tribulation. Morning dawns just after the blackest hour of night. What comfort to the soul of the believer in this age, who, like Israel in the coming age, has felt the oppression of the enemy. Let such an one rejoice in the certainty that Kingdom blessing follows tribulational testing.

"Light after darkness,
     Gain after loss,
Strength after weakness,
     Crown after cross.
Sweet after bitter,
     Hope after fears,
Home after wand'ring,
     Praise after tears

"Sheaves after sowing,
     Sun after rain,
Sight after mystery,
     Peace after pain,
Joy after sorrow,
     Calm after blast.
Rest after weariness.
     Sweet rest at last.

"Near after distant.
     Gleam after gloom,
Love after loneliness.
     Life after tomb,
After long agony
     Rapture of bliss,
Right was the pathway
     Leading to this!"

1) Late Vans Dunlop Scholar in Hebrew and Oriental Languages of the University of Edinburgh and Head of the London Mission. London  Jews' Society.