We shall here touch upon a theme which is utterly abhorred and so ignored and unpreached by Jews, Gentiles, and so-called modernistic Christians. However, in Jeremiah 30:7 the Holy Spirit prophetically anticipates such a time. "Alas! for that Day is great, so that none is like it: it is even — 'the time of Jacob's trouble.'" Why is it called Jacob's trouble? Why just Jacob's?

The Original Jacob's Trouble

We are at once carried back to a particular night of Jacob's trouble in Genesis 32:3-12, when, after many years of exile, he was about to return to his own land and had reached its borders. There he heard of Esau's preparations to come and meet him at the head of four hundred armed men. When the unexpected news reached him, the Word of God records, "Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed" (Gen. 32:7), and he cried to God in his agony and, for the first time in his life, he pleaded "the mercies of God" and petitioned deliverance from the hands of Esau "lest he come and smite the mother with the children." That was the crisis of Jacob's life. Suppose Esau had come and attacked his camp, and had smitten the mother with the children— what then? Well, that would have been the end of the future nation of Israel. Here, then, is the kernel, the pith and marrow, of Jacob's trouble. This incident in the life of the perplexed patriarch was an individual occurrence, but the Holy Spirit utilizes it as a solemn fore-shadowing of

A Future Jacob's Trouble — National in Scope

This coming future crisis of Jacob's descendants will mark the superlative climax of intensest suffering — physical, mental, and spiritual — and is named in the Holy Scriptures by various appellations. The testimony of the Prophets is unanimous. With indescribable heartpang they portray that specified time. Ezekiel 22:17-22 calls it "the fiery furnace of God's wrath." Daniel 12:1 calls it "a time of tribulation such as there never was since there was a nation to that same time." The Holy Spirit, breathing through Malachi, says, "I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah" (Mai. 4:5). Isaiah 2:6-21 describes the characteristics of that period. Zechariah 14:2 calls attention to the Satanic lawlessness and entirely unrestrained gratification of fiendish lusts that will prevail in Jacob's trouble. The Lord Jesus Christ, speaking of this very catastrophe in store for His nation, revealing unto His Jewish disciples the political upheavals, the storm and stress of future disasters, predicted: "For then shall be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be" (Matt. 24:21). Yea, our Lord intimated at the very start of His earthly official ministry in the Synagogue of Nazareth, when He left off reading at Isaiah 61:2, that "that Day of Vengeance" was still future and associated with His Second Coming (Luke 4:16-21). Yea. the very Prophet Jeremiah, who mentions this Jacob's trouble, describes it (in the closing verses of that chapter) as future, and to happen "in the latter days." "Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a cutting whirlwind; it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked. The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has done it, and until He has performed the intents of Hi? heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it" (Jer. 30:23-24; also 23: 16-20). Wherever this approaching tribulation is mentioned in the Old Testament it is always m connection with Israel. The scene of its ordeal is Palestine and Judea m particular; Jeremiah 16:10-17 and 30:3 prove that absolutely.

The Tribulations versus the Great Tribulation

The Jew has gone through awful sufferings and persecutions, deserved and undeserved. He had tribulation in Egypt and Babylon, Assyria and Persia, Syria and Palestine, Jerusalem and Rome — yea, in almost all the ancient and modern capitals of Europe — but all those tribulations pale into insignificance before the Great Tribulation, or Jacobs national trouble. It is, as it were the Nation's voice of "trembling and fear" in which "all faces will be turned into paleness" (Jer. 30:5-7). But that calamity cannot arrive until the Nation of Israel is representatively dwelling in the land of the Promise, after centuries of exile (Hosea 3:4-5), and dwelling in a prosperous condition, under a supposed Messiah and a mock millennium. That has not yet come to pass; therefore the crisis is still future. Zionism is only a beginning, and the War but another means toward the predicted End, which will be

Brief but Intense

In wrath God will remember mercy. The period will last but three and one-half years, or (as the Bible says) 1290 days (Dan. 12:8-12; Isa. 10:12, 25, 23, 20). But every hour will mean heart-rending suspense and anguish for the poor but self- willed descendants of Jacob. Then, when the collapse of the nation is imminent and all hope seems gone, and a greater than Esau — a super-human monster — is plotting Israel's doom, suddenly at that psychological moment the Almighty God, the Holy One of Israel will Himself descend from the heavens to save again His people, and the Word of God predicts that those Jews "whose names are found written in The Book shall be delivered" (Ezek. 9:2-6; Dan. 12: 1-4; Rev. 20:15; Zech. 9:16).

The Two Classes of Jews During That Tribulation

Two distinct classes of Jews are Scripturally alluded to and described. First there will be the faithful remnant of orthodox Jews, who defying royal edicts, persecution and starvation, will call upon the Lord for help, reminding Him of His covenant mercies, and these will be answered at last (Ps. 50:3-6; Isa. 66: 5, 15; Jer. 15:11; Joel 2:32).

Second, there will be the great sad mass of infidel, skeptical, and rationalistic Jews who, instead of calling upon the Lord, will disbelieve and blaspheme Him (Jer. 17: 15-16; Ezek. 11:2-3; 12:21-28; Isa. 5: 18-30; II Peter 3:3-10; Rev. 16:8-11).

As no such deliverance and salvation for Israel has ever yet occurred, neither under Nebuchadnezzar nor under Titus, nor within the last long dispersion, it must be future; for at the destruction of Jerusalem they were all "scattered" and "enslaved" and "persecuted" instead of being "saved" and "delivered."

God's Personal Controversy With the Nations

This soul-stirring event of Jacob's trouble will overlap the borders of Palestine and spread and thus affect the entire Gentile world (Isa. 26:21; 28:14-22). It is God's governmental controversy with Christless civilization and nations. However, in the midst of that spiritual chaos the Lord God will place his own faithful shepherds and leaders. Elijah will be personally present to prepare the faithful. The two witnesses of Revelation eleven will also be on the scene, and the 144,000 elect Jewish preachers will do a great deal of sensational preaching, that will result in multitudinous conversions of Gentiles; while a number of 'Hamaskilim," ("wise men") who will understand the time, will encourage other faint-hearted Jews to keep on trusting in the Jehovah-Jesus in spite of the anti-Christian despotism prevalent. God will have anointed messengers and representatives who will bravely face fire, axe, and all infernal devices. The devil will counterfeit God's miracles (Matt. 24 21-31) but his time is limited, ine thirteen Maskil Psalms bring before us the Spirit-indicted prayers and cries of the faithful Remnant during that universal apostasy, when m sky and earth— men, angels, demons and all the satanic forces of the pit will be at war.

Why This Line of Truth Is Not Preached

Fallen human nature shrinks from God's judgments, and calls the preaching of it pessimism, or unkind, uncharitable. But human nature is also strongly averse to unpleasant controversies, or oppositions, or enmity in any violent form and will usually avoid such things as far as possible.

Consequently, because the vast majority of Jews (in every generation and nation since the year 33 A D ) have been very actively opposed enemies of Christ Jesus of Nazareth and His Gospel and faithfully witnessing servants — it is also a sadder fact that for many generations past the vast majority of professing Christians have been unwilling to go to any Jewish persons to warn them of what their own Scriptures say is coming on their nation in the increasingly near future. Either thru dislike of offending the Jews or fear of stirring up their active animosity, most Christians have found it easier to forget how terribly they offend their Saviour and Lord, when they fail to witness for Him as He commands. And yet to shirk this God-given duty is not only NOT optimistic charity, but downright cowardice, and the sure mark of all false prophets and un faithful shepherds, according to the Word of the Lord. For the Bible, though full of comfort and help for all those who sincerely seek to know and do the will of God, is yet never guilty of glossing over any fact that is for man's best interests to know. May its all-wise and merciful Author save us from following the example of any one whom He condemns as false or unfaithful.

And Now. Reader. What Will You Do With It?

Will you not bring before Jews as well as before Gentiles this message, with its danger signals? Tell them that their only choice is either the Lord Jesus Christ, or the Great Tribulation! It is either the love of God or the wrath of God. It is either the Grace of God or the Vengeance of God. It is either the Gospel of Grace and Glory, or the Judgments, with their awful seals, trumpets, vials and woes.

Witness. Warn, and Lead!

May we have the compassion of God in our hearts to warn both Jews and Gentiles what is ahead of them! If they reject Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who is the only Door of Escape (John 10:7, 9, 27-30), the only refuge from the storm, the only shelter from the plagues, the only protection from the floods of ungodliness yet to come — then let them beware, and tell them why. Inform them that before Jeremiah thirty-one can be fulfilled, the prophesies of Jeremiah thirty must come to pass.

Before there can be the promised millennial bliss and refreshing from the presence of the Lord, there must first be the predicted pangs of the Great Tribulation. Before there can be Israel's greatest elevation, there must first be Jacob's most terrible humiliation. Before there can be the second coming of the true Messiah as the Great Deliverer of Israel and all the earth, there must first come the luring false Messiah — the cruel Antichrist.

May our heavenly Father so fit and control us that we shall have the ability as well as grace to preach the truth. Amen.