Jeremiah 30:7 tells us, “Alas for the day is great, so there is none like it; it is the time of
Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.” The time of Jacob’s
trouble corresponds to the events leading up to Armageddon. It is the time of ‘great tribulation’ spoken of by the
Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 24:21, 22, “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since
the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless
those days were shortened, no flesh should be saved; but for the elects sake
those days will be shortened.”
Jacob, otherwise known as Israel is of course the father of
the twelve tribes of Israel. His twelve sons became the heads of their own
tribes. In Jeremiah chapter 30, Jacob the man, becomes the symbol of the
nation of Israel. ‘Jacob’s trouble’
is the nation of Israel’s trouble.
In my blog ‘Armageddon – Could it impact on you?’ the
Ruler of Israel at this time is the same Ruler of Israel who rules Israel in
the time of ‘Jacob’s trouble’. This
very same Ruler of Israel is the ‘two
horned beast’ of Revelation 13:11; mentioned in my blog ‘Revelation
13 – The Beast from the Sea and the Beast from the Earth’.
He is also the ‘lawless
one’ mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2:8, 9, “And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume
with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The
coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power,
signs, and lying wonders.”
In Matthew 24:15, 16 the Lord Jesus Christ
foretelling the events to come says, “Therefore
when you see the ‘the abomination of desolation’ spoken of by the prophet
Daniel, standing in the holy place...then let those who are in Judea flee to
the mountains.” Daniel in Daniel 11:31 foretold of the time when
Antiochus Epiphanes in about 167 BC captured Jerusalem and set up an image to
the pagan god Zeus. This came to pass, as did the desecration of God’s altar,
when he ordered unclean animals (pigs) to be offered on it.
Daniel’s prophecy actually had a dual purpose. The events
that occurred in 167 BC had already come and gone. The Lord Jesus is therefore
speaking of a future event when another ‘abomination
of desolation’ occurs. Daniel 11:31 tells us, “...then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the
abomination of desolation.” We know
this happened in 167 BC. It will happen again! Next time it occurs it will be ‘the image of the beast’ spoken of in Revelation
13:15.
How does this occur? 2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4 give us
the necessary information, “...for that
day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is
revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that
is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of
God, showing that he is God.”
The Jewish Anti-Christ is ‘the man of sin, the son of perdition’. He deceives the nation of
Israel into believing he is their Messiah. If he tells them to worship the ‘image of the beast’; they will do it.
He will cause the sacrifices to God to cease. He will cause the Israelis to sin
by worshipping ‘the image of the beast’.
From the information before us we can deduce that there will
be a Jewish temple in operation on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. There will be
animal sacrifices offered to God again. The coming Anti-Christ will sit in this
temple as God; and he will cause the sacrifices to cease. He will cause the Israelis
to worship an idol, ‘the image to the
beast’.
This idolatry by Israel will bring about the terrible time
of ‘Jacob’s trouble’, the ‘great tribulation’. Let us not
underestimate the seriousness of this situation.
Matthew 24:22 states, “...unless those days are shortened, no flesh would be saved...” In
other words, unless God shortens the length of the tribulation period, all the
Israelis would perish. God has to intervene to save the nation; by the personal
appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ to save them.
Next blog we will look at what the Scriptures reveal about
this marvellous salvation of the nation of Israel.
Jon Peasey
[All Scriptures quoted are from the New King James version]
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