The Time of Jacobs Trouble
By Dr. Ken Matto
(Jer 30:7 KJV) 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 many years the idea that a nation called Israel would once again rise from obscurity and become a nation among the nations of the world has been taught and is continually being taught in dispensational circles. This teaching came to a political fruition in 1948 when Israel became a nation. There is nothing in Scripture that teaches that a nation will rise with the direct descendants of true ancient Israel. The only reason that the present nation of Israel is so popular among the dispensational crowd, is because of the faulty hermeneutic which is found in prophecy books. For example, Ezekiel 37 is being erroneously taught that this is a prophecy of the formation of the nation of Israel but when you get to the latter portions of that chapter, you will see that this nation that God is speaking of will have the Lord Jesus Christ ruling over them.
(Ezek 37:24-25 KJV) And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. {25} And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.
Christ is represented by David. David had been in glory for about 300 years, so how could he rule over the physical nation of Israel? Some dispensational theologians believe that David is going to be raised to rule over Israel. Need I say there is nothing in Scripture that teaches a future rule of any man. The eternal ruler of His people will be the Lord Jesus Christ as we see in the above verse, Ezekiel 37:25. In that same verse which speaks of eternity, we see that the land was given to Jacob my servant. The name David means beloved which is also attributed to the Lord Jesus Christ. The term my beloved is found 22 times in the Song of Solomon.
(Isa 5:1 KJV) Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
(Mat 3:17 KJV) And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Why would God contradict Himself in Scripture concerning the fulfillment of a prophecy that He has already fulfilled. The problem is that the dispensational theologians skip the following verses because it doesnt make their case.
(Josh 21:43-45 KJV) And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. {44} And the LORD gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand. {45} There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.
(Neh 9:7-8 KJV) Thou art the LORD the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham; {8} And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous:
(Neh 9:23 KJV) Their children also multipliedst thou as the stars of heaven, and broughtest them into the land, concerning which thou hadst promised to their fathers, that they should go in to possess it.
(1 Ki 8:56 KJV) Blessed be the LORD, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.
(Deu 28:63 KJV) And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.
When we look at all these verses, except Deut. 28:63, we read that God had kept His promise to Abraham concerning the land of promise. When Israel went into the land, there was a requirement of them for the purpose of remaining in the land. That requirement was obedience to the law of God. Now when we read Deuteronomy 28:63, we see that God had already told them that they would be plucked from off the land. God already knew that Israel could not keep the law nor the Sinaitic covenant. The covenant that God made with Israel was conditional. It was based on their obedience but we see that when they came into the land with Joshua as the head, there was order. When Joshua died, that ushered in the period of the Judges whereby Israel was beginning to be disobedient by playing the harlot with surrounding nations. Once they did this, they abrogated the covenant of obedience they made with God, and that violation of the Covenant meant that God was now going to judge them and part of the judgment was to be removed from the land forever.
In 721 BC, the northern kingdom of Israel went into captivity with Assyria and they were never heard from again. They assimilated into the population of the world. In 587 BC, Judah went into captivity with Babylon. Judah received only a temporary sentence of 70 years. She needed to be revived because it was through Judah that the Lord Jesus Christ would come. Once the Lord Jesus Christ came and became the final sacrifice of sin for His Elect, that ushered in the culmination of the Temple system. In 70 AD, the final destruction came for Judah, and Judah, like the northern kingdom was never to rise again because the Lord Jesus Christ had come and went back to Heaven. God was now dealing with the entire world and no longer with just one nation. This is how it will be until the Lord returns on the last day.
The true nation of Israel as God began forming it about 2000 BC was really a family tree, in reality it was the blood line of the Lord Jesus Christ. Israel did not became a nation until they came out of the land of Egypt in 1447 BC which was about 600 years after Abraham. The blood line of the Lord Jesus Christ started out with God promising Abraham a land and an eternal covenant. It must be delineated that the temporary covenant of Sinai was made with the nation if Israel while the eternal covenant, Grace, was made to the spiritual descendants of Abraham.
(Gal 3:16 KJV) Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.That covenant was then passed on through Isaac, and then to Jacob. Jacobs name was then changed to Israel which means prince with God. Jacob went down into Egypt and stayed there 430 years when God brought them out in the great Exodus. After they left Egypt and settled in Canaan, they were then a bona fide nation among the nations. There was constant disobedience on their part in both the times of the united monarchy and the divided kingdom, which finally ended up with their separate captivities.
Since God has fulfilled His commitment of the land to Israel and the Bible clearly states this without any guesswork, since they lost it by disobedience, it is outright blasphemy to say that God owes this disobedient people anything. God owes no man anything. Dispensational theologians forget that Israel and Judah were two of the most evil nations on earth. All one has to do is read the books of Samuel, Chronicles, and Kings. They were already to the point of doing child sacrifices to the false gods of the surrounding nations and someone is going to tell me that God owes this type of people anything? It is a miracle He just didnt wipe them off the face of the earth. They had the truth of God and chose to go against it at every opportunity they had. There were brief periods of obedience, but they went right back to evil works as soon as they could.
The present nation of Israel that was formed in 1948 is not a fulfillment of Bible prophecy. It is a political formation by the United Nations. While God allowed it to happen, it is not of divine origin. As we saw in previous verses, God had fulfilled His word in giving them a land but they lost it by their disobedience. The people who live in Israel have come from many different countries and are bound by one thing, the religion of Judaism. It cannot even be said that they are a single race since they have come from many different races. The first Israel was a race of people and were Semitic in origin, being Hebrews. The present inhabitants of Israel are not Hebrews but the majority are Gentile converts to Judaism by their descendants which was a result of the many diasporas. I speak English, but if I was to learn the Swedish language as good as a native of Sweden speaks, and then I moved there, does that make me a Swede and a descendant of Sweden? The answer is no. If I go to church does that make me a Christian? In the same manner, because one speaks Hebrew does not make them a Hebrew. Languages and customs when taught from childhood become second nature and can be mistaken and taught for lineage. When Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD, all the temple records were destroyed with it, which means that no one living today can trace their lineage back to the true Israel. The focus of prophecy is not on the modern day nation of Israel, rather it is on the body of Christ, which is called Jacob.
I want to go back to Ezekiel 37:25:
(Ezek 37:25 KJV) And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.
God injects the eternal element in this verse. First, He states that David will be their prince forever. Whenever God introduces the word forever we can instantly look for His eternal salvation program and can discount any notion of a physical land location.
Notice, that God speaks of generations of children are going to dwell in the new land. Is He speaking of physical children? I think we need to investigate it a little bit and the Bible gives us our definition of children. Keep in mind these children are in the realm of everlasting and not temporal.
(1 John 2:12-13 KJV) I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. {13} I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.
(1 John 2:18 KJV) Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
(1 John 3:18 KJV) My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
These four verses reveal that God is speaking of His children as little children. These are the believers in Christ not little children on a playground. God uses this as an endearing term toward His redeemed.
(Gal 4:26-31 KJV) But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. {27} For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. {28} Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. {29} But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. {30} Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. {31} So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.
We see in these passages that we are children of the free woman who is Sarah in conjunction with the New Jerusalem who is the mother of us all. What is meant here is that the body of believers being the New Jerusalem continues to bring children into the spiritual land of Canaan. Whenever we witness to someone and that person becomes saved, in essence, we as the new Jerusalem, have mothered another child for the Kingdom of God. God calls us children of promise. So the children that God has in view in Ezekiel 37:25 are the believers in the future that will continue to bring new believers into the Kingdom through the sending forth of the gospel. It is a spiritual reproduction not a physical reproduction in view. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God only spirit can.
(Jer 30:7-10 KJV) 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.
8} 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:
{9} But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.
{10} 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.
When we look at these four verses, we are not looking at a physical realm, instead we are looking at the verses of salvation. Notice in verse 7, we read that Jacob is going to suffer some great trouble yet, Jacob will be saved out of it. In verse 8, we read a great promise that the bonds, or the slavery of the true believer will be removed by God Himself. No longer will the world have any effect upon the true children of God. Then in verse 9, we see that Jacob is going to serve the Lord God and David their king. Now Jeremiah was written about 630 BC which means that David was dead for about 330 years, yet in this verse we are told that Jacob is going to serve the Lord God and David. We have seen that David was a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. So here we have the people of Jacob, the true believers, serving God the Father and God the Son. Then in verse 10, we read that God says to Jacob, they should not fear because He is going to bring them out from all over the world and will return them unto their own land, where they will have rest, quiet, and no fear. This is the language of salvation.
(Psa 23:2 KJV) He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
(Psa 23:4 KJV) Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. The land that the true believer is going to return to is not a physical land on earth in this present age, it is the land of Canaan which God promised to Abraham. (Gen 13:15 KJV) For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. (Gen 17:8 KJV) And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. Whenever God adds the words everlasting or for ever it means that what is in view is not a temporary land but it is the language of salvation or the covenant of Grace. The land that we go back to from every corner of the world, is Heaven. That is the dwelling place of the true believer. (Mark 13:27 KJV) And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. Mark 13:27 gives us the answer that the people who have been scattered all over the earth are His people, the redeemed Elect of God, and on the last day they will be gathered and brought into their own land, which is Heaven.
(1 Th 4:16-17 KJV) For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: {17} Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
(Isa 14:1 KJV) For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
Isaiah 14:1 is one of the best salvation verses. Notice in this verse that God is going to have mercy on Jacob which is the language of salvation.
(1 Pet 2:10 KJV) Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. God then goes on to repeat that He is going to place them in their own land, and we already saw what the gathering of the believers were. Then God adds something different to this verse. He says that, strangers shall be joined to them. (Isa 11:10 KJV) And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. The strangers were the Gentiles who did not know God. (Eph 2:19 KJV) Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; Isaiah 14:1 is telling us that the Gospel of Grace is going to be preached in the entire world, which means that the Gentile countries are included and that Gods children are now going to be found in every country on earth. Notice that it also says they will cleave to the house of Jacob. This is because the House of Jacob in view is the body of believers. (Deu 10:20 KJV) Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name. The only ones who are going to cleave to the Lord is the ones He has redeemed. Isaiah 14:1 is a beautiful verse which teaches us about Gods wonderful salvation plan. The Israel that he will choose is another term for the body of believers. (Gal 6:16 KJV) And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. (Rom 11:26 KJV) And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: Here is another salvation verse. When God forgives and removes the sin of the believer, He Himself is turning away ungodliness from Jacob or the body of Christ. The Deliverer is Christ Himself who cleanses His people from their sins by means of salvation.(Ezek 36:24-28 KJV) For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. {25} Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. {26} A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. {27} And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. {28} And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Here are five verses that are dripping with the promise of salvation of the body of believers. First of all, God starts out in verse 24 again stating that he is going to bring all the believers out of the countries where they reside. Now when we look at verses 25-27, they are some of the most popular salvation verses in the Old Testament. God is saying that He will cleanse, after the cleansing comes a new heart and a new spirit. Then in verse 27 God defines what spirit He is going to give His children, it is going to be the Holy Spirit. Since the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross and fulfilled the requirements of Gods holy law, the Christian is going to be viewed by God as one who will be walking in His statutes and keeping His judgments and doing them. This is because those people who are in Christ, have satisfied the requirements of keeping Gods holy law in Christ. Salvation is the fulfillment and keeping of the law of God which is imputed to the believer. Then after God speaks of granting salvation to His people, He once again states that they will dwell in the land that God gave to the fathers but He adds another dimension. He states these people will be His people and He will be their God, which is the language of salvation. We already saw that the land God is speaking of is not a physical land, but an eternal land, for that is the only suitable dwelling place for His children.
(Amos 9:15 KJV) And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God. Here is another salvation verse in that God is going to permanently plant His children in their eternal home. They are secure in Christ and can never be pulled out of Heaven. If this verse was speaking of national Israel, then we have a problem, first of all, they lost the land by disobedience and secondly, there was never to be another land of true Israelites to rise among the nations again. The present land of Israel is based upon the Talmud and not upon the true Scriptures. This is why it is a fraudulent nation and not borne out of biblical prophecy. God is now dealing with the entire world and not a single country again. It is absolutely reprehensible when Zionist Christians rejoice at the idea of another temple with animal sacrifices. These Zionist Christians are so retarded in their belief systems, they are actually an affront to God and are spitting in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ who was the final sacrifice for sin for His Elect. God destroyed Judah in 70 AD for the reason that her mission was done and the temple/ceremonial system was now voided, never to have any purpose again. To try and say that God is the one who is going to bring about this temple is to make God a liar and that is exactly what Zionist Dispensationalism does. Why would God ordain another temple when the work of His Son was completed and accepted totally? This idea of another temple is just born out of political Zionism with the help of the ignorant clergy, seminaries, and sheep. (Rev 21:22 KJV) And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
The words the time in the Hebrew do not refer to a single day but rather it speaking of a period of time. The word trouble in the Hebrew carries the meaning of distress or affliction. So we see here a period of time when the body of believers is going to be facing much distress or affliction. Now the last days began at Pentecost but when we read this verse we are seeing that within the confines of those last days, there is going to be a period when the body of believers is going to face an elevated level of affliction. Now it is not saying here what type of affliction but we know that the method which Satan will be using in the last days is going to be deceit.
(2 Cor 11:13-15 KJV) For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. {14} And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. {15} Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. There is no doubt that Jeremiah 30:7 is a prophetic passage speaking about the affliction of the body of believers in the last days, and that is what I want to look at in the rest of this study. I believe deeply that we are in that period when Satan has been loosed. (Rev 20:3 KJV) And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season. (Rev 20:7-8 KJV) And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, {8} And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. The evidence for this is overwhelming as we look at the condition that Christianity is in, while all the other worldly religions are seemingly untouched by any affliction.Never before in history has Christianity been assaulted the way it is being assaulted today. We are definitely in a period of trouble or affliction and I want to bring to light some of the ways that we are being attacked and I believe that you too will see that we are living in that period of time known as Jacobs trouble.
If you go to any church you will find at least 10 different versions of the Bible in use in the congregation. When the pastor uses one version and the people use different versions, then you are going to have no understanding of the passages being taught, since it will say something different. These versions are causing massive confusion in the church and among Christians. It is the tower of Babel all over again, except at the tower of Babel, it was God who confused the languages. With the attacks on the Bible mounting, all the new versions are being created by unbelievers which means that Satan is behind the new move of false versions which has watered down Christianity and removed the power from the churches.
(Psa 40:7 KJV) Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,
(Heb 10:7 KJV) Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
These two verses teach us that the Bible was written about the Lord Jesus. Christians need to get their eyes back on Christ and off of Israel. Turn off those prophecy programs which are just a source of lies, deceit, and diversion.
www.mechon-mamre.org/jewfaq/gentiles.htm This is the website which claims Christians are punishable by death for worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ. They also list the 7 Noahide Laws. According to them, these laws were supposedly given to Noah and are binding upon the entire human race. Idolatry is number 1! I wonder why? Whenever you see some facet of Christianity being attacked, such as Judge Moore and the Ten Commandments, just look for the ADL funded ACLU behind it. Those who are attacking and vilifying Christianity are the ones being glorified in the church. Go figure!
Governments all over the world have passed laws outlawing Christianity. Over half of the world has laws on the books which prohibit Christians from free exercise of their Faith. We think that because we live in the USA that this cant happen. Look around. The IRS imposes penalties on churches who speak out in any politically incorrect manner. The IRS holds the removal of tax exemption over the heads of every church. So a church would rather compromise with the world just so they can give out receipts at the end of the year. What a pitiful, cowardly tradeoff, when the churches are already protected by the First Amendment. Most clergy and media preachers are so neutered that they have become only useful idiots for the one world order crowd. If all the true churches would start preaching and teaching the truth around this country, the government would back off of its attacks and think twice.
We are seeing constant attacks on the body of Christ and we are also seeing the prohibition of the Christians to practice their faith, while every false religion in America is granted the right-of-way to practice theirs. Attacks against Christianity are on the rise, whether they are from the media or world religions. Governments all over the world, including the USA, fear the truth telling of Christians and is doing everything, even building concentration camps, to suppress the truth. There will come a time in our world when the Christian witness may be silenced and that time is fast approaching but it will only be for a very short time, and then all the Anti-Christian religions and governments will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and give an account for their hatred.
As we see in this verse that the Christians will be silenced but right on the heels of that event will be the second coming of the Lord Jesus and the judgment of the nations. All those in false religions and their puppet governments will be brought before the Lord Jesus Christ and will stand for their crimes against Christ and His Body.
(Rev 11:14-15 KJV) The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. {15} And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
(2 Th 1:7-9 KJV) And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, {8} In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: {9} Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
(Mat 25:31-32 KJV) When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: {32} And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
May this study provoke you into a deeper study of Scripture.