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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 ... And ye shall be My
people, and I will be your God' (Jer. 30:3,7 -9,22).
The context of this time of Jacob's trouble is the time when both
Israel and Judah shall be saved 'from the land of their captivity' and they
have the assurance, that 'though I make a full end of all nations whither I
have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will
correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished' (Jer.
30:10,11). Jeremiah 30 reads straight on to Jeremiah 31 where the Lord
announces the bringing in of the New Covenant and the return and settlement
of Israel as a nation for ever. This time of tribulation is spoken of by
Daniel:
'And at that time (note the connection with the preceding antichristian
events, with no interval possible) shall Michael stand up, the great
prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall
be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even
to that same time: and at that time (the time note repeated) thy people
shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some
to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And
they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and
they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever'
(Dan. 12:1 -3).
The closing words of this reference are referred to by our Lord in Matthew
13:40 -43 in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares:
'Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of
their Father',
and link the days in which Heaven's King was rejected, and when the 'mystery'
form of the kingdom took the place of positive prophecy, with the days yet to
come when the mystery of God shall be finished.
This unprecedented and unrepeated time of tribulation is referred to by
the Saviour in Matthew 24, and is related by Him with epoch -making events:
(1)
To the abomination of desolation standing in the Holy Place as
foretold by Daniel in Daniel 9:27 (Matt. 24:15).
(2)
To the Second Coming of the Lord (Matt. 24:30).
(3)
To the day when the tribes of the land (Zech. 12:12) shall mourn
when they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven
with power and great glory.
(4)
This is the moment when Israel shall look on Him Whom they have
pierced, and when a fountain shall be opened to the house of
David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and
uncleanness, and when in all the land two parts shall be cut off
and die, but the third shall be left and brought through the