ISRAEL’S FUTURE: THE TIME OF JACOB’S TROUBLE

“Jacob’s Trouble” (also called “the time of Jacob’s trouble”) is a specific biblical phrase found in Jeremiah 30:7:

Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.” (NKJV)

Biblical Context

The entire chapter of Jeremiah 30 is a prophecy of hope given to Israel and Judah during their exile in Babylon. God promises:

  • To restore them from captivity
  • To break the yoke of foreign oppression
  • To bring them back to their land under their own king (ultimately fulfilled in the Messiah)
  • To heal and prosper them again

However, before this full restoration comes, Israel (referred to here as “Jacob,” using the patriarch’s original name) will go through an unprecedented period of suffering and distress.

Key Characteristics of “Jacob’s Trouble”

  1. Uniqueness and Severity
    • “That day is great, so that none is like it” (Jeremiah 30:7) – it is unparalleled in history.
    • Jesus quotes similar language in the Olivet Discourse: “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 (Matthew 24:21), linking the two passages.
  2. Focused on Israel/Jacob
    • The trouble is specifically called “Jacob’s” (not the church’s or the world’s in general), indicating it primarily affects the Jewish people and the nation of Israel.
    • Other Old Testament passages describe the same period using different names:
      • “The indignation” (Isaiah 26:20; Daniel 11:36)
      • “The time of trouble” (Daniel 12:1)
      • “The day of the Lord”
      • “The seventieth week of Daniel” (Daniel 9:27)
      • “The great tribulation” (Matthew 24:21; Revelation 7:14)
  3. Deliverance at the End
    • Jeremiah 30:7 ends with hope: “…but he [Jacob/Israel] shall be saved out of it.”
    • Daniel 12:1 says Michael the archangel will stand up for Israel, and “at that time your people shall be delivered.”
    • Zechariah 13–14 and Romans 11:25–29 describe Israel’s national repentance and acceptance of the Messiah at the end of this period.

In short, “Jacob’s Trouble” is widely understood in prophetic studies as the Bible’s term for an unparalleled future time of distress centred on the Jewish people, out of which God will ultimately deliver and restore a repentant Israel when the Messiah returns and establishes His Millennial Kingdom

The Bible reveals this Earth’s history is young, not billions of years old as the theory of evolution would lead us to believe. Despite there being billions of dead things buried whole throughout the world, which must have been buried quickly to be whole, as well, enormous amounts of fossil fuels formed from buried vegetation, the scientists of the world deny the Biblical flood of Noah’s day, because it does not align with their naturalist view of the world forming itself over billions of years. The Bible reveals that Noah’s flood was a catastrophic event that changed the entire geomorphology of the planet.

Biblical history reveals that Satan has had 6,000 years to rule over the Earth. Jesus will soon have 1,000 years to rule and reign with the glorified Saints, Satan and I assume his demons are bound during Jesus reign

And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.Revelation 20:2-3

Nevertheless, we are told Jesus and the Saints rule with a rod of iron during the Millennium as the curse is only partially lifted, mainly in Israel, so people are still being born, still sin, and die. Moreover, at the end of the Millennium, Satan is released and he still raises an army like the sand of the sea.

And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them.” Revelation 20:7-9

Even with Jesus and the glorified Saints being on earth people will still rebel and like Satan and the demons will want to be God of their world. For more on Jesus Millennial Kingdom go to http://www.millennialkingdom.net.

Finally, after 7,000 years, this Earth’s history is complete and God destroys the Earth with fire, The second resurrection of the dead takes place before Jesus White Throne judgement. Only after the White Throne judgement does the apostle John see a magnificent and enormous new Jerusalem descending from a new heaven onto a new earth where only the righteous dwell with both our heavenly Father and Jesus.