If you are familiar with this term ‘Jacob’s trouble’ you
know immediately what I am talking about. But rather than me explaining it for
those who may not be as familiar, let me quote a source on the subject which
gives a succinct definition,
“Jacob's trouble or Jacob's
distress refers to the difficulties the Jewish people will face during the
seven-year tribulation period. During this time, the Jewish temple will be
rebuilt, yet desecrated. The Antichrist will break a covenant and set himself
up as ruler and expect to be worshiped. He will force all people to receive a
mark to buy or sell goods. In addition, much war and famine will occur, with
Jews fleeing Jerusalem to the mountains.”[1]
As the article also notes this phrase comes from Jeremiah
30:7 which says this in the NKJV, “Alas! For that day is great, So that none is
like it; And it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, But he shall be saved out of
it.” The ESV notes that it is a time of distress of Jacob, but both translations
carry the precise same meaning. The time of Jacob’s trouble will be a period of
testing for the Israelites, a time of distress. The word for trouble used here
‘tsarah’ can also be translated tribulation. So, you can see why there are many
Christians who see this phrase as referring to the tribulation period being a
time of distress for the people of Israel.
But the passage does not just say this, as the article notes it also points to hope,
“In previous verses, God
promised He would someday restore His people to their land, meaning the land of
Israel. Despite a great time of distress for the Jewish people, the Lord would
save them from it. Jeremiah 30:8-9 make it clear that this time would be a
period in which God's people no longer served other masters, but would serve
the Lord and "David their king, whom I will raise up for them" (v.
9).”[2]
So, according to this reading of Jeremiah 30:7-9 Jacob
will go through a time of deep and terrifying trouble at some future date in
the great tribulation, but this time would also turn into a time of liberation,
or freedom from oppression, as verses 8-9 say, “8 ‘For it shall come to pass in
that day,’ Says the Lord of hosts, ‘That I will break his yoke from your neck, And
will burst your bonds; Foreigners shall no more enslave them. 9 But they shall
serve the Lord their God, And David their king, Whom I will raise up for them.”
This verse is a glorious promise, and God’s people should meditate on it and
what it says about God’s loyalty to his people even in a time of distress. But
we should ask the question, does this verse refer to some future exile,
distress, tribulation, that is entirely focused around refining physical
Israel?
The answer is no, it absolutely does not, and the context
makes this very clear. In fact, it is a bit audacious that someone would take
this verse and apply it in that way. Let me show you why.
Let’s take a step back, what comes before Jeremiah 30?
Jeremiah 29 of course. This is another passage with a famous verse in it that
is often taken out of context, Jeremiah 29:11 of course, which says this, “For
I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace
and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”[3] This is one of those verses
people love to quote, put on their walls, their bookmarks, and even t-shirts. A
friend of mine gave me a plaque with this phrase on it as a little in joke
after I preached a sermon on Jeremiah 29 many years ago. It was his favourite
verse and it was the first time he had heard it put into context, and was shown
how it was often misapplied. He thought it was funny to buy me that plaque, as
a memorial of that event. I still have it today, it sits on one of my
bookshelves.
Of course, the issue with this verse, as with Jeremiah
30:7, is that it is often taken out of context and applied to modern Christians
or issues, without considering its immediate context. The NIV is a particularly
popular version used to memorize this verse, because it implies that God’s plan
is to prosper believers, “11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the
Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a
future” (NIV). Is God saying that his plan is to prosper Christians? If this is
the case, where is all that prosperity?
But if we take a step back we can see that God is not
promising us current prosperity, he is promising that he will enrichen the Jews
in exile in Babylon, as part of his plan to look after them and bring them back
out again, once their time of discipline is over. Let’s confirm this,
“1 Now these are the words
of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remainder of
the elders who were carried away captive—to the priests, the prophets, and all
the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to
Babylon. 2 (This happened after Jeconiah the king, the queen mother, the eunuchs,
the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths had departed
from Jerusalem.) 3 The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah the son of
Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to
Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, saying,
4 Thus says the Lord of
hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have
caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5 Build houses and dwell in
them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. 6 Take wives and beget sons and
daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so
that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not
diminished. 7 And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be
carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will
have peace. 8 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let
your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen
to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. 9 For they prophesy falsely to
you in My name; I have not sent them, says the Lord.
10 For thus says the Lord:
After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My
good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the
thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of
evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and
pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when
you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, says the
Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all
the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and
I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away
captive.
15 Because you have said,
“The Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon”— 16 therefore thus says the
Lord concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, concerning all the
people who dwell in this city, and concerning your brethren who have not gone
out with you into captivity— 17 thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will
send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like
rotten figs that cannot be eaten, they are so bad. 18 And I will pursue them
with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence; and I will deliver them to
trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth—to be a curse, an astonishment, a
hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, 19
because they have not heeded My words, says the Lord, which I sent to them by
My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; neither would you
heed, says the Lord. 20 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, all you of the
captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon” (Jer. 29:1-20).
If you want to destroy a pretext all you need is a little
context, right? Reading this passage in its wider context shows that what God
is giving here is a specific promise to the exiles in Babylon that God is going
to make sure they don’t just do well, but prosper in Babylon, so that they are
safe and secure for the return at the end of their prison sentence. But he is
also promising to punish those Judeans who are still rebelling against him and
following a corrupt King and false prophets. Both these prophecies were completely
fulfilled. God did punish Judah and he did prosper the Judeans in Babylon. In
fact, the rest of Jeremiah 29 outlines God’s specific plan to punish some of
the rebellious leaders and prophets in Judah and explains why he will do this.
This brings us to chapter 30. If chapter 29 is about how
Judah should live in the exile, then what is chapter 30 about? It is about the
restoration of Judah out of exile. Let’s read some of it in context,
“1 The word that came to
Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 “Thus speaks the Lord God of Israel, saying:
‘Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you. 3 For
behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will bring back from captivity
My people Israel and Judah,’ says the Lord. ‘And I will cause them to return to
the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.’”
4 Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah. 5 “For thus says the Lord: ‘We have heard a voice of trembling, Of fear, and not of peace. 6 Ask now, and see, Whether a man is ever in labor with child? So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins Like a woman in labor, And all faces turned pale? 7 Alas! For that day is great, So that none is like it; And it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, But he shall be saved out of it.
8 ‘For it shall come to pass
in that day,’ Says the Lord of hosts, ‘That I will break his yoke from your
neck, And will burst your bonds; Foreigners shall no more enslave them. 9 But
they shall serve the Lord their God, And David their king, Whom I will raise up
for them. 10 ‘Therefore do not fear, O My servant Jacob,’ says the Lord, ‘Nor
be dismayed, O Israel; For behold, I will save you from afar, And your seed
from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return, have rest and be quiet, And
no one shall make him afraid. 11 For I am with you,’ says the Lord, ‘to save
you; Though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you, Yet I
will not make a complete end of you. But I will correct you in justice, And
will not let you go altogether unpunished’” (Jer. 30:1-11).
As you can see the passage leaves no room for doubt, this
passage is referring to the return from exile. It is as egregious to take
Jeremiah 30:7 and apply it to the future tribulation, as it is to take Jeremiah
29:11 and say that God’s plan is to prosper all believers. These verses are part of
twin prophecies by Jeremiah that were written to both encourage the Judeans in
exile and warn them, but also to document that when Israel returned out of
exile, that this was done according to the definite knowledge and foreplan of
God.
It should be noted that the Apostles do take phrases like
this out of the Old Testament and apply them in a general way to the experience
of the church, and the ministry of Jesus. But they were led to do this by the guidance of the Spirit, to show how God was long ago pointing to the Messiah and
his multinational expansion of the church of God in the New Testament age. But
when we don’t have their authority, we should tie ourselves to how the apostles
speak of these issues. And there is no passage anywhere in the New Testament
that teaches the tribulation is a Jewish specific time of trouble that will be
used to refine physical Israel. It is rather referred to as a time of testing for
the whole world, which includes both Jew and Gentile. God’s people is already comprised
of both Jew and Gentile, there has never been a church without Jewish
believers, and to say that these two peoples have a separate salvation plan
flies in the face of the scriptures. And Jeremiah 30:7 does not justify such a
claim at all.
In fact, Paul’s argument in Romans 11 is that the gospel
would be so successful amongst the Gentiles that this would eventually drive
more Jews to believe in Jesus. God’s plan to save “Jacob” is the same as his
plan to save everyone else,
“11 I say then, have they
stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to
provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. 12 Now if their
fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much
more their fullness! 13 For I speak to you Gentiles; inasmuch as I am an
apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if by any means I may
provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. 15 For if
their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their
acceptance be but life from the dead?” (Rom. 11:11-15).
25 For I do not desire,
brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise
in your own [f]opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the
fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be [g]saved, as
it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away
ungodliness from Jacob; 27 For this is My covenant with them, When I take away
their sins” (Rom. 11:25-26).
God’s plan for physical Israel is that they rejoin true
Israel by trusting in the “deliverer” who “will come out of Zion”. This is and
can only be Jesus Christ.
There is nothing wrong with holding to the idea of some
future revival for the Jews. It is possible to read Paul this way. But to take
passages out of the Old Testament and tell people that God has a separate
salvation plan for the Jews in the tribulation, when those verses explicitly
refer to the ancient exile is irresponsible. Those verses convey fulfilled
promises. To take rock solid fulfilled promises that prove God’s word is
faithful, and then use them to make spurious claims about future events that tie
into American foreign policy and the niche views of some churches, is to take the
firm and make it shakeable, and one should just not handle God’s word in that
way. These are fulfilled promises they should be used to point us to the
faithfulness of our Lord, as the Apostles often did.
I wish more pastors would examine these teachings in
context and challenge these readings of the text, because they have led to all
sorts of bad ideas about the modern nation of Israel in the church. Jews are
not the special people of God, they are a mission field like any other people.
Any teaching that contradicts this undermines the idea that there is only one
way to be among the people of God, and that is through Jesus. Our eschatology
must always come back around to making that the primary focus. If you want to
see Jews saved then the best way to achieve this is to become a missionary at home, or overseas
and reach as many people as you can. Because Paul says explicitly that their
revival is contingent on the fullness of the Gentiles coming in, not on some
future time of Jacob’s trouble.
List of References
[2]
Ibid.
[3]
All my references, unless otherwise noted in this article are from the NKJV. I
usually use the ESV for my writings, but I have been reading the NKJV more and
more, and as this article is titled after a phrase that comes from the NKJV
translation, I will simply stick to it in this article.
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