THE TIME OF JACOB’S TROUBLE
Jeremiah predicted a “time of Jacob’s trouble” for Israel.
- Jeremiah 30:7 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.
Many scholars think this term refers to the seven-year Tribulation, known as “Daniel’s last seven years” or “Daniel’s seventieth week,” mentioned in Daniel 9:27.
- Daniel 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Jacob works for seven years, but when the time comes, his father-in-law tricks him into marrying Leah instead of his beloved Rachel. Laban then tells Jacob to “fulfill her week.”
- Genesis 29:27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
The Hebrew word for week is shabuwa, and is literally a week of years, not days.
- Strong’s H7620
This word is found four times:
- Genesis 29:27 & 28
- Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
- And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
- Twice in Daniel 9:27
- And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
- The word week in Daniel 9:27 is a prediction of a seven-year covenant that the future Antichrist will sign.
- And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Jacob’s trouble spans two periods of seven years. He worked the first seven years only to be deceived by Laban, then labored another seven years before finally marrying the wife he had chosen.
- Some rabbis believe that the Jewish Holocaust, from 1938 to 1945—a span of seven years—was the fulfillment of Jacob’s trouble. However, Jacob experienced two distinct periods of “seven” in his life.
- The upcoming seven-year Tribulation will mark the second and final period of seven years in Jacob’s (Israel’s) time of trouble.
After the second seven-year period, Jacob marries Rachel and eventually returns to the Promised Land, where he meets Esau and visits his father, Isaac. In the future, after a seven-year Tribulation, Christ the Messiah will return to Israel and reveal Himself as the suffering Messiah to the descendants of both Esau and Isaac.
- Zechariah 13:6 And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.
- Jesus is the one with wounds in his hands.
- John 20:25-27
- The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.
- And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.
- Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
- John 20:25-27
- Jesus is the one with wounds in his hands.
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