“ON EAGLES’ WINGS MINISTRIES”
“When Shall These Things?" Matthew 24: Part
6… June 2008
“THE TIME OF JACOB’S TROUBLE.”
“Alas! For that day is great, so that there is none like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.” Jer.30:7.
When I first got involved full time in church life back in 1949, our local pastor was a seminarian, very articulate, with a demeanor full of confidence that left no room among the membership for doubting what he taught. It all sounded like “gospel truth” that should be assimilated hook-line-and-sinker. Let me share with you his line of thought on what we now call “dispensational theology.” His beliefs from away back then still run strongly down through a broad spectrum of dispensational teachers today, who continue to profit exceedingly from books and tapes and lectures based on their presentation of “time prophecies.”
Back in our little country village, our pastor taught that the Church would not go through the “Great Tribulation” and soon after her trip up to heaven, the tribulation would begin, and this will begin the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble.” At the Rapture of the Church, he said, the Holy Spirit will be taken from the earth because the “Times of the Gentiles” will have been fulfilled. God’s dealing at that point will be with the Jews, who will have to accept Christ as their Messiah through the ravages of the antichrist. The Gentiles, on the other hand, will have a second chance to obtain salvation, if they can resist taking the mark of the beast and endure the onslaught of the Great Tribulation, thus, coming through the time of Jacob’s Trouble.
These, we were told will be called “The Tribulation Saints” and we were offered Rev.7:14 as proof of this theory. Not much was offered to define Jacob’s trouble, so we never had an in-depth study on the subject. We were not taken to the time frame that the prophets indicated to be the time of Jacob’s trouble. We simply accepted what the pastor said and locked it away in our spirit. Even back then, the thought that bothered me was simple! If the work of the Holy Spirit is to bring conviction of sin to our hearts, and to draw us to God, how can anyone be saved after he is taken from the earth? It just did not add up with me! But we dared not question the clergy! And since I could not clear up the issue in an intelligent way, I simply pondered it within my own soul and kept on going.
Some years ago in a house meeting in San Diego, a brother named Buddy Cobb, who, at the time was a pilot for National Airlines, and a contemporary of Sam Fife said in his talk: “God has established a pattern and he never deviates from it. Some people establish their own ideologies and try to get God’s pattern to fit what they have concocted. Do not try to have God’s pattern fit your scriptures, but bring your scriptures to fit God’s pattern.” As my bishop in Baltimore said one Sunday morning to a full house including the overflow rooms, “The bible is like a computer! We can get it to say what we want it to say! I can use 1 Thess.4: 16-17 to prove that there is no Rapture and the other fellow with an opposing view can use the same verses to prove that there is. So who wins? In the meantime, there are those who elect to relax and sing, “what ever will be, will be.” It’s not a matter of who wins! But it’s nice to know that the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him!
Since we are laborers together with Him, it’s nice to know when it will be closing time. If we are to occupy until he comes, we have the responsibility of not being ignorant of the times and the seasons. Some relish the idea of “blind faith” while others join with Paul in saying, “For I know whom I have believed.” 11 Tim.1:12 Still, others join Job in saying, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.” Jb 42:5. We learn of Jesus having seventy disciples and more often than not, we hear of twelve, while on many occasions he took only three, and out of those three, there was one who leaned on his bosom. It is entirely up to each individual to decide how much he or she wants to know and experience in their walk with God.
In previous lessons, we have established without a shadow of doubt a number of important factors of which we will do well to remind ourselves. Let us recap some of what we have determined so far since we began with lesson number one. We have shown that Jesus began his ministry in Daniel’s 69th week, and in the middle of the 70th week, he was slain, but not for himself. Not only was he crucified in the middle of a seven-year period (a week of years) but he was also killed in the middle of a literal week, or on Wednesday. We determined that the 70 weeks (490 years) of Daniel ran until at least the stoning of Stephen. After that the doors of salvation swung wide open to the Gentiles. See Acts 11: 15-18.
We also established that the antichrist was not mentioned in Daniel 9, and that Christ in Matthew 24 did not refer to the antichrist. We further determined that the desolation spoken of by Daniel and referred to by Christ were the Roman armies, and the holy place did not necessarily mean the temple itself. Let us add a finer point at this juncture so as to highlight an enduring truth! Remember Jesus had said: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation stand in the holy place, then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains, etc. Matt.24:15-16. If the holy place meant the temple and the desolator meant the Roman General and the abomination meant the offering of a pig or some other heathen sacrifice upon the altar of the temple, it would be too late to try to escape. To get to the temple, they must have already captured the entire city, and if offering an abomination on the altar in the temple was what both Daniel and Jesus meant, then only the high priest would be able to see it. No one on the outside would be able to see or hear what takes place inside the most holy place of the temple.
So when we put mere and simple logic to the test, much of what multitudes of Christians believe, just don’t make much sense, because one logic renders the other hopeless and contrary. Biblical truths are not like weaving a basket or laying floor boards in your house, and you have to fight, bend and squeeze the ends to get them to fit smoothly in their proper place. God’s truths indeed span thousands of years, spoken by men who lived in different ages, and under different circumstances. They even used different methods to tell their vision to the people. But over time, each truth is fulfilled in perfect union with others of its kind. Trouble in understanding these visions and prophecies are created when we allow the traditions of men to render null and void, the Word of the living God. There was a song that hit the pop scene some years back, rendered by a cross section of entertainers that went something like this: “I want to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.”
Of all the top conductors who ever lived and conducted orchestras from Berlin to Rome, to Paris, to Vienna, to London, to New York and to Los Angeles, none could produce the harmony that God does produce. His harmony is awash across the celestial bodies, reflected in the Milky Way, with the rising and setting sun, all the way down to the chirping of the frogs upon the waters of nearby ponds.
I can well remember a little song I learned in Sunday School some 60 years ago that goes like this: “Birds in the treetop singing a song; flowers in the garden bowing their heads, angels are singing praises unto the Lord; so why should I, why should I not praise the Lord.” Think about it my Friend! God has established a harmonious world for us to live in. On top of that, he has stacked up world events in the order he has ordained for them to be activated on the world-stage. With the blood of his Son, he has purchased the Church, set her among the people, and allotted her a specific number of years to be the embodiment of himself before all people. It seems to me that when we lose the reality of that embodiment, we begin to tinker with time and the prophecies that pertain to time. It’s like having the Man-of-Sin emerging from under the darkness of the falling away, and in the darkness, when spiritual discernment was just about extinct none could discern his true identity.
It is from this darkness from which many are still trying to recover, that we are receiving so many different versions of what people think Jesus and Daniel said, and what is supposed to happen in our world in the next 40 or 50 years. As we said at the very beginning of this study, Matthew, Mark, and Luke wrote in their narrative, what the disciples asked Jesus and the answer he gave in response. We have already seen in those lessons that by placing each writer’s account in harmony with the other, we are given a clear understanding of the prophecies and their fulfillments. But there are certain prominent religious schools that nurture and propagate certain forms of beliefs, and they make sure that every student graduating from their classrooms are fully equipped to carry their concepts and doctrinal beliefs across the globe to people far and near.
As we set our hearts to examine more closely the subject called: “The Time Of Jacob’s Trouble” whether it is past, present or future, we have to ask ourselves; “how is it that Daniel has figured so prominently in our studies.” A quick answer is, “because Jesus in Matthew 24 and two of the remaining three gospels referred to Daniel and his prophecies.” Except in Luke, Jesus did not quote Daniel, rather, he gave the meaning to Daniel’s prophecy in plain language, saying, “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, (this is the desolator that makes desolate spoken of by Daniel the prophet) then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.” Luke 21:20.
As we ponder the times and seasons woven within our study, we see very clearly how Daniel got caught up in our lessons. He was taken to Babylon about 607 B.C. and he wrote his now famous prophecy in chapter 9 about 52 years later. He was now becoming an old man, having spent much of his life in captivity in a foreign and heathen land. Daniel had learned from books by Jeremiah the prophet that God would accomplish seventy years of captivity in the desolation of Jerusalem, and he set his heart to seek the Lord. Bear in mind that this was towards the end of the seventy-year captivity.
Amazingly enough, the angel Gabriel came to Daniel with some startling news, perhaps, the like of which the prophet was hardly prepared to receive; Because, although the seventy-year captivity was about to run its course, Daniel was told of another period of much longer duration. Instead of seventy years in real time, Daniel was told that seventy weeks (those are weeks of years equaling four hundred and ninety years) are set aside for the destruction of his people and his holy city. Here we have a shifting of meanings as they relate to prophetic times. King Nebuchadnezzar was told that he would be driven from his palace to live among the animals and eat grass like an ox until Seven Times pass over him. A time in prophecy means one calendar year, a year can mean a calendar year or 360 prophetic days, and a week is usually seven years. It becomes necessary to read the entire passage or complete lesson to determine which of the above applies.
Many experts and formidable teachers of scripture have placed Daniel’s warnings as found in the gospels as a future event, and at the same time equate that event with the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble” which in terms of their mathematics is slated as a future event. We need to go back to the days of Moses and examine one of the warnings he gave to Israel and see what other prophets said about the same events. In Deut.28:15-25, Moses told how God would scatter the people if they did not obey all that God had said to them, and in Lev.26: 18 we read: “And if ye will not yet for all this harken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.” These seven times can be counted as, or with the seventy years captivity in which even Daniel was caught up and taken to Babylon. But we have a more important view to examine! A time is a year, and a Jewish year is counted as 360 days so if we multiply 360 by 7 we get 2520 and that would be 2520 years in world time of punishment that God would accomplish upon his Church for their disobedience. I use the word Church because Israel was called the “Church in the wilderness.” The peculiar people, holy treasure, royal priesthood, conferred upon ancient Israel came into fruition in the Church as we know her today. So in reality, God’s dealings with Israel of old, was his dealings with his Church. Many believe that the seventy-year that Daniel was caught up into, was a part of the 2520 years of punishment that God had promised in Lev.26:18.
In my bible, Lev.26: 18 fits into the time frame of about B.C 1491 so we need to examine God’s dealings with Israel from that time to this day, to see how and when those 2520 years of punishment were accomplished. Our study now shifts back in time to one of the few good kings of Israel by the name of Josiah and herein we read: “Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem one and thirty years. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of David his father, and declined neither to the right hand, nor to the left. And Josiah took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel, and made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord their God.” 11 Chro.34: 1-2,32-33. This good king went out to fight against Necho, king of Egypt, who, when he found out that Josiah had come to meet him in battle sent a message to him saying, “What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith.
I have war: for God commanded me (God commanded this Egyptian king) to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God (this is a powerful word coming from a king of Egypt) who is with me, that he destroy thee not. Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might he might fight with him, and harkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. (This Megiddo takes us all the way forward to Rev.16: 12-16.) And the archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away; for I am sore wounded.” 11 Chro.35:21-24. The wounded Josiah was taken from the battle front to Jerusalem where he died. This was in 607 B.C.!
It can be figured that the “seven times more” or 2520 years in world time, began with the death of Josiah, and it is remarkable that being the last good king to rule in Israel, he died at Megiddo, a place that figures prominently in last days prophecies. If the death of Josiah marked the start of the downfall of the Church (Israel) all we need to do is to incorporate the sum of 2520 years, since it is the length of time that God promised to punish Israel. From 607 B.C. going forward 2520 years brings us to 1914 and the start of World War 1, and the start of the downfall of mystical Babylon. Here is a special note for the alert mind to examine! Four years later, in 1918 in the last battle of Megiddo, after the British took the literal Megiddo in Palestine, in about one month’s time, on November 11, 1918 the armistice was signed. Where? At Megiddo on the eleventh day, of the eleventh month. Should we not think of the great significance interwoven in these world events?
The eyes of the Church have been focused on future events and “pending apocalyptic” scenarios that they have totally disregarded major fulfillments that have reverberated around the world, but gone unnoticed both by the clergy and the laity but Daniel said that the wise will understand. What we call Jacob’s Trouble is also called “His Indignation” and in New Testament times, “The Times of the Gentiles.” But whatever term we prefer to use, when we apply scripture to the subject, we quickly discover that none, “not one iota” is relegated to the future. I have believed for a long time now, that the Church loves to preach and teach matters with future overtones because in so doing, we don’t have to prove or produce anything in our lifetime. Brother Bennie Skinner in West Palm Beach, Florida, once said on one of his tapes that to many people, God is a “gonna” God. He is gonna save, he is gonna heal, he is gonna bless, (his is going to) and all the time the reality is just out of our reach and has become something we have to wait for.
When we tell the hurting soul, or the couple dangling precariously on the verge of a divorce that one of these days it will be better; if we can only hold on for one more month or one more year, one of these days it’s going to be alright; what have we offered in terms of solutions; in terms of tangible answers? In a dubious way, it seemingly pleases the clergy because there is no need to produce results. It’s like giving a baby a rubber pacifier to calm him and stop the crying. But before long the baby finds out that no milk is coming through, so he spits out the fake product and goes back to crying, only louder this time.
When I go to a meeting, no matter who is conducting it, and I am being told what God is fixing to do, or getting ready to do, I am lost! My interest has just sunken to as low as it can go! Why? Because over the years I have heard too much of what God is gonna do! Sometimes we are even given dates, and you know what? They come and go with nothing big to write home about, so we announce another fabulous thing that God is going to do. Whether it is “The Great Tribulation” or the rapidly approaching “Rapture” seemingly, there are big bucks to be made by marketing what is “about to happen.” What does that mean? It means different things to different people. So please, when you write me, in love I ask you not to tell me what God is about to do! Why? Because whatever he is going to do, I am already right here! I can’t miss it! I don’t have to change my city or my town, or join a new Fellowship. God! Just go ahead and do it! Daniel knew about Jacob’s trouble from books written by Jeremiah, but the reality of it came home to him, because he was among his people who were taken by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon there to live out the seventy-year captivity. Jacob’s trouble became a part of his every day life. But before he came to its end, he was shown even a greater conflict covering a longer period of time. Because he wrote his visions down on paper or parchment, we who live today can be a little wiser, if we cast aside the vain traditions of the church elders and so-called scholars of the bible and read God’s Word.
In describing the time called “Jacob’s Trouble” Jeremiah was not vague, neither did he use covert language so that you and I are left to speculate and apply varied conjectures hoping one will make sense and finally be aligned with scripture. Listen to the prophet himself, in a very concise language: “Thus speaketh the Lord God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book. For, lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. Alas! for the 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. 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.” Jer.30:2-10.
It is plain to see that the time of Jacob’s trouble refers to those already in the seventy-year captivity, and it held a promise that surely God would bring them out of it and place them again in their own land. The return is well documented in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, and in spite of these written proofs, it is amazing that people who are well educated in scripture continue to predict a future event that they call the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble.” In the conversation Jesus had with his disciples in Matthew 24, he said of the time of this indignation or tribulation, “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” Jeremiah said Israel would be saved out of it, and Jesus said he that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.
The church-world is chock full of the idea of “the one taken and the other left,” meaning that the good person is taken, leaving the bad person behind. According to the popular view, this is to be taken literally even though Jesus did not say anything of the sort. In Luke 17:36-37 we read: “Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? (Or where will he be taken to?) And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is (or wheresoever there is a dead body) thither will the eagles be gathered together.”
Over the years I have heard some who would like to twist this truth to fit their own brand of doctrine say that Jesus is the Body and we are the eagles that will be gathered to him. My Friend! That is totally ludicrous! Ancient Israel in their wilderness experience had a place outside the camp reserved for dumping dead bodies, and Jesus alluded to this very practice so that where the dead bodies are thrown, there will the eagles (scavengers) flock. It is rather amusing to look at how childish and petty some of what is being taught in religious circles is. They tell of a secret rapture that will occur while the world is asleep, but in truth while we are sleeping in the United States, Australia and New Zealand are wide awake in what could be the middle of the day.
They say the trump will sound at midnight for the waiting saints to leave earth, but even in America, midnight here on the East Coast, is 9.00pm on the West Coast. When it is Sunday here in the States, it is already Monday in China and other Far East countries. This secret rapture is meant to be silent heard only by the waiting saints. But Paul said that “the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.” This doesn’t sound quiet and noiseless to me. The saints are to be taken to heaven for the marriage of the Lamb, but Peter said, “heaven shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, 11 Pet.3:10. John in the Revelation said that heaven and earth fled away from the presence of him that sat on the throne and there was no place found for them. Rev.20:11. So those who teach and believe in a literal heaven, literal catching up in the middle of the night have an enormous amount of difficulties to overcome. Even if we go one step further and grant that there will be a catching UP it is only to MEET the Lord and escort him back to earth. Nowhere are we told that we will be caught up and AWAY with him. Jesus himself said, of the bridegroom coming for the wedding, “Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to MEET him” and escort him to where the wedding will convene. What is so hard to understand in these statements? Please make your offerings payable to Royce Kennedy. Thanks & God bless you all!
Royce O. Kennedy