Study No. 19
Jacob’s Time of Trouble
Jeremiah 30:1-10
1. What is the burden of this chapter?
Jeremiah 30:1-3
30:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
30:2 Thus speaketh the LORD God of Israel, saying, Write thee all the words that I have spoken unto thee in a book.
30:3 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.
Timely Greetings, Vol. 1, No. 47 pp. 13, 14
“…both Judah and Israel together have the promise of returning to their homeland. As this has never yet been realized, the prophecy is yet to be fulfilled… the burden of this chapter is concerning the antitypical returning to the homeland.”
2. What will these children of Jacob experience on their homeward journey?
Jeremiah 30: 4-7
30:4 And these [are] the words that the LORD spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah.
30:5 For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.
30:6 Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?
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.
13SC 1, 2. 9 - “…something as strange as if a man was to travail with child. A time of great and unusual trouble and fear is to overtake the people. It is to bring great distress and anxiety upon them.”
1TG 47. 14 - “The cause of the fear here forecast is fundamentally needless and unnecessary, declares the Lord.”
13SC 1, 2. 9, 10 - “Though it is designated as the time of Jacob's trouble, yet there is no trouble like it in the respect that none is so great. In this prophecy God is revealing that before God's people return to their father's land there shall be a time of trouble that will turn all faces pale. It will be a time of trembling, of fear, and of trouble such as never was.”
1TG 47. 14 - “The people that have come to this antitypical time of trouble are returning to the homeland, are comforted. Apparently it is bad enough to frighten all, but God's encouraging counsel is, ‘Fear not.’
“…Though terrible the trouble may seem, yet the outcome of it is to be the same as in the type.”
3. Why is it called Jacob’s time of trouble?”
Read Gen. 27: 41-44; 32: 6-12, 24-29; 33: 1-4
1SR bk. 62. 3 - “Jacob's wrestling with the angel typifies the time of ‘Jacob's trouble’ (for the church).”
13SC 1, 2. 10 - “…Jacob met his trouble while he was returning to the Promised Land. Now Jacob is to return again to the Promised Land with all his household, and again he is to meet with great trouble. That is why it is called the time of Jacob's trouble. The trouble is to be exceedingly great.”
1TG 47. 15 - “How encouraging that "all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." 1 Cor. 10:11. That which happened to Jacob is sure to happen to us, and how comforting to know all this ahead of time. Now, if never before we should see that where there is a type there is also an antitype, and that where there is no type, there is no Truth.”
4. At what time before their return to the Promised Land will the latter day Jacobites experience this antitypical trouble?
SR Tr. 1. 36 - “Here lay down the man Jacob and rose up the man Israel, exemplifying the agonizing experience through which his posterity must victoriously pass before they, too, receive a new name, pass from sons of Jacob to sons of God, become Israelites indeed. Having gained the victory over this test, "the time of Jacob's trouble," they will reach home, the land of promise -- the happy end of their long and troubled journey.
“On this trying and testing time the Spirit of Prophecy comments: "A decree went forth to slay the saints, which caused them to cry day and night for deliverance. This was the time of Jacob's trouble" -- Early Writings, pp. 36, 37. (See also Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 202, 203.)”
•Before they receive a new name
•Before they become Israelites
•At the issuing of a death decree
5. When will they receive their new name?
“Isa. 65:13-15 -- "…And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto My chosen: for the Lord God shall slay thee, and call His servants by another name."
1TG. 44: 8 - “…The denominational name will they leave to God's servants; that is, to those who escape from the Lord's sword shall the name consequently be left. The name, however, is left only as a curse, and His servants will be called by another name which "the mouth of the Lord shall name."” See also Isa. 61:6; 62:2-4.
•When the wicked are removed from the church
6. When will they become Israelites?
1SR bk. 224, 227 - “…As Jacob was the father of the twelve tribes of Israel,--the type; just so he is the father in type of the anti-type (the 144,000, -- the true). The section represented by Jacob is the only fitting symbolical period to give birth to the 144,000. As soon as this number is made and sealed, this particular section is to pass away and usher in the next.”
•When the number 144,000 is made and sealed.
SR Tr. 1. 31, 32 - “Not so, though, with the Jacob class. Just as their type, who diligently cared for the sheep, carefully tended to his business, and triumphantly overcame his covetous nature, had his name changed from Jacob (supplanter) to Israel (and overcomer and thus a Prince), so they, too, finally, triumphing over their own carnal nature, have their names changed from Jacobites to Israelites, from supplanters to overcomers, -- from servants of self to servants of God, from common Christians in Laodicea to exalted princes on Mt. Zion. Thus in their own right the antitypical Jacobites become antitypical Israelites, by acquisition of the priestly birthright they become finishers of the gospel work and as servants of God they stand on Mt. Zion with the Lamb.”
•When the antitypical Jacob class finally triumph over their carnal nature.
7. When will the death decree go forth?
Rev. 9:6 – “And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.”
•During the five months of the fifth trumpet.
12SC 2. 14 - “Throughout the Dark Ages all who dared accept the Gospel were seeking death, and they found it, too. So we see that history in the period of the fifth trumpet discloses that up to this time Revelation 9:6 has not met its fulfillment. But there will yet be a decree before the fifth trumpet ends, that if men dare to disobey, they must face the threatened penalty of death. Those however, who have been sealed when the decree comes will seek death and death will flee from them. God will not let them die.”
•Before the fifth trumpet ends.
Note: 5Tr. 76 places this death decree (Rev. 9:6) after the expiration of the five months. Page 77 links it with the death decree in the time of the image beast (Rev. 13:15). This tract was written in 1935, before light on the kingdom was revealed and before the 1946 reference in 12SC 2. 14.
8. How will God save or deliver the latter day Jacobites?
Jeremiah 30:8
1TG 47. 15 – “This verse plainly says that God is to free His people from the Gentile yoke, and that strangers [unconverted] shall no more trouble them.”
13SC 1, 2. 11 – “To break one's yoke and bonds means to make one free. It is from the Assyrian yoke that Jacob is going to be made free.”
Isa. 14: 24-26; 12SC 1. 21 – “God is here telling us that what He will do with Assyria He will also do to Babylon. He declares that He will surely do it and we must not doubt it.
Just as God was able to lead His people into their land of promise anciently so He can now also today lead His people back and take from them their yoke and make of them a nation that shall never be given to other people, but which will stand forever.”
•By freeing them from the Gentile (Assyrian) yoke.
•By bringing about the defeat of the Assyrian in Palestine, thus causing his yoke to depart from off God’s people.
9. When will Assyria’s yoke depart from off God’s people?
Tract 14, pages 17, 18
Nahum 1:12, 13. "Thus saith the Lord; Though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down, when he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more. For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder."
This person ("thee") whom the Lord has already chastened, obviously cannot be the Assyrian king or nation aforementioned, because the Lord is delivering this one, while He is beating the Assyrians to their knees at the hands of him "that dasheth in pieces." Just who this third character ("thee") here introduced may be, is immediately established by Isaiah in his correlative prophecy concerning this same Assyria:
"And it shall come to pass in that day," declares the prophet, "that his [Assyria's] burden shall be taken away from off thy [Judah's] shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing." Isa. 10:27.
Immediately we see that in the revealing light of this scripture, the one ("thee") who, in both cases, is set free in the time of Assyria's fall, proves to be the church (Judah) liberated from Gentile (Assyrian) rule. Conclusively, therefore, Isaiah clarifies Nahum's prophecy as referring to the church's liberation from the last-day Assyrian yoke. The fact, though, that the church, as Nahum says, is not only to be relieved from affliction and freed from bondage but is also to be sentenced to death (Nah. 1:14), creates a paradox!
Inspiration, however, quickly clears it, again through Isaiah. Speaking of the church, he declares:
"And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto My chosen: for the Lord God shall slay thee, and call His servants by another name." Isa. 65:15.
Plainly, therefore, in the time when Assyria crumbles, the Lord is to perform a dual work among His professed people, some of whom will be made free because of their faithfulness, and some of whom will be slain because of their wickedness. The delivered ones will then be called by another name.
•At the time of the purification of the church.
12SC 5. 18, 19 – “But the Jacobites are not yet on Mt. Zion with the Lamb. Instead, they are in antitypical Padan-aram where God is sustaining them apart from the Esauites in the church. That is why one part of the Adventists are in Washington, D.C. and the other part is in Texas. They are unable to get along together.
“…Though it is true that we are connected with Edomites in the church, -- those who despise their birthright and whom God will therefore take away, -- it is equally true that there are other Esauites besides, for the Esauites in the Seventh-day Adventist church are not all of them. No, they are not all of the Esauites. In addition to the Esauites that are in the Adventist church, there are Esauites in Palestine, and there are also Esauites in the other churches, too, and from them other Jacobites must be gathered. Do you not see that the Esauites are going to be enraged with God's people and give them trouble behind and a bigger trouble ahead? And besides all the trouble Jacob will suffer from Esau, he is also to have Laban running after him! Somebody typified by Laban will pursue antitypical Jacob for trouble.
13SC 1, 2. 10 – “…The trouble actually is what saves him. Then the time of trouble is coming for the good of the latter-day Jacobites. It is coming to deliver them. Through this most difficult time, it is the man who has the greatest faith in God that will fear the least. The more faith one has then the greater will be his deliverance.”
12SC 5. 16 – “…When we start for home as did Jacob, we, too, shall meet with our time of trouble, even Jacob's time of trouble. And at that time we shall become thoroughly converted to God forever, and our name will be changed as is foretold in Isaiah 61:6, and it will be a name that the Lord Himself will give us. When we demonstrate that we are truly converted, then this great promised blessing will come to us. And when our name has been changed it signifies that we are certain candidates for entrance into the Kingdom eternal.”
12SC 5. 19 - “It is very apparent, then, that God's people will have much trouble among themselves on the way, and ahead. Trouble is what they face. But God will take care of them today as He did anciently. He has promised that He will remove the Edomites in the church and He has promised also to clear away the Edomites and all of the others that are in the land of promise, and give it to His people.”
Isa. 63: 1-3; 1TG 43. 16, 17 – “Since God's people of today are not in the land of Edom, south of Palestine, but are scattered throughout the earth, and since the Lord is to slay their enemies in order to free them, the truth is obvious: These are antitypical Edom and Bozrah.
“After Esau of old sold his birthright for a mess of pottage he was called Edom; and the name Bozrah means "sheepfold." Plainly, then, the Edomites of Isaiah 63:1 are those who in our day have sold their birthright, and who at the same time are persecuting (as did Esau persecute Jacob) those who have bought it, so to speak. Thus it is that as God's people had to be delivered from the Sanhedrin in Christ's day, they must now be delivered from the General Conference, the antitypical Edomite brethren, in order to be led into all Truth, and into their fathers' land.”
Isa;. 34: 6,12 1TG 35. 21 – “The immediate curse, we see, rests upon Idumea. Antitypically speaking, it is the land of the antitypical Esauites -- those who by rights should have kept the office which the antitypical Jacobites take away from them. They so underestimate its value that they, like Esau of old, sell their rights for a dish of red pottage as it were.
“Evidently after the destruction falls upon Idumea, none of her so-called nobles shall be found there to participate in the exodus (Isa. 11:11) to the antitypical Kingdom (the church purified), and her princes shall be as nothing. Then, it must be that those who escape and enter into the Kingdom are mostly from among the common people, those from the streets and the lanes (Luke 14:16-21).”
Isa. 3: 1-3; 1TG 6. 39 – “In this time of trouble, when every element is at work to bring the time of trouble such as never was (Dan. 12:1) God is to cleanse His church in order to protect His people from the trouble that she is headed for. The people that are left after the sinners are taken, "the remnant," shall have perfect peace.”
What will become of those who cannot undergo this trouble?
Isa. 57: 1; 1SR 219. 2 – “…The predicted event for the purification of God's church is by no means a small one. Those who cannot undergo the trial are laid in their graves, while 144,000 remain and will escape, but the balance in the church (now) shall perish in the ruin. May God help His people.”
10. Read verse 8
13SC 1, 2. 11, 12 – “Now we will read the last part of Jer. 30:8 again: "...and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him." The reason there will be no strangers is that no one will serve himself there. In the religious realm, strangers serve themselves rather than the Lord and their king. But in the Kingdom all will serve the Lord their God and David their king. If I am a minister of the gospel for what I can get out of it, then I am serving none but myself; but if I am serving for the good of God's people, then I am serving God. There are many people today dying for their country. Should not a Christian be willing to die, if necessary, for the cause of Christ? There shall be no more strangers among Jacob that will serve themselves, ‘but they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.’
“There are two principals brought to light in this statement: One is religious and the other is civil. The one religious is none other than the Lord their God; and the one civil is David their king. If He is to raise David to them then it must be that they are going to have a theocratic form of government as they had in David's time.”
1TG 47.15 - “No longer shall the followers of Truth serve others, but they shall serve the Lord, and a king whom God Himself shall provide.”
11. Read verse 10
13SC 1, 2. 12 – “ Jacob should not fear, because he shall be saved out of his trouble. God is going to deliver him by a miracle. If it were not a fearfully troublous time they would not need to be told to fear not nor be dismayed. It is to be a terrible time of trouble just before Jacob is delivered. Certainly, then, the statement that there is a silver lining behind every cloud is true in this case.”
1TG 47. 16 – “There is therefore no need of fear, but there is a need for faith in the promises of God.”
Conclusion
Isa. 33: 1, 2; 1TG 34. 11 – “This verse shows that while the pronouncement of woe (Isa. 33:1) is being made, at the same time a deep-rooted reformation is taking place among God's Truth-seeking people. They are praying, not for themselves alone, but for their brethren also. They fully realize that they are approaching the time of trouble, and their hope lies in the fact that they have waited for the Lord. God's power shall be felt throughout the earth:”