The Days of Jacob’s trouble

Jacob’s Trouble is often said to be a period that will occur during the tribulation mentioned in the book of Revelation. Some people believe that Jacob’s Trouble will occur only over three-and-half years; others believe that this will last seven years.  The difficulty is “Jacob’s Trouble” is only mentioned once in the Bible. And there is no mention of any period that this covers. All we learn from the prophet Jeremiah is that there is going to be a time of Jacob’s Trouble. The following passage from the book of Jeremiah puts the concept of “Jacob’s Trouble” in context:

The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, Thus speaks Yahweh, the God of Israel, saying, Write all the words that I have spoken to you in a book. For, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will turn again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, says Yahweh; and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. These are the words that Yahweh spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah. For Yahweh says: We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask now, and see whether a man does travail with child: why do I see every man with his hands on his waist, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? 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. It shall come to pass in that day, says Yahweh of Armies, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and will burst your bonds; and strangers shall no more make him their bondservant; but they shall serve Yahweh their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up to them. Therefore don’t you be afraid, O Jacob my servant, says Yahweh; neither be dismayed, Israel: for, behold, I will save you from afar, and your offspring from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be quiet and at ease, and no one shall make him afraid. For I am with you, says Yahweh, to save you: for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have scattered you, but I will not make a full end of you; but I will correct you in measure, and will in no way leave you unpunished. For Yahweh says, Your hurt is incurable, and your wound grievous. There is no one to plead your cause, that you may be bound up: you have no healing medicines. All your lovers have forgotten you; they don’t seek you: for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased. Why do you cry for your hurt? Your pain is incurable: for the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased, I have done these things to you. Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured; and all your adversaries, everyone of them, shall go into captivity; and those who plunder you shall be plunder, and all who prey on you will I give for a prey. For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds, says Yahweh; because they have called you an outcast, saying, It is Zion, whom no man seeks after. Yahweh says: Behold, I will turn again the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and have compassion on his dwelling places; and the city shall be built on its own hill, and the palace shall be inhabited in its own way. Out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of those who make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small. Their children also shall be as before, and their congregation shall be established before me; and I will punish all who oppress them. Their prince shall be of themselves, and their ruler shall proceed from among them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach to me: for who is he who has had boldness to approach to me? says Yahweh. You shall be my people, and I will be your God. Behold, Yahweh’s storm, his wrath, has gone out, a sweeping storm: it shall burst on the head of the wicked. The fierce anger of Yahweh will not return, until he has executed, and until he has performed the intentions of his heart. In the latter days you will understand it.

 

At that time, says Yahweh, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. Yahweh says, The people who were left of the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. Yahweh appeared of old to me, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you. Again will I build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel: again you shall be adorned with your tambourines, and shall go out in the dances of those who make merry. Again you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant, and shall enjoy its fruit. For there shall be a day, that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim shall cry, Arise, and let us go up to Zion to Yahweh our God. For Yahweh says, Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout for the chief of the nations: publish, praise, and say, Yahweh, save your people, the remnant of Israel. Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, along with the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her who travails with child together: a great company shall they return here. They shall come with weeping; and with petitions will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. Hear Yahweh’s word, you nations, and declare it in the islands afar off; and say, He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock. For Yahweh has ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he. They shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow to the goodness of Yahweh, to the grain, and to the new wine, and to the oil, and to the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow. I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says Yahweh. Yahweh says: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more. Yahweh says: Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work shall be rewarded, says Yahweh; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your latter end, says Yahweh; and your children shall come again to their own border. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf: turn me, and I shall be turned; for you are Yahweh my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I struck on my thigh: I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a darling child? for as often as I speak against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says Yahweh. Set up road signs, make guideposts; set your heart toward the highway, even the way by which you went: turn again, virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities. How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? for Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall encompass a man. Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Yet again shall they use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I shall bring again their captivity: Yahweh bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness. Judah and all its cities shall dwell therein together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks. For I have satiated the weary soul, and every sorrowful soul have I replenished. On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me. Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of animal. It shall happen that, like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so will I watch over them to build and to plant, says Yahweh. In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. But everyone shall die for his own iniquity: every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge. Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they broke, although I was a husband to them, says Yahweh. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people: and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Yahweh; for they shall all know me, from their least to their greatest, says Yahweh: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.

(Jeremiah 30:1-31:34) 

In this passage, we learn that Israel and Judah are forsaken for a significant period, but they will return to the land from the uttermost parts of the Earth in a time of Jacob’s Trouble. This will be a time of tribulation and fear but Jacob will be ransomed and the remnant of Israel will be saved, by One who is their King (David—a man after mine own heart, says the Lord—Acts 13:22-41) and possesses the boldness of the Holy One (Isaiah 10:17); thereafter Israel will all serve the Lord God with a new heart under a new covenant. The old covenant that was made with the fathers, who were brought out of Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:3-4), will not apply, because a New Covenant will have been established. The New Covenant means the law will be written on each person’s heart (Romans 8:4). When the days of the end come, each will have to give an account of each one’s own iniquity, except for those who have had their sins removed forever.

Israel had already been taken captivity at the time of this prophecy and Judah was heading towards Babylon. Nevertheless the prophecy concerns all of Israel, but more importantly, also points to the times of the Gentiles being fulfilled (Romans 11:25), so that this can take place. True Israel consists not of the physical Israel originating from the flesh, determined by biological genes; rather it is the people of God (Romans 1:1-6), who have had their hearts circumcised (Romans 2:28-29) with a circumcision not made of hands (Colossians 2:11).

During the time the people of Israel are chastised, they will nevertheless succeed in their endeavors and will excel beyond those from the nations where they have been scattered. Eventually, nations themselves will be judged in the latter time. However, God’s love for Israel will be shown and the people will be brought back to Jerusalem as a remnant from the north and the uttermost parts of the globe to enjoy the land of Samaria and worship God at Zion.  In this day, their paths will be made straight and they shall be a great company (a multitude of nations—Genesis 48:19) as is Ephraim, who is representative of the double portion given to the first born; for he was blessed over Manasseh, Joseph’s firstborn.

Historically, there is a strong implication that Ephraim found its way to Britain, which became a company of nations known as the British Commonwealth (the English Crown actually holds legal property title over many of those nations from) during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  While this expansion of empire was occurring, the Age of Enlightenment (the move towards secularism) began and the Great Awakening (a period of Church missionary growth) also accompanied this. The Great Awakening encountered an open door that permitted an expansion of missions and what was spoken to the church of Philadelphia was fulfilled. We read:

I know your works (behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one can shut), that you have a little power, and kept my word, and didn’t deny my name. Behold, I give some of the synagogue of Satan, of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. Because you kept my command to endure, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, which is to come on the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. (Revelation 3:8-10)

During this time, the synagogue of Satan thought to dominate the world through the British East India Company, which sought to establish its hold over the economies of the Earth. While the Satanists were worshiping mammon, setting up cartels, and introducing trading mechanisms to conquer the globe, the gospel of Lord Jesus Christ was spread. Then there was the 1776 revolt in the United States of America, known as the American Revolution that became a rallying cry of freedom from tyranny. Who were the people that said they were Jews but were not? These were the international bankers, of course, who had been creating their networks to control the world. However, they could not succeed because the Word of God flourished, so they had to acknowledge those who were circumcised of heart; the true Christians of that era were the true worshipers. Nevertheless, with the age of the awakenings, the seeds of secularism were sown through the likes of Voltaire and others, and this lead to the atheism that we see today.

What is important to note, the Church of this Philadelphian era is given the promise that they will be kept from the time of testing that is to come upon the church in the last days. This is the time of Jacob’s Trouble. The following Church Age, that of Laodicea, where the members are warned they will be spewed out of the mouth of their Savior because of their iniquitous lifestyles, these are the ones who will be tested.  During this Church Age, the people who call upon the name of the Lord will be tested. As Jacob overcame during his time of testing, once more, only overcomers will be saved. This is what Lord Jesus said to the Church at Laodicea:

I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;’ and don’t know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked; I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich; and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. As many as I love, I reprove and chasten. Be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me. He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father on his throne. (Rev. 3:15-20)

People do not like the idea of tough love; but those whom God loves, which is all mankind, are chastened accordingly; in the hope that they will repent and seek Him. Unfortunately, people become conditioned to the chastening and, rather than seek salvation, they become haters of the truth. Those who hate evil, recognize that God is chastening them. What we learn in respect to the Church of Laodicea, those who hate evil and look to Lord Jesus Christ are the ones whom He loves; not as an act of unqualified predestination, but because these ones truly repent and exercise faith towards God. Jacob exercised faith. Even if there was an element of foreknowledge in Jacob’s case, this does not restrict God to selecting individuals without qualification over others. As Lord Jesus said, in what we know as the Lord’s Prayer, that unless a person forgives other people first, that person will not be forgiven. Besides, Lord Jesus Christ searches the hearts of everyone, and knows what the mind of the Spirit of God happens to be, because the Spirit works on people’s behalf in accordance to the will of the Father (Romans 8:27). Bearing this in mind, we continue to examine the Scriptures to find out what length of time Jacob’s Trouble might be.

There is quite an amount of information regarding the purpose of God in the passage from Jeremiah, where we learn of Jacob’s Trouble. We find a reference to the death of Lord Jesus Christ, the revealing of the Messiah at the end times, and the promise of God to bring back his people to the Promised Land where Samaria and Mount Zion are located. Of course, the particular Scripture that is of interest to us right now concerns the enigmatic Jacob’s Trouble:

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. (Jeremiah 30:7)

The text indicates that Jacob’s Trouble is at the end of the age. But as we have seen in the passage that we have consulted, there is no mention of how long this period known as Jacob’s Trouble will be. All we are told is that it will be similar to a woman in travail with child. Most people perceive that this is the great tribulation at the end of the age. Since no time frame is provided, assumptions are that this has to be either the three-and-a-half years after the appearing of the Antichrist or the seven years that is represented by the last week of the seventy week prophecy found in Daniel. Besides this, numerous commentators do not believe that Jacob’s Trouble has any bearing on those who are to be saved at all. They simply see this as a time of judgment upon the nations. But as we have seen from what Lord Jesus said regarding the Laodicean Church, the members will be chastised, if they are loved by Him. Chastisement is not exactly a time of excitement. Could this chastisement be Jacob’s Trouble?

One thing we do know, Jacob is a person. But what is trouble?  Let us look at what the dictionary says about trouble:

1. A state of distress, affliction, difficulty, or need: tried to console them in their trouble; got in trouble with the police.

2. A distressing or difficult circumstance or situation: I've had troubles ever since I took this job.

3. A cause or source of distress, disturbance, or difficulty: The new recruits were a trouble to him.

4. Effort, especially when inconvenient or bothersome: went to a lot of trouble to find this book.

5. A condition of pain, disease, or malfunction: heart trouble; car trouble. [i]

When speaking of trouble in action (that is, using verbs) the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language has the following:

These verbs mean to cause anxious uneasiness in: His behavior troubles his parents. What problems are ailing you? The bad news distressed us. Her high fever worries the doctor.[ii]

The reason these dictionary definitions have been included here is to provide a sense of what the idea of trouble encompasses. In three of the usages for the word “trouble”, as defined above, we see the word “distress” being part of the definition. Even in the fourth definition, where the word is used to express searching for something, there is an element of distress. This is also the case, as per the fifth definition, when we encounter malfunction, disease and pain.

Distress seems to be at the heart of trouble, even if it is merely searching for something on behalf of another; there is a sense of obligation involved; there is some pressure to achieve an outcome. The idea of distress incorporates suffering, anguish, and anxiety at a mental and psychological level. In humans, we can say that distress is an appreciable emotional response to unfavorable stimuli within the social and physical environment. There is a difference between stress and distress. Stress itself occurs when we place physical demands upon our bodies or we find ourselves in situations where we exert energy in an explosive manner. Psychologically, we place stress upon ourselves when we are in a competition and desire to win. When we are in stressful situations, we may emit grunts, groans or screams (e.g. women’s tennis). We are stressed both physically and psychologically when we find ourselves in fight or flight mode. In situations where we encounter sudden fear, we may scream in panic before we head for the hills. However, distress occurs when we feel emotionally trapped and helpless, because we are caught in a web, or we are in quicksand, and every move we make worsens our difficulty; consequently, we become confused about what to do; whether we should attempt to free ourselves or not. As it happens, the word “trouble” actually originates from the Latin turbidus “confused”.[iii]

Our little excursion into the inherent meaning of trouble has enabled us to get a better understanding of what Jacob’s Trouble might actually be, because there is only one reference to it in the Bible. We would have to agree that Jacob’s Trouble is a time when the pressure is applied and if we are to get to where we are going, we had better make haste and do our very best to ensure that we overcome all obstacles that are placed in our way. Somehow, this has to do with a man giving birth as a woman gives birth; the pain of labor has to be endured.

In the following comments on this verse by serious expositors, a picture emerges of an end-times’ judgment being the true significance of this passage.

Albert Barnes writes:

It is even the time of Jacob's trouble - Rather, and it is a time of trouble to Jacob, i.e., of anxiety to the Jews, for the usages of war were so brutal that they would be in danger when the enemy made their assault.[iv]

From the Pulpit Commentary we learn:

Verse 7. - That day; i.e. "the day of Jehovah," the day of the great judgment upon the world, of which the fall of Babylon is regarded as the opening scene. It is even the time of Jacob's trouble; rather, and a time of distress shall it be (even) to Jacob.[v]

John Gill says:

It is even the time of Jacob's trouble: of the church and people of God, the true Israel of God; when Popery will be the prevailing religion in Christendom; when the outward court shall be given to the Gentiles; the witnesses shall be slain; antichrist will be "in statu quo"; and the whore of Rome in all her glory; though it shall not last long:[vi]

Joseph Benson expounds this thus:

Jeremiah 30:4-7. And these are the words that the Lord spake — And which God ordered to be written: and those promises, which were written by his order, are as truly his word as the ten commandments, which were written with his finger. We have heard a voice of trembling — Such a one as discovers great fears and apprehensions of impending evils. Ask ye now and see, &c. — Make diligent inquiry, and ask every one, whether they ever knew or heard of any such thing as a man’s travailing with child? Wherefore then do I see every man with his hands on his loins — As if he were going to bring forth, and felt all the pains of a woman in travail? Alas! for that day is great — The word day in Scripture often comprehends a succession of time, in which a whole series of events is transacted: so it here contains the whole time of the siege and taking of Jerusalem, the destruction of the city and temple, and the carrying away of the people captive. This is described as a time of great tribulation, in which it was an earnest of the day of judgment, the great and terrible day of the Lord.[vii]

Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explain verses seven and eight:

Verse 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.

That day is great - marked by great calamities (Joel 2:11; Joel 2:31; Amos 5:18; Zephaniah 1:14).

None like it. ... But he shall be saved - (Daniel 12:1). The partial deliverance at Babylon's downfall prefigures the final complete deliverance of Israel, literal and spiritual, at the downfall of the mystical Babylon (Revelation 18:1-24;19.)

Verse 8:

For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him:

I will break his yoke from off thy neck - his, i:e., Jacob's (Jeremiah 30:7), the yoke imposed on him. The transition to the second person is frequent, God speaking of Jacob or Israel, at the same time addressing him directly. So "him" rightly follows.

Strangers shall no more serve themselves of him - "foreigners shall no more make him their servant" (Jeremiah 25:14). After the deliverance by Cyrus, Persia, Alexander, Antiochus, and Rome made Judea their servant. The full deliverance meant must therefore be still future.[viii]

Keil & Delitzsch observe:

It is also to be borne in mind that, throughout the whole prophecy, neither Babylon nor the king of Babylon is once mentioned; and that the judgment described in these verses cannot possibly be restricted to the downfall of the Babylonian monarchy, but is the judgment that is to fall upon all nations (Jeremiah 30:11). And although this judgment begins with the fall of the Babylonian supremacy, it will bring deliverance to the people of God, not merely from the yoke of Babylon, but from every yoke which strangers have laid or will lay on them.[ix] 

As we can see from these respected biblical scholars (1750-1897 writing before Israel returned), Jacob’s Trouble is definitely a message for the end-times. This is a message here for Israel and the Church.  One thing we do know is that Israel as a nation is to be saved. There is every evidence of this from the book of Jeremiah chapter thirty, as we can see in the above quoted verses. What is significant, not only is Judah to be saved, which represents the Jews, but also Israel, representing the lost tribes that were taken captive and scattered abroad by the Assyrians. Judah went to Babylon and eventually returned; only to be sacked by Rome and banished as a nation.

Now that there is a population of people, who claim to be Jews, who have formed a nation where Judah once existed, we have to ponder whether these are descendants of the True Israel; for there are issues pertaining to those who are now returning to Israel, regarding claims to being bona fide Jews (Judahites), let alone Israelites. There are claims that those settling in Israel are not Jews or Israelites but Ashkenazi, and these all come from a few hundred (300) families.[x]  This is not what the Bible prophesies. However, the small number of genetic tests does not really prove this. Inferences are drawn from these tests, but what is also becoming evident: “Many biological experiments are performed under the assumption that all cells of a particular “type” are identical. Whereas recent data suggest that individual cells within a single population may differ quite significantly and these differences can drive the health and function of the entire cell population.”[xi] This means that cell variation is common and historical accuracy of genetic assumptions regarding origins is suspect at best, in other words, mere speculation. The prophet Jeremiah prophesied that descendants of the twelve tribes of Israel would return to the land given to their fathers. Forty years before the Balfour Agreement in 1917 (wherein provision for Jewish migration and settlement in the Palestine region was endorsed), as already quoted, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, writing in the mid-1870s, were saying that this will happen based on Jeremiah’s prophecy.         

While the commentators quoted have acknowledged that Israel was to return to the Promised Land, they were not speaking after the fact; rather they were expounding the words of Jeremiah as given to him by the Lord God. Moreover, these prophecies do not just talk about the Israelite settlement in the land of Palestine, but also include the church as being the sons of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham; who is the father of all who are to be numbered among the saved. This is important for us to understand, for many only see one part of the picture, in that the Church is the true Israel, or Israel is according to physical descent. What needs to be understood is the promise of God to Abraham has to be fulfilled in both the temporal physical realm and the eternal realm of the Spirit. The following Scriptures provide us with an understanding of how the majority of non-Roman Catholics view how the Eternal Promise is fulfilled in Jesus:

He shall make a firm covenant with many for one week: and in the middle of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease; and on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate; and even to the full end, and that determined, shall wrath be poured out on the desolate. (Daniel 9:27)

 

I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your offspring after you. (Genesis 17:7)

 

Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his offspring. He doesn’t say, “To descendants”, as of many, but as of one, “To your offspring”, which is Christ.  Now I say this. A covenant confirmed beforehand by God in Christ, the law, which came four hundred thirty years after, does not annul, so as to make the promise of no effect. (Gal. 3:16-17)

 

He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him. (John 1:11)

 

Concerning the Good News, they are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake—or to quote the RSV: regards election they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. (Romans 11:28)

 

I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh, who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.

But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel. Neither, because they are Abraham’s offspring, are they all children. But, “your offspring will be accounted as from Isaac.” That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as heirs.

(Romans 9:1-8)

 

For this cause I, Paul, am the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, if it is so that you have heard of the administration of that grace of God which was given me toward you; how that by revelation the mystery was made known to me, as I wrote before in few words, by which, when you read, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ; which in other generations was not made known to the children of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of his promise in Christ Jesus through the Good News, of which I was made a servant, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of his power. To me, the very least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now through the assembly the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord; in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him. (Ephesians 3:1-12)

Not all would agree that the Babylonian religion was carried through into the Roman Catholic religion through Jewish sects. Many would see the introduction of Babylonian religion into the Roman Catholic Church as having occurred when Constantine made Christianity a state religion and Mithraism and Roman culture merged with the Christian views of the day.

As has already been demonstrated, the particular reference in Daniel 9:27 does not refer to the crucifixion (see cessation of sacrifices p.70. also note claim that the sacrifices were efficacious). Nevertheless, a widely accepted summary of the above Scriptures is Jesus died in the middle of the week and the Jewish sacrifices and offerings required by the ceremonial covenant ceased. The abomination that makes desolate occurred when the Babylonian religion merged with Christianity and created the Roman Catholic Church. The church of Rome will assert itself as the dominate ruler of the world in the name of Lord Jesus Christ, to be destroyed at the Second Coming. In the meantime, the Holy Spirit prepares the true church as the invisible body of Christ to become the Bride of Lord Jesus Christ. This fulfils the mystery and completes the eternal purpose that has been wrought in redeeming many sons of God.

In the main, the majority of expositors would agree with the above summarization as an overview, but they would disagree among themselves on the details. This is where Augustine’s famous statement about agreeing on the essentials and extending grace to each other on the non-essentials has been seen as a rule to live by within many Christian circles. However, agreement on the essentials is not easy to attain. For some, essentials include more than simply confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and bearing the fruit of repentance and salvation. Nevertheless, if we were to read the first letter attributed to the Apostle John, the one whom Jesus loved, we will find that believing in Lord Jesus Christ and keeping the commandments of God are the essentials. Anything else is non-essential for salvation; provid-ing that we are content with being scarcely saved and sufficiently satisfied with the outcomes of having to contend with the enemy on our own, during the frustrations and disappointments of this life.[xii]

What we have looked at so far establishes that there are various differences in the interpretation of the Scriptures, and yet there is a general overriding consent as to what is an absolute essential.  We have looked at isolating and distinguishing the body of Christ from the nation of Israel. We have identified that there is going to be a culmination of the overspreading of abominations that make desolate. We have considered that the time of Jacob’s trouble is a period of distress. What we have not determined is whether this distress is for the nation Israel or for the Church, or for both. Nor have we determined when this period will take place. Nor are we accepting that the cessation of the offerings in the middle of the week is a reference to the Crucifixion, as many claim, and there is a gap of two thousand years which represents the wing of abominations before a three-and-a-half-year tribulation. As will become evident, there are too many other factors that are ignored with such an interpretation.

In nearly all the commentaries I have consulted, I am surprised that the expositors have actually given no consideration to the duration of Jacob’s distress, experienced by the man himself, in their attempts to explain what Jacob’s Trouble might mean. If we were desirous of the truth, surely we would at least examine the life of Jacob to find out the cause of his distress, in order to understand his trouble. In the only scholarly commentary that considers Jacob’s distress in the light of Genesis, which I have read, the commentator, when on the right track, digressed into numerology. Moreover, he has concentrated on types that fail to connect the purpose of God as declared to Moses. The other expositions also fail just as spectacularly with false predictions and—what are essentially—wild guesses as to what Jacob’s Trouble means for the current day. For instance, one expositor closed up his website because he believed Lord Jesus Christ would be ruling by 2007. Another expositor was making claims for the Second Event to occur in 2015.

The following is the biblical account taken from the World English Bible (Genesis 25:26-25:34; 27:1-35:29; 30:25-35:29) concerning Jacob, so, you, the reader can get a feel for what might be Jacob’s trouble.

After that, his brother came out, and his hand had hold on Esau’s heel. He was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them. The boys grew. Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents. Now Isaac loved Esau, because he ate his venison. Rebekah loved Jacob. Jacob boiled stew. Esau came in from the field, and he was famished. Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am famished.” Therefore his name was called Edom.

Jacob said, “First, sell me your birthright.”

Esau said, “Behold, I am about to die. What good is the birthright to me?”

Jacob said, “Swear to me first.”

He swore to him. He sold his birthright to Jacob. Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils. He ate and drank, rose up, and went his way. So Esau despised his birthright. (Genesis 25:26-34)

 

[Genesis 27] When Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his elder son, and said to him, “My son?”

He said to him, “Here I am.”

He said, “See now, I am old. I don’t know the day of my death. Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and take me venison. Make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat, and that my soul may bless you before I die.”

Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, “Behold, I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying, ‘Bring me venison, and make me savory food, that I may eat, and bless you before Yahweh before my death.’ Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command you. Go now to the flock, and get me from there two good young goats. I will make them savory food for your father, such as he loves. You shall bring it to your father, that he may eat, so that he may bless you before his death.”

Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. What if my father touches me? I will seem to him as a deceiver, and I would bring a curse on myself, and not a blessing.”

His mother said to him, “Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice, and go get them for me.”

   He went, and got them, and brought them to his mother. His mother made savory food, such as his father loved. Rebekah took the good clothes of Esau, her elder son, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son. She put the skins of the young goats on his hands, and on the smooth of his neck. She gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.

   He came to his father, and said, “My father?”

He said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”

Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn. I have done what you asked me to do. Please arise, sit and eat of my venison, that your soul may bless me.”

Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?”

He said, “Because Yahweh your God gave me success.”

Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.”

Jacob went near to Isaac his father. He felt him, and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” He didn’t recognize him, because his hands were hairy, like his brother, Esau’s hands. So he blessed him. He said, “Are you really my son Esau?”

He said, “I am.”

He said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s venison, that my soul may bless you.”

He brought it near to him, and he ate. He brought him wine, and he drank. His father Isaac said to him, “Come near now, and kiss me, my son.” He came near, and kissed him. He smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him, and said,

“Behold, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which Yahweh has blessed.

 

God give you of the dew of the sky, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and new wine.

 

Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers. Let your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you.

 

   Blessed be everyone who blesses you.”

As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had just gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting. He also made savory food, and brought it to his father. He said to his father, “Let my father arise, and eat of his son’s venison, that your soul may bless me.”

 

Isaac his father said to him, “Who are you?” He said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”

 

 

Isaac trembled violently, and said, “Who, then, is he who has taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before you came, and have blessed him? Yes, he will be blessed.”

 

When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceeding great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, even me also, my father.”

 

 

He said, “Your brother came with deceit, and has taken away your blessing.”

 

He said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. See, now he has taken away my blessing.” He said, “Haven’t you reserved a blessing for me?”

 

Isaac answered Esau, “Behold, I have made him your lord, and all his brothers have I given to him for servants. With grain and new wine have I sustained him. What then will I do for you, my son?”

Esau said to his father, “Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, my father.” Esau lifted up his voice, and wept.

Isaac his father answered him, “Behold, of the fatness of the earth will be your dwelling, and of the dew of the sky from above.

By your sword will you live, and you will serve your brother.

It will happen, when you will break loose, that you shall shake his yoke from off your neck.”

 

Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

The words of Esau, her elder son, were told to Rebekah. She sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, “Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to Laban, my brother, in Haran. Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away; until your brother’s anger turn away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send, and get you from there. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day?”

Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these, of the daughters of the land, what good will my life do me?”

 

[Genesis 28] Isaac called Jacob, blessed him, and commanded him, “You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father. Take a wife from there from the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. May God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, that you may be a company of peoples, and give you the blessing of Abraham, to you, and to your offspring with you, that you may inherit the land where you travel, which God gave to Abraham.”

Isaac sent Jacob away. He went to Paddan Aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, Rebekah’s brother, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother.

Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan Aram, to take him a wife from there, and that as he blessed him he gave him a command, saying, “You shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan,” and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Paddan Aram. Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan didn’t please Isaac, his father. Esau went to Ishmael, and took, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife.

Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place, and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. He took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep. He dreamed. Behold, a stairway set upon the earth, and its top reached to heaven. Behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it. Behold, Yahweh stood above it, and said, “I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The land whereon you lie, to you will I give it, and to your offspring. Your offspring will be as the dust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. In you and in your offspring will all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you go, and will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you, until I have done that which I have spoken of to you.”

Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, “Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I didn’t know it.” He was afraid, and said, “How dreadful is this place! This is none other than God’s house, and this is the gate of heaven.”

Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on its top. He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first. Jacob vowed a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and clothing to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, and Yahweh will be my God, then this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, will be God’s house. Of all that you will give me I will surely give a tenth to you.”

 

[Genesis 29] Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the children of the east. He looked, and behold, a well in the field, and, behold, three flocks of sheep lying there by it. For out of that well they watered the flocks. The stone on the well’s mouth was large. There all the flocks were gathered. They rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again on the well’s mouth in its place. Jacob said to them, “My relatives, where are you from?”

They said, “We are from Haran.”

He said to them, “Do you know Laban, the son of Nahor?”

They said, “We know him.”

He said to them, “Is it well with him?”

They said, “It is well. See, Rachel, his daughter, is coming with the sheep.”

He said, “Behold, it is still the middle of the day, not time to gather the livestock together. Water the sheep, and go and feed them.”

They said, “We can’t, until all the flocks are gathered together, and they roll the stone from the well’s mouth. Then we water the sheep.”

While he was yet speaking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she kept them. When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother’s brother, Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother.  Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. Jacob told Rachel that he was her father’s brother, and that he was Rebekah’s son. She ran and told her father.

When Laban heard the news of Jacob, his sister’s son, he ran to meet Jacob, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. Jacob told Laban all these things. Laban said to him, “Surely you are my bone and my flesh.” He lived with him for a month. Laban said to Jacob, “Because you are my brother, should you therefore serve me for nothing? Tell me, what will your wages be?”

Laban had two daughters. The name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.  Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and attractive. Jacob loved Rachel. He said, “I will serve you seven years for Rachel, your younger daughter.”

Laban said, “It is better that I give her to you, than that I should give her to another man. Stay with me.”

Jacob served seven years for Rachel. They seemed to him but a few days, for the love he had for her.

Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in to her.”

Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast. In the evening, he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him. He went in to her. Laban gave Zilpah his servant to his daughter Leah for a servant. In the morning, behold, it was Leah. He said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? Didn’t I serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?”

   Laban said, “It is not done so in our place, to give the younger before the firstborn. [v27] Fulfill the week of this one, and we will give you the other also for the service which you will serve with me yet seven other years.”

Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week. He gave him Rachel his daughter as wife. [v29] Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah, his servant, to be her servant. He went in also to Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years….

 

[Genesis 30:25]

When Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Send me away, that I may go to my own place, and to my country. Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, and let me go; for you know my service with which I have served you.”

Laban said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, stay here, for I have divined that Yahweh has blessed me for your sake.” He said, “Appoint me your wages, and I will give it.”

He said to him, “You know how I have served you, and how your livestock have fared with me. For it was little which you had before I came, and it has increased to a multitude. Yahweh has blessed you wherever I turned. Now when will I provide for my own house also?”

He said, “What shall I give you?”

Jacob said, “You shall not give me anything. If you will do this thing for me, I will again feed your flock and keep it. I will pass through all your flock today, removing from there every speckled and spotted one, and every black one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. This will be my hire. So my righteousness will answer for me hereafter, when you come concerning my hire that is before you. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the sheep, that might be with me, will be counted stolen.”

Laban said, “Behold, let it be according to your word.”

That day, he removed the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white in it, and all the black ones among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons. [v36] He set three days’ journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban’s flocks.

Jacob took to himself rods of fresh poplar, almond, plane tree, peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. He set the rods which he had peeled opposite the flocks in the gutters in the watering-troughs where the flocks came to drink. They conceived when they came to drink. The flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks produced streaked, speckled, and spotted. Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the streaked and all the black in the flock of Laban: and he put his own droves apart, and didn’t put them into Laban’s flock. Whenever the stronger of the flock conceived, Jacob laid the rods in front of the eyes of the flock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods; but when the flock were feeble, he didn’t put them in. So the feebler were Laban’s, and the stronger Jacob’s. The man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

[Genesis 31] He heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that was our father’s. From that which was our father’s, has he gotten all this wealth.” Jacob saw the expression on Laban’s face, and, behold, it was not toward him as before. Yahweh said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”

Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field to his flock, and said to them, “I see the expression on your father’s face, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father has been with me. You know that I have served your father with all of my strength. [v7]Your father has deceived me, and changed my wages ten times, but God didn’t allow him to hurt me. If he said this, ‘The speckled will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore speckled. If he said this, ‘The streaked will be your wages,’ then all the flock bore streaked. Thus God has taken away your father’s livestock, and given them to me.  During mating season, I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream, and behold, the male goats which leaped on the flock were streaked, speckled, and grizzled. The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’  He said, ‘Now lift up your eyes, and behold, all the male goats which leap on the flock are streaked, speckled, and grizzled, for I have seen all that Laban does to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar, where you vowed a vow to me. Now arise, get out from this land, and return to the land of your birth.’”

Rachel and Leah answered him, “Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house? Aren’t we accounted by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and has also quite devoured our money. For all the riches which God has taken away from our father, that is ours and our children’s. Now then, whatever God has said to you, do.”

Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives on the camels, and he took away all his livestock, and all his possessions which he had gathered, including the livestock which he had gained in Paddan Aram, to go to Isaac his father, to the land of Canaan. Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep: and Rachel stole the teraphim that were her father’s.

Jacob deceived Laban the Syrian, in that he didn’t tell him that he was running away.  So he fled with all that he had. He rose up, passed over the River, and set his face toward the mountain of Gilead.

[v22] Laban was told on the third day that Jacob had fled. [v23] He took his relatives with him, and pursued him seven days’ journey. He overtook him in the mountain of Gilead. God came to Laban, the Syrian, in a dream of the night, and said to him, “Be careful that you don’t speak to Jacob either good or bad.”

Laban caught up with Jacob. Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain, and Laban with his relatives encamped in the mountain of Gilead. Laban said to Jacob, “What have you done, that you have deceived me, and carried away my daughters like captives of the sword? Why did you flee secretly, and deceive me, and didn’t tell me, that I might have sent you away with mirth and with songs, with tambourine and with harp; and didn’t allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters? Now have you done foolishly. It is in the power of my hand to hurt you, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful that you don’t speak to Jacob either good or bad.’ Now, you want to be gone, because you greatly longed for your father’s house, but why have you stolen my gods?”

Jacob answered Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I said, ‘Lest you should take your daughters from me by force.’ Anyone you find your gods with shall not live. Before our relatives, discern what is yours with me, and take it.” For Jacob didn’t know that Rachel had stolen them.

Laban went into Jacob’s tent, into Leah’s tent, and into the tent of the two female servants; but he didn’t find them. He went out of Leah’s tent, and entered into Rachel’s tent. Now Rachel had taken the teraphim, put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. Laban felt around all the tent, but didn’t find them. She said to her father, “Don’t let my lord be angry that I can’t rise up before you; for I’m having my period.” He searched, but didn’t find the teraphim.

 Jacob was angry, and argued with Laban. Jacob answered Laban, “What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have hotly pursued me? Now that you have felt around in all my stuff, what have you found of all your household stuff? Set it here before my relatives and your relatives, that they may judge between us two.

“These twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not cast their young, and I haven’t eaten the rams of your flocks. That which was torn of animals, I didn’t bring to you. I bore its loss. Of my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. This was my situation: in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from my eyes. These twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.”

Laban answered Jacob, “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine: and what can I do today to these my daughters, or to their children whom they have borne? Now come, let us make a covenant, you and I; and let it be for a witness between me and you.”…

 

[Genesis 32] Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. [v2] When he saw them, Jacob said, “This is God’s army.” He called the name of that place Mahanaim.

Jacob sent messengers in front of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom. He commanded them, saying, “This is what you shall tell my lord, Esau: ‘This is what your servant, Jacob, says. I have lived as a foreigner with Laban, and stayed until now. I have cattle, donkeys, flocks, male servants, and female servants. I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.’” The messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau. Not only that, but he comes to meet you, and four hundred men with him.” Then Jacob was greatly afraid and was distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two companies; and he said, “If Esau comes to the one company, and strikes it, then the company which is left will escape.” Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Yahweh, who said to me, ‘Return to your country, and to your relatives, and I will do you good,’  I am not worthy of the least of all the loving kindnesses, and of all the truth, which you have shown to your servant; for with just my staff I crossed over this Jordan; and now I have become two companies. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he come and strike me, and the mothers with the children. You said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which can’t be numbered because there are so many.’”

He stayed there that night, and took from that which he had with him, a present for Esau, his brother: two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milk camels and their colts, forty cows, ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals. He delivered them into the hands of his servants, every herd by itself, and said to his servants, “Pass over before me, and put a space between herd and herd.” He commanded the foremost, saying, “When Esau, my brother, meets you, and asks you, saying, ‘Whose are you? Where are you going? Whose are these before you?’ Then you shall say, ‘They are your servant, Jacob’s. It is a present sent to my lord, Esau. Behold, he also is behind us.’” He commanded also the second, and the third, and all that followed the herds, saying, “This is how you shall speak to Esau, when you find him. You shall say, ‘Not only that, but behold, your servant, Jacob, is behind us.’” For, he said, “I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.”

So the present passed over before him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp.

He rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of the Jabbok. He took them, and sent them over the stream, and sent over that which he had. Jacob was left alone, and wrestled with a man there until the breaking of the day. When he saw that he didn’t prevail against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was strained, as he wrestled. The man said, “Let me go, for the day breaks.”

Jacob said, “I won’t let you go, unless you bless me.”

He said to him, “What is your name?”

He said, “Jacob”. He said, “Your name will no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.”

He said, “Why is it that you ask what my name is?” He blessed him there.

Jacob called the name of the place Peniel[s]: for, he said, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” The sun rose on him as he passed over Peniel, and he limped because of his thigh. Therefore the children of Israel don’t eat the sinew of the hip, which is on the hollow of the thigh, to this day, because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.

 

[Genesis 33] Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau was coming, and with him four hundred men. He divided the children between Leah, Rachel, and the two servants. He put the servants and their children in front, Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear. He himself passed over in front of them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

 

Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and they wept. He lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, “Who are these with you?”

He said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.” Then the servants came near with their children, and they bowed themselves. Leah also and her children came near, and bowed themselves. After them, Joseph came near with Rachel, and they bowed themselves.

Esau said, “What do you mean by all this company which I met?”

Jacob said, “To find favor in the sight of my lord.”

Esau said, “I have enough, my brother; let that which you have be yours.”

Jacob said, “Please, no, if I have now found favor in your sight, then receive my present at my hand, because I have seen your face, as one sees the face of God, and you were pleased with me. Please take the gift that I brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.” He urged him, and he took it.

Esau said, “Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before you.”

Jacob said to him, “My lord knows that the children are tender, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young, and if they overdrive them one day, all the flocks will die. [v14] Please let my lord pass over before his servant, and I will lead on gently, according to the pace of the livestock that are before me and according to the pace of the children, until I come to my lord to Seir.”

Esau said, “Let me now leave with you some of the folk who are with me.”

He said, “Why? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.”

So Esau returned that day on his way to Seir. Jacob traveled to Succoth, built himself a house, and made shelters for his livestock. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth.

Jacob came in peace to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan Aram; and encamped before the city. He bought the parcel of ground where he had spread his tent, at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred pieces of money. He erected an altar there, and called it El Elohe Israel.

 

[Genesis 34] Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her. He took her, lay with her, and humbled her. His soul joined to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the young lady, and spoke kindly to the young lady. Shechem spoke to his father, Hamor, saying, “Get me this young lady as a wife.”

 

Now Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah, his daughter; and his sons were with his livestock in the field. Jacob held his peace until they came. Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to talk with him. The sons of Jacob came in from the field when they heard it. The men were grieved, and they were very angry, because he had done folly in Israel in lying with Jacob’s daughter; a thing ought not to be done. Hamor talked with them, saying, “The soul of my son, Shechem, longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as a wife. Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves. You shall dwell with us, and the land will be before you. Live and trade in it, and get possessions in it.”

Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, “Let me find favor in your eyes, and whatever you will tell me I will give. Ask me a great amount for a dowry, and I will give whatever you ask of me, but give me the young lady as a wife.”

4

The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father with deceit, and spoke, because he had defiled Dinah their sister, and said to them, “We can’t do this thing, to give our sister to one who is uncircumcised; for that is a reproach to us. Only on this condition will we consent to you. If you will be as we are, that every male of you be circumcised; then will we give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters to us, and we will dwell with you, and we will become one people. But if you will not listen to us, to be circumcised, then we will take our sister, and we will be gone.”

 

Their words pleased Hamor and Shechem, Hamor’s son. The young man didn’t wait to do this thing, because he had delight in Jacob’s daughter, and he was honored above all the house of his father. Hamor and Shechem, his son, came to the gate of their city, and talked with the men of their city, saying, “These men are peaceful with us. Therefore let them live in the land and trade in it. For behold, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters to us for wives, and let us give them our daughters. Only on this condition will the men consent to us to live with us, to become one people, if every male among us is circumcised, as they are circumcised. Won’t their livestock and their possessions and all their animals be ours? Only let us give our consent to them, and they will dwell with us.”

All who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor, and to Shechem his son; and every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city. On the third day, when they were sore, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, each took his sword, came upon the unsuspecting city, and killed all the males. They killed Hamor and Shechem, his son, with the edge of the sword, and took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away. Jacob’s sons came on the dead, and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister. They took their flocks, their herds, their donkeys, that which was in the city, that which was in the field, and all their wealth. They took captive all their little ones and their wives, and took as plunder everything that was in the house. Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have troubled me, to make me odious to the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I am few in number. They will gather themselves together against me and strike me, and I will be destroyed, I and my house.”

They said, “Should he deal with our sister as with a prostitute?”

 

[Genesis 35] God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and live there. Make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”

Then Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, change your garments. Let us arise, and go up to Bethel. I will make there an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me on the way which I went.”

They gave to Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the rings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. They traveled, and a terror of God was on the cities that were around them, and they didn’t pursue the sons of Jacob. So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. He built an altar there, and called the place El Beth El; because there God was revealed to him, when he fled from the face of his brother. Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the oak; and its name was called Allon Bacuth.

God appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan Aram, and blessed him. God said to him, “Your name is Jacob. Your name shall not be Jacob any more, but your name will be Israel.” He named him Israel. God said to him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations will be from you, and kings will come out of your body. The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, and to your offspring after you will I give the land.”

God went up from him in the place where he spoke with him. Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he spoke with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it, and poured oil on it. Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him “Bethel”.

They traveled from Bethel. There was still some distance to come to Ephrath, and Rachel travailed. She had hard labor. When she was in hard labor, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for now you will have another son.”

As her soul was departing (for she died), she named him Benoni, but his father named him Benjamin. Rachel died, and was buried on the way to Ephrath (also called Bethlehem). Jacob set up a pillar on her grave. The same is the Pillar of Rachel’s grave to this day. Israel traveled, and spread his tent beyond the tower of Eder. While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father’s concubine, and Israel heard of it.

Now the sons of Jacob were twelve. The sons of Leah: Reuben (Jacob’s firstborn), Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin. The sons of Bilhah (Rachel’s servant): Dan and Naphtali. The sons of Zilpah (Leah’s servant): Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan Aram. Jacob came to Isaac his father, to Mamre, to Kiriath Arba (which is Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac lived as foreigners.

The days of Isaac were one hundred eighty years. Isaac gave up the spirit, and died, and was gathered to his people, old and full of days. Esau and Jacob, his sons, buried him. (Genesis 27:1-29:30; 30:25-35:29) 

The above extract (with some irrelevant matters excluded) from the book of Genesis is the story of Jacob up until he became Israel. We could argue that Esau’s twin brother was still called Jacob after God had told him his name was now Israel. We could also argue that Jacob’s trouble extended through all of his life, both when he was running from Esau and when he had lost his son Joseph, to whom he had given a coat of many colors. Nevertheless, it is also true, Jacob had other sons with which to console himself after Joseph had gone missing. Also true is that after the death of the woman Jacob loved, he still had another wife. But having lost the wife he loved, and the son he favored, this must have been heart-wrenching for Jacob. 

Jacob’s troubles begin in Genesis 27:41-42, where we read that Esau hates Jacob and intends to kill him. Rebekah hears of this plan and warns Jacob, suggesting that he go and see her brother in Haran. In Genesis 27:44, as we read this, we might get the impression that Haran is not far and Rebekah expects her son to get over his ill feeling in a matter of days. However, Haran is some one thousand kilometers away (620 miles) and possibly some three months journey at the time, depending on the mode of transport and what one did on the way. There were no aircraft or roads, just tracks. Although, the caravan routes could be much faster than other routes, but, even then, there would be stopovers, for at around sixteen kilometers (10 miles) a day, this would be a sixty day journey.  We can get some idea of how long it may have taken Jacob to reach his Uncle Laban’s dwelling on the other side of the river Euphrates from the time it took Ezra to travel from Babylon to Jerusalem. This is what we are told in the book of Ezra: 

There went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the Nethinim, to Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king. He came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of the king. For on the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon; and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God on him. (Ezra 7:7-9)

If it takes a caravan four months to travel from Babylon to Jerusalem, to travel just over half the distance would take two months. For Jacob to have taken sixty days to travel from Shechem, somewhere between the present day Gulf of Aqaba and the Mediterranean, to the other side of the Euphrates in present day Syria, appears to be consistent with what we learn from Ezra.  Whatever the case, from the day that Jacob cheats his brother out of his blessing, he is in trouble. Jacob is distressed and plagued by his troubled mind. He leaves town in a hurry and then he has to find his way, for as far as we know, he did not have a map, a street address or the luxury of access to a global positioning satellite (GPS). We do not know whether his Uncle Laban was well-known on the trading routes or he was a back-block herdsman—although the latter seems more likely from what we can ascertain from the account of Jacob’s sojourn with his uncle.

In Genesis 29:13-18, we learn that Jacob lives with Laban for a month and then a deal is struck to work seven years, so he can have the hand of Laban’s daughter. In Genesis 31:38-41, we learn that Jacob had been with Laban for twenty years, which consisted of fourteen years for the daughters and then six more years for the flock, wherein his wages were changed ten times.  Some commentators argue that this represents forty years labor. To believe this, we have to start dismissing the obvious. In reality, we have one month where Jacob stayed with Laban before working fourteen years for his daughters, and then an extra six years. At this point, Jacob has been fleeing Esau in all probability for twenty years, three months and six days.

In chapter 33:1, we learn Jacob encounters Esau as he is about to arrive back home. Esau embraces his brother with such favor that Jacob considers the face of his brother to be like the face of God (Gen. 33:10). Jacob’s troubles were over.

The journey back from Paddam Aram, Haran, would have taken close to nine months due to the pace of the livestock and the children. From what we learn about Laban and Jacob’s herds being three days apart, and Laban also moving a further three days journey away to shear his sheep at the time of the departure, this puts six days between the two men. Laban took seven days to catch up to Jacob. This suggests that Jacob took seven days to cover a day’s normal travel. The pace of travel for Jacob and his family, servants and animals, appears to be equivalent to a normal day’s journey in a week. The pace could have even been slower, as is indicated by Jacob when talking with Esau (Gen. 33:14). The time it took for Jacob to leave Laban and meet up with Esau could have been a nine month journey. If we allow two months for Jacob to arrive in Haran, one month stay with Laban before he actually works for twenty years, and nine months from the departure to reconciliation with Esau, we have a period of twenty-one years.

As far as the trouble that weighed down Jacob’s mind concerning Esau, we can say with confidence that some time after twenty-years, it was over. Jacob buys some land in Shechem to live but God directs him to live elsewhere, for we read: 

God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and live there. Make there an altar to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.” (Genesis 35:1)

This effectively tells us that Jacob’s trouble occurred because of what he did in cheating Esau out of his blessings. Jacob fled from Esau and, now, after twenty-one years, God tells Jacob to go back to the place where he fled from the face of his brother.

There appears to be a twenty-one-year period referred to as Jacob’s trouble that is to take place at the time of the end. We should wonder what else in the Bible could possibly fit this same period.

***

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[i] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000; updated 2009).

[ii] ibid

[iii]Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged (HarperCollins, 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003).

[iv] Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible, 1834.

[v] Joseph S. Exell and Henry Donald Maurice Spence-Jones, eds., “Commentary on Jeremiah 30:1,” The Pulpit Commentary, 1897.

[vi]John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible, 1746–63.

[vii] Joseph Benson, “Commentary on Jeremiah 30:1,” Joseph Benson’s Commentary, 1857.

[viii] Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, “Commentary on Jeremiah 30:1,” Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871–78.

[ix] Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on Jeremiah 30:1, 1854–89.

[x]   “Sequencing an Ashkenazi Genomics,” Nature Communications, accessed September 27, 2014, http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140909/ncomms5835/full/ncomms5835.html.

[xi] “NIH Single Cell Analysis Challenge: Follow That Cell,” Nature Open Innovation, accessed September 27, 2014, http://www.nature.com/openinnovation?challengeId=9933486.

[xii] One mature Christian, a Master of Theology, read four books by this author The Only Words Written By The Finger Of God, Economic Freedom In The Kingdom Of God, Shine Like A Star, How To Run An Effective Bible Study and realized that the study he did for his degrees were really deficient of what he really needed to know.

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