The time of Jacob’s trouble

Now the question is this just another kind of skirmish which we can sit back and watch and think about or is there something major that is taking place I think we could be on the brink of something really big.

At same time, there could be a backdown, and people could actually say well we’ got to not hit the brink and make some kind of a peace settlement. If Israel does make a ceasefire in Gaza and accepts terms which are given to them, then it’s possible that these other people could back down. But it doesn’t look pretty likely at the present time and, in the Bible, it does tell us that, in the last days, there’s going to be a time of trouble centring on this region.

In the Book of Jeremiah, you have a passage that speaks about the ‘time of Jacob’s trouble’. It speaks about Israel being regathered from the nations, and it speaks about a time when there will be trouble.

Jeremiah chapter 30 verse 3 says,

³ For behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,’ says the Lord. ‘And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.’ ” Jeremiah 30.3

So, the prophecy is speaking about Israel being restored to the land God gave to their fathers and their fathers are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob whom God made a covenant with. Abraham he give to him a multitude of descendants and the title deeds of ownership with the Promised Land, which is the land of Israel.

³ Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!”

⁴ And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” ⁵ Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.”

⁶ And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.

⁷ Then He said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.” Genesis 15.3-7

Jeremiah says God is going to bring them back and then it says,

⁴ Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah.

⁵ “For thus says the Lord:

‘We have heard a voice of trembling,
Of fear, and not of peace.
⁶ Ask now, and see,
Whether a man is ever in labor with child?
So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins
Like a woman in labor,
And all faces turned pale?
⁷ Alas! For that day is great,
So that none is like it;
And it is the time of Jacob’s trouble,
But he shall be saved out of it. Jeremiah 30.4-7

The prophecy speaks about a time of unique trouble which is going to come at the end of days but also says that Israel are going to be saved out of it.

The scripture goes on to speak about Israel being corrected for something they’ve got wrong, and it says that, in the latter days, you’re going to understand this,

⁸ ‘For it shall come to pass in that day,’
Says the Lord of hosts,
‘That I will break his yoke from your neck,
And will burst your bonds;
Foreigners shall no more enslave them.
⁹ But they shall serve the Lord their God,
And David their king,
Whom I will raise up for them.

¹⁰ ‘Therefore do not fear, O My servant Jacob,’ says the Lord,
‘Nor be dismayed, O Israel;
For behold, I will save you from afar,
And your seed from the land of their captivity.
Jacob shall return, have rest and be quiet,
And no one shall make him afraid.
¹¹ For I am with you,’ says the Lord, ‘to save you;
Though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you,
Yet I will not make a complete end of you.
But I will correct you in justice,
And will not let you go altogether unpunished.’ Jeremiah 30.8-11

So, God says to Israel, ‘you are going to understand this in the latter days’,

²² ‘You shall be My people,
And I will be your God.’ ”

²³ Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord
Goes forth with fury,
A continuing whirlwind;
It will fall violently on the head of the wicked.
²⁴ The fierce anger of the Lord will not return until He has done it,
And until He has performed the intents of His heart.

In the latter days you will consider it. Jeremiah 30.22-24

The Hebrew says, מְזִמּוֹת לִבּוֹ בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים תִּתְבּוֹנְנוּ [mǝzimmôt libbô bǝʾaḥărît hayyāmîm titbônǝnû] the intents of His heart. In the latter days you will consider it.

As far as I’m concerned, we’re living now in the בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים [bǝʾaḥărît hayyāmîm] ‘the latter days’ and תִּתְבּוֹנְנוּ בָהּ׃ [titbônǝnû bāh] ‘you’re going to understand it’.

And ‘Israel is going to be corrected’ וְיִסַּרְתִּיךָ [wǝyissartîkā] for one thing where they’ve got wrong which is the identity of the Messiah.

Through the troubles which are coming upon Israel at this present time, God’s purpose is to bring them to recognize that there is a major mistake which rabbinical Judaism has made for centuries and has been reinforced by the wrong teaching of the church which has taught hatred towards the Jews and the persecution of the Jews, and has hid Jesus from the Jewish people.

But the fact is that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, and He is the One who has come and the One who is coming again. Therefore, in the end, all this stuff that is going on is pointing to a final event when Jesus/Yeshua is going to come back again and sort out the mess in in the Middle East, and take up rule from Jerusalem, bring peace and Justice to the Middle East through his reign on earth.

Jesus Himself said that Jerusalem is going to be trampled down or trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

²⁴ And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Luke 21.24

In Luke 21 speaks about the armies gathering together around Jerusalem which will lead up to the Second Coming of Jesus the Messiah. So, the big question is: ‘Are we on the way to that now?’

Obviously, we can see some parallels with current events, but we can also see that there are things which are not yet in place. However, we can see that, basically, events are moving in the direction of major trouble in the Middle East.

Now, if I didn’t believe the Bible, I would say that Israel’s chances of survival in the end are pretty low, because it’s got so many people set against it. But, because I do believe the Bible and I believe that God is in control, then He is going to preserve Israel and save Israel from its enemies.

We could see some major intervention of God, some would say that, already, there are interventions of God which are taking place fact.

For example, after the event in April 2024 when Iranians sent all those missiles over into Israel and they were all taken out except one I think one or two.

Somebody said that, statistically, it was impossible for that to happen and that it had to be a miracle of God, God’s intervention.

Well, you can take that or leave it, but it’s interesting to see that Jewish people also are talking about this now. If you were present when I did the talk about the rabbi, one of the things which the rabbi brought up was that, in rabbinic Judaism, there is an expectation of the coming of the Messiah – who in Judaism is not Jesus. In Judaism Messiah is a great man – is going to come and sort all these issues out. But they also recognize that, before the coming of the Messiah, there’s going to be a time of trouble. And the rabbi quoted from Ezekiel chapter 38.

Now, at the time, because my time was running out, I didn’t look at Ezekiel 38, but we are going to have a bit of a look at Ezekiel 38 now. So, if you got Bibles and you’d like to turn to it, please do. If you haven’t got the Bibles, we can get you one.

So, I’m going to take it in sections. We’ll look at the first few verses, I’ll comment on that, and then we’ll read some more of it.

Ezekiel 38 and verse 1,

Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ² “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, ³ and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. ⁴ I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords. ⁵ Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; ⁶ Gomer and all its troops; the house of Togarmah from the far north and all its troops—many people are with you. Ezekiel 38.1-6

Okay, so we have a mention here of a number of nations, and it speaks about Gog of the land of Magog. So, the question is, ‘who is Gog?’ ‘What does Gog represent?’

In the Hebrew lexicon which I use, one of the references to Gog is a reference to a high mountain something high and lifted up connected to the Hebrew word גַג [gag] which, in modern Hebrew, is the word for ‘roof’.

So, this is something which is high, lifted up, in the sense of being lifted up with pride. And Gog is the leader of mog Magog in Hebrew means from Gog so Magog could actually be ‘the people of Gog, a people who are led by somebody called Gog. I have a companion Bible at home which has an interesting note on the name Gog. It says this name is connected to Og of Bashan in Deuteronomy chapter 3 and to Agag in Numbers chapter 24 in fact in the Septuagint version of the Bible in Greek it says, Gog instead of Agag.

Now, that’s quite interesting because Bashan is described in Deuteronomy as being a remnant of the Giants who had a giant bedstead and was one of the enemies of Israel. Agag is described in Numbers 24, in Balaam’s prophecy he says that Israel’s King is going to be higher than Agag and in 1 Samuel, Agag is the king of the Amalekites whom Saul is commanded to kill and utterly blot out.

“His king shall be higher than Agag,
And his kingdom shall be exalted. Numbers 24.7

So, there is a connection between Agag and Amalek. Amalek is a name which is used Jewish writings for the Perpetual enemy of Israel.

⁸ Now Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim. ⁹ And Moses said to Joshua, “Choose us some men and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand.” ¹⁰ So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. ¹¹ And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. ¹² But Moses’ hands became heavy; so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. ¹³ So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Exodus 17.8-13

When you speak about Agag, you are speaking about Amalek, you’re speaking about the one who is the perpetual and continual enemy of Israel. If you go to the story of Esther, you find that Ham is described as an Agagite, he also become synonymous with ‘the perpetual hatred of Israel’ and has the desire to eliminate the Jewish people.

After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes who were with him. ² And all the king’s servants who were within the king’s gate bowed and paid homage to Haman, for so the king had commanded concerning him. But Mordecai would not bow or pay homage. ³ Then the king’s servants who were within the king’s gate said to Mordecai, “Why do you transgress the king’s command?” ⁴ Now it happened, when they spoke to him daily and he would not listen to them, that they told it to Haman, to see whether Mordecai’s words would stand; for Mordecai had told them that he was a Jew. ⁵ When Haman saw that Mordecai did not bow or pay him homage, Haman was filled with wrath. ⁶ But he disdained to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him of the people of Mordecai. Instead, Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus—the people of Mordecai. Esther 3.1-6

Hitler – another example – is seen as a latter-day Haman among the Jewish people.

Therefore, if you put all this together, it puts Gog (Ezekiel 38) in line with the former enemies of Israel someone who’s of giant stature and has a desire to eliminate the Jewish people connected to Amalek who’s connected to the spirit behind Gog and is one of the enemies or the principal enemy of Israel.

In the Chabad website, which is a Jewish website – a Jewish Orthodox website, a connection is made to Esau.

It says that to understand this, we have to go back to the time of Jacob ‘our forefather Jacob who had a twin brother Esau who was a lifelong rival’. So much so that Esau sought to kill Jacob Genesis 27.

⁴¹ So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” Genesis 27.41

The Midrash says that when Esau was getting old, he called in his grandson Amalek and said, ‘I’ve tried to kill Jacob but was unable. Now, I’m entrusting you and your descendants with the important mission of annihilating Jacob’s descendants. the Jewish people carry out this deed for me be relentless and do not show mercy.’

¹² Now Timna was the concubine of Eliphaz, Esau’s son, and she bore Amalek to Eliphaz. These were the sons of Adah, Esau’s wife. Genesis 36.12

You put all that together and you’ve got an enemy which is coming together which has a program to eliminate the Jewish people. They want to destroy Israel. This alliance which is coming together has a plan to destroy Israel.

When you look through history, you find that Amalek has tried to do that and that Amalek connects to Gog and comes to mean the satanic principality seeking the destruction of the Jewish people. It is the principality behind the Nazis and behind the Islamic fascists who want to destroy Israel, and which is at work today in the spirit of antisemitism coming against the Jewish people.

Coming back to the text in Ezekiel, we find that Gog is the leader of Magog and comes from the far north. You go to verse 6 it speaks about coming out of the far north and verse 15 also talks about the far north

⁶ Gomer and all its troops; the house of Togarmah from the far north and all its troops—many people are with you. … ¹⁵ Then you will come from your place out of the far north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army. Ezekiel 38.6-15

Ezekiel 39.2 also speaks about people coming from the far north

“And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal; ² and I will turn you around and lead you on, bringing you up from the far north, and bring you against the mountains of Israel. Ezekiel 39.1-2

Then, you’re going to ask a question: ‘If you go north from Israel where do you get to?’ The first place you get to is Syria. Obviously, it is not referring to Syria because Syria is not the ‘far north’. Also, if it was referring to Syria, it could just use the name Syria because that’s a biblical name.

North of Syria, you come to Turkey which today is an Islamic power hostile to Israel. There is one possibility. and that is to go further north which takes you to Russia, to nasi Rosh, Prince of Rosh.

It is interesting, Meshech and Tubal could actually be one of the ancient names for Moscow, and Tubal could be a city in Soviet Asia, and some have said that this principality to attack Israel would be led by a force from Russia.

Again, that’s a bit difficult to work out at the present time because Russia is tied up in a war with Ukraine and is doing very badly. Its army has lost a lot of troops (I think some 500,000 people have been killed or wounded), and a vast amount of kit, tanks, etc. have also been lost.

Russia is not in a position now where it could get involved in another war in the Middle East. On the other hand, Russia has already got a base in Syria, it’s got forces in Syria, we’ve even got pictures of Russian forces going to the south of Syria, lining up against the Golan Heights, looking directly into the north of what is now Israel.

Russia is allied to Persia/Iran and, as I said earlier, Iran actually has asked Russia to help it in its present situation. So Iran is looking to Russia. Iran is also supplying Russia with drones. So, there’s a link already in place between Russia and Persia.

Russia also has some actions in Africa, in Sudan and in Libya, and someone said that Cush is somewhere to the south of of Egypt which could include Syria and include Sudan, and Libya is Put, to the east of Egypt.

Russia is involved in both those countries. It would seem a bit farfetched at the present time Russia could get armies from Libya and from Sudan into the Middle East, but the Bible does speak about these countries, and it’s just interesting what’s taking place.

As I said, the big problem with Russia at the present time is that it is so tied up with what’s happening in Ukraine that it’s not really in a position to start another war in another part of the world. Its army is in very bad shape, the country itself is in bad shape too, and it has got nuclear weapons which it is threatening to use even in the Ukraine situation.

If you go back to 1973 in the Yom Kippur War, Israel was attacked by Syria in the north, by Egypt in the south. In a surprise attacked Egypt and Syria both broke through Israeli frontiers and Israel looked as if it was possibly going to be in real danger of losing that war.

Then, they got some reinforcements from the USA, they fought back, and eventually Israel was on the road to Damascus and on the road to Cairo pushing back the Syrian and the Egyptian armies.

At that time, Brezhnev was in power in the Soviet Union and he sent a note to the to the Americans saying that if Israel didn’t withdraw, they would destroy Israel with nuclear weapons.

The US then set off a nuclear alert and the crisis was averted. Kissinger brought about a peace settlement and Israel withdrew from Damascus and from Cairo and it was kind of resolved. However, it remains an interesting fact that, at that point, Russia did already threaten to destroy Israel with nuclear weapons.

We know that Persia/Iran is in the process of trying to acquire nuclear weapons. So, you have another nuclear dimension in this whole situation.

Those are some of the issues involved: you have Persia/Iran, you have Cush which is probably Sudan, you’ve got Put which is probably Libya, and you’ve got Togarmah which many people believe is relating to parts of Turkey.

As I read earlier in this talk, Erdogan has made a statement by which he’s talking about invading Israel from Turkey which is strange but could add another dimension to the conflict.

There are some who say that the leader of this war will not be Russia but rather Turkey. In fact, there’s a book written by a guy called Joel Richardson which I’ve read and is called The Islamic Antichrist.

It’s quite an interesting book and he posits that the leader of this war

will come from an Islamic force which will attack Israel and it’ll be based probably in Turkey, coming from the north. That’s a possibility.

I don’t know if you know that the Muslims have this idea of the Mahdi (Muslim messiah)coming and that, for many Muslims, the war against Israel is not just a political situation, it has an Islamic dimension.

They believe that the Mahdi is some religious leaders who is going to come at the end of days and lead the Muslims in victory over not just Israel but over the West as well, and create a situation in which Islam will take over the world and establish the Islamic Caliphate.

Then Isa, the Muslim Jesus, is going to come back and Islamise the whole world.

That is something which we do not have to look forward to because it’s not going to happen, but it’s part of the Islamic false prophecy which involves these countries coming against primarily and firstly against Israel, then against the whole world. Joel Richardson says that the Mahdi is going to come and he’s going to lead the attack; he says the war will actually be synonymous with Armageddon at the end of days.