For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.
The verse belongs to a prophecy about the restoration of Israel that was recorded after the exchange of letters between Jeremiah and the elders in captivity. It foretells the future time of Jacob's trouble, a great day like no other that comes just before Christ's second coming. That trouble comes after Jesus finishes His priestly work in the heavenly sanctuary, leaves it and ceases intercession, and takes up His kingly role.
The voice of trembling and fear with no peace means that God's people will be plunged into affliction, distress, terror and anguish. For the righteous it will be the experience of living in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor. Jacob's night of anguish when he wrestled in prayer for deliverance from Esau represents what God's people will experience in that time. Like Jacob, alarmed by deadly threats while unarmed and defenseless, they will be burdened with anxiety and fear and crushing self-reproach for their own sin that brought the danger, with their only hope in the mercy of God and their only defense in prayer.
Like Jacob, they will leave nothing undone to atone for wrong, to place themselves in a proper light before the people, to disarm prejudice, and to avert the danger threatening liberty of conscience. At the same time darkness will cover the inhabitants of the earth, restraint will be removed from the wicked, Satan will have entire control of the finally impenitent, and those enraged by the last warning will turn their anger against all who received the message, bringing God's people into mortal danger. The verse introduces the great day when faces grow pale. Despite the fear, he shall be saved out of the trouble; the saints will cry to Jesus to reap, and God's voice will deliver them.
The verse belongs to a prophecy about the restoration of Israel that was recorded after the exchange of letters between Jeremiah and the elders in captivity. It foretells the future time of Jacob's trouble, a great day like no other that comes just before Christ's second coming. That trouble comes after Jesus finishes His priestly work in the heavenly sanctuary, leaves it and ceases intercession, and takes up His kingly role.
The voice of trembling and fear with no peace means that God's people will be plunged into affliction, distress, terror and anguish. For the righteous it will be the experience of living in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor. Jacob's night of anguish when he wrestled in prayer for deliverance from Esau represents what God's people will experience in that time. Like Jacob, alarmed by deadly threats while unarmed and defenseless, they will be burdened with anxiety and fear and crushing self-reproach for their own sin that brought the danger, with their only hope in the mercy of God and their only defense in prayer.
Like Jacob, they will leave nothing undone to atone for wrong, to place themselves in a proper light before the people, to disarm prejudice, and to avert the danger threatening liberty of conscience. At the same time darkness will cover the inhabitants of the earth, restraint will be removed from the wicked, Satan will have entire control of the finally impenitent, and those enraged by the last warning will turn their anger against all who received the message, bringing God's people into mortal danger. The verse introduces the great day when faces grow pale. Despite the fear, he shall be saved out of the trouble; the saints will cry to Jesus to reap, and God's voice will deliver them.