Jeremiah 30:7, commentary and pictures

The verse announces a day that is great and without parallel, a unique time of affliction, distress, fear and anguish for God's people called the time of Jacob's trouble, with the promise that Jacob shall be saved out of it meaning final deliverance comes after the trouble amid upheaval when human pride is brought low. Jacob's fear when Esau came with four hundred men and his night of wrestling, anguish and prayer for deliverance represents the experience of Christ's followers just before His second coming, when in testing and fear they plead earnestly and hold fast to God's promises. That time comes after Jesus finishes His priestly and intercessory work in the heavenly sanctuary and every case is decided, so the righteous must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor when darkness covers the earth, restraint is removed and the winds of strife are loosed. God's people then face mortal danger from a decree to kill those who refuse to worship the image of the beast and abandon faith and the Sabbath, yet the saints will not be killed but remain calm trusting God's promise of escape until delivered by the voice of God. Like Jacob they must turn from self-reliance, acknowledge wrongs, cling to God's promises with persevering agonizing prayer and learn that enduring faith daily now, for those saved out of it are the living saints, the 144,000 without fault who endure suffering and are translated without seeing death to stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion.

Words and Jacob Pattern

The day announced is great, with none like it, a uniquely unparalleled time of affliction and distress for God's people, marked by fear and anguish and called the time of Jacob's trouble. Jacob is God's people, and the promise that he shall be saved out of it means deliverance comes out of that trouble rather than apart from it. That trouble precedes God's final deliverance amid transition, desolation and upheaval, when human pride is brought low.

The promise belongs to Jeremiah's prophecies of Israel's restoration after the Babylonian captivity, whose assurance of return was sure. Those prophecies were studied by Daniel more than sixty years after they were written, to understand the foretold seventy years of Jerusalem's desolation.

Jacob represents believers and Esau represents unbelievers, and Jacob's fear and distress when he learned that Esau was coming to meet him with four hundred men foreshadows the similar danger of the saints in the closing strife with the Image Beast. Jacob's night of wrestling, anguish and prayer for deliverance from Esau represents the experience of Christ's followers just before Christ's second coming. In that testing and fear they face danger and self-reproach, plead earnestly with God for deliverance, rely on His mercy, and hold fast to His promises, from which they will be saved. As they approach that trouble they are to make every effort to be seen fairly, to disarm prejudice, and to avert threats to liberty of conscience.

The saints must pass through this future trial after the disappointment when Christ did not come at the expected time in the seventh month of 1845. That teaching about a future trouble to be passed through was new both to the visionary and to those who heard it.

Prophetic Timing and Crisis

The time of Jacob's trouble comes after Jesus finishes His priestly and intercessory work in the heavenly sanctuary, ceases intercession, takes up His kingly role, and goes forth to judge the nations and deliver His people. Every person's case has then been decided, and in that fearful time the righteous must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor while enduring the outpouring of God's judgments. It is the stupendous crisis now on the verge, when darkness covers the earth, restraint upon the wicked is removed, and Satan has entire control of the finally impenitent. The winds of strife long restrained by angels are loosed in a storm of conflict, and the earth is made empty and waste because of transgression of God's law, one of the great coming scenes watched and waited and longed and prayed for since Eden.

It comes when the nation enforces the papal institution in violation of God's law. At that time Protestantism stretches her hand to grasp the Roman power and clasps hands with Spiritualism in a threefold union, repudiates every Protestant and republican constitutional principle, and makes provision for papal falsehoods and delusions. This shows Satan's marvelous working, that the end is near, that the limit of God's forbearance is reached, that the nation's iniquity is full, and that the angel of mercy is about to take flight never to return. The power attending the last warning enrages the wicked, and their anger is kindled against all who received the message.

God's people then face mortal danger from the wicked under a decree to kill those who refuse to worship the beast's image and refuse to abandon their faith and the Sabbath. Though the saints will not be killed, they remain calm trusting God's promise of escape while angels protect them from those who try to kill them. During the seven last plagues the wicked blame the righteous, believing that killing them will stop the plagues. The faithful in anguish cry to heaven day and night for deliverance, joined by voices from martyrs' graves, from the sea, from mountain caverns and from convent vaults asking how long God will wait to judge and avenge their blood on those who dwell on the earth. The saints are delivered from the trouble by the voice of God, which turns their captivity and honors God.

Endurance and Final Deliverance

Like Jacob on his night of anguish praying for deliverance from Esau, God's people in the time of unmatched distress must turn from reliance on themselves and cling to God's promises with unwavering faith, relying on His mercy, power and grace through prayer and trusting that He preserves them as their friend. Their experience joins danger and fear with self-reproach over wrongs, and Jacob's example teaches them to acknowledge those wrongs and make them right. Even when deep anguish makes danger and destruction seem certain and God seem to have become their enemy, they are to hold fast in that same trust until their captivity is turned. As they approach this trouble they are to make every effort to be seen fairly by others, to disarm prejudice, and to avert threats to liberty of conscience.

As the final conflict approaches they grow up into Christ and share more fully in His Spirit. The latter rain revives and strengthens them to endure and pass through that time. At the same time the third angel's message swells into a loud cry with great power and glory, and the glory attending it shines on their faces and upon them. Jacob prevailed because he was persevering and determined, and all who lay hold of God's promises with the same earnest, persevering, self-denying, agonizing prayer will succeed as he succeeded. The faith that can endure weariness, delay, hunger, weakness and severe trial without fainting or failing must be learned and exercised daily now during probation, for the period of probation is the time granted to all to prepare for the day of God. Those with little faith now will face deeper distress then, those who neglect that preparation and heed not faithful warnings will be without excuse, and true faith is scarce because many are indolent in spiritual things, unwilling to make exertions, deny self, agonize before God, and pray long and earnestly for the blessing. Those who do not make strong efforts now to exercise persevering faith will be wholly unprepared to exercise the faith that will enable them to stand in the day of trouble.

God will not cast off those who were deceived, tempted and betrayed into sin but have returned to Him with true repentance. His eye is upon them in peril, His ear listens to their cries, He sends His angels to comfort and protect them, and His love in their severest trial is as strong and tender as in prosperity. Yet they must be placed in the furnace fire so that earthliness is consumed and the image of Christ is perfectly reflected, and the Refiner will bring them forth as gold tried in the fire. That trial reveals the difference between those who serve God and those who do not. Those saved out of it are the living saints, the 144,000 who triumph when God delivers by His voice those who cried day and night for deliverance under the decree to slay them for refusing to abandon faith and the Sabbath. They remain calm trusting God's promise of escape while angels protect them from those who try to kill them, and their deliverance honors God.

They are the hundred and forty and four thousand redeemed from among men and translated from the earth as first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb. They follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes, have no guile in their mouth and are without fault before God, having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. They stand without an intercessor through the final outpouring of God's judgments, enduring suffering, hunger, thirst and scorching heat while the earth is wasted with famine and pestilence. Having long awaited Jesus, they are translated without seeing death, with faces shining with God's glory. They are saved out of it to stand with the Lamb upon Mount Zion and before the throne upon the sea of glass, singing the song of Moses and the Lamb, a song of deliverance which only their experience could teach, where they hunger and thirst no more and the Lamb feeds them and God wipes away all tears from their eyes.