The rapture of the Church having taken place, Jews and Gentiles will again be dealt with as such by God, and judicial dealing and actings in grace will characterize His ways. He will deal judicially with Christendom, as the New Testament says, and Revelation describes. He will deal, too, with His earthly people, and notably with that portion of them known as the Jews. Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel and the Psalms especially take up this subject. He will deal in judgment, too, with the world, and make all hear of His glory (Isa. 13:11; 26:9,18, etc.). And when the Lord takes His kingdom, He will reward His heavenly saints, judge and reward His earthly ones, Israel (Psa. 1) and Gentiles (Rev. 7). He will judge, too, the living nations for their treatment of His brethren (Matt. 25) and finally judge the dead (Rev. 20). But before He rewards His earthly people, He will deal in fearful judgment with the Beast and Antichrist and their followers (Rev. 19), and with the king of the north. Certainly before He judges the dead He will also deal with Gog and all his multitude (Ezek. 38; 39).
Now for some details: Judicial dealing with the earth, preparatory to the Lord's return, commences with the opening of the seals. War, famine, death, and wild beasts, God's four sore judgments (Ezek. 14:21), will be sent among men. Constituted authority within the area of God's visitation at that time will be broken up, as described under the sixth seal (Rev. 6:12-17), to the dismay of rulers and all. Meanwhile, God will have been working in grace, and martyrs will have proven their constancy to His truth (Rev. 6:9), a work which, then seen as begun, will go on among the twelve tribes of Israel, and Gentiles also, till the Lord appears. Of this Rev. 7 speaks, telling of the sealed ones of the twelve tribes, and of the great company of the Gentiles, to come out of the great tribulation. These last are only seen after they have come out of it (Rev. 7:14). Here, then, God is seen working among the twelve tribes, before the Beast appears in the prophecy, and the special trial of the Jews, as such, begins.
The second judicial dealing of God with the earth is set forth in the trumpets. The fourth part of the earth felt the effect of the opening of the fourth seal. The third part of the trees, of the sea, and the living creatures in it, and men on it, the third part of the rivers and fountains of water, and of the sun, moon, and stars, feel the effects of the first four trumpets (Ch. 8). In the trumpets the ungodly are smitten with terrible judgments, for these are not sealed like those in chapter 7.
During the progress of these judgments the Beast of Dan. 7 and 9 and of Rev. 11 and 13 will have appeared in his true character. This turns attention directly to the Holy Land, and to the Jews in it. Brought back, the majority in unbelief, and not outwardly owned of God (Isa. 18:5, 6), the temple will have been rebuilt (Dan. 9:27; 2 Thess. 2:4) to be desecrated by the image of the Beast (Dan. 8:12; Matt. 24:15; Mark 13:14; Dan. 12:11), placed there by Antichrist, who himself will sit in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God (2 Thess. 2:4). By him, upheld by the Beast, the political head of the Roman empire, sacrifices to God will be made to cease, the prelude to the destruction of the temple, the place of God's sanctuary, by the king of the north (Dan. 8:11; Psa. 74:7). The Antichrist under the Beast will make true sacrifice to cease, substituting in its place the worship of the image of the Beast. The invader from the north will raze the temple to the ground.
But before this destruction takes place, apostasy will have manifested itself among the Jews. Christendom will already have been destroyed (Rev. 17:16) by the Beast and the ten horns-the Roman empire in its last form comprising seemingly only the western part of the old empire, for Antichrist does not form one of the ten kings, and the northern power arises out of the eastern part of the old Roman empire (Dan. 8:9-12). The whore destroyed, the way will be opened for the worship of the Beast, since with her destruction every vestige of Christianity vanishes, it would seem, from those who had openly professed to own it (2 Thess. 2:4).
During that time of apostasy among the Jews there will be a testimony in Jerusalem itself—the two witnesses (Rev. 11:4-8)—for 1260 days which is 18 days less than the last three-and-a-half years of the Beast's reign. The beast had power to continue 42 months = 1260 days. During this time his power remains unchecked. At its conclusion, divine power in judgment will commence its dealings with him and his followers.
There will be martyrs during the Beast's persecution (Rev. 12:15; 15:2, 3), though probably not confined to Jewish saints. A company of Jews will be kept faithful on earth throughout it (Rev. 14:1-3), who will be able to join in the special song of those in heaven who had been martyred by the Beast. The two witnesses unburied three-and-a-half days will ascend to heaven, when the third woe will quickly come, and all heaven rejoice at the coming of the kingdom in power. Shortly after the days have elapsed, the vials will be poured out, and the Lord (Rev. 19) will appear to destroy the Beast and Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:8). These are especially marked out for appropriate and everlasting punishment, and are cast alive into the lake of fire (Rev. 19:20).
During all this history, the ten tribes do not appear within the scope of the prophetic vision, which has for its sphere the Holy Land, and the Roman Empire in its last form. God, however, will have been working among them (Rev. 7).
Turning now to that power of the last day, called in Daniel the king of the north, the Jews being in their land, he will come down on them to possess it-this, the real solution of the eastern question, we have set forth in Old Testament prophecy. The Jews, in weakness and fear, make a covenant with the Beast for seven years (Isa. 8:12; 28:18; Dan. 9:27), but in the end to no purpose, as God has already forewarned them. For the northern power will enter the land after the apostasy is established by Antichrist, and will capture Jerusalem (Zech. 14:1, 2; Psa. 79), and go down into Egypt (Dan. 11:42, 43). While there, tidings out of the north and the east troubling him, he returns with great fury. Are these tidings that the Beast has been destroyed by the Lord? Later the Assyrian besieges Jerusalem, but he is destroyed by the Lord in the land (Zech. 12:1-8; Isa. 29:1-7;14:25; Joel 2:20; Psa. 76), and the prayer of Psa. 83 is answered.
God's glory displayed in judgment, the ten tribes are then brought back, so the whole nation is restored (Isa. 11:11-16; 66:20; Ezek. 20:38). The temple, built by the Jews in unbelief, desecrated, and destroyed, will be rebuilt. In Ezekiel we see it, but do not read of its being built. The prophet sees it all erected. Does the Lord do it (Zech. 6:13)? The sessional judgment of Matt. 25 takes place, perhaps, about this time, after which Gog invades the land (Ezek. 38 and 39), when the people are dwelling securely. That cannot be till after the destruction of the northern power. Perhaps Isa. 33 refers to this.
Gog dealt with, peace outwardly will remain unbroken, till Gog of Rev. 20 comes against the camp of the saints and the beloved city—Satan's last effort, to be signally and forever frustrated, and the way at last to be prepared for the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (2 Peter 3).