Most have taken it for granted on the faith of others, that there is a time of most solemn judgment coming on this earth, at a moment when they think not. It has been technically named the “Great Tribulation.” Some have found the term in Scripture, and have received it thus as a revelation from God. They have discovered that they, m Christians, are not to be in that solemn hour; and having settled this, they have perhaps thought no more about it. Others have it is said settled that the Christian—the Church—has to pass through it, or at any rate, that only those who actually are looking for the Lord to come and take them to Himself will be exempted from that period of judgment.
It is a deep loss to the Christian that any part of God’s revelation should be counted unworthy of his attention; and, although it may be one of those truths which belong to a time when lie is not on earth, yet it may seem strange to some to know that we have more of the deep sympathies of Christ’s heart unfolded to us in connection with the people who pass through that time of trouble, as also of that time itself, than of any other. I allude to what is found in the books of the Psalms, and also in the Lamentations of Jeremiah; and those plaintive strains which we find interspersed throughout the prophetic books of the Old Testament. The spirit of Christ has entered into the sorrows of that little remnant of His ancient people in the most surpassing way. It is in these very strains that we learn the deepest feelings of the heart of Jesus. So that while we are learning the events of that day, and the exercises of His people, we are learning more of Christ Himself. What more blessed theme can there be? None, surely, which will cause our hearts to grow in grace more than this. Precious as are our heavenly privileges in Him, as identified with Him on high, more precious still it is to trace His ways, His heart, His voice, when He identifies Himself with His people on earth, in whatever condition He finds them. I mean, of course, with what God has produced in their hearts.
These blessed thoughts and experiences are not my present theme, but rather the period itself, which is the darkest which the world will ever see, before the Sun of Righteousness arises with healings in His wings for His oppressed people, and with the burning of judgment for their oppressors; thus, at last, He will free this earth of its groaning, and bring in the time of blessing so longed for by all who love Him!
It is distinctly stated in three passages of Scripture that the earth will one day be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. While the people of God have found on the one hand the commission of the Apostles to carry the glad tidings of the salvation of sinners to every creature under heaven, and joyfully marked the breadth of God’s free grace to “whosoever will;” on the other hand, while they noted the fact and result stated in these three passages (Num. 14:2121But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. (Numbers 14:21); Isa. 11:99They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:9); and Hab. 2:1414For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14))—they erred in concluding that it was the Gospel—the glad tidings of salvation by Jesus Christ, which was to be the instrument to accomplish this desired result. Hence this mistake of centuries has to be combated in pressing the truth of the subject now before us. The idea of the Gospel having such a mission has woven itself into the texture of almost all the religious systems and thoughts of men; so that, in seeking to present the truth, one feels that though it is no easy task, one is sustained by the blessed sense that there is in every Christian an aptitude for understanding divine things, which the Word of the living God contains, and a response to the truth, i.e., the things that are, in the heart of every child of God, although the prejudices of religious thought have warped his truer sensibilities.
This earth shall be covered with the knowledge of Jehovah! All shall know Me, says He, from the greatest to the least: but not by the Gospel of His grace. “Let favor (i e., grace) be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness,” says the same Prophet, who foretells of that time of blessing for the earth (Isa. 26:1010Let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. (Isaiah 26:10)). Let him speak again (v. 9), and he will tell us when and how this day of blessing will come. “For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” The Lord must first lay bare His mighty arm, and uplift His hand to accomplish His strange act—for judgment is not that in which His heart of goodness is at home. He does not strike until “the iniquity of the Amorites is full;” to allow it then, would be to deny Himself, which cannot be.
A “short work” He will then accomplish—sharp, decisive, and complete; and every refuge of lies will be swept away as the morning cloud, and the groans of the earth will be exchanged for praise; everything that has breath shall praise Him, and the very trees of the field will rejoice before Him.
I shall begin then by noting six distinct passages of Scripture which speak of this period, termed the “great tribulation.” We shall see, I trust, on whom it is to fall; who are to be saved out of it; when it takes place, and where.
The first we will notice is in Jer. 30. The prophet was to write in a book the words of the Lord against the time to come, when Jehovah would bring again the captivity of His people, Judah and Israel. The day of Jacob’s trouble will arrive; the remnant of that race of whom the Supplanter, as his name signifies, was the representative and type; the wayward, bargain-driving, crooked race will be delivered, through a time of trouble such as never had been. Many had been the sorrows of His people, until wrath came upon them to the uttermost, and they were scattered amongst the nations of the earth, and remain without country, religion, or king. Out of these former troubles there was no deliverance. From this they will be saved. The fears of the guilty conscience of Jacob made his heart tremble of old, before his brother Esau, whose birthright he had taken away. Once one wrongs another, it is exceedingly hard to trust him again, even supposing he does not know of the evil done to him. “All faces are turned to paleness.” But though “the 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.” And Isaiah adds, “Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face any more wax pale!” (29:22).
In Dan. 12 you also find this same time of trouble referred to. The chief subject of his book is “The Times of the Gentiles;” the picture of the great empires of the world, since the Jew was set aside as the center of God’s government on earth. That nation was at first a pure theocracy. God was their king. But they grew tired of this, and desired a king, like the nations (1 Sam. 8). Then all was changed, and things went on from bad to worse, until they were sent to captivity for their sins. Then God gave the government of the earth into the hands of the Gentiles (while He secretly watched over all Himself); and that goes on, however shamefully abused by those to whom He has committed it, until the Lord Jesus comes again and takes His great power and reigns; then “in him shall the Gentiles trust.” Daniel was a great prime minister to one of these kings; indeed to more than one. He feels for his peoples’ sin, and for the glory of the Lord, and the Lord gives him a revelation of the times and end of these Gentile monarchies, commencing with Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon. Their history runs on to the moment when the Lord Jesus, accompanied by His saints, will destroy all their power at the moment when He is about to take possession of all, and then reign for a thousand years. He has already taken His Church to His glory at that time, as our former chapters will have shown. And then this hour of tribulation intervenes, in which the Jew becomes the prominent feature, and as many as are of the election of that people will be delivered through the unexampled sorrows of that day. To this Daniel specially refers in chapter 12, in the words, “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy (Daniel’s) people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.” All was to be “sealed up” (for the Jew) until the “time of the end,” and so it remains for him. The Church knows the Lord’s mind in the matter beforehand, and this is the use of prophecy. It gives the Christian a divine revelation of what is coming on the earth, as “a light that shineth in a dark place.” Prophecy is good in its place, but it does not address the affections, nor draw him away from the world. His portion is the “Morning Star” coming to take him away before the “day.” Prophecy drives him out of the world; the hope of the Morning Star, i.e. Christ in glory, draws him out of it. This distinction you will find in 2 Peter 1:1919We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: (2 Peter 1:19). We must not be persuaded as some would inculcate, to neglect prophecy altogether; but we must not allow our minds to be engrossed by it. It has to do with nations, the world, judgment, Antichrist, and the like. Jesus is the object for the heart. This alone sanctifies us truly.
The third Scripture in which we find this moment noticed specially is Matt. 24:2121For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (Matthew 24:21), in which the Lord refers to Daniel’s prophecy cited above. At the close of chap. 23 in which He had pronounced the “woes” on Israel, as He had begun His ministry among them with the “beatitudes” of Matt. 5 He had turned His face away from them, saying, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate; for I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Jesus than goes out to the Mount of Olives, and there instructs His disciples as to the history of His people’s sorrows, judgments, and future restoration. The history is general and undefined as to time, till you arrive at verse 15, where we are at once transported into the last days. The time, or rather interval, of the heavenly calling of the Church is passed over, as in all the prophetic teaching of Scripture. Prophecy treats of the earth and earthly things; never of heavenly. “When ye, therefore, shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the Prophet (ch. 12:11), stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand), then let them which be in Judea flee unto the mountains; let him that is upon the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house; neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes For there shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world; no, nor ever shall be.” He looks forward to the end of time, as He had looked back to the beginning of the world, and tells the disciples (as representing a godly remnant of their people in their hopes and fears of the last days), that none such time of trouble ever had, or ever would be. The destruction of Jerusalem by Titus’ armies was but a little rehearsal of what then would be. “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect’s sake shall those days be shortened.”
False Christs would arise, who would work signs and wonders to deceive these godly Jews. My readers are Christians, not Jews, and therefore would not be distressed or perplexed at such a report as that. Thus, in the midst of all these terrors, the sign of the Son of Man in heaven appearing with the insignia of power and glory would be seen, soaring in triumphant might above the gathered nations, which, like the eagles gathering to the carrion, surround and prey upon this ancient people. His appearing discomfits every foe, and destroys with its brightness His enemies, and thus delivers the Jews in the Land of Promise (v. 30), and thence gathering the elect of Israel from the four winds of heaven (v. 31).
How fully at that day will the solemn warning of Moses to the people be brought to pass, of Deut. 28:2626And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away. (Deuteronomy 28:26), “Thy carcass shall be meat unto all the fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.” But Jehovah Himself—the once rejected Jesus—will do what man could not accomplish. To Him will be reserved the fraying of their enemies away. Sudden and tremendous will be that swoop of judgment, and then His people will praise Him in the peace and blessedness of the millennial earth.
Mark 13:1919For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be. (Mark 13:19) mentions this tribulation also, but like Matthew in the general terms of the Scripture. “In those days shall be affliction such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.”