The Time of Jacob's Trouble - By David Wills - 2024

Meanings of the Hebrew patriarchs’ and matriarchs’ names in English:

1. יצחק (Yitzhak) - Isaac: Means “he will laugh” or "he will rejoice"¹.
2. יעקב (Yaakov) - Jacob: Means “he will follow” or "he will supplant"¹.
3. שרה (Sara) - Sarah: Means “Strive and Power or Prevail” and “Prince or Princess” or "Noblewoman"².
4. רבקה (Rivkah) - Rebecca: The meaning is uncertain, but it is often associated with “to tie” or "to bind"².
5. רחל (Rakhel) - Rachel: Means “ewe” or "female sheep"².
6. אברהם (Avraham) - Abraham: Means “father of many” or "father of a multitude"¹.
7. לאה (Le’a) - Leah: Means “weary” or "tired"².

Rearranging the order slightly to start with Abraham, the Father of our Faith, we find that a sentence (see below) is formed from the meaning of the names that are used to construct the name ISRAEL. This gives us further insight to why God chose this as the name that points to our salvation:

The Father of many (Abraham) will bring laughter and Joy (Isaac) to those who seek and follow Him (Jacob). They will prevail (Sarah) because He has bound Himself (Rebekah) to us (our sin) and was led like a sheep (Rachel) to the slaughter (Acts 8:32; Isaiah 53.7) to free all who are weary and tired (Leah).

In this respect, we can now understand that the name Israel involves every person God gave His Covenantal promises to as a sign of His Faithfulness and that it is ultimately a pointer to the Son of God through whom all of God's promises to mankind are fulfilled…

Israel is God’s Son - the continuing significance

As seen above, Jacob’s name had been changed by God to Israel because Jacob had striven with God and prevailed. This is significant because the Hebrew word for ‘Prevail’ ( שרהSarah ) also carries the meaning of ‘Power and Prince’. So, in this way God is also revealing that He saw Israel as his Son, which is a point God made clear to Pharaoh when He was rescuing them from slavery in Egypt, as stated in Exodus 4:22-23:

²² And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:  23 And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.^[6]

Parallels between Jacob / Israel’s time of Trouble and Jesus

Clearly, God viewing Israel as His Son creates a connection between the events of Jacob / Israel’s life and those of Jesus and in this regard it is fascinating to note that the very first words of Jesus, as the ‘Seed of the Woman’; the ‘Son of Man’; the Messiah; the ‘Son of God’; and as the fulfilment of ‘ISRAEL as God’s Son’;  were seen when He was 12 years old.

Therefore one of the parallels between Jacob / Israel and Jesus begins at that point, noting that just as Jacob / Israel found Peace in his 21^st year, after receiving God’s blessing from his Father (when he returned home from Padan-Aram), Jesus brought Peace through His obedience to His Father, to all who would choose to be grafted into Israel, exactly 21 years after declaring that He was about His Father’s business at the age of 12. He did this by dying on the cross in our place at the age of 33 (12 + 21).

Amazingly, the parallels do not finish there for Israel, as a nation. After rejecting their Messiah and King, Israel literally had a time of trouble for 20 centuries, from the 1^st century (in 70 AD) to the 20^th century (in 1948). This was the prophetic fulfillment of Jacob / Israel’s 20 years of actual servitude to Laban the Syrian, a gentile in a foreign land (Paran-Aram), before he returned home. Essentially, it was a fore-shadow of Israel as a nation being scattered among the gentile nations for 20 centuries before having a home to return to again in 1948.

The Two Brides

Now we will consider the two brides and see how contextually they could fit into the Tribulation of the Last Days. Firstly, Jesus states in Matthew 15:24 that He had only been sent to the sheep of the ‘House of Israel’:

²⁴ But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ^[7]

Then He states that ‘all Israel will be saved’ in Romans 11:25-27 - the ESV puts it well:

^25 hLest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers:^{4 i}a partial hardening has come upon Israel, ^juntil the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. ²⁶ And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, ^k“The Deliverer will come ^lfrom Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; ²⁷ “and this will be my ^mcovenant with them ⁿwhen I take away their sins.” ^[8].

The bible is clear that this all happens by the end of the Tribulation and additionally Revelation Chapter 19 shows that the last event prior to the Second Coming is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

So this opens the possibility that the Bride of Christ, in its fulness, will include two wives - the Gentile Bride (that will include people of all nations, including Jews) that will be taken in the Rapture at the start of the Tribulation, and the Jewish Bride, that will include the Tribulation Saints that will predominantly be those from the Nation, or ‘House of Israel’, that will be saved by the ministry of the Two Witnesses and the 144,000 Jewish believers, who have been sealed by God during the last 7 years.

As such, there will be two wives, just like Jacob / Israel had Leah and Rachel, but ultimately one ‘Bride in Christ’ that will become Joined to Jesus in the Marriage of the Lamb, just prior to HIS return in the Second Coming, as described in Revelation 19:8-11

8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. 9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. 10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. 11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. [9]

Prophetic Conclusion

Now to join some prophetic dots…

The preceding confirms that Jacob, who would not only become the father of 12 sons who would become known as the 12 Tribes of Israel, but that his life included a time of trouble, that many see as mirroring aspects of the 7 year Tribulation, otherwise known as the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble”, as described by Jeremiah chapter 30 verse 7ff.

 ⁷ Alas! for that 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.[10]

As such, it is clearly prophetic in nature and it is not a stretch to suggest that God has hidden some major clues both about the nature and timing of the Tribulation in the narrative of Jacob / Israel in Genesis Chapters 25 – 33. So from this perspective, we will now consider a possible timeline of events related to the Tribulation based upon the events of Jacob’s life. In this regard, it is fascinating to note that the main account of Jacob's life begins in Genesis chapter 25 and reaches a climax in Chapter 32 when his name is changed to Israel because as will be seen the chapter numbers 25 and 32 could be very prophetic with respect to the timing of the Tribulation.

Timeline of “The Time of Jacob’s Trouble”

Significantly, the Bible’s very first reference of the name ISRAEL was when Jacob was renamed by God to this most prophetic of names. As such, I believe we can align the birth of Jacob / Israel with the birth of the modern and 'end-time nation' ISRAEL that was reborn in 1948 and apply the events of Jacob’s 20-year 'time of trouble' to it. To do this though, we need to apply numbers to the events.

As such, the following highlights Jacob’s age at key times during this period (all calculated from the bible text).

Event 0 - Jacob is 77 years old –Time of Trouble begins

Jacob at the age of 77 flees from Esau, who has threatened to kill him and goes as directed by both his mother Rebekah and his father Isaac to Uncle Laban; and when he first arrives, he sees Rachel, kisses her and weeps because of her beauty, and agrees to work for Laban for 7 years in return for receiving her as his bride.

Event 1 – Jacob is 84 years old – Receives 2 Brides

• After working for 7 years for Rachel, Jacob at the age of 84 finds he has received Leah as his Bride instead and after hearing Laban’s excuses for deceiving him he agrees to fulfill Leah’s Week (Seven) and to then work for another 7 years for Rachel.
• So after 7 days Jacob then receives Rachel as his 2^nd Bride but still has to work for another 7 years, as part of the Mohar (מֹ֫הַר) redemption-price of being given her hand as a second wife.

Event 2 – Jacob is 91 years old – Completes the Redemption of his Brides

Jacob completes the promised period (14 years in all) for the Redemption of his two brides Leah and Rachel. Joseph is born to Rachel and Jacob at the age of 91 tells Laban that he wishes to go home, but agrees to delay his departure and ultimately works for him for another 6 years to increase his flocks.

Event 3 – Jacob is 97 years old – Completes final 6 years

After 6 years passes, Jacob at the age of 97 learns that Laban’s attitude towards him has changed and that he is now definitely unfriendly. So, Jacob decides to flee back home in the hope that Esau has forgiven him.

All this shows that Jacob / Israel was 77 years old when he received the Blessing from Isaac and escaped to Uncle Laban in Paran-Aram / Haran, starting the Time of Jacob’s Trouble / Tribulation; and that he was 84 years old when he received his 2 brides Leah and Rachel, one week or 7 days apart; and that he was 91 years old when he completed the Redemption Price for his brides; and that after a final 6 years to appease Laban, He left to return home at the age of 97 years old. Therefore if we apply the foreshadow of Jacob / Israel's birth and ages during his time of trouble to that of the birth of modern Israel then we get the following possible time-line:

• Jacob / Israel born 1948
  • Jacob / Israel 77 years old when Time of Trouble / Tribulation begins - 1948 + 77 = 2025
  • Jacob / Israel 84 years old when he receives his 2 wives - 1948 + 84 = 2032
  • Jacob / Israel 91 years old when he finishes redeeming his 2 wives- 1948 + 81 = 2039
  • Jacob / Israel 97 years old when he begins to return home - 1948 + 97 = 2045

See below for a discussion about the Bride of Christ to see the validity of this timing that caters for the two wives of Jacob into one Bride of Christ.

Bride of Christ

Significantly, the narrative shows that Leah and Rachel together are a picture of the full 'Bride of Christ' because Jesus was equated with Israel, that as shown above was a name and a national entity that God the Father called His Son. Importantly, these two wives of Jacob / Israel were recognized as the two that did build the House of Israel, as stated in Ruth 4:11:

 ¹¹ And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said, We are witnesses. The Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Beth-lehem:

So notably, Leah, being the first wife to be redeemed, could also represent the hidden bride that is taken first at the start of the Rapture. Hidden firstly because during Jesus' time on earth the Church or Bride of Christ was a mystery that would only be revealed as part of Paul the Apostle's ministry and that the day when Jesus would return for His Bride is also hidden by being referred to as the 'Unknown Day'. Also it was hidden in Jacob's day because Leah was veiled and her identity was hidden to him, it was only in the morning following the consummation that Jacob realised what had taken place and that he would need to fulfil Leah's week (which means 7 in Hebrew) first before he could wed his first love Rachel, who represents the bride from the Sheep of the House of Israel, noting again that Jesus had said in Matthew 15:24 that He was "...not sent but unto the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel".

As such, Rachel would be joined to Israel 7 days after Leah, which is likely a symbol of the 7 years of the Tribulation that would occur before she would become a part of the Bride - possibly in 2032 as the following shows.

Jacob / Israel 

Essentially, the two wives represent God’s dealing with the Gentiles and then His people Israel, as it says in Romans 11:11, where God is talking about Salvation to both the Gentiles and Israel…

^“11 I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. ¹² Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?”

So, salvation comes to the Gentiles first and then to the House of the Israel as stated in Romans 11:25-26:

^“25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. ²⁶ And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: “

It is also interesting to note that Leah and Rachel were both daughters of Laban (לָבָן) whose name in Hebrew means ‘White’. So, both wives, who would form the full 'Bride of Christ', would symbolically be the ones whose father represented those who would be associated with White and Righteousness as Rev 19:8 states…

⁸ And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

and Rev 19:14 …

¹⁴ And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean^.

Jewish Tradition required that Wives be purchased

A further example of the Mohar (מֹ֫הַר) can be seen in Ruth chapter 4, where Boaz as a Kinsmen Redeemer was a foreshadow of the ultimate Kinsmen Redeemer in Jesus, when he purchased Ruth (a gentile bride) as his wife:

⁹ And Boaz said unto the elders, and unto all the people, Ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s, of the hand of Naomi. ¹⁰ Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this day.

In this way, in keeping with the pattern of Jacob and Laban, the full redemption of the 2 Brides would actually occur 7 years after Jacob married Leah and 7 years after Jacob actual wed his both Brides at the age of 84, remembering that Laban gave Rachel to Jacob 7 days after he married Leah. As such, this period would end when Jacob was 91. In our prophetic theory, this would correspond with 2039 seven years after the end of the Tribulation - If all of this has any validity.  See below for a theory of what this could possibly mean in our time-line.