The Dark Days About To Come On Judah, And Already being Experienced by Many From Both Judah and Israel In Exile, Are Vividly Portrayed (Jeremiah 30:4-7).
‘And these are the words that YHWH spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah.'
At the time when Jeremiah was speaking Judah was populated, not only by men of Judah and Benjamin, but also by large numbers of refugees and ‘immigrants' from northern Israel, who for one reason or another, some for religious reasons, and others for political reasons, had taken up their abode in Judah. It thus represented what officially remained of both Israel and Judah in Palestine itself. These words, however, would appear to encompass not only those in Palestine, but also the exiles from both Israel and Judah scattered abroad around the world (Isaiah 11:11).
‘For thus says YHWH,
“We have heard a voice of trembling,
Of fear, and not of peace.”
YHWH declares that all is not well for Israel and Judah, either at home or abroad. From among both peoples comes a voice, not of wellbeing and peace, but of trembling and fear (compare Leviticus 26:36-39). Judah is approaching its final death throes, whilst many of the exiles are experiencing hard times (compare Deuteronomy 28:65-67). ‘We' probably has in mind YHWH and the heavenly council, although it may simply be an anonymous and impersonal ‘we'.
“Ask you now, and see whether a man travails with child.
Why do I see every man with his hands on his abdomen,
Like a woman in labour pains,
And all faces are turned pale?”
Indeed things are so bad that it is as though even the males in Israel and Judah are in labour pains for they are holding their abdomens in their distress, and their faces have gone deathly white. They are like women undergoing labour pains as a result of the distress in which they find themselves, to such an extent that it makes onlookers ask, ‘are the men also in labour?'.
This depth of suffering suggests either a period near the end of Zedekiah's reign when the great judgment was looming over them, or the period following when Jerusalem had been destroyed and the land was in darkness and despair.
“Alas! for that day is great,
So that none is like it,
It is even the time of Jacob's trouble,
But he will be saved out of it.”
This idea then leads on to a vivid picture of the anguish that must follow the destruction of Jerusalem and precede the restoration, the ‘time of Jacob's trouble', which is the period of suffering prior to restoration, a time of trembling and fear in full accordance with the warning given in Leviticus 26:32-45. Note in Leviticus the prominent mention of ‘Jacob' (Leviticus 26:42), and of ‘faintness' (Leviticus 26:36) and of the restoration of the covenant (Leviticus 26:42; Leviticus 26:45), all features of this passage. The phrase ‘Jacob's trouble' is itself drawn from the warning of ‘trouble' for a disobedient Israel in Deuteronomy 30:17; and its reference to ‘Jacob' may be found in Isaiah 43:28; Hosea 12:2. For the idea of their distress and fear compare Deuteronomy 28:65-67.
So their anguish will be because of the dreadfulness of what is coming. It is the time spoken of by Moses and the prophets, the time of ‘Jacob's trouble' resulting from their idolatry and the breaking of the covenant (Leviticus 26:32-45; Deuteronomy 28:58-67; Deuteronomy 30:17; Isaiah 43:28; Hosea 12:2). It would result initially in the besieging of Jerusalem with all the human costs that that involved (Deuteronomy 28:52-55), and continue on in the misery of the exiles (Leviticus 26:36-39; Deuteronomy 28:58-67), something never before experienced. The princes of the sanctuary will be profaned and ‘Jacob' will become a curse (Isaiah 43:28). ‘Jacob' will be punished according to his ways, and recompensed according to his doings (Hosea 12:2).
And this occurred because the people had rejected YHWH in their hearts, and had gone after other gods and allied themselves with godless nations. Only a remnant would be delivered out of it. (A similar story would repeat itself when the nation rejected Jesus Christ. The Idolatrous Desolator (Abomination of Desolation) would destroy Jerusalem, and the people would be scattered into exile, facing a tribulation the like of which had not ever been known before (Matthew 24:15-21; Luke 21:20-24).).
Jacob (the people of Judah and the exiles of Israel and Judah as still not transformed), would be troubled because of the tumults in the world, as well as because they were strangers in a foreign land. It was not easy living in that area at that time. As we read of the movements of armies and of battles in history we can often tend to overlook the misery and suffering that was being brought on the people in the parts of the world where they took place. Every mile of advance of an army was at a tremendous human cost, as ‘innocent' people were caught up in the terror that had come upon them. And in mind here are the particularly bad times, probably having in mind the times when the Babylonian kings had to quell rebellions, often in places where many of the exiles were to be found, and that even if they had not themselves been a part of the rebellion. These would most often occur as one king died and was replaced by another, something which would cause friction between contenders, and hopes of freedom (even if hopeless) among tributaries. At such times vengeance could be non-discriminatory. Indeed from what follows it would appear to have especially in mind the tumults that would arise as a result of the activities of the Persians and the Medes as, under Cyrus, they would challenge the mighty Babylonian Empire. It was a day so great and so awful that none could remember anything like it (compare a similar idea in Joel 2:2), and it would cause great trouble to ‘Jacob', that is, to the exiles in Babylonia, Elam and Assyria, the ‘troubles' forecast by Moses and the prophets (Deuteronomy 30:17). For such ‘troubles' for God's nominal people resulting from rampant idolatry compare Deuteronomy 31:17; Deuteronomy 31:21, and for its being related directly to ‘Jacob' see Isaiah 43:28; Hosea 12:2. Thus it is the time anticipated by the earlier prophets when YHWH would punish His people for their idolatry. But, unexpectedly, out of it would come deliverance and the opportunity to return home, thanks humanly speaking to the humaneness of Cyrus' policies, a king whom God had raised up for the purpose. They would be ‘saved out of' the great troubles that were coming on them and on the world.
There are no good grounds for referring the words here specifically to what we call ‘the end times' (we do love to think that no one mattered but us and ‘our times', which incidentally may well turn out not to be the end times) except in so far as Jeremiah probably saw them as the end times followed by final restoration. He would not be expecting a complicated future. (He was not to know that it was the first stepping stone in a long history. The words were intended to apply to the situation in which the people in those days could expect to find themselves. Prophecy is not to be seen as a kind of crystal ball looking into the long distant future and irrelevant to the age in which it was given. Jeremiah was considering what immediately lay ahead. Of course, troubles arose for God's people throughout all ages, and they would often be seen as ‘beyond compare', although, of course, from the prophetic perspective their hope each time was that it would then issue in perfect peace for Israel. Thus they hoped that they would be the ‘end time' troubles. They did not realise that there would be many such times of ‘Jacob's trouble', as Daniel in fact brings out, (and also a number of desolations of Jerusalem, e.g. by Nebuchadnezzar, by Antiochus Epiphanes, by Titus) before the end came. They simply knew that before blessing must come trouble because of the sinfulness of God's people, and that this would be so to the end. Nor could they have visualised the new Israel (Matthew 21:43) that would arise out of such troubles in Jesus' day, an Israel which would also continue to experience ‘much tribulation' as the word of God spread throughout the world in accordance with Isaiah 2:3. All of this was awaiting the setting up of the everlasting kingdom when there will be no more trouble.