One outcome from Great Tribulation is actually scripturally taught to be called “the time of Jacob’s trouble”, which will lead to Israel’s salvation. So what is the implication in it’s being called such?

I want you to consider with me some important facts surrounding Jacob and his time. Jacob’s grandfather Abraham was chosen from among the Gentile world; for at the time there were no Jews, and there was no Israel. That’s right: there was no Israel. His father Isaac was Abraham and Sarah’s child of promise through whom would come the promises to the nations through God’s planned Messiah. Abraham had already been promised land, which his descendants through Jacob down to this very day still have not completely occupied. In fact Abraham’s descendants would include more than just Israel and the Jews they would also include Gentiles of faith. Through Abraham would all the nations of the world be blessed. That blessing would only come through Jesus the promised savior. The writer of Hebrews put it this way:

Hebrews 11:39 And all these, having gained approval through their faith, (including even some Gentiles in the list) did not receive what was promised, 40 because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect. (NASB1995)

God’s promises to Abraham went beyond him to Israel and beyond Israel, that through the New Covenant, Christ would provide salvation to Gentiles and Jews and then finally that Israel would once again return to their Messiah and partake of the New Covenant promised to them. The Gentiles had formerly embraced this Messiah and the Jewish New Covenant.

Jacob the son of Issac later was renamed as Israel, but before the encounter with God which brought this renaming as Israel about, he was still Jacob the son and the grandson of men chosen from among the Gentiles. Israel had not yet entered the world scene. Israel only came into existence through Jacob’s conversion and renaming.

So God of course, knows the difference between Jacob who was yet to meet God and Israel, with whom He had wrestled and then He had blessed on that night at the place where Jacob was to be renamed Israel. Afterward Israel (formerly Jacob) would call the location where Angels descended to earth on a ladder, the House of God.

But, why then did God call this coming time of trouble after Jacob as Jacob’s trouble, and not call it after the man whom Jacob had become Israel? For even the church today calls these who are to undergo Tribulation — Israel and not Jacob?

I believe that there is a specific reason. Those known as Israel of today are more akin to Jacob before he was named Israel. They know not Him with whom Jacob wrestled and was blessed. By the end of this time of their own trouble they will have become one in this their promised Christ: One new man with those other Gentiles already in Christ. They will not be separate from us but one with us in God’s one man; even as the writer of Hebrews had stated it, and just as Paul also stated it to be the case in Ephesians 2 and Romans 11. When that day finally comes, we will see our Savior coming in the clouds at what will then be the midnight hour.

Romans 11:25 For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery–so that you will not be wise in your own estimation–that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; 26 and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.” (NASB1995)

Who will God remove ungodliness from? From Jacob: after the very last of the Gentiles who is yet to be saved is saved; then He will save Israel’s remnant from their “Jacob’s Trouble” experience, and so all Israel will be saved.

Why is it that Paul states: “and so all Israel will be saved”? If Jacob was a Gentile before he was Israel, does not that salvation of all these imply one Holy Nation coming forth from Abraham’s seed just as Peter had told us that it would be; coming down from heaven to occupy the very land promised to Abraham? For these same ones are later to be seen as the New Jerusalem bride, which is the Bride of Christ coming down out of heaven following Christ’s millennial reign with the sons of God, and this then is to constitute the fulfillment of all of God’s covenants and promises made to Israel and to the Gentiles through Abraham.

The Church; the Bride; the Israel of God is actually being completed during the time of Jacob’s trouble.