JACOB'S TROUBLE
One of many Biblical prophecies that the Churches of God believe is yet to be fulfilled is found in Jeremiah chapter 30, and referred to as "Jacob's trouble" in verse seven. As aspects of the prophecy involve the return of Christ and the setting up of His kingdom, it is generally thought that the entire prophecy is still for the future, but is this true?
Luke's Olivet prophecy in Luke 21 has been fulfilled up until, and including, verse 26. Verse 27, however, is still future. Daniel 12 has been fulfilled up to verse 11, but verses 12-13 are yet future. Zechariah 14:1-2 was fulfilled in the setting up of the State of Israel in 1948 and the War of Independence that followed, but the prophecy from verse 3 onward is still in the future.
I believe that the same applies to Jeremiah 30. Verses 1-8 as well as verses 10-18 have been fulfilled. However, verses 9 and 19-24 belong to the time of the return of Christ.
Jeremiah 30 needs to be understood in context. The chapters leading up to it speak of the time of the Babylonian captivity. In Jeremiah 29:10-14 the Jews are told they will be brought back to Jerusalem after seventy years in Babylon. The Scriptures inform us in great detail about that return under the leaders Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah.
However, as well as this 70 year exile, the prophecies of Leviticus 26 speak of a period of "seven times", or 2520 years, of punishment of God's people.
As the Scriptures tell us so much about the demise of the nation of Judah, and that a 2520 year period of punishment was going to befall them, we would expect that God would also speak at length about events that would occur when that period of punishment was coming to an end.
World War 2 was one of the most pivotal turning points in history. It is quite astonishing that it is rarely mentioned in the Churches of God in relation to prophecy, especially seeing all the tribes of Israel were involved in this greatest of all wars.
The Holocaust is sometimes mentioned, but no one seem to question why Satan was so determined to destroy the Jews, and why he put up such an enormous fight involving some of the most demonic world leaders ever witnessed on the world stage, at that particular moment in history.
Whereas Jeremiah 29 is specifically about the House of Judah, Jeremiah 30 is about "Israel and Judah" (verse 4), which means all the tribes of Israel.
Jer 30:7 says: "Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it". Israel's original name was Jacob. He was the forefather of all the tribes of Israel, so this prophecy involves all of Israel.
Verse 8 adds: "I will break the yoke off their necks" (NIV) and "Foreigners shall no more enslave them".
This could not be speaking about the Jews' return from Babylon, because more national enslavement of the Jews followed after that. This can only be speaking about the aftermath of the "seven times", or 2520 years, which came to an end in 1945. The chart on the "HOME" page shows that this period ran from 3395AM until 5914AM, which equates to 575BC until 1945AD.
No Israelite nation has been enslaved since 1945. World War 2, however, led to the death and enslavement of millions of Israelites. Those familiar with the British Israel theory know that Great Britain and the USA are descended from Joseph, one of the sons of Israel. The descendants of Israel's other sons are mainly found in such countries as France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland and, of course, Israel. Even though Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland were technically neutral in the war, they also contributed volunteers to the various armies and sustained many casualties.
The combined number of WW2 casualties, both military and civilian, among the descendants of Israel, was approximately 8 million. This number includes close to 6 million Jews.
In the countries it occupied, Germany implemented a policy of rounding up people (mainly men) of working age, transporting them to Germany, and putting them to work in areas deemed essential to the war effort. Some 2 million of these came from Israelite countries, and were for all practical purposes, slaves, and treated as such.
The Wikipedia article on this subject is very insightful, as well as sobering:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_labour_under_German_rule_during_World_War_II
In addition to these slaves, captured soldiers from all countries were confined to squalid prisoner of war camps, often as forced labourers, with many dying from overwork, malnutrition, disease and barbaric treatment. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers from all Israelite countries were thus enslaved.
In 1945, exactly 2520 years after Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians when Jehoiachin was king of Judah, this worst of all wars came to an end. The surviving prisoners were then freed, and were allowed to return to their home countries. To read about the Jews' return to the land of Israel, please see the page "THE TWO WITNESSES".
Thus was fulfilled, at the stipulated time, what God had foretold in Jer 30:3:
"For behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah, says the Lord. And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers (the individual lands that the sons of Israel had been promised, and were given), and they shall possess it".
Also Jer 30:18:
"Behold, I will bring back the captivity of Jacob’s tents, and have mercy on his dwelling places; the city (the many damaged cities) shall be built upon its own mound, and the palace (the places of government) shall remain according to its own plan".
Jer 30:9 speaks of these people worshipping the true God, and "David" (the Son of David, i.e. Christ), being their king, which is obviously yet to occur. However, as we see with other prophecies, not everything is fulfilled at the same time. God often does things in stages; it would be an error of prophetic interpretation to think otherwise.
Am I alone in this interpretation of "Jacob's trouble"? Definitely not. Below is a link to an article that also claims this prophecy was fulfilled in the WW2 time period, but applies it to the Jews only, and not to the other tribes of Israel. Although I don't agree with all the content of this article, I point to it to show that the belief that "Jacob's trouble" is still in the future is not shared by all:
https://www.ifi.org.il/en/teachings/jacobs-trouble-past-or-future
In conclusion, I believe a strong case can be made that the prophecy of "Jacob's trouble" in Jeremiah 30:7 was fulfilled in the 20th century.