 From the many passages of Scripture that deal with the Tribulation, we can deduct that God has three reasons or three purposes why He brings about the Tribulation. The first reason applies to both the Jews and Gentiles equally.
1. TO MAKE AN END OF WICKEDNESS AND WICKED ONES
The first of these purposes is to make an end of wickedness and wicked ones. There are two key passages which express this purpose. The first is found in Isaiah 13:9:
Behold, the day of Jehovah cometli, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
This passage uses the term the “Day of Jehovah” as a reference to the Great Tribulation and gives its goal in the phrase to destroy the sinners thereof out of it. The purpose, then, is to destroy wicked ones out of the land. This is further described in Isaiah 24:19-20:
The earth is utterly broken, the earth is rent asunder, the earth is shaken violently. The earth shall stagger like a drunken mat4 and shall sway to and fro like a hammock; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it sliallfall, and not rise again.
The closing words of this verse state that the basic reason for the judgments of the tribulation is that the transgression worldwide shall fall and not rise-again. Its purpose if to make an end of wickedness.11. TO CAUSE A GREAT WORLDWIDE REVIVAL
The second purpose is to bring about a worldwide revival, to bring about a worldwide preaching of the gospel of the Messiahship of Jesus. In Matthew 24:14 Jesus said that the gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed to all nations before the end comes. Sometime before the Tribulation can end, sometime before the second coming can occur, there must be a worldwide preaching of the gospel to one generation and the gospel must go out to all nations of that generation. That is all Jesus said, that sometime during the Tribulation there will be a worldwide preaching of the gospel to all nations, and that will occur before the second coming
Revelation 7 is an exposition of Matthew 24:14. Revelation 7:1-8 tells us the means of this revival whereas Revelation 7:9-17 gives us the results of this revival. Revelation 7:1-4 reads:
After this I saw four angels standing at the four comers of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that no wind should blow on the earth, or on the sea, or upon any tree. And I saw another angel ascend from the sunrising, having the seal of the living God.- and he cited with a great voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, not the trees, till we shall have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of them that were sealed, a hundred and fony and four thousand, sealed out of every tube of the children of Israel
Verses 5-8 go on to list twelve tribes and 12,000 are selected from each of these twelve tribes, giving a total of 144,000 Jews. By means of these 144,000 Jews there will be the worldwide preaching of the gospel.Looking at all this from a purely human perspective, if I wished to conduct a worldwide revival in a very short period of time (for this revival will occur during the first 3-1/2 years of the Tribulation) I could not think of a better group of people to use than the Jewish people. Coming from a Jewish believer in Jesus, that may not sound very objective, but let me give you some other reasons this would certainly be true. If you look at the world missionary situation today, one of the things you will discover is that the vast majority of missionaries are Americans. The United States has given to the world its greatest number of missionaries in our modern missionary history. If you begin interviewing these missionaries to find qut how much time was spent in training before they were comfortably proclaiming the Word of God in a land which is not their own, you would discover that after they became believers’ they had to train for three or four years at a Bible institute or Bible college. If they became believers sometime after college, they had to study three or four years at a seminary. While the Bible institute, college, or seminary graduate is trained to proclaim the Word in this nation or some other English-spealdng nation, he is not prepared to do so in a foreign field. The next two, three, maybe four years must be spent in language study because he needs to learn the language in which he will be communicating the gospel. The average American missionary in the foreign field has spent a minimum of six, seven, or more years in training before he is proclaiming the Word in a language not his own. This revival and the preaching of the gospel will occur in only 3-1/2 years so there is just not that much time to play with. That is where there is a distinct advantage of using Jewish people. First of all, the Jews are dispersed all over the world. Every one of the world’s major languages and a great number of the world’s minor languages are spoken by some Jews somewhere. Second, many Jews around the world speak at least two or more languages. I am fluent in two languages, but both my parents are fluent in five languages. Should my parents ever become believers, they can begin proclaiming the Word in five different languages without first having to undergo any kind of language study. Furthermore, most Jews around the world do receive some basic understanding of the Old Testament. Sometime after God raptures the Church off of this earth, He will then save 144,000 Jews. These Jews will already be speaking the languages which are necessary and they will already have a knowledge of the Old Testament. They will need only a short period of time to gain some New Testament knowledge, then they can begin proclaiming the gospel to all nations around the world. And this they will do. So by means of 144,000 Jews there will be a worldwide preaching of the gospel; and by means of these 144,000 Jews the first purpose of the Tribulation will be accomplished
The preaching of the gospel is one thing, but the acceptance of it is another. Revelation 7:9-17 gives the results of the preaching of the gospel by 144,000 Jews. Verse 9 begins with, “After these things,” meaning after the 144,000 in verses 1-8. Verse 9 reads:
After these things I saw, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and of all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands.
The next thing John sees is myriads and myriads of Gentiles standing before the throne of God. Who are these particular Gentiles who now stand before the throne of God? In verses 13-14 we read:
And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, These that are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and whence came they? And I say unto him, My lort4 thou knowest. And he said to me, These.are they that come out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb
The question is raised as to the identity of these myriads upon myriads of Gentiles standing before the throne of God. The answer is that these are the myriads of Gentiles who came out as believers from the Great Tribulation. As a result of the preaching of 144,000 Jews, myriads and myriads of Gentiles will come to a saving knowledge of Jesus the Messiah. By means of 144,000 Jews, the second purpose of the Tribulation will be accomplished which is the bringing about of a great worldwide revival.111. TO BREAK IN PIECES THE WILL OF THE HOLY PEOPLE
The third purpose for the Tribulation is found in Daniel 12. The third purpose is to break in pieces the will of the holy people. Beginning in chapter 11, Daniel has been given a vision of what conditions are going to be like for his people (the Jewish people) during the Great Tribulation. The vision of the Jews in the Tribulation that Daniel is given in chapter 11 continues into chapter 12 and terminates at verse 4. In Daniel 12:5-7 a question is raised as to exactly how long these terrible conditions win be allowed to last. When the answer is given, it contains the third purpose of the Tribulation:
Then I, Daniel, looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on the bank of the river on this side, and the other on the bank of the fiver on that side. And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? And I heard the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven,, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when they have made an end of breaking in pieces tile power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
The terrible judgments of the Great Tribulation must,continue, Daniel is told, until the power of the will of the holy people is shattered into pieces; until they turn away from trying to establish their own righteousness and seek the righteousness of God through Jesus the Messiah. Basically then, the third purpose can be restated as to bring about Israel’s national regenerationWhile Daniel 12 states what the third purpose is, Ezekiel 20:34-38 states exactly how this third purpose is going to be accomplished:
And I will being you out from the peoples, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out; and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there will I enter into judgment with you face to face. Like as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I enter into judgment with you saith the Lord Jehovah. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bing you into the bond of the covenant; and I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me;.I will being them forth out of the land where they sojoum, but they shall not enter into the land of Israel.- and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.
In these verses God draws a simile with the Exodus. At the Exodus, under Moses, God brought the entire nation of Israel out of the land of Egypt and into the wilderness of the Sinai peninsula. God’s plan and program for Israel in the Sinai was to accomplish two things: first, to receive the Law of Moses; and, secondly, to build the tabernacle through which much of the Law could then be maintained. With these two things accomplished, they were to press on and enter into the Promised Land itsell However, because of a long series of murmurings against God’s revealed will, finally, in a place called Kadesh Bamea, right at the border of the Promised Land itself, God entered into judgment with His people. The judgment was that the entire nation that had come out of the land of Egypt would now have to continue wandering in the wilderness until a forty-year period was up. During that forty-year period everyone who came out of Egypt, except for two men (Joshua and Caleb) and those under the age of twenty, would die in the wilderness. Forty years later it would be a new nation, a nation that was bom as free men in the wilderness and not as slaves in Egypt who would enter the Promised Land under Joshua.Ezekiel says that a similar thing was to occur in the future; God will begin to regather his people from all parts of the world, a regathering we have been observing with the present and modem Jewish State of Israel. However, at some point God will enter into judgment with His people. By means of the Tribulation judgments, the rebels will be purged out, the unbelievers will be purged and regenerated. They will turn away from seeking to establish their own righteousness and will seek the righteousness of God through Jesus the Messiah and that will bring about their national regeneration. It is going to be a new nation, a regenerate nation that will enter the Millennial Israel under King Messiah. |