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The Great Tribulation
6:1 to 18:24

The future affliction of the Great Tribulation: On the Day of Atonement, modern Judaism teaches the affliction of the body, although the Scriptures clearly teach that it was supposed to be an affliction of the soul (see my commentary on Exodus, to see link click Go – The Day of Atonement). God is going to bring both afflictions with the fulfillment in the last days. Pesach was fulfilled by the death of Jesus. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was fulfilled by the sinlessness of His bloody offering. The Feast of Firstfruits was fulfilled by the resurrection of Messiah. The Feast Shavu’ot was fulfilled by the birth of the Church. The first cycle of feasts was fulfilled with Christ’s First Coming. Then between the first cycle and the second cycle there is a four-month interval that is symbolic of the New Covenant Age that interrupts the program of the feasts of Isra’el. Then comes the second cycle of holy festivals. The Feast of Trumpets will be fulfilled by the Rapture of the Body of Christ, and Yom Kippur will be fulfilled by the Great Tribulation.179

Just as a mother’s birth pains increase in frequency and intensity as the time to give birth approaches, so God’s judgments will intensify throughout the Great Tribulation until they culminate in the arrival of the Lord Yeshua Messiah in blazing judgment glory.180 Chapters 6-9 and 17:1-6 are concerned with the events of the first half; Chapters 10-14 with the events of the middle, and Chapters 15-16, 17:7-18 to 18:24 with the events of the second half.

According to the sages, the Messiah will come after a tumultuous seven-year-period called the footsteps of Messiah. The Talmud refers to the seven years preceding the redemption of Isra’el as the Shavua she-Ben David, “Seven of the Sons of David.”

Names in the TaNaKh:

  • A Time of Trouble for Jacob (Jeremiah 30:7)
  • The Seventieth Week of Daniel (Dani’el 9:27)
  • The Lord’s Strange Work (Isaiah 28:21)
  • The Lord’s Alien Task (Isaiah 28:21)
  • The Day of Israel’s Disaster (Deuteronomy 32:35; Obadiah 12-14)
  • The Distress or Tribulation (Deuteronomy 4:30)
  • The Overwhelming Scourge (Isaiah 28:15, 18)
  • The Day of Vengeance (Isaiah 34:8, 35:4, 61:2)
  • The Year of Retribution (Isaiah 34:8)
  • The Time of Distress (Daniel 12:1; Zephaniah 1:15)
  • The Day of Wrath (Zephaniah 1:15)
  • The Day of Trouble and Ruin (Zephaniah 1:15)
  • The Day of Darkness (Zephaniah 1:15; Amos 5:18 and 20; Joel 2:2)
  • The Day of Gloominess (Zephaniah 1:15; Joel 2:2)
  • The Day of Clouds (Zephaniah 1:15; Joel 2:2)
  • The Day of Blackness (Zephaniah 1:15; Joel 2:2)
  • The Day of the Trumpet (Zephaniah 1:16)
  • The Day of the Battle Cry (Zephaniah 1:16)
  • The Day of the Lord Almighty (Isaiah 2:12-21)

Names in the B’rit Chadashah:

  • The Wrath of God (Revelation 15:1 and 7; 14:10 and 19; 16:1)
  • The Hour of Trial (Revelation 3:10)
  • The Great Day of the Wrath of the Lamb of God (Revelation 6:16-17)
  • The Coming Wrath (First Thessalonians 1:10)
  • The Wrath (First Thessalonians 5:9; Revelation 11:18)
  • The Great Tribulation or Distress (Matthew 24:21; Revelation 7:14)
  • The Distress or Tribulation (Matthew 24:29)
  • The Hour of Judgment (Revelation 14:7)