The prophet Jeremiah speaks of a time of trouble for the people of Israel: “The fierce anger of the Lord will not subside until He has carried out and fulfilled the plans of His heart. You will fully understand this in due time.” (Jeremiah 30:24). In Hebrew, “acharit ha-Yamim” is a phrase referring to the last days of this age—days that will precede the return of the Messiah, when He will establish the thousand-year kingdom.

But prior to this event, the Jewish people will return to Israel: “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when I

bring back the exiles of My people, Israel and Judah,” says the Lord; “I will bring them back to the land I gave to their fathers, and they will possess it.” (Jeremiah 30:3). Their forefathers are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and God made a covenant with them through which He would give them possession of the promised land: “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation; this shall be an everlasting covenant, by which I will be your God and the God of your descendants after you. To you and to your descendants after you, I will give the land in which you are now living as a foreigner; indeed, I will give you the whole land of Canaan as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:7–8). This passage points to a sign of the last days.

Psalm 102 also addresses a similar theme: “But You, O Lord, reign forever, and Your remembrance endures from generation to generation. You will arise and have mercy on Zion; for the time has come to show favor to her, the appointed time for her has come. For Your servants love the stones of Zion and cherish its dust. Then the nations will fear the Name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth will fear Your glory. Yes, the Lord will rebuild Zion and reveal Himself in His glory. … “Let this be written for the generation to come, so that a people yet to be born may praise the Lord!” (Psalms 102:12–18).

The Hebrew expression for “the people yet to be born” is HaDor HaAcharon, the same expression found in Jeremiah 30:24, which means “the last generation.”  When the Lord Jesus taught His disciples about His return, He spoke of “the fig tree putting forth its leaves” (Matthew 24), and the fig tree represents the national life of Israel. Therefore, the restoration (sprouting) of Israel is a sign of His imminent return.

The prophet Jeremiah prophesies that this return to the land will not be followed by a time of peace, but by a time of trouble. Thus says the Lord: “We hear cries of terror; there is terror, there is no peace! Ask and see if any man is giving birth! Why do I see all the men with their hands on their thighs like a woman in labor? Why have all the faces turned pale? Woe! For that day is great; none has been like it! It is a time of distress for Jacob; but Jacob will be delivered from it. (Jeremiah 30:4–11).

The time of distress is compared to “a woman in labor.” Yalad is the Hebrew word for labor pains and is found in Isaiah 13, where it is associated with the end times, a time of great distress. In the New Testament, we read the following about the second coming of Christ: “When they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman; and there will be no escape.” (1 Thessalonians 5:3).

The Gospel of Matthew presents the words of the Lord Jesus regarding “the beginning of birth pangs,” which describe the events leading up to His coming. The word used in Greek is “Odin,” the same word used for “birth pangs” in 1 Thessalonians.

The pains of a woman in labor are contractions that intensify and become more severe as the moment of birth approaches. Once they are set in motion, they cannot be stopped until the child is born. In prophetic terms, a series of events will cause pain that will intensify until the Second Coming of the Lord takes place. Once this process is set in motion, it cannot be stopped until the Lord’s coming. This process was triggered by events in Israel and Jerusalem.

In the book of Daniel we read: “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise; for this will be a time of distress such as has not occurred since the nations first came into being until now. But at that time, your people will be saved—everyone whose name is found written in the book. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, and others to everlasting shame and disgrace.” (Daniel 12:1).

The Lord Jesus spoke of the times preceding His return: “For then there will be such great tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no one would survive; but for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short (Matthew 24:21, 22). Without God’s intervention, Israel would perish: “This is a time of distress for Jacob; but Jacob will be saved from it… For I am with you, says the Lord, to save you; I will destroy all the nations among whom I have scattered you, but I will not destroy you; I will discipline you with justice—I cannot leave you unpunished.” (Jeremiah 30:7, 11).

In the Bible, there are a number of passages concerning the last days that focus on Israel and Jerusalem in the context of a major conflict from which Israel will emerge victorious thanks to God’s intervention. Notably, God’s words regarding the judgment of the people of Israel stand out in Isaiah 59:15–20, 64–66; Ezekiel 38–39; Joel 2–3; Zechariah 12–14; and Jeremiah 30:11. Why does God want to judge His people? From the prophets’ message, we see that God wanted to correct something wrong in the lives of His people. Much of Jeremiah’s prophecy points to the wrongdoings of his generation that needed to be corrected, such as: “Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place… You steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods you do not know!… And then you come and present yourselves before Me in this House, over which My Name is called, and say, ‘We are saved!’… only to go back to doing all these abominations!” (Jeremiah 7:3–11). But much of this text applies not only to modern Israel but also to all the nations of the world. Moreover, there is a problem specific to Israel that God desires to correct in the last days of this age, namely, the identity of the Messiah.

In secular Israel, the issue of the Messiah’s identity is not a burning issue, and many would say it is outdated; the coming of the Messiah is considered an illusory hope in the real world. Among religious Jews, there is a belief in “the coming of the Messiah, though He tarries.” According to them, the Messiah’s plan includes peace in Israel and throughout the world, the return of the Jews to Israel, and the rebuilding of the Temple—which will lead the Jews to walk in the light of the Law and the Gentiles to fear God. However, most Jews do not consider Jesus to be the Messiah, as the events described in the New Testament hold no messianic significance for them.

Thus, God desires, in the last days, to correct the mistakes made by the Jewish people. In the passage from Jeremiah, Israel hears “a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.” Although it has sought peace with its neighbors, today’s Israel has not found it. Biblical prophecies mention a “peace process” that is driving Israel toward a “covenant with death” (Isaiah 28:18), which will be broken after three and a half years (Daniel 9:27).

The result of this act will be the time of Jacob’s trouble prophesied by the prophet Jeremiah—a time of trouble that Jesus spoke of in the Gospel of Matthew.

Israel will find peace through the One whom it has despised and forsaken. The Lord Jesus Himself wept for His people: “If only you had known, even on this day, the things that could have brought you peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Days will come upon you when your enemies will surround you with trenches, besiege you, and close in on you from every side; they will level you to the ground, you and your children within you; and they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not recognize the time when you were visited. (Luke 19:41–44).

Therefore, if the people had recognized Jesus as the Messiah, they would have known peace; but they rejected Him, so the Lord Jesus prophesied that wrath would come upon that generation—the Temple would be destroyed, the people would be scattered to all the nations of the world, and Jerusalem would be “trampled underfoot,” ruled by foreigners “until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” And all these events would take place because they did not recognize the time when they were visited. Thus were fulfilled the prophecies made by Daniel: “After these sixty-two weeks, the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of a ruler who is to come will destroy the city and the Holy Place, and its end will be like a flood; it is decreed that war will continue until the very end, and with it, desolations.” (Daniel 9:26).

According to Daniel’s words, in the days of the Second Temple, the Messiah will come to be “cut off”—that is, to die a sacrificial death as an atonement for the sins of others. Through this sacrifice for the sins of the world, those who turn to Jesus will know “the things that bring peace”: “Yet He bore our sufferings and carried our sorrows; and we thought He was punished, struck by God, and humbled. But He was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brings us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all wandered like sheep, each going his own way, but the Lord made our collective iniquity fall upon Him.” (Isaiah 53:4–6).

Daniel prophesies that, after the coming of the Messiah, a long period of wars and desolation will follow, after the city of Jerusalem is destroyed and the Second Temple is torn down. This prophecy, which was fulfilled in A.D. 70, further reinforces the fact that the Lord Jesus was the Messiah who died for our sins and rose from the dead to bring forgiveness and eternal life to all who ask Him for it.

Recognizing this truth is essential for Israel’s salvation in the final days of the scenario described by these prophecies. In many passages of the Bible, we read about an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days: Isaiah 32:15, Ezekiel 39:29, Joel 2:28, 29. In the Gospel of John, the Lord Jesus spoke of the work of the Holy Spirit, who will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8–11) and turn people’s eyes toward the Savior. Jesus said, “He will testify about Me” (John 15:26). The Holy Spirit will convict the world of the sin of rejecting Jesus as the Messiah and will point to Him—the One in whom we must trust to receive salvation. “Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication, and they will look to Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son, and they will grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.” (Zechariah 12:10).

The One who was pierced is Jesus the Messiah; He died for the sins of the world, and only through Him can we receive salvation and new life. Anyone who calls upon His name as Savior will experience the cleansing power of His blood, shed for the sins of the world, and will know that their sins are forgiven and that they are at peace with God.

Next, the prophet Zechariah directs our gaze toward the last days, when God will correct what is wrong in Israel, which will ultimately recognize the Lord Jesus as the Messiah: “On that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.” (Zechariah 13:1). Then Israel will enter into the “new covenant,” which will make the Lord known to them, and they will know that their sins are forgiven: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke, even though I was their husband,” says the Lord. But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they will be my people. No one will teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will no longer remember their sin (Jeremiah 31:31–34).   

The current conflicts surrounding Israel are paving the way for the return of the Messiah. The prophet Zechariah describes a time of great tribulation in which two-thirds of the world’s population will be destroyed (Zechariah 13:8), and God will allow all the nations to wage war against Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:2), but the Lord will appear and fight against these nations. On that day, His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, the very place where the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven (Acts 1).

The prophecy in the book of Zechariah is consistent with that in Revelation 19, which describes Christ’s second coming to earth, accompanied by His saints. Then the Lord will be King over all the earth (Zechariah 14:9), and the Messianic Kingdom will be established: “The kingdoms of the world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. And He will reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15). Lord Jesus, we pray that You will save Your people Israel and establish Your kingdom on earth as soon as possible. Amen!