Chapter 79. The Great Tribulation
The great tribulation/thlip’sis after the abomination meshes perfectly with Old Testament prophecy, when Michael stands up to fight for the people of Israel and Judah “in time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.” Michael will stand at the midpoint of the last seven years in the time of trouble/tsarah, the time of Jacob’s trouble/tsarah, a time so terrible none is like it, but Jacob will be saved out of that time. Tsarah is defined as distress, adversity, affliction, anguish, tribulation, and trouble, and is the Hebrew equivalent to thlip’sis. The time of Jacob’s trouble/tribulation in the “great tribulation” after the abomination will unfold in the days/years of Jesus’ return when “The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know it” (Hos 9:7).
Old Testament end-time prophecies for Israel and Judah unfold in a parallel track with church end-time prophecy in the first three-and-a-half years, and will begin to merge into one track with the return of Jesus in the last three-and-a-half years, in the Year of the Lord’s Favor and then the supper of the Lamb. Accordingly, Daniel’s seventieth week will “finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” Transgression/pesha` means revolt, rebellion, sin, trespass, and God’s forgiveness of those transgressions. Israel’s reconciliation will begin with the awakening of the lost tribes in the first three-and-a-half years, followed by the Judean flight from Jerusalem: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:). Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains”; and “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.”
