Paraphrased Old Testament Scriptures Concerning

The Pre-Tribulation Period

INDEX FOR THIS SECTION

1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF “IN THAT DAY”

2. THE WORLD WIDE SCATTERING OF THE JEWS DUE TO IDOL WORSHIP

3. THE RE-GATHERING OF JEWS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD IN UNBELIEF

4.THE RE-GATHERING OF JEWS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD IN BELIEF

5. GOD WILL DEFEND ISRAEL FROM THOSE NATIONS THAT HAVE ATTACKED HER IN THE PAST; NEVER AGAIN WILL ISRAEL BE OVERRUN

6. ALL THE NATIONS OF EARTH WILL FACE GOD’S WRATH IN THE END TIMES

7. SYMBOLIC BABYLON IS DESCRIBED AS A RICH COUNTRY THAT LIVES BY MANY WATERS AND ALSO AS A CITY

8. LITERAL BABYLON WILL BE PUNISHED AND DESTROYED IN THAT DAY; NATIONS FROM THE NORTH WILL BE INVOLVED IN THIS

9. THE NATIONS FROM THE NORTH WILL BE LED BY IRAN (THE MEDES)

10. IN THAT DAY THE DESCENDENTS OF ESAU WILL BE DESTROYED FOREVER

11. MANY MUSLIMS WILL TURN TO JESUS IN THAT DAY

12. THOSE THAT GOD PUNISHED FOR IDOL WORSHIP WILL SLEEP FOREVER AND NOT AWAKE

13. ISRAEL HAS LONG BEEN LIKE LOST SHEEP WHOSE SHEPHERDS LED THEM ASTRAY

14. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PERIOD JUST BEFORE THE TRIBULATION

Index

CLUES TO UNDERSTANDING REVELATION

INTRODUCTION

The terms “the day of the Lord” and “in that day” are used extensively in the books of prophecy and nearly always seem to point to the end time return of Jesus, starting with the rapture and going through the tribulation period and the millennium.  Many of the prophecies in the books of prophecy center on the future wrath that will be inflicted on Israel or Judah because of their unfaithfulness to God, and their idol worship in particular. God has often used other nations to inflict his wrath on the Jews and will do so again in the end times.  These books also prophesy that God will one day repay the gentile nations of the world for their treatment of the Jews.  Since many of the prophecies in the books of prophecy were written shortly before or during the invasions of Israel or Judah by the Assyrians (722 BC and following), the Babylonians (606 BC and following) or others, it would be easy to conclude that they would have been the focus of the prophecies.  Indeed that generally appears to be the case.  However, it also seems to be clear that God is using these situations to model the end times.  In many instances it is clear that the prophecy was intended to have an end time application only.  In other situations it may have had a historical application only.  Many times it appears that the prophecies have both historical and end time applications.  The problem is in determining which in most likely in each prophecy.  There are a few things that can help us make that determination.  One is a good knowledge of the applicable history.  Sometimes the direct language in the Bible makes it clear and apparent.  Another is a close examination of the context along with the use of the two phrases mentioned above.  Whenever the two phrases are used it seems that the end times are most clearly in focus.      Sometimes it is not clear whether or not the prophecy extends to the end times.  With all of that in mind the following is my attempt to pick out the sections of the books of prophecy dealing with end time prophecies and to catalog them into a few selected topic areas.  I have also included a few other selected end time prophecies from other Old and New Testament books.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF “IN THAT DAY”

• Ezek 12:26-28 - Ezekiel was prophesying about things in the near term when he prophesied about the exile and eventual return of Israel in the early chapters of his book. However, as we have seen in many instances as declared by the New Testament writers, many Old Testament prophecies had both a near term and a far term intent to them.  This is something about which we can not be dogmatic.  We can research the context and generally determine whether or not the principal intent was near term or far term.  However, it is much more difficult if not impossible to always determine if both time frames apply.  Compare Ezek 14:21 to Rev 6:8 so see an example of how a judgment seemed to have both near term and far term application.  Here in verses 12:26-28 Ezek makes it clear that the exile he was prophesying about was near at hand and not in the distant future.
• Zeph 1:14-18 – The day of the Lord will be bitter, a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, of trouble and ruin, of darkness and gloom, of clouds and blackness, of trumpets and battle cry. People will walk around like blind men.  Blood will be poured out like dust.  In the fire of God’s jealousy the whole world will be consumed. 
• Ezek 11:11 - God will execute judgment of Israel at her borders.
• Ezek 21:25-27 - Israel will not have another king after the Babylonian exile until Jesus rules over Israel as King of Kings.
• Ezek 17:22-24 - Israel will eventually, in that day, become a splendid nation and a blessing to the whole world, Ezek 17, esp verses 22-24. This was spoken in context of the Babylonian exile but it has never really been fulfilled.  It awaits “that day.”
• Isa 2-5 - Characteristics of “in that day” are described in these chapters.
• Isa 4:1 - Women will outnumber men by 7-1 in that day.
• Isa 2:17 - The Lord alone will be exalted in that day: there will only be one God recognized on earth.
• Isa 31:6-7 - In that day, every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold.
• Isa 2:17 - Idols will totally disappear: there will be no idols in that day.
• Isa 65:6-7 - God says that he will pay the Jews back for both their sins and the sins of their fathers because they defied him by worshipping idols.
• Ezek 4 & 5 - Ezekiel gives a prophecy of the year when the punishment of Israel for idol worship will end and Israel will once again become a nation in Ezek 4. In Ezek 5 he extends this prophecy to the year that the city of Jerusalem will again become a part of Israel and possibly the temple will again be rebuilt.
• Ezek 7:3, 8, 27 - God will judge Israel according to her own conduct and by her own standards. Her punishment will be because of her idol worship.  This punishment includes her sin of not accepting Jesus as their God.  These promises were initially fulfilled in the Babylonian conquest that began in 606 BC.
• Ezek 1 and 10 - Ezek describes the cherubim or living creatures of Rev 4 and 5.
• Ezek 3:1-3 - Ezekiel is given a prophetic scroll and told to eat it in Ezek 3:1-3 just as happened with John in Rev 10:9. In both cases it tasted sweet as honey in the mouth.  However it made John’s stomach sour just as Daniel got very ill when prophecies of the end times were given to him in Dan 8:26-27.  John was told to seal up what had been revealed to him, Rev 10:4, just as Daniel was told to seal up what had been revealed to him, Dan 8:26.
• Dan 9:24-27 - Daniel’s 70 7’s.  The antichrist will negotiate a 7 year peace treaty with Israel, break it after 3 ½  years and desecrate the temple.
• Dan 12:1-2 – Describes the rapture; also described in Isa 26:16-21.
• Dan 12:4, 9-10 – Daniel is told to seal up the words of the scroll until the time of the end. He is told that the wicked will not understand, but the wise will understand.
• Dan 12:5-13 – Daniel asks how long it will be before these prophecies will be fulfilled. The angel responds with periods of 1260, 1290 and 1335 days.  Taken with Dan 9:24-27 this seems to be saying that the period of tribulation lasts 7 years, broken into two 3 ½ year periods.  In addition there are other 30 and 45 day periods before the Millennium begins.

THERE WILL BE A WORLD WIDE SCATTERING OF THE JEWS DUE TO IDOL WORSHIP

• Hosea 9:17 – Israel will be wanderers among the nations because they have not obeyed God.
• Micah 5:7-9 – The remnant of Jacob will be scattered among the nations like a young lion among flocks of sheep.
• Zech 7:13-14 – The Jews made the pleasant land desolate because “When God called they did not listen; so when they called, he would not listen.” For that reason God scattered them among the nations. 
• Zech 13:7 - The Jews were scattered and punished because they rejected and killed Jesus.
• Lev 26:1-3, 23-25 & 32-34, Deut 28:63-64, 30:15-18, Jer 25:6, Ezek 5:9, 22:15, all of 23, Hosea 9:17 - God promised to scatter the Jews for idol worship. God warned the Jews that if they did not obey his commands and if they turned to idol worship that he would become hostile toward them, destroy them and scatter them among the nations of the world.  He also told them that if they did not return to him after he punished them that he would then multiply additional punishment by a factor of seven.

 THERE WILL BE A RE-GATHERING OF JEWS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD IN UNBELIEF

• Isa 65:8-16 - Yet in spite of their sin, God will not destroy all of Israel but will preserve a remnant.
• Isa 10:21-22 - In that day a remnant will return to Israel.
• Isa 11:11-12 - The Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the scattered remnant of Israel
• from the four corners of the earth.
• Ezek 6:8, 12:15-16, 14:22 - There will always be a surviving remnant of those Jews who had been scattered by God.
• Hosea 1:11 – There will be a re-gathering of both Israel and Judah under one leader.
• Jer 30:1-17 – God says that he will re-gather the Jews from all around the world in a time called “the time of Jacob’s trouble.” God will punish all of the nations who have harmed Israel.  In verse 15 God points out the reason for all of Israel’s troubles; It is because of their great guilt, in fact a sin that has not cure.  When you get to the bottom line of this, the only such sin mentioned in the Bible is the rejection of Jesus.
• Ezek 20:33-38, 22:17-22. 36:22-26, 37-38, Zeph 2:1-3, Hosea 6:12-13, Jer 31:1-2, 10-11 - God promised to eventually re-gather the Jews in unbelief. God promised the Jews that he would re-gather them from the nations so that he might pour out his wrath on them and execute judgment on them, all in order to force them to return to worship of him.  This is a re-gathering in unbelief before the tribulation.

THERE WILL BE A RE-GATHERING OF JEWS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD IN BELIEF

• Jer 31:1-26 – The remnant will be re-gathered in belief.
• Ps 69:35-36 – God will save Zion, rebuild the cities, re-gather those who love him and they will live in the land.
• Deut 30:1-10 – When the Jews return to God and begin obeying his commandments he will restore their wealth and re-gather them from nations of the world.
• Jer 31:27-37 – God will make a new covenant with Israel in that day. God will put his law in their minds
• and write it on their hearts. The Jews will finally know God.
• Jer 50:19-20 – A remnant from Israel will be regathered in that day and no guilt will be found in her.
• Zech 8:3-8 – Jesus will save his people from countries of the east and west. He will bring them back to live in Jerusalem; they will be his people and he will be faithful and righteous to them, as their God.
• Zech 10:4-8 God will re-gather Israel, restore and redeem them. They will become numerous again and will become mighty and joyful.
• Zech 10:9-12 – Israel will pass through the sea of trouble while they are scattered among the nations. They will remember God even while they are scattered.  However, God will subdue their sea of trouble and re-gather them in the Lord; and in his name they will walk.
• Hosea 2:16 – In that day, Israel will call God “husband” instead of “master.”
• Hosea 2:23 – In that day, God will replant Israel for himself in the land.
• Zeph 3:20 – At that time God will gather the Jewish people, bring them home, and restore their very fortunes.
• Isa 27:12-13 - In that day THEY will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you O Israelites will be gathered up one by one. And in that day a great trumpet will sound. 
• Jer 3:18 – In those days the Lord will join the house of Israel and the house of Judah in the land that he gave their forefathers as an inheritance.
• Isa 43:5-7 - Do not be afraid for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, “Gather them up!” and to the south, “Do not hold them back.  Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth—everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” 
• Deut 30:1-3, Zeph 3:9, 19-20, Hosea 1:11, 20, 5:14-6:3, Joel 2:16-18, Amos 9:13-15, Micah 2:12-13, 5:3, Zech 8:1-8, 12:10-13, 13:8-9, Isa 30:19-22, Ezek 11:17-21, 28:25, chapters 34, 36, especially Ezek 34:11-16 - God’s plan to redeem the Jews will be successful, “in that day,” and he will re-gather the remainder of the Jews in belief. The valley of dry bones expresses this very well, Ezek 37:1-23.  The Jews will be purified, redeemed and will call on the name of Jesus as they finally recognize him as their Savior and Messiah.   The remainder of the scattered Jews will be returned to Israel in belief just before the millennium.

GOD WILL DEFEND ISRAEL FROM THOSE NATIONS THAT HAVE ATTACK HER IN THE PAST; NEVER AGAIN WILL ISRAEL BE OVERRUN

• Zech 9:1-8 – God will punish those who have attacked Israel in the past. Syria will lose its possessions and be destroyed by fire, Gaza will writhe in agony, Palestine will be punished.  Those who are left in these nations will all belong to God.
• Zech 12:6-9 - Israel will be attacked by the nations of the earth on the very first day of the tribulation. However, the nations who attack Israel will panic like mad men.  The weapons fired upon Israel will not work for some supernatural reason.  The leaders and people of Judah will suddenly become believers in God (the 144,000).  The leaders of Judah will become extremely strong and Israel will militarily take control of all of the countries surrounding them.  During all of this, neither the buildings nor the peoples of Jerusalem will be harmed.  God will personally set out to destroy the nations that attack Israel.  This may be through the vehicle of the second judgment, the asteroid that apparently hits the Indian Ocean.

ALL THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH WILL FACE THE WRATH OF GOD IN THE END TIMES

• Joel 3:2-3, 9-17–God will gather all nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat and enter into judgment upon them concerning his inheritance, the people of Israel. The sun and moon will be darkened and the stars no longer shine.  God will judge the nations on every side. 
• Micah 5:15 – God will take vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations that have not obeyed him.
• Zeph 3:8 – The whole world will be consumed by the fire of God’s jealous anger.
• Zeph 2:4-5 – Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, Kerethite and Canaan land of the Philistines will all be ruined and destroyed in that day.
• Zeph 2:12-15 – Cush and Assyria will be destroyed in that day.

SYMBOLIC BABYLON IS DESCRIBED AS A RICH COUNTRY THAT LIVES BY MANY WATERS AND ALSO AS A CITY

• Jer 51:13 – God describes Babylon here in the same terms that he describes her in Rev 17:1, where she is referred to as Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth (Rev 17:5). The meaning of “waters” is described in Rev 17:15 to be “ peoples, multitudes, nations and languages.  This may mean that her foundation is built on a large number of people of various nationalities and languages. 
• Jer 51:18 - Verse 18 says that Babylon the Great is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth. The Bible often refers to the church as a city, as the dwelling place of God, Rev 21:9-10. Gal 4:26-31, Heb 12:22-24, Eph 2:19-21, Isa 60:14 and 62:12.  Thus the city which Babylon represents may be a spiritual city, a group of people who all belong to the same false god, and the spiritual dwelling place of Satan.

LITERAL BABYLON WILL BE PUNISHED AND DESTROYED IN THAT DAY; NATIONS FROM THE NORTH WILL BE INVOLVED IN THIS

• Jer 50:1-3, 8-18, 51:47, 52-53 – Babylon (Iraq) will still worship a false god in that day and will be destroyed by nations from the north.
• Jer 51:17-19 – Unlike the God of Israel, the god of the Babylonians is a worthless fraud.
• Jer 50:21-32, 51:11, 51 – God will take vengeance against Babylon because of what she did to his temple, vs 28 (Dan 1:1-2; took items from the temple and placed them in Babylonian temples in 606 BC; Jeremiah wrote this in about 604 BC, about 18 years before the destruction of the temple by the Babylonians).
• Jer 50:38-46 – Babylon will be so completely destroyed that nobody can live there.
• Isa 47:11, Jer 50:44 – God will choose someone to chase Babylon from its land in am instant.
• Jer 51:1-10 – God will send foreigners to Babylon to devastate her land.
• Jer 51:14 – God will use men and plagues (locusts) to destroy Babylon.
• Jer 51:59-64 – Jeremiah sent the scroll with his prophecies from God to the Babylonians telling them that God would destroy them forever for their treatment of the Jews. God further instructed the messenger who read the scroll to the people, to then tie a rock around it and throw it into the Euphrates River.  This would be a sign that the punishment of Babylon would last forever.
• Isa 13:9, 17-22 - The day of the Lord is coming, a cruel day, a day with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land of Babylon desolate and destroy the sinners within it.
• Isa 13:1-5 - In that day the Lord will muster an army from far away lands to come and destroy the whole country of Babylon (Iraq).
• Isa 13:17-22 - God will stir up the Medes (Iran) against the Babylonians (Iraq) and it will be overthrown like Sodom and Gomorrah, and will never again be inhabited.
• Isa 47:1-15 – Isa 47 parallels Rev 18. Both address the destruction of Babylon,   Isa seems to address literal Babylon while Rev addresses mystery Babylon, the apostate church of the end times.

THE NATIONS FROM THE NORTH WILL BE LEAD BY IRAN (THE MEDES)

• Jer 51:11, 28 – God stirred up Iran to destroy Babylon (Iraq).
• Jer 51:27 – Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz are allied with Iran. Ararat is the area between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, and northwest Iran.  Minni is a part of Iran and Ashkenaz seems to be part of southeast Europe.

IN THAT DAY THE DESCENDENTS OF ESAU WILL BE DESTROYED FOREVER

• Obadiah 1:10-14, 18 – In that day the descendents of Esau will be destroyed forever. This is because they did not support Israel in the day of her destruction, but took advantage of her when she was down.
• Mal 1:2-5 – God loved Jacob but hated Esau. He turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert Jackals.  Edom may build but God will demolish.

MANY MUSLIMS WILL TURN TO JESUS IN THAT DAY

• Isa 26:9, 56:3-8, Joel 2:30-32, Zeph 3:9-10 -  Many Muslims will eventually turn to Jesus as their Savior and defender and swear allegiance to him.  This happens because of the fear that springs from the wrath they are undergoing.  They cry out to Jesus as the Jews do and he comes to rescue them, Isa 19:16-25.  Egypt and Assyria in particular are mentioned.

THOSE THAT GOD PUNISHED FOR IDOL WORSHIP WILL SLEEP FOREVER AND NOT AWAKE

• Jer 51:39, 57 – God says that those Babylonians that he punishes will sleep forever and not awake. This likely means that they will face the second death of Rev 20:6, 14-15.

ISRAEL HAS LONG BEEN LIKE LOST SHEEP WHOSE SHEPHERDS LED THEM ASTRAY

• Jer 50:6-7 – This led them to be vulnerable and they have repeatedly been devoured by their enemies who have felt vindicated because Israel rejected their Messiah.
• Zech 10:2-3 – Shepherds who worship idols led Judah astray. God will punish them and reclaim his flock.
• Mal 23 – Because of what the Jewish priests did and taught the people, their descendents will be rebuked.

CHARACTERISTICS OF PERIOD JUST BEFORE THE TRIBULATION

• Isa 66:7-9 - Israel will be reborn as a nation is a day. The birth pains will not come until after the birth.
• Isa 27:6 - In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.
• Zeph 2:3 – Those who are righteous and follow Jesus’ commands will be sheltered from the day of the Lord’s anger.
• Zech 12:1-3 – In that day all the nations of the earth will be gathered against Israel. Jerusalem will be an immovable rock for the nations.  All who try to move it will bring harm to themselves.
• Isa 29:11-12 - For you (the Jews) this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll. And if you give the scroll to someone who can read, and say to him, “Read this please,” he will answer, “I can’t, it is sealed.”  Of if you give the scroll to someone who cannot read, and say, “Read this, please,” he will answer, “I don’t know how to read.”  (The Jews are blinded to the truth of God.)
• Isa 26:19-21 - But your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy.  Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.  Go my people, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the wrath has passed by.  See, the Lord is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins.  The earth will disclose the blood shed upon her; she will conceal her slain no more. (the resurrection, rapture, tribulation and second coming).