Jeremiah predicted a “time of Jacob’s trouble” for Israel (Jer. 30:7). Many scholars believe this term alludes to the seven-year Tribulation referred to as “Daniel’s last seven years (called Daniel’s seventieth week) in Daniel 9:27. Jacob works for seven years and when he finishes, his father-in-law deceives him and forces him to marry Leah instead of his beloved Rachel. Laban instructs Jacob to “fulfill Rachel’s week” (Gen. 29:27). The Hebrew word for week is shabuwa, and is literally a week of years, not days. This word is found four times: in Genesis 29:27 and 28, and twice in Daniel 9:27. The word week in Daniel 9:27 is a prediction of a seven-year covenant that the future Antichrist will sign.
Jacob’s trouble is actually two periods of seven years. He works the first seven years only to be deceived by Laban. He works seven more years and receives the wife of his choice. Some rabbis believe that the Jewish holocaust, from 1938 to 1945—a period of seven years—was the fulfillment of Jacob’s trouble. However, there were two “sevens” in Jacob’s life. If the Holocaust is the “first” seven, the future seven-year Tribulation will be the second and final seven years of Jacob’s (Israel’s) time of trouble.
After the second seven-year period, Jacob receives Rachel as his wife and later returns to the Promised Land. He reveals himself to Esau and sees his father, Isaac. Following the future seven-year Tribulation, Christ the Messiah will return to Israel and reveal Himself as the suffering Messiah to the sons of Esau and the sons of Isaac (see Zech. 13:6).
From Page 50 of the Perry Stone Hebraic Prophetic Old Testament Study Bible
