The Time of Jacob's Trouble

by Donna VanLiere

  He reads the verses aloud from 1 Thessalonians 4 one more time, letting the words sink in, then begins reading chapter 5, arriving at verse 2: “For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” He stops, rereading the verse again before continuing to verse 3: “While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly…and they will not escape.” He puts his finger under the next verse: “But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.”

  He keeps his eyes on the words “For you know” in verse 2. “Your followers knew,” he says, whispering. “People were saying, ‘Peace and safety.’” He remembers every president or prime minister or government leader using these very words in nearly every speech that was given regarding the condition of the world for the last several years. “Destruction came on them. They did not escape. They weren’t prepared. Them. They. They,” he says, studying the words. “Your followers, the brothers and sisters, weren’t in darkness, and your coming didn’t surprise them like a thief.” He stares at the words on the page. “Why didn’t they tell everyone this?”

  He looks at the next verses: “You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober.”

  “Children of the light,” he says. “Children of the day. Your children weren’t stumbling around in the dark.” He looks up from the page as if seeing something in his mind. “They were awake and sober, not sleeping.” He shakes his head, wondering how many are still sleeping despite the evidence of Jesus’s return for his followers. “Your followers weren’t like the others, who were asleep. They were different.”

  He continues to read aloud verses 9 and 10: “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” He rereads the words. “Your children weren’t appointed to suffer wrath. All those sleeping in the ground. All your children awake on Earth at the time.” He reads aloud, “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up.”

  “They weren’t afraid,” he said. “They encouraged each other about your return.”

  The sound of glass shattering makes Elliott jump to his feet and look out the window. Since it became obvious that the attack on the city was over, looting has been nonstop. Supermarket aisles in the city are empty, restaurants and businesses are being trashed. Malls had shut down immediately following the disappearances, locking their doors and securing their storefronts with bars, but it has proven futile. Many people have stayed locked in at home, too afraid to step beyond their own door until this madness stops.

  Elliott watches as a lighting store down the block is emptied. Men, women, and even children are carrying lamps, pendant lights, and chandeliers down the street. The shoe store next door looks as if a swarm of bees has attacked it. He can’t tell man from woman as they scramble on top of each other for a pair of loafers, pumps, or tennis shoes. He feels sick to his stomach watching them. It is as if all goodness has disappeared from the earth.

  “Go to them.” Elliott shakes off the thought, thinking it’s his own. But there it is again: “Go to them.”

  The voice he hears isn’t from within the room or the next one, but from somewhere inside. He pushes his forehead against the window. “How? I don’t know what to say to them.”

  “I am with you.”

  Elliott puts his hands on the glass and feels angry, watching a mother shove a pair of too-big shoes into the hands of her ten- or eleven-year-old son. The shoes are quickly pinched by another woman, and the mother punches her in the head. They come to blows as the boy snatches up the shoes, hitting the woman with one of them.

  “Go.”

  Elliott grabs his keys and runs for the door.

  CHAPTER 17

  Israel

  Rada steps toward Zerah. “What did you read on your phone?”

  He shrugs. “The same chilling news stories that we’ve been hearing. War tearing apart the seams that are left of the world.”

  She shakes her head. “It wasn’t the same stories, Zerah. You were visibly shaken a few minutes ago. What do you know?”

  He turns to look out the window to the view of the modest street they’ve seen for the past twenty years in this house. How can it still look the same and yet everything be so different? He feels her hand on his shoulder.

  “Please, Zerah, tell me.”

  He looks at her. How can he tell her? “It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Maybe it will make sense to me.”

  He glances toward the kitchen to make sure no one has come upstairs from the bomb shelter. Whispering he says, “I’m just trying to piece things together.”

  Her eyes are earnest. “And?”

  “There is one common thread with the people who have disappeared.”

  She looks skeptical, leaning in. “You’re not going to say that it is the messianic connection.”

  “So far, all of the people at the medical center…”

  “How many people that you know of, Zerah? Four? Five? Maybe ten?” She is hissing at him. “Ten people out of millions around the world and you think you’ve figured out the connection?”

  She’s angry and he puts his hand on her arm. “I know. I know! But you said yourself that Jesus coming for his followers is one of the theories.”

  “Because that’s what they said on the news! I didn’t say I believed it!” She is about to turn away, but he holds her in front of him.

  “I didn’t say I believed it either, but I called a man I work with and he said that a coworker in his department was a messianic believer. He always invited everyone in the department to his church. Of course no one went. It made them angry to hear him speak of it. But he mentioned the words a partial hardening of Israel.”

  She looks confused. “So? What does that mean?”

  He pulls his cell phone from his back pocket and turns it on, reading, “I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.’”

  She bends her neck forward to look at his phone. “What are you reading?” she asks, anger in her tone.

  “A Jew named Paul wrote this over two thousand years ago.”

  “So? Why should we care? What does that have anything to do with what’s happening in the world today?”

  He holds up his hand so she’ll listen. “I ask, then, has God rejected his people?” He reads, looking up at her. “By no means!…So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, ‘God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.’” His eyes are wide, imploring her for help in understanding.

  “This means nothing, Zerah. The ramblings of a madman is all. And I don’t know who is madder. This Jew,” she says, jabbing his phone, and then poking him in the chest, “Or this Jew.”

  He has told her too much and needs to back off. Nodding, he smiles at her. “Maybe I am mad. I’m sorry, Rada. Like you said, ramblings of a madman.” As she slips away, he turns off his phone and slides it into his back pocket, looking out to the street again.

  “Are we hardened, Zerah? Do we have eyes that won’t see and ears that won’t hear?”

  Her voice startles him, but he doesn’t turn to look at her this time. “I don’t know.” He feels her hand on his shoulder.

  “I’m sorry,
Zerah. I don’t think you’re a madman. I think you’re as confused and scared as the rest of us.” She squeezes his shoulder, then leaves him alone.

  He’s unable to rejoin his family just yet; he sits on the sofa and snaps up the remote, turning on the TV in the living room. An emergency signal is blaring as Israel’s defense minister steps to a podium from the Ministry of Defense headquarters. The signal ends as the defense minister begins to speak. He is brief and to the point.

  “All active members of the Israel Defense Forces have been vigorously defending our country, but due to the enormous threat to our national security, all inactive members of the IDF who are forty-five or below must report for duty immediately.”

  It has been years since Zerah has performed his duties in the IDF, and the threat of war makes his hands tremble.

  CHAPTER 18

  Queens, NY

  Elliott races to the street below and stops, unsure of what to do now. People are in a frenzy to clean out each business along the street, threatening one another as violence breaks out among them. When the city still had power, the mayor and chief of police were on the news, urging people to stay off the streets, to remain calm, and to think of the city’s peace and individual safety, but since the attack, the city has been upended.

  A year earlier, riots broke out in the streets after the mayor’s victory, and that was with police presence, and no one can forget the rioting and looting that took place after President Banes was voted into office. What can anyone expect now that the police presence has been diminished, along with any sense of kindness and reason? Law enforcement is predominantly focused on protecting what government buildings are left and larger businesses in the city, leaving owners of smaller establishments to fend for themselves. Most restaurant, store, and business owners are too frightened and have become weary from the constant state of vigilance they’ve had to keep and have given up.

  “Please stop this,” Elliott shouts. He may as well be yelling into a hurricane. He spots a car that had crashed into a business front, one that is wrecked beyond driving or stealing, and jumps on top of it. “I know what happened! I know where everyone went!” The free-for-all continues, and Elliott feels anger stretching through his chest. He shouts louder over them. “I know what happened to the people you love!” A few on the street stop to look at him, but most ignore him. “They aren’t here, are they?” he says, looking at a woman around fifty or so. She shakes her head, her eyes filled with sadness. “No matter how long you wait, they don’t answer the phone or come through the door, do they?” he says to a man around thirty. The man looks at the ground as others begin to gather. Elliott looks at them, those who were asleep just like him when Jesus came; those who are left to patch together some sort of life without many of the ones they love.

  “The people you lost all had one thing in common: They followed Jesus. They didn’t just say they followed Jesus. They didn’t post just the right verse on social media to make you feel good. They followed Jesus. They listened to him; they knew his voice because they read his word,” he says, holding the Bible in the air. “They knew he meant what he said in his word, and they lived by his word. They were true followers. It wasn’t a faith that they made up to suit their life, was it?” He looks at a couple in their forties who aren’t responding. More are gathering, and Elliott shouts louder, trying to be heard above the ruckus of the looting.

  “How do you know this?” an older woman says as she clutches two pairs of shoes to her chest.

  “Jesus told me,” Elliott says, noticing their reactions of confusion and anger. He knows that some faiths are represented here who don’t want to hear the name of Jesus, as well as people of no religion at all. The melee around him is almost too much, but Elliott taps the Bible. “It’s all in here. I’ve been reading it since everyone disappeared.” He reads John 14:1-4 to them, emphasizing certain words: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

  Elliott looks out at the growing number of people who have stopped to listen. “After the death and resurrection of Jesus, he went back to his Father’s house, to heaven, to prepare a place for all who believe in him. And he said, ‘If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me.’” Excitement builds in his voice. “I will take you to be with me. Jesus came back and took his followers to be with him just as he said he would.” People begin to shout over him, but he presses on. “He said, ‘You know the way to the place where I am going.’ His followers knew the way to heaven.”

  Some men curse and leave the group, but Elliott begins reading from 1 Thessalonians 4: “Listen to this: According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.’”

  Elliott’s actions become animated as his arms begin to flap. “Did you hear that? It says right here that Jesus would descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ would rise first when they heard his command, and then those who are alive would be caught up together with all those people who just came out of their graves, wherever their dead body was. I was standing in a cemetery when many graves burst open and urns became empty. I’ve never heard of anything like that before in my life, and I’ve never been so scared.”

  The shouting continues and a young man around twenty yells, “That doesn’t mean it’s true.”

  Elliott lifts the Bible over his head. “The Bible says right here exactly what would happen, and it did happen. Graves burst open and then living, breathing souls were snatched away right in front of us. Their disappearances were captured on security cameras around the world!”

  “I don’t believe it!” the young man shouts.

  “And I would have been the first to not believe it,” Elliott says, looking at him. “I’m a Jew. Do you think for a moment I would have believed that Jesus was responsible for the disappearance of all these people? Do you think your unbelief is any greater than mine was? Jews don’t talk about Jesus. Jews don’t mention his name. Just like the Bible says,” he says, tapping the Bible, “I was asleep. Just like you’re asleep.”

  Elliott makes a sweeping motion with his arm over the crowd. “You are all asleep! It’s time to wake up because in Revelation, the last book of the Bible, and in other books in here, we read that Jesus will be coming again, but this time he won’t just step into the air for his followers. He won’t be snatching them up to heaven. He will come back with his followers! He will come down from heaven on a horse and all those people who just left this Earth will come back with him on horses of their own. Did you hear that? The people you love who are now gone will come back with him. He’s returning to judge the world of sin and set up his kingdom. Once he splits open that sky in judgment, you won’t have time to change your mind and follow him. Now is the time!”

  “He did this just so we could have another chance to follow him?” a woman mocks. “That’s not love!”

  “God didn’t destroy our city. He didn’t do this,” Elliott says, motioning with his arm toward the rioting in the street. “God is loving,” he says. “That’s why I’m standing here today. For years I lived with emptiness inside of me. I knew that something was missing. You know there’s an emptiness inside you. We all know it. That emptiness, that hole is because Jesus is missing in our lives. He loved me so much that he came to me reveal
ing his salvation. He is revealing his salvation to you today so that no matter what happens over these next few years of judgment, you can live with him forever.”

  “Judgment?” a young man of twenty or so shouts. “Your God is judging us?” Many in the crowd become agitated, yelling abusive and foul remarks over each other.

  Although they are shouting and cursing, Elliott feels strangely peaceful as the words rise up within him. “God is patient and good and longsuffering, but in his word we are told that he judges sin. He also says that all have sinned. All of us are sinners and we need him.”

  These words make the people angrier and many of them shout over him. “We aren’t sinners!” Their voices ring out. “The sinners are gone—just like everyone is saying. The universe took them.”

  Elliott raises the Bible higher. “We are all sinners. Our sin has created a world full of evil and wickedness, and God is judging the world of that sin. It says in Romans, ‘Because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.’ But even in God’s wrath on a sinful world, he is still drawing you to him. The prophet Isaiah said, ‘Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.’”