What happens to Israel during the tribulation?

Daniel's vision of seventy weeks describes a coming ruler who shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, seven years, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering (Daniel 9:27). Many interpreters read this as a future political and religious agreement between a coming world leader, the antichrist, and Israel, perhaps involving security guarantees or the resumption of temple worship, which this ruler shockingly betrays at its midpoint.

This betrayal marks the beginning of what Jesus called great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be (Matthew 24:21). Daniel describes an abomination that makes desolate set up in the temple at this same midpoint (Daniel 9:27, 11:31), an act of ultimate sacrilege that Jesus himself pointed to as the signal for those in Judea to flee to the mountains without delay (Matthew 24:15-16).

Revelation 12 pictures this same period symbolically through the image of a woman, widely understood to represent Israel, pursued by a dragon after giving birth to a male child, clearly Christ, who is caught up to God and to his throne (Revelation 12:5). Having failed to destroy the child, the dragon turns his fury on the woman and the rest of her offspring, those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus (Revelation 12:17).

The woman flees into the wilderness, to a place prepared by God, where she is nourished for three and a half years, the same period identified elsewhere as forty-two months or 1,260 days (Revelation 12:6, 14). This vivid picture communicates both the severity of the persecution Israel faces and God's active, protective care for a fleeing, vulnerable people even in the darkest hour of their history.

Throughout the tribulation, Scripture consistently pictures God preserving a faithful remnant from Israel rather than abandoning the nation entirely to destruction. The sealing of 144,000 servants from the twelve tribes in Revelation 7:1-8 pictures God specially marking out and protecting Jewish believers even amid unprecedented judgment on the wider world. Paul makes the same point theologically in Romans 11, insisting that God has not rejected his people and that at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace (Romans 11:1-5).

This preserved remnant reflects a pattern woven throughout the Old Testament, God repeatedly kept a faithful minority even through judgment on the wider nation, from the seven thousand who had not bowed to Baal in Elijah's day (1 Kings 19:18) to those who returned from exile. Tribulation for Israel is real and severe, but it is never presented as national annihilation; it is discipline and refining within an unbroken covenant relationship.

Zechariah prophesies a climactic moment near the end of this period: God will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that when they look on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child (Zechariah 12:10). This describes a nationwide recognition of Jesus as the true Messiah, grief over past rejection, and a turning toward him in faith.

Paul echoes this same hope in Romans 11:25-27, describing a partial hardening that has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, after which all Israel will be saved, as the Deliverer comes from Zion and banishes ungodliness from Jacob. Whatever the precise timing and mechanics, Scripture holds out real hope that Israel's tribulation experience ends not in destruction but in restoration and faith.

Paul's own heart toward Israel offers a model for yours: he had great sorrow and unceasing anguish for his kinsmen according to the flesh, and his heart's desire and prayer to God for them was that they might be saved (Romans 9:2-3, 10:1). Whatever your view of the precise sequence of end-times events, this is a passage that should stir compassion, not indifference, toward the Jewish people.

It should also deepen your confidence in God's faithfulness generally. If God keeps his covenant promises to Israel through such severe testing, refusing to abandon them even when discipline is necessary, you can trust him to keep every promise he has made to you in Christ, whose faithfulness never wavers even when yours does (2 Timothy 2:13).

Revelation 11 adds another layer to this picture, describing two witnesses who prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth, wielding remarkable power to call down fire and withhold rain, much like Elijah and Moses before them (Revelation 11:3-6). Many interpreters see these witnesses as testifying in Jerusalem itself during this same period, calling the nation to repentance in the very city undergoing such intense pressure. Even after their apparent defeat and public humiliation, God vindicates them by raising them before the watching world (Revelation 11:11-12), a further sign that in the middle of Israel's darkest hour, God's testimony and God's servants cannot ultimately be silenced.