Joos will 'scape the great trib...oh yes
It is very important in reading OT prophets not to mix up the early chapters which generally deal with Israel's then situation, and the later chapters which speak specifically about the last days.
When God is speaking about the last days He says so. "It shall come to pass in the last days...or the latter times etc"
The early chapters deal with God's punishing/refining Israel and for what reason. The later chapters speak about His gathering, protecting, blessing and avenging them.
As STP often says there is the fall of Israel and the rise of Israel.
I. THE JEWS AND THE PURPOSE OF THE TRIBULATION From the many passages of Scripture that deal with the Tribulation, it can be deduced that God has three main purposes in bringing about the Tribulation. The first purpose applies equally to both the Jews and Gentiles. However, the second and third purposes of the Tribulation have a direct bearing on God's program for the Jewish people.
A. To Make an End of Wickedness and Wicked Ones The first purpose of the Tribulation is found in two key passages: Isaiah 13:9 and 24:19-20. First, Isaiah 13:9 states: Behold, the day of Jehovah comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger; to make the land a desolation, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it. This verse uses the term the day of Jehovah as a reference to the Great Tribulation and gives its goal in the phrase, to destroy the sinners thereof out of it. The purpose, then, is to destroy wicked ones out of the Land. This is further described in Isaiah 24:19-20: The earth is utterly broken, the earth is rent asunder, the earth is shaken violently. The earth shall stagger like a drunken man, and shall sway to and fro like a hammock; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall, and not rise again. The closing words of this passage state that the basic reason for the judgments of the Tribulation is that worldwide transgression will fall, and not rise again. Its purpose is to make an end of wickedness.
B. To Cause a Great Worldwide Revival The second purpose of the Tribulation is to bring about a worldwide revival. In Matthew 24:14, Yeshua (Jesus) said that the gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed to all nations before the end comes. Some time before the Tribulation ends, some time before the Second Coming occurs, there must be the worldwide preaching of the gospel to that one generation. Revelation 7 is an exposition of Matthew 24:14 and can be divided into two sections. Verses 1-8 describe the means of this revival, whereas verses 9-17 give us the results of this revival. 1. The Means of the Worldwide Revival: Revelation 7:1-8 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that no wind should blow on the earth, or on the sea, or upon any tree. And I saw another angel ascend from the sunrising, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a great voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we shall have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of them that were sealed, a hundred and forty and four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel: Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand; Of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand; Of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand; Of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand; Of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand; Of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand; Of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand; Of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand; Of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand; Of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand; Of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand; Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand. The beginning words, After this, are not chronological in this case, but merely the next vision John sees. In verses 1-3, the four angels that are commissioned to bring judgment on the earth are commanded to hold off their destruction until a specific number of servants are sealed. Sealing is done for two reasons: service and protection. Both reasons apply here. These are the ones who will proclaim the message of the gospel in the Tribulation. The mention of the four winds shows that these 144,000 Jewish evangelists will come from all parts of the world, not only from Israel. In verses 4 8, the identification of those who are sealed is clearly specified as 144,000 Jews. To make it even more clear, twelve tribes are listed with the statement that 12,000 are chosen from each tribe. By means of these 144,000 Jewish evangelists, God will bring about the worldwide revival and accomplish another goal of the Tribulation. Looking at all this purely from a human perspective, if one wanted to conduct a worldwide revival in a very short period of time, for this revival will occur during the first 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation, one could not think of a better group of people to use than the Jewish people. However, coming from a Jewish believer in Jesus, that may not sound very objective, so the following are some objective reasons why this would certainly be true. If one looks at the world missionary situation today, one of the things he will discover is that the vast majority of missionaries are Americans. If one begins interviewing these missionaries to find out how much time was spent in training before they were comfortably proclaiming the Word of God in a land that is not their own, he would discover that they had to train for three or four years at a Bible institute or Bible college. If they became believers some time after college, they had to study three or four years at a seminary. While the Bible institute, college, or seminary graduate is trained to proclaim the Word in this nation or some other English speaking nation, he is not prepared to do so on a foreign field. The next two, three, maybe four years must be spent in language study. The average American missionary on the foreign field must spend approximately six years in training before he is proclaiming the Word in a language not his own. This worldwide revival by the preaching of the gospel will occur in only 3 1/2years and there is just not that much time for training. One distinct advantage of using Jewish people is that Jews are dispersed all over the world. Every one of the world's major languages, and a great number of the world's minor languages, are spoken by some Jews somewhere. Except for American Jewry, most Jews are at least bilingual. The author is bilingual, and the author's parents are multi lingual, speaking five languages each. Another advantage of using Jewish evangelists is that, with a large segment of American Jewry being the exception, most Jews receive a good, basic understanding of the Old Testament text. They have a greater or lesser degree of knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures, depending on their background. Hence, at some time after God Raptures the Church, He will then save 144,000 Jews from the Twelve Tribes, from around the world. These Jews will already speak the languages needed. They will already have a basic knowledge of the Old Testament text. They will need only a short period of time to gain some New Testament knowledge. So, they could then begin proclaiming the gospel in a very short period of time. During the first half of the Tribulation, God will evangelize the world by means of 144,000 Jews and thus fulfill the prophecy found in Matthew 24:14: And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.
I'll go ahead and start a correct thread on the topic