He is setting the stage to help us to understand the times that confront us—just down the road in the future a bit. We are moving toward a time that is unique in the history of man—as unique as a man giving birth to a child and being in the throes of labor. Have any of you ever seen that? No historian has ever seen the kind of times that are just around the corner. Unless God has a place of safety for us, then we are going to find ourselves involved in these unique times that are coming.
God is of course speaking of the nations of Israel. They are going to be going through it—we know that for sure because the verse says, "he shall be saved out of it". In other words their protection is not going to come until they have gone through maybe most of it. So they are going to go through it—they are going to suffer through it. Then God is going to intervene—save them out of it. If God will not save them out of it, then what Jesus said in Matthew 24:21 (that they simply would not survive) will come to pass. They will all die in it. It is going to be that bad!
