As can be readily found out about 85% of Jews in both Israel and North America and probably other places in the world are secular and have little knowledge or interest in the LORD the God of Israel. They also don't have much interest in knowing and following His scriptures and Law. Most of these secular Jews are more humanistic and living for this world than really living for God as His chosen earthly people and the tribulation will be used of the LORD to break them out of their false security of seeking friendship and trust in this world including trusting the west for culture and military and political support instead of the LORD. The LORD will also chasten them including for following humanism, eastern mysticism and some occult religion rather than the faith of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and David. As a Christian I believe the LORD (God the Father) will also seek to cause the Jewish people religious and secular to know that a person now comes to know Him fully and sufficiently through Jesus or Nazareth who came to reveal the LORD personally and do the first work of the LORD's Messiah to be the Passover Lamb of God. This work of the Messiah as Passover Lamb was done to take away the sins of all Israel especially those who trust in Him as well as people of the nations or in this current age of people Jew and Gentile who trust in Jesus and become part of God's Church. The LORD could also use the tribulation to speak to religious Jews not to follow Kabbalah and to de-emphasize the Talmud and Mishnah and more emphasize the scriptures both the Hebrew scriptures or Old Testament and the New Testament to know them and follow them. The LORD will probably use the tribulation to speak to more Jews especially secular ones to trust in Him more than their political or military leaders as the LORD did sometimes in Bible days when King David said under divine inspiration: "Some trust in horses, some trust in chariots but we will remember the LORD our God" Psalm 20:7. Part of the purpose of the tribulation will be to compel the Jewish people or nation of Israel to know the LORD and to live first for Him instead of other people, nations or ideas. This is the LORD's will so he can rule through them when he puts them first among the nations when He rules through His Messiah Jesus for 1000 years in the Messianic Kingdom from His Temple in Jerusalem.
Many Jewish people today especially the majority who are secular Jews don't know the LORD or what God's word the Holy Bible says about the Jews being God's chosen earthly people especially through Abraham and Moses (and David). Many Jews also don't know or accept what the Bible even just the Hebrew scriptures or Old Testament say about God's chastening the Jews to bring them back to the LORD in the last days. Although the Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox know the LORD or God of Israel in the Old Testament sense most don't know or accept the idea that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah of Israel or that the New Testament is also the word of God from the same God of Israel as is actually true. Many secular Jews today do not accept or want to accept their religious heritage including receiving the Law of God through Moses or having a heritage or the holy land as their promised land that the God of Israel would restore to them in the last days. Instead many of these secular Jews both in Israel, North America or elsewhere think in a worldly way that they are more enlightened if they conform to the New World Order of a one world government, one world religion and one world economy which the Bible especially the New Testament says will be provided temporarily in an anti-God and anti-Semitic (and anti-Christian) way by the Antichrist, the Beast out of the Sea or the one that causes abomination of Daniel. More Bible believing and traditional Jews such as the Orthodox and Ultra Orthodox Jews understand from the Hebrew scriptures that we are in critical times and something is going to happen although many of them think the ongoing anti-Semitism and unstable world events means we are close to the LORD coming in His glorious appearing to send His Messiah to set up Israel and the world's Messianic Kingdom. What this verse in Jeremiah God is saying that some of the animals especially birds in this case know their appointed times such as for migration or reproduction God's chosen people the Jews in the original context didn't know the then impending judgement of the LORD. This impending judgment was especially in reference to God's judgment through the Babylonians on them on Jerusalem and the 1st or Solomon's Temple because of Israel's idolatry, departing from the God of Israel and His law or word, immorality and violence and covetousness etc. However I believe this verse and the context verses can also be applied to the Jewish people in the current time immediately before the tribulation where God will judge the Jewish people for not knowing Him. I believe God will chasten the Jews through persecution from the nations and the LORD supporting the Jews directly when they call on Him and turn back to Him from the world and more of the Jews come to know the God of Israel again in preparation for the LORD's blessing them in the 1000 year Messianic Kingdom and with the true Church in eternity. The scripture verse from Jeremiah 8 of many of the Jews before the tribulation not knowing the time of God's judgment of them for not knowing him or seeking him in order to get more of God's covenant earthly people to return to him is as follows:
Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD. Jeremiah 8:7
Jeremiah and I'm sure the LORD and myself and other people that want to see the Jewish people blessed and return to the LORD are dismayed for what happened before to the children of Israel by the Babylonians and what will happen to the Jews in the tribulation. What happened to the Jewish people by the Babyonians around 600 BC was the destruction of Jerusalem including the 1st or Solomon's Temple and Judah while in the tribulation, 70th week of Daniel or time of Jacob's trouble the people of Israel will be terribly persecuted by the nations and the Antichrist or Beast out of the Sea and the False Prophet. Jeremiah said he was disgusted as well as dismayed by the adultery and fornication and violence of His people and wanted to be removed from them. The LORD through Jeremiah was implying that these sins of adultery and treachery or violence were part of the reason for the attack by the Babylonians against his people. These could be some of the reasons why Jewish people that the LORD still regards as His chosen earthly people and will in the tribulation again focus on to call back to Himself as His main witness to the nations. In the tribulation or 70th week of Daniel the LORD will have already removed the true Church of born again Christians both Gentiles and Jews who trusted in Jesus the Messiah that he died for our sins and rose again from the dead to give us new life. The LORD also says the Jewish people were dishonest and liars before the LORD allowed the Babylonians to attack His chosen earthly people the Jews from about 608 to 588 BC including about 600 BC when this part of Jeremiah might have been written. This will probably have at least some counterpart in the early part of the tribulation when the LORD will start working with the Jewish people to bring them back to Himself and His word and law and to and to His Messiah Jesus of Nazareth and to make them more valiant for Him, His word or law and His Messiah. The Jewish people as well as the Gentiles who are left behind after the rapture of the Church will probably fall into deeper levels of sin including dishonesty and lying after the removal of the main convicting work of the Holy Spirit after the rapture of the Church. The LORD says that most of the people of Israel because of lying and dishonesty but perhaps also because of adultery and violence will not know Him. This is already true to some extent with many Jews especially the majority that are secular, worldly and fleshly and don't seek to know the LORD or His word. Although the Orthodox and Ultra-orthodox Jews are not affected very much with immorality, violence to pursue immoral interests or dishonesty the LORD in the tribulation will probably still try them to trust in Jesus of Nazareth as His Messiah and the Christian New Testament as also the Word of the LORD and know the LORD in a more complete way. The scripture reference from Jeremiah 9 of Jeremiah and the LORD and those including myself who have love or concern for Israel dismayed at the immorality, violence and lying of the people of Israel resulting in their being attacked by the Gentiles and not knowing the LORD around 600 BC but speaking also about the tribulation is as follows:
Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD. Jeremiah 9:1-3
The LORD (God) says in this verse in Jeremiah 24 that he will give the people of Israel or the Jews a heart to know him. This will mean he will give them a desire to seek him and enter into a relationship with him and serve him as more important than following after worldly or temporal things like business, recreation or human relationship things. Although these things are not bad in themselves, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament God makes it clear that he wants first place in the hearts of his people including His chosen earthly people the Jews as in the Shema in Deuteronomy 6. This will be especially true as God calls back the Jewish people to himself in the trials of the tribulation or time of Jacob's trouble or the 70th week of Daniel. This trial of the Jewish people in the tribulation will be in preparation for the 1000 year Messianic Age when Israel will be a nation of priests and ministers to the LORD as part of God's then exalted chosen nation Israel among the nations. The LORD (God the Father) will then restore fully his relationship including spiritually with Israel or the Jews as their God. The LORD predicts that Israel or the Jews will then probably by God's Holy Spirit cause the Jews to return to him from both the secular and religious Jews with their whole heart. The scripture reference from Jeremiah 24 of this verse of the LORD bringing the Jews back to him in the tribulation in advance of the Messianic Kingdom to know the LORD in a personal way is as follows:
And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart. Jeremiah 24:7
Again although most Jews in Israel or other parts of the world have some knowledge of the LORD many don't have any much of this as especially the secular Jews are more interested in knowing things of the world including secular subjects like business, the arts or politics or science and technology or even other religions such as the New Age Movement or eastern religions. The Orthodox or Ultra-Orthodox Jews know of the LORD very well and might even know Him in a personal way but don't yet know Him as He has revealed Himself personally through His Son and Messiah Jesus of Nazareth. However the Messianic Jews do also know the LORD personally through His Son Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Jewish Messiah. The LORD will probably use the tribulation to prepare many Jewish people to stop trusting in themselves or the people or things of this world instead of trusting in and seeking to know the LORD. The LORD promises to the Jewish people that He will put His law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts by His Holy Spirit according to Ezekiel 36. This will probably be especially at the beginning of the Messianic Kingdom for those Jews who survive the tribulation or time of Jacob's trouble when there will be many calamities on earth and the tyrannical rule of the Antichrist and False Prophet that will instigate much anti-semitism. The LORD (God the Father) says He will make it so the Jews don't have to encourage each other to know Him but they will all know Him not just know of Him from the least to the greatest of them. The LORD also promises He will forgive the iniquity or lawlessness of these Jews and remember their sin no more. The scripture from the passage about the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31 in which the LORD will put His law or word in the hearts of all the Jewish people who survive the tribulation or time of Jacob's trouble or 70th week of Daniel and cause all these Jews to know Him is as follows:
For this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:33-34
Some people in Israel in Jeremiah's day were apparently boasting of their large and lavishly furnished houses as if this should gain them favour with God. God says in reponse through the prophet Jeremiah that the fathers or ancestors of these Jews or Israelites that were materially rich were more spiritually rich to have a concern for and attend to judgment and justice or justice and righteousness. This included judging or relieving the oppression against the poor and needy from rich or powerful people that would try to take advantage of them. God said through Jeremiah that it was well with these righteous fathers of ancestors of the materially rich but spiritually poor and hardened to the dilemna of the poor and oppressed of Jeremiah's day and that it was these fathers that looked after the cause of the poor and oppressed that sought to and came to know God. This was also a way of expressing faith in God and in the eventual righteous rule of the Messiah who would bring an age of peace and righteousness which the Lord Jesus Christ will do after His second coming. This reference to help the poor and needy also has a message to people including affluent Jewish people today to live for God more. The scripture reference in Jeremiah 22 of God rebuking the materially poor and hardened to oppression people of his day and saying that their ancestors who sought to relieve the poor and oppressed did this to seek to know God and to encourage the people of Jeremiah's day to similiarly live to know God is as follows:
That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermillion. Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him? He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the LORD. Jeremiah 22:14-16
For much of Israel's history, in this case especially the northern kingdom of Israel, she has been unfaithful to the LORD through idolatry and self-serving, immorality, violence and faithlessness. However through the refining process of the tribulation or time of Jacob's trouble when Israel (Israel and Judah) will be persecuted by the nations and chastened by the LORD the remnant that returns to the LORD will be blessed of Him in the Messianic Kingdom and for eternity. This refinement will cause this restored remnant to know the LORD or enter into a personal relationship with Him so that they will know Him instead of just knowing of him. Part of this restored relationship in the book of Hosea is likened to the restoration to her husband of an adulterous wife which was actually the experience of God's prophet Hosea that God sought to use as an object lesson to the northern kingdom of Israel. Although Christians make a big thing of the Church as being the bride of Christ we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that Israel or the Jewish people both Israel and Judah is the wife of the LORD (Jehovah or Yahweh) and God the Father that now is mostly astray from the LORD but that the LORD will try in the tribulation and bring back to Him as His faithful wife for the Messianic Kingdom and eternity. The scripture reference of the LORD causing Israel (and Judah) to be restored in knowing HIm through the tribulation in time for the Messianic Kingdom and eternity and so restore Israel (and Judah) to him as his wife in Hosea 2 is as follows:
I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD. Hosea 2:20
For more information, comments, questions or advice contact Doug Currie at Contact Spirit and Truth Ministries