Hi JFH:

This is going to be a long response to your inquiry. 

You quoted Revelation 2:10, where it says "ye shall have tribulation ten days", asking if they are the ten days of awe, referring to the days between Feast of Trumpets and Yom Kippur.  While such might be a huge leap of faith to suggest this is a reference to the Jewish ten days of awe between the two Feast days there isn't much to think so.

I am not inclined to see this to be the case.  I have not found any evidence to support this.  This passage was addressed to the Church of Smyrna, NOT Israel, so I do not see a relationship between the Church there and the Jews.  The afflictions and persecutions the believers in Smyrna suffered caused them to fear.  They were being persecuted by the Jews as well as the Romans.  The implication here is that they, the folks at Smyrna were growing more and more fearful or apprehensive of the future.  Jesus therefore told them not to be afraid of what they were going to suffer, but He did not given them any false encouragement or false hopes of peace and prosperity.  Persecutions would get worse.  The devil would see to it that some believers would be cast into prison and their faith put to a severe test.  Some would die for their faith.  But they would be able to face the future without fear if they kept two things in mind.  Their sufferings would soon come to an end (after "ten days").  More important, physical death could not rob them of the life they had received "in Christ".  Beyond death a crown of life was waiting for them.  This would be the victor's crown which consists of life.  The word "crown" here is "stephanon" or a king's crown or of a crown or wreath placed on the head of the winner in a race or athletic contest.  This, even if Christians die, they win.

Satan was behind the persecutions that followed in the Second and Third centuries AD.  Interestingly, historically there were 10 periods of persecution under the Roman emperors.  Most were short, and some did not reach far into the provinces.  Yet, millions of Christians were burned at the stake, thrown to hungry lions, tortured and killed in many terrible ways.  But death and the force of hell were not able to stop the spread of the gospel and the growth of the Church.  By the time of Emperor Constantine (288-337 AD) there were so many Christians that he made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.  Estimates of 200-million people had become Christian in the first century after the Resurrection of Christ Jesus.   Persecution under the Romans ceased, except for one short period later.

Grasping a comprehensive understanding of the Revelation of Christ is an excellent example where the Hebrew system of interpretation comes into play and can actually be helpful.  The PaRDeS system occasionally helps to reconcile what often is seen as ambiguous, confusing and difficult text.  The PaRDeS represents:

    P'shat = simple straight forward reading the text.  (Like a Sunday School lesson)
    Remez = hint to something deeper in meaning.  (To initiate further interest to study)
    D'rash = search for meaning which may be found in allegory, parable, typology, symbolic.
    Sod = hidden, prophetic, secret.

The Hebrew word 'prds" without the vowels in Hebrew means Garden, particularly the Garden of Eden.  The word is found 3X in the New Testament - Luke 23:43; 2nd Corinthians 12:4; and Revelation 2:7.  The word is a borrowed word by the Greeks from the Persians, which means "walled garden".  The reason that I note this Hebrew method of understanding is mainly to point out that theologians hold or subscribe to four different understanding of the book of Revelation.  I perceive this as like having another set of eyes looking at a problem that needs clarity.  That extra set of eyes may bring further insight to the situation.  They are:

    Futurist
    Historical
    Allegorical or Spiritualizing
    Preterist or Past

The seven churches of Revelation 2 & 3 certainly were not the only churches of their day, but God singled them out for special reasons, not always evident as to why and what for.  The message of the seven churches were first to each local church, as well as for the others named.  Furthermore, they had lessons to be learned by all future churches down through the ages, and lastly were describing the church ages that would unfold down through the centuries.  By that I am saying that each named church is identified with a period of time that followed down to where we are living in the age of the Laodician church, which embodies all the qualities associated with the church at Laodicia.
 
I believe that the reason that many hold to the Pre-Wrath, Mid-Trib, Post-Trib positions of the idea that the Church has to some how undergo the kind of tribulation like the early church experienced is largely based upon false logic and to assume what the early churches, had to experience, we will likewise go through.  They resent God changing the plan.  I believe this is an assumption that is erroneous.  I don't dispute that we all experience tribulation, as all previous Christians have; however, I do believe the Dispensational approach to understanding the Bible, handles the different ages separately and does not attempt to lump them all together.  Each is dealt with in its own time frame and setting and set of circumstances.  Revelation 9:13-16 tells us that 1/3 of humanity will die in the Tribulation from war alone. 

The seven-year Tribulation is aimed at two groups:  Israel and the Jews, and secondly to an evil, Godless, world.  God differentiates and distinguishes the nation of Israel and the Church as two separate entities.  The panoply of history covers a fixed order of events indicated in the Bible to be 6,000 years in length, and the span of events, peoples, nations, are different just as the seven churches of Revelation 2 & 3 are all different.  That's why Jesus was so specific about giving John these details to include in "His Revelation".  The 70th week of Daniel is a culminating event and it is devoted exclusively to the nation of Israel and the Jews.  Revelation is both an outline as well as a program guide to the Tribulation, much like that you would buy at a baseball game.  

I do not agree with you on the idea of the 70 weeks of Daniel 9:24-27 being contiguous or an unbroken and continuous in time.  This view is held by the Preterists that argue all prophecy was fulfilled by 70 AD and the world is getting better under their belief construct.  I just addressed the Preterist position in the last two weeks as to what is so wrong about this view.  The Preterist view falls flat for one chief reason.  They teach that the Lord returned physically by the time of 70 AD and all prophecy has been fulfilled.  Some suggest His return was spiritually, but lacks substance.  Those who teach the Preterist position are uniform in their thinking on this.  The flaw in this way of thinking is that there is no evidence whatsoever to prove Jesus returned by 70 AD. 

I have researched this premise for thirty years and as a history major, I know where to locate the best sources on matters of history.  I have never found a scrap of evidence that Jesus returned or manifested Himself to any place in Jerusalem or Israel proper.  Keep in mind His first coming He came as a Lamb to the slaughter, and in His Second Coming He will come as the Lion of Judah and reign with an iron rod!  If Jesus' second coming has already happened prior we have no evidence to that effect He has ruled and reigned with a rod of iron.  If such event had occurred we would have some evidence to that effect in the historical record.  Christian folks fail to realize that all the nations of the Bible world kept records, accounting records, tax records, political, military, records of births, even data on such things as year to year harvest yields and the weather, etc.  The ancient records are preserved for us and there is absolutely zero evidence that Jesus has had a second coming.  They exist but are not of interest to most of us so we simply assume of their being non-existent.

From my previous posts, I have made it pretty clear a "Gap" exists between week 69 and week 70.  Holding to the Dispensational hermeneutic understanding of the Bible, God stopped the clock and interjected a "Gap" of time in the historical record ( a parenthesis ) between the close of week 69, which took place the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, Palm Sunday, 32 AD.  That clock (like a chess clock) is on hold, i.e., stopped until the next step in God's Master Plan.  That "Gap" period is what is known as the age of the Church or the age of Grace.  That clock will begin to tick off, starting with the final 70th week of Daniel's prophecy at the Pre-Tribulation Rapture and the simultaneous Day of the Lord, commencing the 70th Week of Daniel.

In previous posts, I went into great detail identified the existence of "Gaps" in the Biblical text, identifying at least 24 such "gaps" that we know of in Scripture.  I did a detailed listing of them to prove they do exist in the Bible, which supports my contention that we do live in the longest "Gap" of history, namely between week 69 and 70.

Your second item actually fits the parameters of one of these gaps.  In your reference passage Luke 4:17-21, Jesus was reading from the scroll of Isaiah 61:1-3.  As Jesus was reading from the scroll of Isaiah, Jesus stopped reading in Luke 4:19 at "To preach the acceptable day of the Lord."  In Luke 4:21, He said, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ear."  Jesus ended His reading at a point were the passage ends with a comma.  He did not read the rest of the Isaiah passage which refers to three future events: The Tribulation, The Second Coming, and The Millennium or Kingdom Age.  In that particular Isaiah passage there are five additional clauses that Jesus Christ did not read, and these all have FUTURE implications.

Something to keep in mind, which I have not noted elsewhere.  Passages like Luke 4:17-21 and Isaiah 61:1-3, reveal points of integration of the Old and New Testament.  As I have stated elsewhere, the Old is the New revealed, and the New is the Old concealed.  There also are mathematical properties that unify the Old and New in ways few people know or even understand.  They provide us an incredible vantage point of our understanding the Creator of the Universe, and the Bible; a God that is big on details, big on revealing Himself, big on wanting us to discover these goodies, cookies on the counter for the grandchildren if you understand my point.  I quote my favorite passage of Proverbs 25:2:  "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter."   I hope this helps clarify the big picture of your inquiry.

God bless,

Pastor Bob