We’ve been looking at what Jesus told the disciples about the future destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, his coming, and the end of the age. Jesus told the disciples to be prepared for great tribulation in Judea for the Jews and themselves. He said they’d be persecuted imprisoned, and some of them killed for their testimony about him. Jesus also told them about the signs that would be happening leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem. The final sign he warned about was the ‘Abomination of Desolation,’ which we saw in the surrounding of Jerusalem by the Roman army. Jesus told the disciples when they saw this sign to flee the city and escape to the mountains, which they did by going to a town outside of Judea called Pella.
Now, we’re going to pick up where we left off with Luke 21. I’ve entitled this episode *The Times of the Gentiles Fulfilled. Why are these passages in Mark 13, Matthew 24, and Luke 21 so important to us as believers? Because they establish a transition between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. They’re also important because when we understand the judgment of God on the Jews, we can better understand the events in our own time. There’s been a lot of confusion about the kingdom of God, the expectations God has for us as believers, and what we can expect to happen in the future of this world. We need to walk away from the misconceptions of impending great tribulations and raptures and see what the times of the Gentiles actually mean to believers today.
So, let’s go back to Luke 21:20-24. What happened during the Roman Siege of Jerusalem? The siege of Jerusalem started in April of 70 AD. The war started in 64 AD with Cestius, then Vespasian replacing Cestius, destroying towns throughout Judea. Then Titus, Vespasian’s son, replaced his father and took the army to Jerusalem. The Romans had more soldiers, were better equipped, and had access to more resources than the Jews in the city. Titus determined the most vulnerable part of the city was the second wall, where the shops and homes were located. After a couple of months, they broke the wall and entered the city. From that position, they were able to attack the Antonia Fortress on two sides. Within another two months, the Antonia Fortress fell. This gave the Romans access to the temple mount, and within another month, the city was in ruins and burning down. There were Messiahs that rose up… Titus wanted to prevent the temple from being destroyed, but the Roman soldiers were so antagonized by the Jews and the fighting that Titus lost control of his troops, and they killed indiscriminately in the streets and burned everything in their path. In the end, the only thing left standing was the temple’s Western wall, which is the ‘Wailing Wall’ today. The only reason it was left standing is the Romans used it as protection for their camp.
Most of the history we have about the events of the war is from Josephus. Josephus was a Jewish military leader who was captured in a battle. When Josephus and his men were about to be overrun, they decided to commit suicide rather than be captured. But they realized the futility of resisting the Romans, so they surrendered. When Josephus was brought to Vespasian, he prophesied that Vespasian would become emperor, which actually came true. As a result, Josephus was made an advisor and the historian of the war. He wrote “The Jewish War” five years after the war was over. Everything we know about the siege is from him. I’m going to leave the really graphic things for your own reading. The siege took five months. The Jews wouldn’t let anyone leave the city because they needed fighters. Anyone who tried to leave was killed and thrown over the wall because the smell of dead bodies was overpowering the city. If anyone did escape, the Romans crucified them around the city wall. There were so many crucifixions they didn’t have enough space for the crosses. The competing Jewish factions had destroyed the food storehouses of each other. The people were starving. They resorted to cannibalism to survive, eating their children. The descriptions of the lawlessness and depravity the Jews did to themselves are unimaginable, but the Romans were no better. It’s estimated that a million and a half Jewish men, women, and children were killed. Another two hundred thousand were taken as slaves to work in the mines of Egypt, sent to cities for entertainment, or sold as household slaves. Titus had twenty-five hundred Jews massacred as entertainment at his brother Domitian’s birthday party. This was the “Time of Great Tribulation” that Jesus told the disciples was coming.
The phrase “…and Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” is mentioned one other time by the Apostle Paul in Romans 11:25. The word ‘fullness’ is the Greek word Pleroma; it means to fill a container, fill in a performance/activity, a period. When someone masters an ability, they ‘Come in” to the fullness of that ability or that period of their life. What age or what activity are the Nations, meaning those who are not Jews, supposed to master or control? This is a mystery…
From Isaiah 27:7-13 and Isaiah 49:1-13, the fullness of the nation’s entering into the age of the new covenant. From the ascension of Christ until Jerusalem’s destruction and the Mosaic covenant’s ending was the transition period between the old and the new. What did Jesus mean when he said that Jerusalem would be ‘trampled’ by the Nations until the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled? The Greek word used here for trampled is *Pateo. Pateo is used 5 times in the New Testament; Luke 10:19 (tread upon snakes), Luke 21:24 (trample), Revelation 11:2 (tread upon the holy city), Revelation 14:20 (trampled winepress), Revelation 19:15 (trampled winepress). It’s clear that to ‘trample or tread upon’ is a term of judgment. Therefore, Jesus is saying that this is a sign to the Jews that Jerusalem has been taken from them, and it now belongs with the ‘Nations’ as a judgment ending the Mosaic covenant. But the Gentiles are not part of the Jerusalem on earth, but the Jerusalem in heaven.
Why should Jerusalem’s destruction and the new covenant’s age matter to us as believers? So, we can understand that what is going on in the Middle East today is not a sign that Jesus is going to return to rescue the nation of Israel. The Israel of today is not the people of God. Those who believe in Jesus are the Israel of the new covenant. If the old covenant could save a person, then Jesus died for no reason. But the old Mosaic covenant was meant to show the Jews they needed a Messiah to save them from their sin, but when he came, they rejected him and had him killed. Now, under the New Covenant age, religious Jews can be saved like everyone else by believing in Jesus Christ as their Messiah and entering the kingdom of God, where the Gentiles are their brothers and sisters in Christ. In the next episode, we’ll learn what it means to ‘see the Son of Man coming in the clouds.’ Is this the second coming of Christ in the future, or did this coming already happen 2,000 years ago? If you have any questions, email me, or comments, leave in the comment section. Until our next episode, May the Lord keep your heart and mind stayed upon the coming of our Lord and Savior. God Bless you and keep you in His Grace and love always!
