Luke 21:20-24 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. (21) Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. (22) For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. (23) But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. (24) And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
This brings us to the next key event that must take place before our Lord Jesus returns to the earth, which is the event of the Jewish believers fleeing Israel. In the gospels, our Lord Jesus spoke of two separate occasions where He warned His disciples to flee Judea. The first occasion was when Rome destroyed the temple and the city of Jerusalem, in the year 70 AD. That account was recorded for us in the above quoted passage of scripture. In this account our Lord was speaking to all His disciples while they were standing in the temple, and He was answering their question regarding what would happen to the temple that they were physically standing in. In speaking about the first occasion, our Lord instructed the disciples to flee Judea when they saw the sign of the city of Jerusalem surrounded by armies. Jesus specifically warned the disciples that would be living in Jerusalem at that time, to leave the city and He instructed the disciples living outside the city not enter the city. This sign came to pass in the year 66 AD. In that year, Rome sent an army to put down the Jewish rebellion that had erupted in Judea. That army came to the outer walls of the city of Jerusalem but could not penetrate it. And so the commander of that Roman army withdrew from the city, leaving the city intact. The Jewish believers living in Jerusalem at that time however recognised the sign given to them by our Lord and they then left the city. They fled to a town called Pella on the east side of the river Jordan. Meanwhile the Jewish rebellion against Rome continued, and four years later, the Roman army came to Jerusalem once again. It was during the feast of Passover, when multitudes of Jews had come to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast, that the Roman armies surrounded the city once again. This time was different however, because this time the Romans took the city and destroyed it, including the temple. In the process, hundreds of thousands of Jews that were trapped in the city were killed, and nearly one hundred thousand were taken into slavery. But the Jewish believers were not affected because they had heeded the Lord’s warning, and left the city the first time that the city was surrounded by armies. Had they waited until the second time the city was surrounded by the Roman armies, they would not have been able to escape and they would have been killed along with all the unbelieving Jews that were slaughtered at that time.
Michael E.B. Maher
Comments