The Destruction of Jerusalem Luke 21:20-38)

  

In this lesson Jesus discusses the destruction of Jerusalem   (Lk 21:20-28)

Luke 21:20-28

The Destruction of Jerusalem  

Luke 21:20-28

20 "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.”25 "And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring;  26 men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  27 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.  28 Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near."  

  

(Compare Matthew 24:15-44; Mark 13:14-37)

As we look at the remainder of Luke 21, we see I believe the following two general themes:

• Coming events and their signs (Lk 21:20-28)
• Believers’ attitudes to prophetic signs (Lk 21:29-38)

These two themes go hand-in-glove. We need to know both what things God has said will occur as well as how we should behave toward those prophesies that God has made. I want to stress at the outset that the attitude God’s children of should have toward His prophecy is a complex subject in and of itself and we will not take the time to explore this subject exhaustively. We could easily devote several studies to the topic…

Nevertheless, I believe that it is important to us to understand that one of the main reasons that God gives us prophesy is because He desires that we should be aware of what He will do in the future. Of course we can never hope to understand God or His ways while we are in our mortal bodies.  

Nevertheless, He has chosen to reveal to His servants what He intends to do from the beginning. In the Garden of Eden, God told Adam clearly what the consequences of eating from the Tree of Life were:

Genesis 2:16-17

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."  

And as the Children of Israel were about to enter the Promised Land, the Lord told them plainly through Moses what the consequences of disobedience to His Law would be:

Deuteronomy 28:58-67

58 "If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD, 59 then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues — great and prolonged plagues — and serious and prolonged sicknesses. 60 Moreover He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. 61 Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed. 62 You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. 63 And it shall be, that just as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess.  

64 "Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known — wood and stone. 65 And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. 66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. 67 In the morning you shall say, 'Oh, that it were evening!' And at evening you shall say, 'Oh, that it were morning!' because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and because of the sight which your eyes see.”  

Consider some examples from the Old Testament. When God decided to destroy all flesh by the Great Flood, He told Noah beforehand and told him how to prepare the ark(Genesis 6:13-14). When God decided to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah by fire from heaven, He told Abraham beforehand (Genesis 18:16-20).  God sent Gabriel to Daniel to give him the skill to understand the prophecy of the seventy weeks (Dan 9:20-23). And throughout the Old Testament we see the Lord speaking to Israel through His prophets, calling the Children of Israel to repent and return to Him, and warning them of the punishments to come if they will not. In Amos 3:7 we are told that “Surely the Lord God does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.”

God desires that we would understand Him and His ways to the best of our ability to do so. Now I believe that what He can reveal to us in advance is constrained by the degree to which we are walking in the Spirit. We cannot grasp spiritual things except through the Holy Spirit that is inside us. The more we are walking in the Holy Spirit, the more we are Spirit-led, the more I believe God can reveal to us of His character and of His future plans.  

It is also important to understand that God’s desire for His people is for good and not for evil. He tells us about his plans not to torture us with what is coming or make us fearful of the future will bring. Rather He gives us prophesy to strengthen us, to help us understand who He is, so that when the things which have been prophesied come about, we will know that it is God who is behind it. As we understand more of God’s character and His love toward His Children, we begin to see God’s desire for good even in discipline and tribulation we experience. Proverbs 3:12 tells that that “For whom the Lord loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights.” (see also Proverbs 13:24). Even when God poured out His wrath upon His Children, He did so in love, holding out to them the promise and the hope of future restoration. Listen to what the Lord tells the Children of Israel, even as He prepared to visit His vengeance on Israel through the Babylonian captivity:

 Jeremiah 29:10-12

… After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.  

From Hebrews 1 we know that where God had once spoken to His people in times past through the prophets, in these last days, He now speaks through His Son Jesus. Jesus tells us that we can be called His friends and have made known to us all the things He heard from His Father:

John 15:14-15

14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.  15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

I believe that it was out of this desire to make known to His friends what His Father would do in the future that Jesus prophesies to the crowds about events to come in Luke 21:20-28. Some of these events of which Jesus speaks, namely the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, are imminent; they will happen within a few decades of His death, resurrection, and ascension. Others, namely the Second Coming of the Son of Man, are further in the future, and have not occurred I believe, even to this present day.  

Let us look first at verses 20-24, which I believe prophesy of the destruction of Jerusalem by the hands of the Romans first in 70 A.D. and then again in 135 A.D. Look at what Jesus has to say. The first thing Jesus tells them is the sign that they are to watch for (”when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near”) and what they are to do when they recognize this sign. When the armies begin to surround Jerusalem, then those who are in Judea should flee to the mountains, those who are in the city should leave, and those who are in the countryside should not enter.   

Next Jesus tells them the reason that the destruction of Jerusalem will happen. It is because “these are the days of vengeance, that all things that are written may be fulfilled.” I believe Jesus is reminding them of the Old Testament prophecies about the destruction of Jerusalem. Some of these prophecies are associated the Messiah. For example, in Daniel 9:26 we read:

26 "And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.  

Consider also Zechariah 13:7-8, which I believe speaks about the death of the Messiah and the subsequent destruction of Jerusalem:

7 "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, Against the Man who is My Companion," Says the Lord of hosts. "Strike the Shepherd, And the sheep will be scattered; Then I will turn My hand against the little ones.  8 And it shall come to pass in all the land," Says the Lord, "That two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, But one-third shall be left in it….  

Some of the Old Testament passages, such as chapter three of the Book of Malachi, discuss the reason the Lord pour out His vengeance upon Israel. These passages are intended to convict the people of Israel of their sin and call them to repentance before judgment is upon them. They warn Israel that a time is coming when the Lord will deal with those who have turned away from Him. Listen to how the Lord warns Israel in Malachi 3 of the judgment that is coming at the hands of His messenger:

Malachi 3:1-7

1 "Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming," Says the Lord of hosts.  

2 "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner's fire And like launderers' soap.  3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the Lord An offering in righteousness.  

4 "Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem Will be pleasant to the Lord, As in the days of old, As in former years.  5 And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness Against sorcerers, Against adulterers, Against perjurers, Against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, And against those who turn away an alien —  Because they do not fear Me," Says the Lord of hosts. 6 "For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.  7 Yet from the days of your fathers You have gone away from My ordinances And have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you," Says the Lord of hosts.

To me, as I read these verses from Malachi, I am reminded of the warnings from Deuteronomy 28 that we read earlier tonight. God is merely following through with what He had warned the Children of Israel about a thousand years previously. He is being consistent.  

Note that we believe that the Book of Daniel, the Book of Zechariah, and the Book of Malachi are all dated either during or after the Babylonian captivity so the prophesies therein must refer to a later judgment. Although Jerusalem is mentioned by name only in the passage from Malachi, nevertheless I believe that the events described in these passages refer to Jesus and the destruction of Jerusalem that occurred in 70 and 135 A.D.

Let us return to verses 20-24 in Luke 21. Jesus next goes on to warn the people that these will be very difficult times for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, especially for women who are pregnant or nursng infants. He warns that the inhabitants of Jerusalem will fall by the edge of the sword and be led away in captivity into all nations. The city itself will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled. Notice that Jesus does not give any date as to when the destruction of Jerusalem would occur. He merely gives His listeners that the sign He has given will tell them that the destruction of Jerusalem is at hand.  

Within thirty years from Jesus’ death, the inhabitants of Jerusalem began to see the events coming to pass that Jesus had told them indicated the destruction of Jerusalem was at hand. In 64 A.D. Roman armies led by the procurator of Judea rampaged through the city of Jerusalem, provoking a revolt by the extreme Zealot factions within the province, who desired that Israel should be freed from the rule of Rome. The Zealots seized control of Jerusalem and held it until 70 A.D., when Roman armies under the leadership of the Emperor Vespasian’s son Titus besieged the city. The siege lasted for months until the Romans completely subdued the revolt. Three-quarters of Jerusalem was destroyed during the suppression of the revolt. The Tenth Roman Legion, roughly 5000 soldiers, was left in the ruined city to secure it. Many Jews were killed in the fighting; others died during the siege; still others were sold into slavery. It is claimed that all of the Christians left the city before the siege began. Apparently the words of Jesus were remembered and heeded.

Jerusalem was gradually reoccupied and rebuilt, especially under the Emperor Hadrian. In 130 A.D. another Jewish revolt broke out, led by Simeon Bar-cocheba, who claimed to be the true Messiah, and Jerusalem was recaptured by the Jews. In 135 A.D. Hadrian sent his most able general, Julius Severus, who defeated Bar-cocheba, captured Jerusalem, and burnt the city to the ground. A new Roman colony, called Aelia Capitolina, was built and inhabited exclusively by foreigners. Jews were forbidden to enter or even approach the new colony under punishment of death.  From 135 A.D. until today Jerusalem continues to be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles. No independent Jewish state existed in the area until the recreation of Israel in November of 1947. Most of the city is once again under Jewish control but not all; Mount Moriah, the temple mount itself, remains the site of the Mosque of Omar, built by the caliph who conquered Jerusalem in 637 A.D.  

So much for the destruction of Jerusalem. Turning our attention to verses 25-28, we see that here Jesus seems to shift gears, from prophesying about the imminent destruction of Jerusalem, to the events that will precede the coming of the Son of Man at the end of the age. In the Old Testament the term “son of man” is used 112 times in several different contexts. Of these, 98 occurrences are in the Book of Ezekiel, where it is used to refer to Ezekiel. There are two occurrences in the Book of Daniel, one of which refers to Daniel (Daniel 8:15-17), and the other apparently to Christ at His Second Coming (Daniel 7:13-14). The expression is used 87 times in the New Testament, all but one (Hebrews 2:6) of which refers to Jesus. Jesus used the term to refer to Himself 83 times in the Gospels. Jesus partially quotes Daniel 7:13 here in His prophesy.

In my opinion, the signs that Jesus describes in verses 25 & 26:

• signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars
• distress among the nations on the earth
• the roaring of the seas and the waves
• men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth
• the shaking of powers of the heavens

should be seen as precursors to the second coming of the Son of Man, and not associated with the destruction of Jerusalem. There are two reasons for this I believe. First, the general pattern we see in Luke 21 verses 20-28 is one or more signs of an event followed by a description of the event itself and how we are to react when we see these signs. And second, we can see a shift in the language Jesus uses in verses 20-24 from that which He uses in verses 25-28. Jesus moves from expressions like “you see” and present imperatives like “let those flee” and “let those depart” in verses 20-24 to “they will see” and the simple future tense in verses 25-28. These tenses imply that Jesus is talking on one hand about events that will happen during the lifetime of some of the members of His audience as opposed to events on the other hand that will occur many generations in the future.  

Since Jesus is already walking among them when He delivers this prophesy, these signs clearly apply to a future appearance, to His second Coming at the end of the age. This will, I believe, be the time referred to in chapter 19 of the Book of Revelation when Jesus returns riding a white horse, with King of Kings and Lord of Lords written on this thigh, to defeat the beast, the false prophet, and their earthly armies, cast them into the lake of fire, imprison Satan in the bottomless pit, and establish His 1000 year reign on the earth.  

The phrase “your redemption draws near” in verse 28 is also rendered in some versions as “your salvation draws near.” I do not believe we should look at this as implying that we are not saved until the return of the Son of Man; instead I see it as another way of saying “the one who is your Redeemer draws near.” Christ redeemed us at the cross. The work of redemption was finished on the cross and accepted when the resurrection took place. Christ is both our Redeemer and our redemption (Romans 3:22-26).     

Notice that once again Jesus does not give His audience a date for the coming of the Son of Man but only signs which will precede the event and will indicate that its occurrence is at hand. Jesus wants us to be waiting and watching for the things that He has told us will happen. In the remainder of chapter 21 Jesus presents an analogy which illustrates this desire in the form of the Parable of the Fig Tree, followed by a discussion of the importance of being watchful. We will cover these in detail next week.  

In conclusion, what should we take away from our verses tonight? Two things. First, I would like us all to remember that that God gives us prophesy because He desires that as His friends, we would know what He is doing. Accordingly, we should not be afraid of whatever God shows through prophesy or through His word. We should not fear the events of the end times, whether it is our destiny to endure them or to be snatched up to meet Jesus in the clouds before they occur. Second, the signs of the times are only valuable to us if we know them and are watching for them. May we be ready, with our lamps filled with oil, our wicks trimmed and burning!