Jesus is answering the disciples’ question, “And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?” (7) Jesus’s answer, given as prophecies, was fulfilled in the revolt against Rome in 66 through 70 A.D. Some of the disciples who heard Jesus give these were still alive when they were fulfilled. In obedience, they left Jerusalem.
Jesus told them the reason these were about to take place in less than 30 years. He said, “For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. (22)” The Jewish leadership rejected the Messiah and handed him over to the Romans to be crucified. They were punished, just as Jesus’ parables foretold.
Jesus said that the Jews who were not killed would be taken prisoner to all the nations (24). And so they were. Jesus said that Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. And so they were. The Jews were given Jerusalem and the land surrounding it as a land of their own after the travesty of WWII.
Now with these prophecies fulfilled, what is next? Next, I should not be like the Jewish leadership 2,000 years ago, who rejected the Messiah. I should be like the apostles who accepted and obeyed. I should take heed of the warning of the writer of Hebrews. “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.” (Hebrews 10:26-27) For the judgment of the Gentile churches is soon to come. (Romans 11:21; 2 Peter 2:4-10)
