AD 70. Jerusalem. All Hell is about to let loose.
History (according to Wikipedia):
The Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD was a decisive event in the First Jewish-Roman War. The Roman army, led by the future Emperor Titus, besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem. The city and its famous Temple were destroyed.
Titus surrounded the city, with three legions on the western side and a fourth on the Mount of Olives to the east. He put pressure on the food and water supplies of the inhabitants by allowing pilgrims to enter the city to celebrate Passover, and then refusing them egress. After Jewish sallies killed a number of Roman soldiers, Titus sent Josephus, the Jewish historian, to negotiate with the defenders; this ended with Jews wounding the negotiator with an arrow, and another sally was launched shortly after.
After several failed attempts to breach or scale the walls of the Antonia Fortress, the Romans finally launched a secret attack, overwhelming sleeping Zealot guards and taking the Fortress. This was the second highest ground in the city, after the Temple Mount, and provided a perfect point from which to attack the Temple itself. Battering rams made little progress, but the fighting itself eventually set the walls on fire, when a Roman soldier threw a burning stick onto one of the Temple’s walls.
The flames spread quite quickly and were soon unquenchable. The Temple was destroyed on Tisha B’Av, at the end of August, and the flames spread into the residential sections of the city. The Roman legions quickly crushed the remaining Jewish resistance. Part of the remaining Jews escaped through hidden underground tunnels, while others made a final stand in the Upper City. This defense halted the Roman advance as they had to construct siege towers to assail the remaining Jews. The city was completely under Roman control by September 7 and the Romans continued to hunt down the Jews that had fled the city.
AD 31 (approximately). Jerusalem.
Jesus is talking to his disciples (with quite a crowd of eavesdroppers)
“When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, the know that its desolation has come near. Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those inside the city must leave it, and those out in the country must not enter it; for these ar the days of vengeance, as a fulfillment of all that is written. 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. 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.
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; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”
Luke 21:20-28
AD 70. Jerusalem.
History (according to David Guzik)
Most Jews expected the Messiah to return in glory when hostile Gentile armies surrounded Jerusalem [reading the text as all one event]. When the Romans circled the city in 70 a.d., there was a sense of rejoicing among many of the Jews.
However, Christians in Jerusalem knew what Jesus had said and they obeyed Him, fleeing across the Jordan River to a city named Pella. No Christians perished in the fall of Jerusalem. But 1.1 million Jews were killed; and another 97,000 were taken captive in one of the worst calamities ever to strike the Jewish people.
This is why He wept over Jerusalem in 19:41-44, because He could see the massive devastation that was coming upon this city He loved – and why He warned all who would listen how they could flee from the coming destruction.
The Israelis took possession of Jerusalem in 1968, but the holy mount is still Arab property, under Arab rule. As far as God is concerned, the most important piece of real estate in Jerusalem – and prophetically speaking, the most important in the world – is still trampled by Gentiles.
What happens when the ‘times of the Gentiles’ are over? Then, His particular dealings with Israel begin again, and the last seven-year period of Daniel 9 begins. The calamities described in following verses will come in this period.
Wow. as if that wasn’t enough… there are several other prophesies about the destruction of Jerusalem. I don’t have the attention-span to list them here. I’ll edit this soon to include them.
