JESUS FORETOLD ISRAEL’S DESTRUCTION:
They Were Under a Certain Time Limit.
JESUS FORETOLD ISRAEL’S
DESTRUCTION:
PROVING THAT HE SENT HIS APOSTLES
PREACHING TO THEM UNDER A
LIMITED TIME SCHEDULE!
JAN LILLEBY
Especially Acts prove to us that Jesus indeed sent out His apostles to preach to Israel, while the dark gloomy cloud of destruction was looming above the nation.
Acts includes the years 28 – 62 CE, around 33-34 years of history.
The whole mission was having one particular focus: Telling the entire nation to repent and believe on Jesus as their God sent Messiah king. Thus God would send Jesus to them from heaven the instant He saw the whole nation repenting. Peter’s second speech has this aspect,
Acts 3:16-23, NASB,
16 "And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.
17 "And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also.
18 "But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.
19 "Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;
20 and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you,
21 whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.
22 "Moses said, 'THE LORD GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN; TO HIM YOU SHALL GIVE HEED to everything He says to you.
23 'And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.'”
(Editor’s emphasize)
Peter had two strong points in regard to time-aspects:
ONE: Times of refreshment,- this is when God restores Israel according to what the prophets said. Acts 1:6, “So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?"
TWO: There was a time-limit hanging over them: Verse 23: Every unbelieving and thus disobedient Jew in Israel shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. If they over sat the time-limit given for them to make repentance.
The limited time was not told them beforehand. God would send Jesus the same day as He eventually saw that the entire nation had repented, believing on Him.
But we, now almost two thousand years later (it is now 2024), know that God sat His foot down, saying Stop! – He gave up on the Jews, He gave up on His ancient people of old, and He had Paul turned to the Gentiles.
Acts 28:28, NASB,
"Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will also listen."
This was spoken by Paul on Christ’s behalf to the unbelieving Jewish Sanhedrin Counsel at Rome, in the summer of 60 CE. It was the ‘point of no return’ for Israel!
AS WITH PETER, SO IT WAS ALSO WITH JESUS,
WHEN WE CHECK THE GOSPEL STORIES
The first passage where it was spoken of coming destruction/doom is found in Mat.3:7 (NASB) – and it was not Jesus who said it, but John the Baptist,
“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”
The destruction would come upon Israel, but John could not tell them a specific time for this. John’s sharp alarm was later intensified by Jesus as we come to Mat. 23. John was a notable prophet of God and he knew what was coming.
So, Peter and John the Baptist said the very same thing…that of destruction to come upon the nation if they did not give heed to message of Jesus as their Messiah.
The first passage where Jesus was speaking a prophetic warning found in Matthew, - it comes after He began to tell His disciples that He should die and that He would be raised from the dead on the third day (Mat. 16:21). It could seem as if Jesus Himself ‘turned up the heat’ knowing time was at hand, and so brought stern provocation before the Pharisees and Sadducees. He wanted them to get it over with. No more delaying, it was now time to go to the cross. Mat. 17 tell us of the appearing of Moses and Elijah at Mt. Tabor, speaking with Jesus of His soon coming death at the cross. Jesus had been informed by the two prophets in Mat. 17, so in Mat. 19:17-20 Jesus tells His disciples repeatedly what would happen as He arrive at Jerusalem, (IMAGE: Jerusalem’s temple burning in 70 CE)
17 As Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and on the way He said to them,
18 "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death,
19 and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up."
THE BARREN FIG TREE, PROPHETIC
IMAGE OF AN UNBELIEVING ISRAEL
Mat. 20: 18-20, NASB, (it is close to Passover 28 CE),
18 Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry.
19 Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, "No longer shall there ever * be any fruit from you." And at once the fig tree withered.
20 Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked, "How did the fig tree wither all at once?"
Jesus cursed the fig tree, Israel, for the nation’s lack of faith and their unbelief, and it withered immediately…to the astonishment of the disciples.
Shortly after this happening, Jesus told His prophetic parable of the Marriage Feast (Mat. 22:7 in particular) – saying that the King got angry, hearing that they had killed those who invited to come to the feast (the apostles)- and he sent his army to kill those murderers and burn down their city. Exactly what happened to Jerusalem in 70 CE.
There are two parallel passages regarding Jesus foretelling in details judgements to come. One is Mat. 23:37-39 and the other is Luke 21:20-24.
Mat. 23:37-39, reads,
37 "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling *.
38 "Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!
39 "For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, 'BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!' "
My emphasizing of v. 38 is because this is also found in Isa. 6:11. The very same passage which Paul quoted to Sanhedrin at Rome in Acts 28:25-28 - the judgement upon Israel for not wanting to hear or see or understand the words of God to them through Christ. (Paul omitted verses 11 and 12, but it is reasonable to anticipate that this was because he knew that Sanhedrin had full knowledge of Isa. 6 anyway.)
The parallel found in Luke 21:20-24, reads -
20 "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near.
21 "Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city;
22 because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled.
23 "Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people;
24 and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
These two parallel passages are not about the future ‘Great Tribulation’ which Jesus taught in Mat. 24, but the destruction of Israel as the given time-limit was coming to an end.
Verse 22 …times of vengeance…is related to Jesus’ prophetic parable of the Wedding Feast mentioned above. Mat. 22:7 – the king got angry and sent His army to kill those murderers (Pharisees and scribes) who had persecuted and killed those who were sent to invite for the wedding, - pointing to the apostles. God destroyed Israel because of this, having given Israel 33-34 years to make repentance.
It is so far in this article entirely clear that God and Christ were aware of the coming destruction of the nation, however, they gave them ample time to make repentance…even if they knew the end of this: Israel would NOT repent.
These 33-34 years of preaching to Israel and offering them the Kingdom of God with Jesus as the Messiah (Greek, Cristos) at His Second Advent, was what Luke wrote his Acts book for. Acts is the tragically story of Israel’s falling away from their God as a nation.
The entire Acts history book is what took place as the apostles tried to put ‘manure and dig around the soil’ of the barren fig tree – ref. Luke 13 – which of course was Israel. Luke 13:1-9, NASB,
1 Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.
2 And Jesus said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate?
3 "I tell you, no, but unless * you repent, you will all likewise perish.
4 "Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem?
5 "I tell you, no, but unless * you repent, you will all likewise perish."
6 And He began telling this parable: "A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any.
7 "And he said to the vineyard-keeper, 'Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without * finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?'
8 "And he answered and said to him, 'Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer;
9 and if it bears fruit next * year, fine; but if not, cut it down.' "
(NOTICE: Verses 3 and 5 are entirely in line with what Peter told Israel in his second speech, Acts 3….unless you repent you will be destroyed…)
This prophetic parable has everything to do with the years described by Luke in Book of Acts, around 33 years. The ministries of the apostles – which make up the ‘voice’ of the vinedresser in this parable – went on by trying for 33 years to have that ‘Fig tree Israel’ to bear fruit again and so saving it from getting cut down.
That also shows us without doubt that the 33 years, did relate to the ‘Acceptable Year of the Lord’ in Isa. 61:2 – since it was telling of the First Advent of Jesus Christ; counting his years since His birth until His ascension. Remember His speech in the synagogue at Nazareth, and Jesus declaring that He in the same instance fulfilled the prophecy of Isa. 61:2…but He did willfully not read of the ‘day of vengeance of our God’ in the last half of the verse. So the ‘One more year’, points to same amount of time spent in the first year, which was a little over 33 years. Thus the apostles gave Israel an extra ‘Acceptable year of the Lord’.
The man, who owned the vineyard with its fig tree, was Jesus – verse 7 tells us that He had been looking for fruit in the last three years. Jesus served for three years in public ministry. Thus we also understand that ‘fruit’ here is another word for ‘faith’. He was looking for Israel to start believing on Him.
Since we now have Bible history to lean safely on, it is no possibility that the mission inside the Book of Acts could have been anything other than what the ‘vinedresser’ spoke of – namely to ‘dig up the soil around the tree (Israel) and put manure on’ (preaching the kingdom Gospel). Acts describes a history lasting for 33 years. The ‘Acceptable Year of the Lord’ in Isa. 61:2 points to a little above 33 years, the earthly lifetime of Jesus. You can’t be mistaken here. That one more year for the fig tree in Luke 13 is the very same as the 33 years of apostolic ministries in Book of Acts! This Bible truth we cannot escape.
The final scene as Acts was closed in 62 CE, when Paul stayed in Rome, was not long thereafter turning into great turmoil for Israel, and in 64 AD the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem led by Ananias II, stoned to death James and the elders in the assembly. The assembly escaped by fleeing up to Pella. In 66 AD the rebellion started against Rome, and in 70 CE Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple burnt, and thousands of war prisoners were shipped down to Alexandria, Egypt, and tried sold as slaves to the mining works, no one would buy (Deu. 28:68). Josephus testifies of this in his book work ‘The Jewish War’. The fruitless fig tree Israel ended up being cut down by the Roman battle axe. The apostolic efforts for 33 years trying to make the barren fig tree bear fruit, was in vain. Disaster struck Israel, as we all know.
CONCLUSION
Even if God and Christ obviously knew the outcome regarding Israel as a nation, they still allowed the nation ample time to repent. Nobody can put the blame on God for the disaster which struck Israel in 66-70 CE as the Roman Empire crushed them.
In Passover 28 CE as Jesus stood before Procurator Pontus Pilate, having the choice given the Jews present there to choose Jesus or Barabbas, they chose the latter to be set free, and having Jesus crucified. Pilate made clear that Jesus was NOT guilty of a death penalty according to Roman law. But the flock of Jews shouted back, ‘Crucify, crucify, His blood shall be on us and our children!’. And so it went; they were destroyed. (Mat. 27:11-26).
The blame was fully on those who had rejected the graceful offer of Christ to restore the kingdom to Israel. Christ’s words in Luke 13:3 and 5 rings in our ears: …but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
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