According to Luke’s record, the very first sign Jesus offered, showing the end was near was Jerusalem would be surrounded by armies (Luke 21:20). Nothing before that time, whether heavenly signs or wars, persecution or other kinds of trouble, pointed to the time of the end, which is the coming of Christ.
Remember, Theophilus, the high priest during the writing of Luke’s Gospel (Luke 1:3-4), would have understood Luke 21:20 to mean the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple was eminent cir. 39 AD when the Roman general, Petronius, stood with his armies at Ptolemias, ready to place an image of Gaius Caesar in the Temple at Jerusalem. This means, of course, that the coming of Jesus, according to the will of the Father, was flexible and largely dependent upon how great the Jews’ persecution of the elect would become. Once believers had nowhere to flee, that is, once the persecution extended beyond the borders of the Jews’ lands (cf. Acts 9:1-2; 22:5; 26:10-11), the destruction of Jerusalem would have been imminent.
In 39 AD, therefore, the Jews pleaded with Petronius to reconsider, so he wrote back to Caesar with a request to reconsider his orders, because war with the Jews was imminent, if the idol was placed.[1] Theophilus repented of the ongoing persecution of the Hellenist Christians, which had begun with the stoning of Stephen. In view of Luke’s warning in Luke 21:20, Theophilus stopped persecuting believers to the death, and peace reigned not only for believers (cf. Acts 9:31), but war between the Jews and Rome was averted at least for awhile. In other words, obedience to the Messiah kept Jerusalem and the Temple from being destroyed cir. 39 AD.
In Luke 21:21 Jesus warned that once the Roman armies had surrounded Jerusalem with the intent of seizing the city (Luke 21:20) the end would be near, and believers needed to flee the city and not return for any reason. This occurred in 66 AD near the beginning of the Jewish war with Rome. A few weeks after Jewish rebels captured the Antonia,[2] the Roman general, Cestius, came to Jerusalem with the purpose of putting down the rebellion:
But when Cestius was come into the city, he set the part called Bezetha, which is called Cenopolis, [or the new city,] on fire; as he did also to the timber market; after which he came into the upper city, and pitched his camp over against the royal palace; and had he but at this very time attempted to get within the walls by force, he had won the city presently, and the war had been put an end to at once; but Tyrannius Priseus, the muster-master of the army, and a great number of the officers of the horse, had been corrupted by Florus, and diverted him from that his attempt; and that was the occasion that this war lasted so very long, and thereby the Jews were involved in such incurable calamities. [JOSEPHUS: Wars of the Jews 2.19.4]
It then happened that Cestius was not conscious either how the besieged despaired of success, nor how courageous the people were for him; and so he recalled his soldiers from the place, and by despairing of any expectation of taking it, without having received any disgrace, he retired from the city, without any reason in the world. But when the robbers perceived this unexpected retreat of his, they resumed their courage, and ran after the hinder parts of his army, and destroyed a considerable number of both their horsemen and footmen; [Wars of the Jews 2.19.7]
After this calamity had befallen Cestius, many of the most eminent of the Jews swam away from the city, as from a ship when it was going to sink; [Wars of the Jews 2.20.1]
Jesus claimed that these days would be the days of vengeance, i.e. when all things that were written would be fulfilled (Luke 21:22), and this translates to the Day of the Lord (cf. Isaiah 34:8; 61:2). In other words, the Day of the Lord points to and begins with the war of the Jews that ended in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. The Day of the Lord began at that time! The innocent, such as pregnant women and mothers with their children would suffer, because this was the time of the wrath of God. It was his judgment upon the nation who rebelled against him. There is no war where the innocent don’t suffer.
What did Jesus say would be the end result and upon whom does this judgment fall? Many would die by the sword and others would be led captive into the nations (Luke 21:24). Josephus tells us that 1.1 million Jews lost their lives in that war and 97000 were led away into slavery.[3] So many slaves were taken that the slave market price was depressed, and many of the Jews who were taken helped build the Coliseum in Rome that was financed by the gold taken from the Temple. All this occurred just as Jesus said.
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[1] See Josephus; Antiquities of the Jews 18.8.2-6
[2] See Josephus; Wars of the Jews 2.17.10
[3] Josephus; Wars of the Jews 6.9.3
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