Luke 21:24

24. They shall fall by the edge of the sword This most important verse is furnished by Luke alone. It forms the bridge by which the prophecy travels over the chasm of ages and brings us down to the termination of the rejection of Israel. At the same time it is a wonderful prophecy, whose fulfilment has been going on from the time of its first writing to the present era. When a distinguished general told Bishop Newton that the prophecies of Scripture were written after the event, the bishop brought him to sober thought by telling him that there are prophecies of Scripture which are being fulfilled at the present day. How wonderfully are the Jews fulfilling the prophecies of the Jesus they rejected, proving by their very rejection the truth of his mission!

Led away captive into all nations The sufferings of the Jews are those briefly described by Watson in his Theological Dictionary:

The Romans, under Vespasian, invaded the country, and took the cities of Galilee, Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, etc., where Christ had been especially rejected, and murdered numbers of the inhabitants. At Jerusalem the scene was most wretched of all. At the passover, when there might have been two or three millions of people in the city, the Romans surrounded it with troops, trenches, and walls, that none might escape. The three different factions within murdered one another. Titus did all in his power to persuade them to an advantageous surrender, but they scorned every proposal. The multitudes of unburied carcasses corrupted the air, and produced a pestilence. The people fed on one another; and even ladies, it is said, boiled their suckling infants, and ate them. After a siege of six months, the city was taken. The Romans murdered almost every Jew they met. Titus was bent to save the temple, but could not; six thousand Jews who had taken shelter in it were all burned or murdered. The whole city, except three towers, and a small part of the wall, was razed to the ground, and the foundations of the temple and other places were ploughed up.

Soon after the forts of Herodian and Machaeron were taken, the garrison of Massada murdered themselves rather than surrender. At Jerusalem alone, it is said, one million one hundred thousand perished by sword, famine, and pestilence. In other places we hear of two hundred and fifty thousand that were cut off, besides vast numbers that were sent into Egypt, to labour as slaves. About fifty years after, the Jews murdered about five hundred thousand of the Roman subjects, for which they were severely punished by Trajan. About A.D. 130 one Barcocaba pretended that he was the Messiah, and raised a Jewish army of two hundred thousand, who murdered all the heathens and Christians that came in their way; but he was defeated by Adrian’s forces. In this war, it is said, about six hundred thousand Jews were slain, or perished by famine and pestilence. Adrian built a city on Mount Calvary, and erected a marble statue of a swine over the gate that led to Bethlehem. No Jew was allowed to enter the city, or to look to it at a distance, under pain of death.” Truly the Jew has been led a captive among all nations.

And Jerusalem shall be trodden down Not merely trodden, but trodden down; subjugated and debased.

Of the Gentiles Jerusalem has repeatedly changed possessors, but has never been possessed by the Jews since the Romans destroyed it.

Until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled The time of the exclusive Gentile dispensation and churchdom. The times of the Gentiles will have been fulfilled when Israel is gathered into the Christian Church; “and so all Israel shall be saved.” Romans 11:26. So in the same chapter Paul tells us that “blindness in part hath happened unto Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” We have here a striking resemblance between the language of Luke and Paul, confirming the opinion that Paul was Luke’s instructing apostle. By “the fulness of the Gentiles” is to be understood the full measure of Gentile conversion foreseen by God as to be, before the return of the Jews. That return of the Jews to God will be, as Paul says, as life from the dead. The restoration of the Jews shall redound to the happiness of the Gentiles. “For if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them be the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness?” Then shall there be one Shepherd and one fold, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

Trodden down… until The language until implies that when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled Jerusalem will cease to be trodden down, and recover her ancient glory. And it cannot but seem probable to every reflecting mind that the Jewish race is preserved for some great and providential reason.