What does Luke 21:23 mean?
Jesus told the disciples that though the temple is beautiful, it will be destroyed. The disciples want to know when this will happen (Luke 21:6–7). Jesus places the destruction in the context of several prophecies that will focus on Jews from the time of His ascension until His return. First, His followers will face horrible persecution (Luke 21:12–19). Then, the Romans will come.Jesus doesn't identify the Romans, but it is their armies that will surround Jerusalem: the sign that the temple is about to be destroyed. Jesus warns them: escape Jerusalem if you can. If you're in Judea, flee to the mountains. If you're not in Judea, stay away. God's vengeance is here (Luke 21:20–22). In the Mosaic law, God promised if His people rejected Him, He would destroy their cities, their land, and their population (Leviticus 26:14–39). Soon, they will reject their God by rejecting Jesus, their Messiah (Luke 19:41–44).
From AD 66 through 70, the Jews fought the Roman occupation. At first, they did well. Before long, however, the Roman army sent reinforcements. Zealots from Galilee fled to Jerusalem and started a civil war against the more moderate Sadducees. The Jews fought each other while the Roman army marched to Judea and set up siegeworks. Between the civil war and the Romans, the people fell into extreme famine. In any famine, pregnant and nursing women are particularly vulnerable. But it gets worse.
Leviticus 26:29 prophesied that if God's people rejected Him, He would cause a famine so severe the people would eat their children. Josephus, an ancient historian, tells the story of a woman who had fled from Perea to Jerusalem. As she went, all her belongings were taken from her. In Jerusalem "seditious" Jews regularly came to her home and took what little food she could scrounge. Realizing that she and her nursing son were destined for either slavery or death by famine, she roasted her baby and ate half. When the rebels smelled the meat, she offered them the other half. Her tormentors and the city were horrified that the situation had come to this (Josephus, Jewish War, 6.3.4).
Leviticus 26:32 continues, "And I myself will devastate the land, so that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it." When the emperor found out that a woman had eaten her son, he used it as proof that the city and its inhabitants needed to be destroyed (Josephus, Jewish War, 6.3.5). The soldiers were horrified and had "wrath against this people."
Jesus' prophecy continues. Many who survive the famine will die from violence or be taken captive. Josephus reported that over one million Jews died and ninety-seven thousand were taken into slavery. The city, itself, is still under partial control of Gentiles some two millennia later (Luke 21:24).
