Mark 9:1Then Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, THERE ARE SOME STANDING HERE WHO WILL NOT TASTE DEATH UNTIL THEY SEE THE KINGDOM OF GOD ARRIVE WITH POWER.”
Who was He talking to? (I answer below)
I am not usually too big on commentaries, however will read them from time to time through Bible hub, as further insight and confirmation to what the Spirit has shown me. In such, I am in agreement with Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers, from Matthew 16:28, (which is a cross reference to Mark 9:1):
“The solution of the problem is to be found in the great prophecy of Matthew 24. In a sense which was real, though partial, the judgment which fell upon the Jewish Church, the destruction of the Holy City and the Temple, the onward march of the Church of Christ, was as the coming of the Son of Man in His kingdom. His people felt that He was not far off from every one of them. He had come to them in “spirit and in power,” and that advent was at once the earnest and the foreshadowing of the “great far-off event,” the day and hour of which were hidden from the angels of God, and even from the Son of Man Himself (Mark 13:32). The words find their parallel in those that declared that “This generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled” (Matthew 24:34).”
Yeshua/Jesus told His disciples this, and told them in their generation. That was the first century.
In a previous blog article that I wrote last year(2018) called “What’s in a Parable, Hidden Treasure, that’s for sure“, I focused on a specific verse from the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22.
Matthew 22:7“But when the sovereign heard, he was wroth, and sent out his soldiers, destroyed those murderers, and set their city on fire.
Prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD, Josephus, a Jewish priest, scholar and historian who worked along the side of Rome during the time of the war, records some profound events that took place foreshadowing the destruction that Yeshua/Jesus and John the Baptist had warned about.
“The eastern gate of the inner [court of the] temple, which was of brass, and vastly heavy, and had been with difficulty shut by twenty men, and rested upon a basis armed with iron, and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor, which was there made of entire stone, was seen to be opened of its own accord about the sixth hour of the night.”
“This also appeared to the vulgar to be a very happy prodigy, as if God did thereby open them the gate of happiness. But the men of learning understood it, that the security of their holy house was dissolved of its own accord, and that the gate was opened for the advantage of their enemies. So these publically declared, that this signal FORESHADOWED THE DESOLATION THAT WAS COMING UPON THEM.” (3.293-296), “The Wars of the Jews” Book 6, Chapter 5.3
Matthew 23:36Verily I say unto you, ALL THESE THINGS SHALL COME UPON THIS GENERATION….38BEHOLD, YOUR HOUSE IS LEFT UNTO YOU DESOLATE. (KJV)
There is written evidence to support that Christians in Jerusalem who escaped the wrath of the Romans in 70 A.D fled to Pella, during the time when the Roman Army destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple. Why did they escape? Because they heeded Jesus’/Yeshua’s warning written in Luke 21:21, and fled into the mountains. This warning was not for some futuristic time over 1,000 years after Yeshua gave this warning. Rather it was for the time He spoke of the coming wrath against Israel(House of Judah).
This was fulfilled. Done. Not for a future time. Yeshua said this would happen in THEIR generation.
Luke 21:20And WHEN YOU SEE JERUSALEM COMPASSED WITH ARMIES, THEN KNOW DESOLATION THEREOF IS NIGH. 21Then let them WHICH ARE IN JUDAEA FLEE TO THE MOUNTAINS; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. 22FOR THESE ARE THE DAYS OF VENGEANCE(WRATH), THAT ALL THINGS WHICH ARE WRITTEN MAY BE FULFILLED. 23But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, AND WRATH UPON THIS PEOPLE. 24And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.(KJV)
“She then attempted a most unnatural thing: and snatching up her son, which was a child sucking at her breast, she said, “O thou miserable infant! for whom shall I preserve thee, in this war, this famine, and this sedition? As to the war with the Romans, if they preserve our lives, we must be slaves. This famine also will destroy us, even before that slavery comes upon us. Yet are these seditious rogues more terrible than both the other. Come on. Be thou my food: and be thou a fury to these seditious varlets, and a by-word to the world. Which is all that is now wanting to compleat the calamities of us Jews.” As soon as she had said this, she slew her son; and then roasted him; and eat the one half of him; and kept the other half by her concealed. Upon this the seditious came in presently; and smelling the horrid scent of this food, they threatened her, that they would cut her throat immediately, if she did not shew them what food she had gotten ready. She replied, that “She had saved a very fine portion of it for them:” and withal uncovered what was left of her son.
Hereupon they were seized with an horror, and amazement of mind, and stood astonished at the sight: when she said to them, “This is mine own son: and what hath been done was mine own doing. Come, eat of this food: for I have eaten of it myself. Do not you pretend to be either more tender than a woman, or more compassionate than a mother. But if you be so scrupulous and do abominate this my sacrifice; as I have eaten the one half, let the rest be reserved for me also.” After which those men went out trembling: being never so much affrighted at any thing as they were at this: and with some difficulty they left the rest of that meat to the mother. Upon which the whole city was full of this horrid action immediately; and while every body laid this miserable case before their own eyes, they trembled, as if this unheard-of action had been done by themselves. So those that were thus distressed by the famine, were very desirous to die: and those already dead were esteemed happy; because they had not lived long enough either to hear, or to see such miseries.”
The prophesied curse of eating the children was also seen in the previous destruction of Jerusalem, which was forewarned in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and within the prophets:
♦Lev 26:28then I will act with furious rage against you, and I Myself will punish you sevenfold for your sins. 29You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters. 30I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and heap your dead bodies on the remains of your idols; and My soul will despise you.
♦Deuteronomy 28:53During the siege and hardship that your enemy will impose on you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you.
♦2 Kings 6:29So we boiled my son and ate him, and the next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son, and we will eat him.’ But she has hidden her son.”
♦Jeremiah 19:9I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and distress inflicted on them by their enemies who seek their lives.’
God does not play around with His Judgement, especially with those who profess to be His children, and blaspheme His Name.
Now, does this mean we do not, or will not have great tribulation, or that we should not flee somewhere that the Spirit leads? No. However, what I am trying to show, is the proper fulfillment of prophesy, as well as the surrounding historical accounts.
We can also apply a spiritual understanding to those “babes” that are on “spiritual milk”, especially during times of tribulation, as those who are on milk cannot properly discern between good and evil, and can be shipwrecked early on in their faith.
However, the actual fulfillment of such passage has already come to pass when Jerusalem was trodden down and 1.1 million people were killed. This is why Eusebius, Epiphanius, and others, records that the early Christians fled to Pella, heeding the warning of Jesus before its destruction/desolation:
“The people of the Church in Jerusalem were commanded by an oracle given by revelation before the war to those in the city who were worthy of it to depart and dwell in one of the cities of Perea which they called Pella. To it those who believed on Christ traveled from Jerusalem, so that when holy men had altogether deserted the royal capital of the Jews and the whole land of Judaea…”—Eusebius, Church History 3, 5, 3
“This heresy of the Nazoraeans exists in Beroea in the neighbourhood of Coele Syria and the Decapolis in the region of Pella and in Basanitis in the so-called Kokaba (Chochabe in Hebrew). From there it took its beginning after the exodus from Jerusalem when all the disciples went to live in Pella because Christ had told them to leave Jerusalem and to go away since it would undergo a siege. Because of this advice they lived in Perea after having moved to that place, as I said.”—Epiphanius, Panarion 29,7,7-8
This is also why in a previous chapter, Yeshua wept over Jerusalem and told them that their enemies would come and trench(surround them), because they knew not the time of their visitation…
Luke 19:41And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, 42Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. 43FOR THE DAYS SHALL COME UPON THEE, THAT THINE ENEMIES SHALL CAST A TRENCH ABOUT THEE, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, 44AND SHALL LAY THEE EVEN WITH THE GROUND, AND THY CHILDREN WITHIN THEE; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; BECAUSE THOU KNEWEST NOT THE TIME OF THY VISITATION. (KJV)
I have shared this video on other posts, but it is a wonderful 10 minute video explaining the fall of Jerusalem with fulfillment of prophesy.
Yeshua was not quiet on his warnings and prophesies of coming wrath and judgement against Jerusalem. Every city that rejected His Word was subject to more wrath then what came about on Sodom and Gomorrah or Tyre and Sidon. Such towns were those He mentioned in Luke 10:13-15(Correlating passage in Matthew 11:20-21):
Luke 10:13Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14BUT IT SHALL BE MORE TOLERABLE FOR TYRE AND SIDON AT THE JUDGEMENT, THAN FOR YOU. 15AND THOU, CAPERNAUM, WHICH ART EXALTED TO HEAVEN SHALL BE THRUST DOWN TO HELL.
This was a prophecy and a warning to the destruction of these cities, as well as the overall destruction of Jerusalem culminating in 70AD.
The verse of reference from Luke 10:15, is a quote from Isa 14:13, 15, which is speaking of the downfall of the King of Babylon. This is highly significant as Yeshua/Jesus is relating Israel as a whole to Babylon.
Isa 14:13For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.15Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.(KJV)
Now, Capernaum was nestled along the shore of the Sea of Galilee or what is also called the Lake of Gennesareth. Chorazin/Korazin is just north of Capernaum, and Bethsaida was to the east.
Taricheae was a town located south west from Capernanum along the Lake of Gennesareth. Taricheae was a Greek name of the place called in Hebrew Migdal (Magdala). This is the town that Mary Magdalene was born.
Roughly 30 years after Yeshua/Jesus uttered this warning “Woe”, to these cities and “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.(Luke 23:28) Destruction and judgement came to Jerusalem, the surrounding cities, and Israel as a whole.
Jospehus records much of the destruction and devastation that took place. In “The Wars of the Jews”, on pg 794-95, he describes the destruction of the city of Taricheae:
“529but as many of these were repulsed when they were getting ashore, they were killed by the darts upon the lake(of Gennesareth); and the Romans leaped out of their vessels, and destroyed a great many more upon the land: one might then see the lake all bloody, and full of dead bodies, for not one of them escaped. 530And a terrible stink and a very bad sight there was on the following days over that country; for as the shores, they were full of shipwrecks, and of dead bodies all swelled; and as the dead bodies were inflamed by the sun, and putrefied, they corrupted the air, insomuch that the misery was not only the object of commiseration to the Jews, but to those that hated them, and had been the authors of that misery. 531This was the upshot of the sea fight. The number of the slain, including those that were killed in the city before, was six thousand and five hundred.”
When Yeshua SPOKE those words “SHALL BE THRUST DOWN TO HELL” He was quite serious in the coming of His wrath and judgement upon those who claimed to be His people, but rejected Him.
If this all happened in their generation, how much more do you suppose who trample the New Covenant underfoot, and reject His Word? They did not know their time of visitation. Do you know yours?
Hebrews 10:28Anyone who rejected the law of Moses(Old Covenant) died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29How much more severely do you think one deserves to be punished who has trampled on the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and insulted the Spirit of grace? 30For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge His people.”(BSB)
