The destructions of Jerusalem
We Gentiles have trouble seeing the flow of history in the Bible, as the story of Israel seems so distant and foreign to us. But it was far from distant or foreign to Paul — and we miss much of what’s going on if we ignore this.
In Romans 9 – 11, the historical event that looms over quotation after quotation is the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar. The 10 northern tribes of Israel (often called simply “Israel”) had been taken into captivity by the Assyrians. The remaining two tribes (Judea and the much smaller tribe of Benjamin, generally referred to together as “Judea”) survived.
However, despite repeated warnings from the prophets, Judea became idolatrous. Even when kings sought to reform Judea, most of the people remained Baal worshippers. Eventually, even the kings were sacrificing their own children to Baal — making them “pass through the fire,” that is, burning them alive.
God brought to fruition the curses promised in Deuteronomy by allowing the Babylonians to lay siege to and destroy Jerusalem and the temple. However, the prophets promised that God would bless those who returned as promised in Deuteronomy 30.
Return from Exile
Under the Persians, some of the Jews returned to Jerusalem under Ezra and Nehemiah, and they rebuilt the temple (the “Second Temple”). However, the Jews by and large did not consider the exile to be over. God had promised to set things right when the exile was over, and it hadn’t happened. After all, they were under Roman rule, an Edomite sat on the throne (kings in the Herodian dynasty had been named King of the Jews by Caesar), and the wrong lineage served as high priest. When Jesus came, many Jews were still looking for the fulfillment of the prophecies about the return from exile.
The second destruction
Forty years after Pentecost, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple, re-enacting the curses of Deuteronomy. Jesus had cried over Jerusalem and prophesied its destruction. Thanks to Jesus’ words, Christians living in Jerusalem fled, as Jesus had told them to, before the Romans laid siege to the city and killed its inhabitants in a brutal assault.
Now, huge portions of the Old Testament are dedicated to the Fall of Jerusalem. It was understood as God’s judgment against Israel and fulfillment of his curses announced in Deuteronomy. However, we read the New Testament as though the apostles were uninterested in the second destruction prophesied by Jesus. But they surely were deeply concerned about this.
Therefore, when Paul speaks of God’s dealings with the Jews, we have to pause to consider: is Paul speaking of damnation and salvation at the end of time? Or about a more immediate destruction coming in just a few years when the Romans would destroy Jerusalem and kill tens of thousands of Jews — in an event just as clearly marking God’s judgment against the Jews as Nebuchnezzar’s conquest of Jerusalem?