The Times of the Gentiles
Dearly beloved of God, what are the times of the Gentiles? Jesus Christ said, “They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led away as captives among all nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” Luke 21:24
The times of the Gentiles describe the rule of the nations, the Gentiles over Jerusalem. When did the times of the Gentiles begin?
King Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon when they took Israel into captivity. He had a dream, and Daniel told him the dream, and what it meant. The record is in Daniel 2.26-45.
In his dream the king saw an image whose head was of gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet of iron and part of clay. Then he saw a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were made of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. The wind carried away the broken pieces of the image, and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
Daniel 2:36-45 NIV
36 This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king.
37 Your Majesty, you are the king of kings. The God of heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory;
38 in your hands he has placed all mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds in the sky. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold.
39 After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth.
40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others.
41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay.
42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle.
43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.
44 In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.
45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.
The times of the Gentiles began with the Babylonian captivity. The dream describes the rule of Gentile nations over Jerusalem until God sends the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth in the Day of the Lord to defeat the beast and his armies, and end Gentile rule over Jerusalem. The Lord’s kingdom will stand forever.
In the dream, the gold represents the Babylonian Empire, the silver represents the Medo-Persian Empire, the bronze represents the Greek Empire, and the iron represents the Roman Empire. These are not all the empires that have existed on earth, but those who ruled over Jerusalem.
Daniel had another vision, which is revealed in Daniel 7. It provides additional information concerning these kingdoms. He gives the interpretation in 7:17-28.
The fourth kingdom in the future will be made up of a coalition of ten kings, and then another king rises to power and puts down three kings. This king is called the Assyrian, the son of lawlessness, the son of perdition, the little horn, the beast, the king of fierce countenance, among other names that describe him. The Lord Jesus Christ will destroy him when he comes to the earth and ends the times of the Gentiles.
Ezekiel 30:3
For the day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen [Gentiles].
Ezekiel includes “the times of the Gentiles” as part of the Day of the Lord.
Luke 21:20-28 describes these times. Gentile armies will surround Jerusalem, and desolation will follow. These are “the days of vengeance,” and “there will be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.” “They 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.”
The Gentiles will pour out their wrath on the Judeans, and then the wrath of God will be poured out on them, and then the Lord Jesus Christ will come in a cloud with power and great glory.
Signs in the heavens will follow the times of the Gentiles according to Luke 21. After these celestial events, the Son of man will come in a cloud with power and great glory. What a day that will be when the Lord Jesus Christ reigns on the earth as the King of kings and Lord of lords!
Thank God the Church of the grace of God has been delivered from the wrath to come that will take place in that day. We will have been gathered together up to meet the Lord in the air before the Lord's Day begins to unfold on the earth. Rejoice!