Trodden Down by the Gentiles

TRODDEN DOWN BY THE GENTILES - UNTIL THE TIME OF THE GENTILES BE FULFILLED.

Key words in the post are trodden and trampled. So what does the scripture do? It interprets itself.

The Old Testament established the imagery of God’s vineyard, the winepress, and Jerusalem being trodden underfoot in covenant judgment.

And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be TRODDEN down.

Isaiah 5:5

Jerusalem and Judah were God’s vineyard. When the vineyard produced “wild grapes,” God warned that He would remove its protection and allow it to be TRODDEN down.

The Lord hath TRODDEN under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord hath TRODDEN the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress.

Lamentations 1:15

Using the same prophetic imagery, Judah’s judgment was pictured as grapes being crushed in a winepress. Daniel used the same imagery concerning the sanctuary:

Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be TRODDEN under foot?

Daniel 8:13

Jesus continued this prophetic language when He warned of what would happen to those who rejected their covenant calling. They were not ignorant of what He was referring to. They were well aware.

Check this one out:

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be TRODDEN under foot of men.

Matthew 5:13

They were the salt of the Land of Israel. God had a plan to bless the nations through them spreading the message of the kingdom. The majority refused.

And this one:

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before the swine, lest they TRAMPLE them under their feet, and turn again and rend (destroy) you.

Matthew 7:6

Jesus warned against giving that which is holy to be given to the dogs. They accused Jesus of blasphemy and handed him over to the the Jewish council, the Sanhedrin then handed Jesus over to the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. They gave that which is holy to the gentiles. Look what happened next.

That generation rejected Christ, persecuted His messengers, and trampled upon the truth of the gospel. What they spiritually trampled would eventually be reflected historically and their city and sanctuary would be TRODDEN down by the gentiles.

“But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they TREAD under foot forty and two months.”

Revelation 11:2

Again, the Gentiles were the Roman armies to whom the city was temporarily given. They were permitted to TREAD the holy city underfoot during its appointed period of judgment.

Revelation then connects Jerusalem’s destruction with the Old Testament imagery of the winepress:

“And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.”

Revelation 14:19

“And the winepress was TRODDEN without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.”

Revelation 14:20

The expression “until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” does not have to describe a worldwide Gentile age lasting thousands of years. This also is not referring to when the last gentile gets saved in the future for God to change His order of things.

In this context, it concerns the allotted time given to the Roman Gentile armies to complete God’s judgment upon Jerusalem. When they were finished, the time of the gentiles were completely fulfilled.

Jesus brought all this Old Testament prophetic language together in His warning about Jerusalem:

“For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But 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. And 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.”

Luke 21:22–24

This is not some future event with some other country or nation that is no where to be found in the Bible.

Today we can look back through a historical lens and see exactly what this meant to them and what it surely means to us.

Already Fulfilled