Age of the Gentiles

The AGE OF THE GENTILES began around 605 BC when the Babylonia King Nebuchadnezzar took the first Jewish captives from Judah into Babylon. About this same time God told the prophet Jeremiah concerning Judah, Jeremiah 7:16 " Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you. (The Maccabean Period was from 168 BC to 37 AD)

This event began what the Bible describes as “the time of the Gentiles”, Luke 21:24 "And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

The original nation of Israel became divided into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah in 926 BC after Solomon's reign. Around 862 BC God sent a very reluctant prophet, Jonah, to tell the GENTILE world to clean up their act of face the judgment of God. Jonah was sent into the kingdom of GENTILES that was the very nation that was causing Israel distress. Jonah didn't want to preach to the people of Nineveh because he knew that if they repented God would forgive them.

862 years Before Christ, God sends a man of Israel to the heathens to preach concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment but the man of Israel doesn't go to the GENTILES until he has been in the belly of the fish for three days. When he is finally released he goes and preaches, and the GENTILES repent. Sure enough, God forgives them. This all makes Jonah just a little jealous. Romans 11:11 I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.

Jesus said that there would be no sign given to the Jews concerning his claim as their messiah except the sign of Jonah. Jonah not only typified the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but he also typified the begrudging efforts of the children of Israel to realize the promise that God had made to their father Abraham, when He said that all of the nations of the earth would be blessed through Abraham.