“I came to start a fire on the earth, and what more is there for me to wish if it has already been lighted?” (Luke 12:49) This figurative language was in line with what John the Baptizer had foretold concerning Jesus just a few months before Jesus started his ministry. Among other things, John said: “That one will baptize you people with holy spirit and with fire.

Matt. 3:11, 12.

17. Who of Jesus’ day were to go through a fiery experience, with what catastrophe as a climax?

¹⁷ Those prophetic words indicate that the fiery end of the Jewish system of things was due. Like chaff, the non-Christianized Jews would go through a fiery experience. This would end up with the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of the Jews from Palestine worldwide. The Roman legions saw to this in 70 C.E.