1. What kind of man put the words ordering the slaughter of enemies into the mouth of the king in the prophetic parable?

“MOREOVER, these enemies of mine that did not want me to become king over them bring here and slaughter them before me.” Those words of the king ought to strike terror into the hearts of the ones against whom they were directed! But who said those words? It was a man who most people might think would never issue such a harsh order. He put those words into the mouth of the king about whom he was speaking in a parable or prophetic illustration of his. But he was really speaking for himself, inasmuch as he himself was the one pictured by the king in the parabolic illustration.​—Luke 19:27.

3. When did the slaughter thus predicted by Jesus take place, and to what extent?

³ Was Jesus thus describing how the king of the prophetic parable would have his enemies slaughtered for not wanting him to be their king? As matters turned out, the city of Jerusalem did not welcome Jesus Christ as King on his triumphal ride into her. Five days later, or on Passover Day, the enemies in Jerusalem had Jesus executed like an accursed criminal on a stake outside the city walls. The enemies objected strenuously because the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate had an inscription posted on the stake, announcing in Hebrew, Latin and Greek: “Jesus the Nazarene the King of the Jews.” (John 19:17-22) They did not want the man whom they accused of being a blasphemer against their God and a seditionist against imperial Rome to be called their King. Thirty-three years later when they themselves revolted against Rome, it was not in favor of Jesus as their Messiah and King, but in favor of their own Messianic ambitions. In the fifth year of their revolt against Rome, there came the terrible slaughter predicted by Jesus. During the Roman siege and destruction of Jerusalem, one million one hundred thousand rebellious Jews lost their lives, only 97,000 surviving and being led away captive.

4. (a) Of what was that slaughter at Jerusalem typical or pictorial? (b) By doing what now can we avoid that slaughter?

⁴ However, after that destruction of Jerusalem and her temple by the Romans in the year 70 C.E., Jesus Christ did not forcibly impose his kingship upon the surviving Jews either in the land of Palestine or throughout the rest of the inhabited earth. The Roman Empire continued to hold the territory of Palestine for centuries thereafter. Evidently, then, the slaughter of the antichristian Jews in Jerusalem by the pagan Romans in 70 C.E. was only pictorial or typical of the slaughter on a grander scale, on a worldwide scale, of all those on earth who did not want Jesus Christ as earth’s new king at his second coming. So the time is yet to come​—but it is very near—​when, in fulfillment of his parable, the resurrected, glorified Jesus Christ will command his heavenly angels to bring his enemies on earth before him and to slaughter them as irreconcilable enemies of his kingdom. This signifies that we today are living in a dangerous time and we need to find out whether we are foes of his kingdom or not. By taking the right stand now we can be saved from the coming slaughter.