Mark 13:10

‘And the Gospel must first be preached to all nations.”

In spite of these tribulations the Gospel would reach out to all nations. (By this time the disciples must have been astounded at what they were hearing, and nothing more astounding than this. Their cosy lives were over). For the Good News was for the world. Probably at this stage the disciples with their prejudiced minds were thinking in terms of the Jews spread throughout the Roman world (compare ‘Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven' (Acts 2:5)) but Jesus had His eye on the Gentiles as well, as they would shortly learn. To the disciples at that stage ‘all nations' would mean primarily Jews in all nations within their knowledge. To Jesus it was probably intended as an indication of the widespread success of the Gospel, without stress on the particular, but including the Gentiles. Compare how at Pentecost those present were seen as ‘from every nation under heaven' (Acts 2:5), and Paul could tell the Romans that their faith was spoken of ‘throughout the whole world' (Romans 1:8). To that extent this was well fulfilled long before the invasion of 70 AD.

However history has demonstrated that there was a wider meaning. That indeed literally the whole world as indicating a larger world was in God's mind, as in fact the Old Testament had partly made clear. But to the disciples there was the Jewish world, and then the Roman world, and then a vague world outside without any notion of its extent, and their view would initially be limited.

‘To all nations.' It was an axiom of the prophetic teaching that in the end all nations would be brought under God's rule. The Servant was to ‘bring forth justice to the Gentiles' (Isaiah 42:1) and indeed be ‘a light to the Gentiles, that you (the Servant) may be my salvation to the ends of the earth' (Isaiah 49:6 compare Isaiah 42:6). ‘The nations' would seek to the root of Jesse (i.e. a son of the Davidic line - Isaiah 11:10), and ‘will come from the ends of the earth -- and will know that My name is Yahweh' (Jeremiah 16:19; Jeremiah 16:21). Compare also Malachi 1:11; Psalms 22:27; Psalms 96:10; Psalms 96:13 and many other references).

‘Must first.' That is, in context (although Matthew has a wider context), before the following events of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. It is clear that Jesus did therefore see that event as a turning point in history leading on to events that would follow of uncertain duration (Luke 21:24) resulting finally in the end of time and His second coming. To us that destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple is just a blip in history, only remembered because of what Jesus said. But to the Jews and the Jewish Christians in the first century it was an occurrence of vast proportions that turned their worlds upside down. And its significance was huge. To the non-Christian Jews it was a signal of God's displeasure. To Jewish Christians it was an indication that the final break with the Temple had come. So Jesus knew that certain events must follow on the destruction of the Temple, but what He did not know was how long they would last.