1 Thessalonians 2:14-16 says, "You suffered from your own countrymen the same things those churches [in Judea] suffered from the Jews, who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and also drove us out. They displease God and are hostile to all men in their effort to keep us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved. In this way they always heap up their sins to the limit. The wrath of God has come upon them at last." What is meant by this last sentence?
It's interesting, the three commentaries I check have three different answers, different aspects of God's judgment. The Kretzmann commentary says this is a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. The People's Bible points to Romans 11:7-8 in saying that God's patience with most of the Jews had run out and he would now go to the Gentiles. The Concordia Self-Study Bible mentions Judgment Day, that the condemnation of these Jews was already certain.
All are really part of the same judgment that was coming upon the Jewish people overall for continually rebelling against God (remember the many examples Stephen gave in Acts 7). The People's Bible sums it up nicely: "Such will always be the result of a persistent refusal on the part of any person to listen to God's Word when it is continually preached to him. Finally God's patience will end and God will harden him in his unbelief. The sad example of the Jews is a warning for us too not to despite the means of grace, lest God take them from us."
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