"If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation." Luke 19:42-44.
From the crest of Olivet,
Jesus looked upon Jerusalem. Fair and peaceful was the scene spread
out before Him. It was the season of the Passover, and from all
lands the children of Jacob had gathered there to celebrate the
great national festival. In the midst of gardens and vineyards,
and green slopes studded with pilgrims' tents, rose the terraced
hills, the stately palaces, and massive bulwarks of Israel's capital.
The daughter of Zion seemed in her pride to say, I sit a queen
and shall see no sorrow; as lovely then, and deeming herself as
secure in Heaven's favor, as when, ages before, the royal minstrel
sang: "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth,
is Mount Zion, . . . the city of the great King." Psalm 48:2.
In full view were the magnificent buildings of the temple. The
rays of the setting sun lighted up the snowy whiteness of its
marble walls and gleamed from golden gate and tower and pinnacle.
"The perfection of beauty" it stood, the pride of the
Jewish nation. What child of Israel could gaze upon the scene
without a thrill of joy and admiration! But far other thoughts
occupied the mind of Jesus. "When He was come near, He beheld
the city, and wept over it." Luke 19:41. Amid the universal
rejoicing of the triumphal entry, while palm branches waved, while
glad hosannas awoke the echoes of the hills, and thousands of
voices declared Him king, the world's Redeemer was overwhelmed
with a sudden and mysterious sorrow. He, the Son of God, the Promised
One of Israel, whose power had conquered death and called its
captives from the grave, was in tears, not of ordinary grief,
but of intense, irrepressible agony.
His tears were not for Himself, though He well knew whither His feet were tending. Before Him lay Gethsemane, the scene of His approaching agony. The sheepgate also was in sight, through which for centuries the victims for sacrifice had been led, and which was to open for Him when He should be "brought as a lamb to the slaughter." Isaiah 53:7. Not far distant was Calvary, the place of crucifixion. Upon the path which Christ was soon to tread must fall the horror of great darkness as He should make His soul an offering for sin. Yet it was not the contemplation of these scenes that cast the shadow upon Him in this hour of gladness. No foreboding of His own superhuman anguish clouded that unselfish spirit. He wept for the doomed thousands of Jerusalem--because of the blindness and impenitence of those whom He came to bless and to save.
The history of more than
a thousand years of God's special favor and guardian care, manifested
to the chosen people, was open to the eye of Jesus. There was
Mount Moriah, where the son of promise, an unresisting victim,
had been bound to the altar--emblem of the offering of the Son
of God. There the covenant of blessing, the glorious Messianic
promise, had been confirmed to the father of the faithful. Genesis
22:9, 16-18. There the flames of the sacrifice ascending to heaven
from the threshing floor of Ornan had turned aside the sword of
the destroying angel (1 Chronicles 21)-- fitting symbol of the
Saviour's sacrifice and mediation for guilty men. Jerusalem had
been honored of God above all the earth. The Lord had "chosen
Zion," He had "desired it for His habitation."
Psalm 132:13. There, for ages, holy prophets had uttered their
messages of warning. There priests had waved their censers, and
the cloud of incense, with the prayers of the worshipers, had
ascended before God. There daily the blood of slain lambs had
been offered, pointing forward to the Lamb of God. There Jehovah
had revealed His presence in the cloud of glory above the mercy
seat. There rested the base of that mystic ladder connecting earth
with heaven (Genesis 28:12; John 1:51)--that ladder upon which
angels of God descended and ascended, and which opened to the
world the way into the holiest of all. Had Israel as a nation
preserved her allegiance to Heaven, Jerusalem would have stood
forever, the elect of God. Jeremiah 17:21-25. But the history
of that favored people was a record of backsliding and rebellion.
They had resisted Heaven's grace, abused their privileges, and
slighted their opportunities.
Although Israel had "mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets" (2 Chronicles 36:16), He had still manifested Himself to them, as "the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth" (Exodus 34:6); notwithstanding repeated rejections, His mercy had continued its pleadings. With more than a father's pitying love for the son of his care, God had "sent to them by His messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling place." 2 Chronicles 36:15. When remonstrance, entreaty, and rebuke had failed, He sent to them the best gift of heaven; nay, He poured out all heaven in that one Gift.
The Son of God Himself was
sent to plead with the impenitent city. It was Christ that had
brought Israel as a goodly vine out of Egypt. Psalm 80:8. His
own hand had cast out the heathen before it. He had planted it
"in a very fruitful hill." His guardian care had hedged
it about. His servants had been sent to nurture it. "What
could have been done more to My vineyard," He exclaims, "that
I have not done in it?" Isaiah 5:1-4. Though when He looked
that it should bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes,
yet with a still yearning hope of fruitfulness He came in person
to His vineyard, if haply it might be saved from destruction.
He digged about His vine; He pruned and cherished it. He was unwearied
in His efforts to save this vine of His own planting.
For three years the Lord of light and glory had gone in and out among His people. He "went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil," binding up the brokenhearted, setting at liberty them that were bound, restoring sight to the blind, causing the lame to walk and the deaf to hear, cleansing the lepers, raising the dead, and preaching the gospel to the poor. Acts 10:38; Luke 4:18; Matthew 11:5. To all classes alike was addressed the gracious call: "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28.
Though rewarded with evil for good, and hatred for His love (Psalm 109:5), He had steadfastly pursued His mission of mercy. Never were those repelled that sought His grace. A homeless wanderer, reproach and penury His daily lot, He lived to minister to the needs and lighten the woes of men, to plead with them to accept the gift of life. The waves of mercy, beaten back by those stubborn hearts, returned in a stronger tide of pitying, inexpressible love. But Israel had turned from her best Friend and only Helper. The pleadings of His love had been despised, His counsels spurned, His warnings ridiculed.
The hour of hope and pardon
was fast passing; the cup of God's long-deferred wrath was almost
full. The cloud that had been gathering through ages of apostasy
and rebellion, now black with woe, was about to burst upon a guilty
people; and He who alone could save them from their impending
fate had been slighted, abused, rejected, and was soon to be crucified.
When Christ should hang upon the cross of Calvary, Israel's day
as a nation favored and blessed of God would be ended. The loss
of even one soul is a calamity infinitely outweighing the gains
and treasures of a world; but as Christ looked upon Jerusalem,
the doom of a whole city, a whole nation, was before Him--that
city, that nation, which had once been the chosen of God, His
peculiar treasure.
Prophets had wept over the apostasy of Israel and the terrible desolations by which their sins were visited. Jeremiah wished that his eyes were a fountain of tears, that he might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of his people, for the Lord's flock that was carried away captive. Jeremiah 9:1; 13:17. What, then, was the grief of Him whose prophetic glance took in, not years, but ages! He beheld the destroying angel with sword uplifted against the city which had so long been Jehovah's dwelling place. From the ridge of Olivet, the very spot afterward occupied by Titus and his army, He looked across the valley upon the sacred courts and porticoes, and with tear-dimmed eyes He saw, in awful perspective, the walls surrounded by alien hosts. He heard the tread of armies marshaling for war. He heard the voice of mothers and children crying for bread in the besieged city. He saw her holy and beautiful house, her palaces and towers, given to the flames, and where once they stood, only a heap of smoldering ruins.
Looking down the ages, He
saw the covenant people scattered in every land, "like wrecks
on a desert shore." In the temporal retribution about to
fall upon her children, He saw but the first draft from that cup
of wrath which at the final judgment she must drain to its dregs.
Divine pity, yearning love, found utterance in the mournful words:
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets,
and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have
gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, and ye would not!" O that thou, a nation
favored above every other, hadst known the time of thy visitation,
and the things that belong unto thy peace! I have stayed the angel
of justice, I have called thee to repentance, but in vain. It
is not merely servants, delegates, and prophets, whom thou hast
refused and rejected, but the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer.
If thou art destroyed, thou alone art responsible. "Ye will
not come to Me, that ye might have life." Matthew 23:37;
John 5:40.
Christ saw in Jerusalem a symbol of the world hardened in unbelief and rebellion, and hastening on to meet the retributive judgments of God. The woes of a fallen race, pressing upon His soul, forced from His lips that exceeding bitter cry. He saw the record of sin traced in human misery, tears, and blood; His heart was moved with infinite pity for the afflicted and suffering ones of earth; He yearned to relieve them all. But even His hand might not turn back the tide of human woe; few would seek their only Source of help. He was willing to pour out His soul unto death, to bring salvation within their reach; but few would come to Him that they might have life.
The Majesty of heaven in
tears! the Son of the infinite God troubled in spirit, bowed down
with anguish! The scene filled all heaven with wonder. That scene
reveals to us the exceeding sinfulness of sin; it shows how hard
a task it is, even for Infinite Power, to save the guilty from
the consequences of transgressing the law of God. Jesus, looking
down to the last generation, saw the world involved in a deception
similar to that which caused the destruction of Jerusalem. The
great sin of the Jews was their rejection of Christ; the great
sin of the Christian world would be their rejection of the law
of God, the foundation of His government in heaven and earth.
The precepts of Jehovah would be despised and set at nought. Millions
in bondage to sin, slaves of Satan, doomed to suffer the second
death, would refuse to listen to the words of truth in their day
of visitation. Terrible blindness! strange infatuation!
Two days before the Passover, when Christ had for the last time departed from the temple, after denouncing the hypocrisy of the Jewish rulers, He again went out with His disciples to the Mount of Olives and seated Himself with them upon the grassy slope overlooking the city. Once more He gazed upon its walls, its towers, and its palaces. Once more He beheld the temple in its dazzling splendor, a diadem of beauty crowning the sacred mount.
A thousand years before, the psalmist had magnified God's favor to Israel in making her holy house His dwelling place: "In Salem also is His tabernacle, and His dwelling place in Zion." He "chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which He loved. And He built His sanctuary like high palaces." Psalms 76:2; 78:68, 69. The first temple had been erected during the most prosperous period of Israel's history. Vast stores of treasure for this purpose had been collected by King David, and the plans for its construction were made by divine inspiration. 1 Chronicles 28:12, 19. Solomon, the wisest of Israel's monarchs, had completed the work. This temple was the most magnificent building which the world ever saw. Yet the Lord had declared by the prophet Haggai, concerning the second temple: "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former." "I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts." Haggai 2:9, 7.
After the destruction of
the temple by Nebuchadnezzar it was rebuilt about five hundred
years before the birth of Christ by a people who from a lifelong
captivity had returned to a wasted and almost deserted country.
There were then among them aged men who had seen the glory of
Solomon's temple, and who wept at the foundation of the new building,
that it must be so inferior to the former. The feeling that prevailed
is forcibly described by the prophet: "Who is left among
you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see
it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?"
Haggai 2:3; Ezra 3:12. Then was given the promise that the glory
of this latter house should be greater than that of the former.
But the second temple had not equaled the first in magnificence; nor was it hallowed by those visible tokens of the divine presence which pertained to the first temple. There was no manifestation of supernatural power to mark its dedication. No cloud of glory was seen to fill the newly erected sanctuary. No fire from heaven descended to consume the sacrifice upon its altar. The Shekinah no longer abode between the cherubim in the most holy place; the ark, the mercy seat, and the tables of the testimony were not to be found therein. No voice sounded from heaven to make known to the inquiring priest the will of Jehovah.
For centuries the Jews had vainly endeavored to show wherein the promise of God given by Haggai had been fulfilled; yet pride and unbelief blinded their minds to the true meaning of the prophet's words. The second temple was not honored with the cloud of Jehovah's glory, but with the living presence of One in whom dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily--who was God Himself manifest in the flesh. The "Desire of all nations" had indeed come to His temple when the Man of Nazareth taught and healed in the sacred courts. In the presence of Christ, and in this only, did the second temple exceed the first in glory. But Israel had put from her the proffered Gift of heaven. With the humble Teacher who had that day passed out from its golden gate, the glory had forever departed from the temple. Already were the Saviour's words fulfilled: "Your house is left unto you desolate." Matthew 23:38.
The disciples had been filled
with awe and wonder at Christ's prediction of the overthrow of
the temple, and they desired to understand more fully the meaning
of His words. Wealth, labor, and architectural skill had for more
than forty years been freely expended to enhance its splendors.
Herod the Great had lavished upon it both Roman wealth and Jewish
treasure, and even the emperor of the world had enriched it with
his gifts. Massive blocks of white marble, of almost fabulous
size, forwarded from Rome for this purpose, formed a part of its
structure; and to these the disciples had called the attention
of their Master, saying: "See what manner of stones and what
buildings are here!" Mark 13:1.
To these words, Jesus made the solemn and startling reply: "Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." Matthew 24:2.
With the overthrow of Jerusalem the disciples associated the events of Christ's personal coming in temporal glory to take the throne of universal empire, to punish the impenitent Jews, and to break from off the nation the Roman yoke. The Lord had told them that He would come the second time. Hence at the mention of judgments upon Jerusalem, their minds reverted to that coming; and as they were gathered about the Saviour upon the Mount of Olives, they asked: "When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?" Verse 3.
The future was mercifully veiled from the disciples. Had they at that time fully comprehend the two awful facts-- the Redeemer's sufferings and death, and the destruction of their city and temple--they would have been overwhelmed with horror. Christ presented before them an outline of the prominent events to take place before the close of time. His words were not then fully understood; but their meaning was to be unfolded as His people should need the instruction therein given. The prophecy which He uttered was twofold in its meaning; while foreshadowing the destruction of Jerusalem, it prefigured also the terrors of the last great day.
Jesus declared to the listening
disciples the judgments that were to fall upon apostate Israel,
and especially the retributive vengeance that would come upon
them for their rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah. Unmistakable
signs would precede the awful climax. The dreaded hour would come
suddenly and swiftly. And the Saviour warned His followers: "When
ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of
by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth,
let him understand:) then let them which be in Judea flee into
the mountains." Matthew 24:15, 16; Luke 21:20, 21. When the
idolatrous standards of the Romans should be set up in the holy
ground, which extended some furlongs outside the city walls, then
the followers of Christ were to find safety in flight. When the
warning sign should be seen, those who would escape must make
no delay. Throughout the land of Judea, as well as in Jerusalem
itself, the signal for flight must be immediately obeyed. He who
chanced to be upon the housetop must not go down into his house,
even to save his most valued treasures. Those who were working
in the fields or vineyards must not take time to return for the
outer garment laid aside while they should be toiling in the heat
of the day. They must not hesitate a moment, lest they be involved
in the general destruction.
In the reign of Herod, Jerusalem
had not only been greatly beautified, but by the erection of towers,
walls, and fortresses, adding to the natural strength of its situation,
it had been rendered apparently impregnable. He who would at this
time have foretold publicly its destruction, would, like Noah
in his day, have been called a crazed alarmist. But Christ had
said: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall
not pass away." Matthew 24:35. Because of her sins, wrath
had been denounced against Jerusalem, and her stubborn unbelief
rendered her doom certain.
The Lord had declared by
the prophet Micah: "Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the
house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor
judgment, and pervert all equity. They build up Zion with blood,
and Jerusalem with iniquity. The heads thereof judge for reward,
and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof
divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is
not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us." Micah
3:9-11.
These words faithfully described the corrupt and self-righteous inhabitants of Jerusalem. While claiming to observe rigidly the precepts of God's law, they were transgressing all its principles. They hated Christ because His purity and holiness revealed their iniquity; and they accused Him of being the cause of all the troubles which had come upon them in consequence of their sins. Though they knew Him to be sinless, they had declared that His death was necessary to their safety as a nation. "If we let Him thus alone," said the Jewish leaders, "all men will believe on Him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation." John 11:48. If Christ were sacrificed, they might once more become a strong, united people. Thus they reasoned, and they concurred in the decision of their high priest, that it would be better for one man to die than for the whole nation to perish.
Thus the Jewish leaders had built up "Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity." Micah 3:10. And yet, while they slew their Saviour because He reproved their sins, such was their self-righteousness that they regarded themselves as God's favored people and expected the Lord to deliver them from their enemies. "Therefore," continued the prophet, "shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest." Verse 12.
For nearly forty years after
the doom of Jerusalem had been pronounced by Christ Himself, the
Lord delayed His judgments upon the city and the nation. Wonderful
was the long-suffering of God toward the rejectors of His gospel
and the murderers of His Son. The parable of the unfruitful tree
represented God's dealings with the Jewish nation. The command
had gone forth, "Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?"
(Luke 13:7) but divine mercy had spared it yet a little longer.
There were still many among the Jews who were ignorant of the
character and the work of Christ. And the children had not enjoyed
the opportunities or received the light which their parents had
spurned. Through the preaching of the apostles and their associates,
God would cause light to shine upon them; they would be permitted
to see how prophecy had been fulfilled, not only in the birth
and life of Christ, but in His death and resurrection. The children
were not condemned for the sins of the parents; but when, with
a knowledge of all the light given to their parents, the children
rejected the additional light granted to themselves, they became
partakers of the parents' sins, and filled up the measure of their
iniquity.
The long-suffering of God
toward Jerusalem only confirmed the Jews in their stubborn impenitence.
In their hatred and cruelty toward the disciples of Jesus they
rejected the last offer of mercy. Then God withdrew His protection
from them and removed His restraining power from Satan and his
angels, and the nation was left to the control of the leader she
had chosen. Her children had spurned the grace of Christ, which
would have enabled them to subdue their evil impulses, and now
these became the conquerors. Satan aroused the fiercest and most
debased passions of the soul. Men did not reason; they were beyond
reason--controlled by impulse and blind rage. They became satanic
in their cruelty. In the family and in the nation, among the highest
and the lowest classes alike, there was suspicion, envy, hatred,
strife, rebellion, murder. There was no safety anywhere. Friends
and kindred betrayed one another. Parents slew their children,
and children their parents. The rulers of the people had no power
to rule themselves. Uncontrolled passions made them tyrants. The
Jews had accepted false testimony to condemn the innocent Son
of God. Now false accusations made their own lives uncertain.
By their actions they had long been saying: "Cause the Holy
One of Israel to cease from before us." Isaiah 30:11. Now
their desire was granted. The fear of God no longer disturbed
them. Satan was at the head of the nation, and the highest civil
and religious authorities were under his sway.
The leaders of the opposing
factions at times united to plunder and torture their wretched
victims, and again they fell upon each other's forces and slaughtered
without mercy. Even the sanctity of the temple could not restrain
their horrible ferocity. The worshipers were stricken down before
the altar, and the sanctuary was polluted with the bodies of the
slain. Yet in their blind and blasphemous presumption the instigators
of this hellish work publicly declared that they had no fear that
Jerusalem would be destroyed, for it was God's own city. To establish
their power more firmly, they bribed false prophets to proclaim,
even while Roman legions were besieging the temple, that the people
were to wait for deliverance from God. To the last, multitudes
held fast to the belief that the Most High would interpose for
the defeat of their adversaries. But Israel had spurned the divine
protection, and now she had no defense. Unhappy Jerusalem! rent
by internal dissensions, the blood of her children slain by one
another's hands crimsoning her streets, while alien armies beat
down her fortifications and slew her men of war!
All the predictions given by Christ concerning the destruction of Jerusalem were fulfilled to the letter. The Jews experienced the truth of His words of warning: "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." Matthew 7:2.
Signs and wonders appeared,
foreboding disaster and doom. In the midst of the night an unnatural
light shone over the temple and the altar. Upon the clouds at
sunset were pictured chariots and men of war gathering for battle.
The priests ministering by night in the sanctuary were terrified
by mysterious sounds; the earth trembled, and a multitude of voices
were heard crying: "Let us depart hence." The great
eastern gate, which was so heavy that it could hardly be shut
by a score of men, and which was secured by immense bars of iron
fastened deep in the pavement of solid stone, opened at midnight,
without visible agency.--Milman, The History of the Jews, book
13.
For seven years a man continued to go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, declaring the woes that were to come upon the city. By day and by night he chanted the wild dirge: "A voice from the east! a voice from the west! a voice from the four winds! a voice against Jerusalem and against the temple! a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides! a voice against the whole people!"-- Ibid . This strange being was imprisoned and scourged, but no complaint escaped his lips. To insult and abuse he answered only: "Woe, woe to Jerusalem!" "woe, woe to the inhabitants thereof!" His warning cry ceased not until he was slain in the siege he had foretold.
Not one Christian perished
in the destruction of Jerusalem. Christ had given His disciples
warning, and all who believed His words watched for the promised
sign. "When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies,"
said Jesus, "then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.
Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let
them which are in the midst of it depart out." Luke 21:20,
21. After the Romans under Cestius had surrounded the city, they
unexpectedly abandoned the siege when everything seemed favorable
for an immediate attack. The besieged, despairing of successful
resistance, were on the point of surrender, when the Roman general
withdrew his forces without the least apparent reason. But God's
merciful providence was directing events for the good of His own
people. The promised sign had been given to the waiting Christians,
and now an opportunity was offered for all who would, to obey
the Saviour's warning. Events were so overruled that neither Jews
nor Romans should hinder the flight of the Christians. Upon the
retreat of Cestius, the Jews, sallying from Jerusalem, pursued
after his retiring army; and while both forces were thus fully
engaged, the Christians had an opportunity to leave the city.
At this time the country also had been cleared of enemies who
might have endeavored to intercept them. At the time of the siege,
the Jews were assembled at Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles,
and thus the Christians throughout the land were able to make
their escape unmolested. Without delay they fled to a place of
safety--the city of Pella, in the land of Perea, beyond Jordan.
The Jewish forces, pursuing after Cestius and his army, fell upon their rear with such fierceness as to threaten them with total destruction. It was with great difficulty that the Romans succeeded in making their retreat. The Jews escaped almost without loss, and with their spoils returned in triumph to Jerusalem. Yet this apparent success brought them only evil. It inspired them with that spirit of stubborn resistance to the Romans which speedily brought unutterable woe upon the doomed city.
Terrible were the calamities
that fell upon Jerusalem when the siege was resumed by Titus.
The city was invested at the time of the Passover, when millions
of Jews were assembled within its walls. Their stores of provision,
which if carefully preserved would have supplied the inhabitants
for years, had previously been destroyed through the jealousy
and revenge of the contending factions, and now all the horrors
of starvation were experienced. A measure of wheat was sold for
a talent. So fierce were the pangs of hunger that men would gnaw
the leather of their belts and sandals and the covering of their
shields. Great numbers of the people would steal out at night
to gather wild plants growing outside the city walls, though many
were seized and put to death with cruel torture, and often those
who returned in safety were robbed of what they had gleaned at
so great peril. The most inhuman tortures were inflicted by those
in power, to force from the want-stricken people the last scanty
supplies which they might have concealed. And these cruelties
were not infrequently practiced by men who were themselves well
fed, and who were merely desirous of laying up a store of provision
for the future.
Thousands perished from famine and pestilence. Natural affection seemed to have been destroyed. Husbands robbed their wives, and wives their husbands. Children would be seen snatching the food from the mouths of their aged parents. The question of the prophet, "Can a woman forget her sucking child?" received the answer within the walls of that doomed city: "The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people." Isaiah 49:15; Lamentations 4:10. Again was fulfilled the warning prophecy given fourteen centuries before: "The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, . . . and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates." Deuteronomy 28:56, 57.
The Roman leaders endeavored to strike terror to the Jews and thus cause them to surrender. Those prisoners who resisted when taken, were scourged, tortured, and crucified before the wall of the city. Hundreds were daily put to death in this manner, and the dreadful work continued until, along the Valley of Jehoshaphat and at Calvary, crosses were erected in so great numbers that there was scarcely room to move among them. So terribly was visited that awful imprecation uttered before the judgment seat of Pilate: "His blood be on us, and on our children." Matthew 27:25.
Titus would willingly have
put an end to the fearful scene, and thus have spared Jerusalem
the full measure of her doom. He was filled with horror as he
saw the bodies of the dead lying in heaps in the valleys. Like
one entranced, he looked from the crest of Olivet upon the magnificent
temple and gave command that not one stone of it be touched. Before
attempting to gain possession of this stronghold, he made an earnest
appeal to the Jewish leaders not to force him to defile the sacred
place with blood. If they would come forth and fight in any other
place, no Roman should violate the sanctity of the temple. Josephus
himself, in a most eloquent appeal, entreated them to surrender,
to save themselves, their city, and their place of worship. But
his words were answered with bitter curses. Darts were hurled
at him, their last human mediator, as he stood pleading with them.
The Jews had rejected the entreaties of the Son of God, and now
expostulation and entreaty only made them more determined to resist
to the last. In vain were the efforts of Titus to save the temple;
One greater than he had declared that not one stone was to be
left upon another.
The blind obstinacy of the
Jewish leaders, and the detestable crimes perpetrated within the
besieged city, excited the horror and indignation of the Romans,
and Titus at last decided to take the temple by storm. He determined,
however, that if possible it should be saved from destruction.
But his commands were disregarded. After he had retired to his
tent at night, the Jews, sallying from the temple, attacked the
soldiers without. In the struggle, a firebrand was flung by a
soldier through an opening in the porch, and immediately the cedar-lined
chambers about the holy house were in a blaze. Titus rushed to
the place, followed by his generals and legionaries, and commanded
the soldiers to quench the flames. His words were unheeded. In
their fury the soldiers hurled blazing brands into the chambers
adjoining the temple, and then with their swords they slaughtered
in great numbers those who had found shelter there. Blood flowed
down the temple steps like water. Thousands upon thousands of
Jews perished. Above the sound of battle, voices were heard shouting:
"Ichabod!"--the glory is departed.
"Titus found it impossible
to check the rage of the soldiery; he entered with his officers,
and surveyed the interior of the sacred edifice. The splendor
filled them with wonder; and as the flames had not yet penetrated
to the holy place, he made a last effort to save it, and springing
forth, again exhorted the soldiers to stay the progress of the
conflagration. The centurion Liberalis endeavored to force obedience
with his staff of office; but even respect for the emperor gave
way to the furious animosity against the Jews, to the fierce excitement
of battle, and to the insatiable hope of plunder. The soldiers
saw everything around them radiant with gold, which shone dazzlingly
in the wild light of the flames; they supposed that incalculable
treasures were laid up in the sanctuary. A soldier, unperceived,
thrust a lighted torch between the hinges of the door: the whole
building was in flames in an instant. The blinding smoke and fire
forced the officers to retreat, and the noble edifice was left
to its fate.
"It was an appalling
spectacle to the Roman--what was it to the Jew? The whole summit
of the hill which commanded the city, blazed like a volcano. One
after another the buildings fell in, with a tremendous crash,
and were swallowed up in the fiery abyss. The roofs of cedar were
like sheets of flame; the gilded pinnacles shone like spikes of
red light; the gate towers sent up tall columns of flame and smoke.
The neighboring hills were lighted up; and dark groups of people
were seen watching in horrible anxiety the progress of the destruction:
the walls and heights of the upper city were crowded with faces,
some pale with the agony of despair, others scowling unavailing
vengeance. The shouts of the Roman soldiery as they ran to and
fro, and the howlings of the insurgents who were perishing in
the flames, mingled with the roaring of the conflagration and
the thundering sound of falling timbers. The echoes of the mountains
replied or brought back the shrieks of the people on the heights;
all along the walls resounded screams and wailings; men who were
expiring with famine rallied their remaining strength to utter
a cry of anguish and desolation.
"The slaughter within was even more dreadful than the spectacle from without. Men and women, old and young, insurgents and priests, those who fought and those who entreated mercy, were hewn down in indiscriminate carnage. The number of the slain exceeded that of the slayers. The legionaries had to clamber over heaps of dead to carry on the work of extermination."--Milman, The History of the Jews, book 16.
After the destruction of the temple, the whole city soon fell into the hands of the Romans. The leaders of the Jews forsook their impregnable towers, and Titus found them solitary. He gazed upon them with amazement, and declared that God had given them into his hands; for no engines, however powerful, could have prevailed against those stupendous battlements. Both the city and the temple were razed to their foundations, and the ground upon which the holy house had stood was "plowed like a field." Jeremiah 26:18. In the siege and the slaughter that followed, more than a million of the people perished; the survivors were carried away as captives, sold as slaves, dragged to Rome to grace the conqueror's triumph, thrown to wild beasts in the amphitheaters, or scattered as homeless wanderers throughout the earth.
The Jews had forged their
own fetters; they had filled for themselves the cup of vengeance.
In the utter destruction that befell them as a nation, and in
all the woes that followed them in their dispersion, they were
but reaping the harvest which their own hands had sown. Says the
prophet: "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself;" "for
thou hast fallen by thine iniquity." Hosea 13:9; 14:1. Their
sufferings are often represented as a punishment visited upon
them by the direct decree of God. It is thus that the great deceiver
seeks to conceal his own work. By stubborn rejection of divine
love and mercy, the Jews had caused the protection of God to be
withdrawn from them, and Satan was permitted to rule them according
to his will. The horrible cruelties enacted in the destruction
of Jerusalem are a demonstration of Satan's vindictive power over
those who yield to his control.
We cannot know how much we owe to Christ for the peace and protection which we enjoy. It is the restraining power of God that prevents mankind from passing fully under the control of Satan. The disobedient and unthankful have great reason for gratitude for God's mercy and long-suffering in holding in check the cruel, malignant power of the evil one. But when men pass the limits of divine forbearance, that restraint is removed. God does not stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the sentence against transgression; but He leaves the rejectors of His mercy to themselves, to reap that which they have sown. Every ray of light rejected, every warning despised or unheeded, every passion indulged, every transgression of the law of God, is a seed sown which yields its unfailing harvest. The Spirit of God, persistently resisted, is at last withdrawn from the sinner, and then there is left no power to control the evil passions of the soul, and no protection from the malice and enmity of Satan. The destruction of Jerusalem is a fearful and solemn warning to all who are trifling with the offers of divine grace and resisting the pleadings of divine mercy. Never was there given a more decisive testimony to God's hatred of sin and to the certain punishment that will fall upon the guilty.
The Saviour's prophecy concerning
the visitation of judgments upon Jerusalem is to have another
fulfillment, of which that terrible desolation was but a faint
shadow. In the fate of the chosen city we may behold the doom
of a world that has rejected God's mercy and trampled upon His
law. Dark are the records of human misery that earth has witnessed
during its long centuries of crime. The heart sickens, and the
mind grows faint in contemplation. Terrible have been the results
of rejecting the authority of Heaven. But a scene yet darker is
presented in the revelations of the future. The records of the
past,--the long procession of tumults, conflicts, and revolutions,
the "battle of the warrior . . . with confused noise, and
garments rolled in blood" (Isaiah 9:5),-- what are these,
in contrast with the terrors of that day when the restraining
Spirit of God shall be wholly withdrawn from the wicked, no longer
to hold in check the outburst of human passion and satanic wrath!
The world will then behold, as never before, the results of Satan's
rule.
But in that day, as in the time of Jerusalem's destruction, God's people will be delivered, everyone that shall be found written among the living. Isaiah 4:3. Christ has declared that He will come the second time to gather His faithful ones to Himself: "Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Matthew 24:30, 31. Then shall they that obey not the gospel be consumed with the spirit of His mouth and be destroyed with the brightness of His coming. 2 Thessalonians 2:8. Like Israel of old the wicked destroy themselves; they fall by their iniquity. By a life of sin, they have placed themselves so out of harmony with God, their natures have become so debased with evil, that the manifestation of His glory is to them a consuming fire.
Let men beware lest they
neglect the lesson conveyed to them in the words of Christ. As
He warned His disciples of Jerusalem's destruction, giving them
a sign of the approaching ruin, that they might make their escape;
so He has warned the world of the day of final destruction and
has given them tokens of its approach, that all who will may flee
from the wrath to come. Jesus declares: "There shall be signs
in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth
distress of nations." Luke 21:25; Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:24-26;
Revelation 6:12-17. Those who behold these harbingers of His coming
are to "know that it is near, even at the doors." Matthew
24:33. "Watch ye therefore," are His words of admonition.
Mark 13:35. They that heed the warning shall not be left in darkness,
that that day should overtake them unawares. But to them that
will not watch, "the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief
in the night." 1 Thessalonians 5:2-5.
The world is no more ready to credit the message for this time than were the Jews to receive the Saviour's warning concerning Jerusalem. Come when it may, the day of God will come unawares to the ungodly. When life is going on in its unvarying round; when men are absorbed in pleasure, in business, in traffic, in money-making; when religious leaders are magnifying the world's progress and enlightenment, and the people are lulled in a false security--then, as the midnight thief steals within the unguarded dwelling, so shall sudden destruction come upon the careless and ungodly, "and they shall not escape." Verse 3.
