“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.” [Luke19:42-44.] |
| 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 sung, “Beautiful of situation, |
| the joy of the whole earth, is MountZion,” “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 sheep gate 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. [Genesis 22:9.] |
| There, the covenant of blessing, the glorious Messianic |
| promise, had been confirmed to the father of the faithful. |
| [Genesis 22:16-18.] 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 36:15, 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, 16.] |
| 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. [20] |
| 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.” [Isaiah 5:1-4.] |
| 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,” [Isaiah 5:1-4.] |
| 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,”“healing all that were |
| oppressed of the devil,” [Acts 10:38; |
| Luke 4:18; Matthew 11:5.] |
| binding up the broken-hearted, setting at liberty |
| them that were bound, restoring sight to the |
| blind, causing the lame to walk and 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. |
| [21] |
| 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 terribledesolations 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 |
| smouldering 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 draught [22] |
| 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!’ |
| [Matthew 23:37.] |
| Oh 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.’” [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 theirreach; 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 naught. 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 a 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.” [Psalm 76:2.] |
| He “chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which he loved. And |
| he built his sanctuary like high palaces.” [Psalm 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 life-long 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.] 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 |
| Destruction of Jerusalem |
| 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 [25] |
| 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?” [Matthew 24:3.] |
| The future was mercifully veiled from the disciples. Had they at |
| that time fully comprehended 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.] |
| 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 |
| Destruction of Jerusalem |
| 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, [27] |
| 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 rigidly observe 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.” 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 [28] |
| high places of the forest.” [Micah 3:12.] |
| For 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 |
| rejecters 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 [30] |
| 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. |
| 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 the temple; a voice against the bridegroom |
| and the bride; and a voice against all the people.” This strange being |
| was imprisoned and scourged; but no complaint escaped his lips. To |
| insult and abuse he answered only, “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 |
| [31] 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 afforded 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?” [Isaiah 49:15.] |
| 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.” [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, |
| The Roman leaders endeavored to strike terror to the Jews, and |
| thus cause them to surrender. Those prisoners who resisted when |
| [33] 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 |
| [34] 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 enforce 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 [35] |
| 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 the 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.” |
| 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 |
| [36] 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 rejecters 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 [37] |
| 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, “every one that shall be found written |
| among the living.” 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 |
| [38] 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,” [Mark 13:35.] are his words of admonition. |
| 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 moneymaking; |
| 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.” [1 Thessalonians 5:2-5.] |
