The Destruction of Jerusalem
"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. {GC 17.1}
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
18
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. {GC 17.2}
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. {GC 18.1}
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
19
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.
{GC 18.2}
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.
{GC
19.1}
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
20
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.
{GC 19.2}
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. {GC 20.1}
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. {GC 20.2}
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;
21
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. {GC 20.3}
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. {GC 21.1}
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
22
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. {GC
21.2}
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. {GC 22.1}
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
23
refuse to listen to the words of truth in their day of visitation.
Terrible
blindness! strange infatuation! {GC 22.2}
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. {GC 23.1}
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. {GC 23.2}
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
24
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. {GC 23.3}
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. {GC 24.1}
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. {GC 24.2}
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
25
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. {GC 24.3}
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. {GC 25.1}
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. {GC 25.2}
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. {GC 25.3}
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
26
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. {GC 25.4}
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. {GC 26.1}
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.
27
{GC 26.2}
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. {GC 27.1}
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. {GC
27.2}
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
28
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. {GC 27.3}
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
29
was at the head of the nation, and the highest civil and religious
authorities were under his sway. {GC 28.1}
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! {GC 29.1}
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. {GC 29.2}
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
30
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.
{GC 29.3}
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. {GC 30.1}
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
31
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. {GC 30.2}
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. {GC 31.1}
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.
32
{GC 31.2}
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. {GC 32.1}
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. {GC
32.2}
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,
33
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. {GC 32.3}
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.
{GC 33.1}
"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,
34
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. {GC 33.2}
"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.
35
{GC 34.1}
"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. {GC 35.1}
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.
{GC 35.2}
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
36
destruction of Jerusalem are a demonstration of Satan's vindictive power
over those who yield to his control. {GC 35.3}
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.
{GC 36.1}
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,
37
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. {GC 36.2}
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. {GC 37.1}
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
38
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. {GC 37.2}
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. {GC 38.1}
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