Part 8 (2/2)

Luke 21:20-22.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SIEGE OF JERUSALEM BY THE ROMANS UNDER t.i.tUS, A.D. 70

”When ye shall see Jerusalem compa.s.sed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.” Luke 21:20.]

The unbelieving in Jerusalem and Judea could not conceive that their city, so long protected and favored of G.o.d, could be destroyed. Not even the appearance of the Roman armies could shake their blind self-confidence. But at the first sight of the encircling armies, the Christians knew that the time for flight was at hand. But how to flee was the question, with the compa.s.sing lines drawn close about the city.

Moreover, the Zealots, the furious war party in power, would be little likely to allow any number to pa.s.s out to the Roman forces.

Just here G.o.d's providence made a way of escape. Cestius, the Roman commander, after having partially undermined one of the temple walls, suddenly decided to defer pus.h.i.+ng the attack. ”He retired from the city,” says Josephus, ”without any reason in the world.” (See ”Wars,”

book 2, chap. 19.) And the Zealots flew out after the retiring Romans, furiously attacking the rear guards.

Then those watching Christians knew that the time for quick flight had come, according to Christ's prophecy uttered many years before. They fled out of the city and out of the country round about.

Through all the years, Christ's prophecy had exhorted them, ”Pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day.”

Matt. 24:20. The prayer was answered, for it was in the autumn and on a week day that the flight was made.[B] Watching for the sign, and instantly obeying, they were delivered.

Thus it was that when the Romans returned later to the siege, never to give up till the city fell, none of the Christians were overwhelmed in its destruction. Even so are we to watch the signs of our own times, that we may escape those things that are coming upon the earth, and be ready to ”stand before the Son of man.”

The Prophetic Word Fulfilled

Christ had declared that the temple, the pride of the nation, would be utterly destroyed. In the last siege, the Roman commander tried to spare the magnificent pile. When the Jews made it their chief fortress, because of its ma.s.sive strength, t.i.tus remonstrated with them, saying:

”If you will but change the place whereon you fight, no Roman shall either come near your sanctuary, or offer any affront to it; nay, I will endeavor to preserve you your holy house, whether you will or not.”--_Josephus, ”Wars of the Jews,” book 6, chap. 2._

But the prophecy was fulfilled to the letter. The people seemed possessed with fury. The hardened Roman pagans were astonished at their suicidal rashness. t.i.tus's efforts to save the temple failed, and it went down in ruin, as Christ had foretold.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A PANEL FROM THE ARCH OF t.i.tUS

Showing the golden candlestick and other sacred vessels of the temple being carried in triumph through the streets of Rome.]

The disciples of Christ had called His attention to the immense blocks of stone that composed the temple walls. ”See, what manner of stones,”

one said. When t.i.tus examined these same stones, after the fall of the city, he is said to have declared:

”We have certainly had G.o.d for our a.s.sistant in this war, and it was no other than G.o.d who ejected the Jews out of these fortifications.”[C]--_Id., book 6, chap. 9._

Rather, we would say, in the light of Scripture teaching, the destruction that came upon the city was but the fruit of its own way.

G.o.d's guardian care had long protected the city of David. When His protection was finally thrust aside and the people put themselves in the power of the great destroyer, divine justice could no longer save the city from the judgments that were bound to fall upon persistent transgression against light.

The lesson is one of those written ”for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.” Jerusalem, in that generation of great light and high privilege, fell because it knew not the time of its visitation. Still Christ's sad lament bears its warning to the ears of men: ”If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace!” Luke 19:42.

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