Matt. 24.
Destruction of the Temple.
THE Temple at Jerusalem was a building of wonderful grandeur and magnificence. And, no doubt, the disciples of Jesus had great admiration for it. But the Jews had sinned greatly, and to all their other sins they had added the terrible, sin of rejecting Jesus Christ their King. Jesus had just declared the doom of Jerusalem, and turned His back upon the temple, saying to the Jews, “Behold your house is left unto you desolate,” when the disciples came to, show. Him the wonderful buildings of this great house. But when Jesus, the glory of that temple, was rejected, and had left the house desolate, its glory was departed; and so He said to them: “See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be one stone left upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”
These words, too, would be the fulfilment of what had long before been foretold. When the Lord appeared to Solomon after the building and dedication of the temple at the first, He told Him, that if the people departed from Jehovah to follow after other gods, He would cut off Israel out of the land which He had given them, adding, “And this house which I have hallowed for My name, will I cast out of My sight.” Micah also prophesied, “Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.”
Thus the prophecy of Jesus was but the confirmation of what had been declared 750 and 1,000 years before.
About forty-four years later, on the 9th of August, A. D. 70, the Lord’s words were fulfilled. The temple was completely destroyed by the Roman armies; and a Mohammedan mosque now stands in the place where the temple had been. The time will come when this, too, will be destroyed; and when the Lord brings back His scattered people, the Jews, to their own land, their glorious temple will be rebuilt, according to the prophecy of Ezekiel (Chapters 40-47), and again the glory of the Lord will fill it. This will be when Jesus comes again, and when the Jews, having repented of their sin in rejecting Him, will say, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
That will indeed be a glorious day for the poor Jews, who have been so long scattered among all nations because of their sin. Through the very blood which they shed, when they killed Jesus, God will wash away their sins, and will give them to rejoice greatly in His wonderful grace toward them.
Dear young reader, may it be yours to believe in Jesus now, and to have all your sins washed away in His precious blood. Then you can pray for the poor outcast Jews, who have neither country, nor temple, nor home.
ML 11/01/1903