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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.” [Micah 3:12.]
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For forty years after the doom of Jerusalem had been pronounced
by Christ himself, the Lord delayed his judgments upon the city and
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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
could 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
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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, alike among the highest and the lowest classes, 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
i
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.
16
The Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4
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
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God’s own city. To establish their power more firmly, they bribed
false prophets to proclaim, even when Roman legions were besieging
the temple, that the people were to wait for deliverance from God.
To the last, multitudes held fast to the belief that the Most High
would interpose for the defeat of their adversaries. But Israel had
spurned the divine protection, and now she had no defense. Unhappy
Jerusalem! rent by internal dissensions, the blood of her children,
slain by one another’s hands, crimsoning her streets, while alien
armies beat down her fortifications and slew her men of war!
All the predictions given by Christ concerning the destruction of
Jerusalem were fulfilled to the letter. The Jews experienced the truth
of his words of warning, “With what measure ye mete, it shall be
measured to you again.”
Signs and wonders appeared, foreboding disaster and doom. A
comet, resembling a flaming sword, for a year hung over the city. An
u
were pictured chariots mustering for battle. Mysterious voices in the
temple court uttered the warning words, “Let us depart hence.” The
eastern gate of the i
that it was with difficulty shut by a score of men, and having bolts
fastened deep into the firm pavement, was seen at midnight to be
opened of its own accord.
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
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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
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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. After the Romans had sur-
rounded the city, they unexpectedly withdrew their forces, at a time
when everything seemed favorable for an immediate attack. In the
providence of God the promised signal was thus given to the waiting
Christians, and without a moment’s delay they fled to a place of
safety,—the refuge city Pella, in the land of Perea, beyond Jordan.
Terrible were the calamities which fell upon Jerusalem in the
siege of the city by Titus. The last desperate assault was made
at the time of the passover, when millions of Jews had assembled
within its walls to celebrate the national festival. Their stores of
provision, which if carefully preserved would have been sufficient
to supply the inhabitants for years, had previously been destroyed
through the jealousy and revenge of the contending factions, and