I have been considering the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The siege and the ensuing conquest stands out as one of the most painful and graphic events in history. In taking Jerusalem, it is recorded that the Romans killed nearly 1.1 million people. The Jews were so starved that Josephus says they staggered around looking for anything to eat, even chewing leather. It is even recorded that at least one person ate their own child. Escaping Jews were crucified all around the city to the point that the Romans ran out of crosses. The Jews, though bickering among themselves, desperately fought the Romans to the end in a losing battle. It is said that the Romans, when they finally broke through to the temple area, were in such a passion of anger against the Jews that they did not even follow Titus’ orders but brutally slaughtered anyone and destroyed everything. In the heat of this passion, a soldier threw a flaming torch into a room around the temple which started the temple burning. Though Titus apparently did not intend to destroy the temple, the fire grew out of control and the temple was soon completely destroyed. In the process, man, women, and children were burned to death and those that did escape were slaughtered by the Romans. It is recorded that Titus refused to accept a wreath of victory for the conquest, saying that there was “no merit in vanquishing people forsaken by their own God.”
When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.” – Luke 19:41-44
After solemnly considering these events, I believe this event has grave implications for us. Consider just for a moment all the brutality, death, and destruction during the fall. Consider that the area around Jerusalem, previously lush and desirable, was left practically a desert. Why did Jeruslaem fall in such a dramatic way? According to Jesus the city was going to suffer tremendously because it did not know the day of its visitation. The city that rejected God in the flesh and condemned Him to a cross, just 40 years later was surrounded by a multitude of men on crosses as the Roman war machine steadily tore down the Jewish resistance. They rejected one man on a cross and so were surrounded by the death of the cross. Some translations in verse 41 show that Jesus wept audibly. His heart was in pain because He knew what was coming.
What we must realize is that this event is a graphic foretaste of the end of the age. One reason why we struggle with various prophecies in books like Revelation, Daniel, and the other prophets is because of the extreme nature of the events the prophet foretells. The events seem so far beyond what we are accustomed to and so we tend to discard what the text actually says trying to ascribe symbolism to the text. The fall of Jerusalem stands in contrast that that method of hermeneutics, instead demanding that we take prophecy literally. In the fall of Jerusalem, God is gave us a foretaste of what the entire world will experience due to the global rejection of His Son. If Jerusalem suffered so violently because it did not know the day of its visitation, how much more will the entire world suffer having not known the last 2,000 years of visitation?
We must realize that violent days are coming upon us. The Scripture tells us that the earth will stagger like a drunkard. If Jerusalem suffered so terribly for rejecting Jesus in their day, what is going to happen when God calls the entire world to judgment for the rejection of His Son? What are the days going to be like when God unleashes the destruction, not just of one city, but of the world? If one city could suffer so much for rejecting 3 years of ministry, it should cause us to tremble at what the world will endure for rejecting 2,000 years of light.
We must begin to prepare out hearts for what is to come. I do believe the Lord will keep us in the day of His wrath, although we will suffer to an extent just as Jeremiah suffered along with the others in Jerusalem in His day. That being said, we must begin to trumpet a wake up call because the earth has no idea what is coming. The earth has been lulled to sleep. Humanity is in the same position as they were just before the great deluge. The idea of such a flood was beyond their comprehension and so they ignored it until the rains finally fell and it was too late. Let us not be like those that ignored Noah’s pleas, but rather let us be like Noah a preacher of righteousness preparing for the days ahead and warning men that they might be saved.
The best way to prepare our hearts is to begin to take the Word of God literally. We must begin to read the Word and realize that there are things to come and those things are not exclusively symbolic, but rather are real events that must come to pass when God chooses to call the world to accountability for their treatment of His Son. Yes, God is rich in mercy and even now calls men to repentance, but there will come a day when the fruit of the earth is fully ripe and God will swing his great sickle into the harvest of the earth. Those that are His will welcome that day, but the earth though will experience the wrath of God against the great rejection of His Son. What happened in Jerusalem in 70AD is merely a terrifying foretaste of what will come all over the earth in that day. Let us live our lives in light of that day and let us warn others to throw themselves upon the merciful arms of the living God while He still delays His final days of reckoning with the earth.
One thing is for sure: God is going to vindicate His Son, and I don’t think we have the slightest comprehension of what it will look like when God decides to vindicate His Son on a global level.
Thank you for the perspective. This does open up the Scriptures with a message that has not been told often enough by even the Church. I feel a need to get busier!
Joe V.