Two Great Crises: the End of the Jewish Nation and the End of the World
Introductory
The earthly ministry of Jesus was drawing to a close, and the shadow of the cross was already hanging over him, when he spoke “to the multitude, and to his disciples,” the words which are recorded in the twenty-third, twenty-fourth, and twenty-fifth chapters of the Gospel according to Matthew. In the prophetic utterances then made, and in the instruction which accompanied them, our Lord shed such light upon the pathway of his disciples as enabled them in their time to escape the destruction which came upon their nation and city; such warnings concerning false teachers and false doctrines as have been a protection to believers in all the centuries; and such unmistakable signs concerning his second advent as have made it possible to know, not the day or the hour, but the generation in which he will return to this earth. This discourse, one of the longest preserved for us by the evangelists, will yield rich returns to those who earnestly seek to understand its true meaning.
Although special attention will be given in this series of articles to the exposition of that portion of the discourse which constitutes the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, it will yet be necessary to give some consideration to the first part, in order to find a proper setting for, and to make the right interpretation of, the prophetic utterances of our Lord. We shall therefore first give a brief outline of the twenty-third chapter.
After remarking upon the wide contrast between the profession and the life of the scribes and Pharisees, whose self-exaltation and love of position led them to disregard their own teaching, Jesus pronounced against them a sevenfold woe, the sentence of complete condemnation upon those who had misinterpreted the message of the Scriptures, rejected the Messenger of the covenant, and had sealed the doom of the chosen people.
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” said Jesus seven times over, not in tones of angry denunciation, but in full recognition of the fact that their cup of iniquity was full, and that the swift destruction which they had brought upon themselves could no longer be averted. In summing up the results of their wicked course, Jesus declared:—
“Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Bárachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”
In refusing to listen to the message of John the Baptist, who was “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord,” and in conspiring to put to death the promised Messiah, whose humble birth and whose purity of life were a disappointment and a constant rebuke to them, the leaders of the Jewish nation had really condoned all the sins of their fathers before them; and in attempting to commit the greatest of all crimes, the infamy of the ages, they brought to a climax the long record of wickedness; and by extinguishing the sun of righteousness, they ended the day of grace for their nation. The long-delayed punishment, which might have been averted by accepting the Messiah of prophecy, was justly due to the people of that generation to whom the Light of the world came, but who preferred darkness rather than the light, and who invited the curse of extinction upon themselves when they said, “His blood be on us, and on our children.”
The woes pronounced by Jesus upon the scribes and Pharisees meant nothing less than the destruction of Jerusalem and the downfall of the nation, and the generation then living would witness the fulfilment of his fearful words. When those “to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises,” could not be turned from the evil of their ways by the testimony of John, and were therefore unprepared to recognize and receive the world’s Redeemer, whose day Abraham rejoiced to see and was glad, even the wisdom of heaven could devise no other means of saving them from the inevitable result of rejecting their God and their King. They had attained unto the end of wickedness. The end of forebearance had been reached. The end of the nation was the consequence; and so Jesus said, “Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.”
The national life of the Jews found its center in the temple and the temple services. Jesus therefore gave the clearest intimation of the approaching end of the nation, when, in these words, he closed his description of the calamities to come upon it: “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Very fitting it was that he to whom every sacrifice pointed, and whose ministry was symbolized in every portion of the temple service, should now withdraw from the precincts of that once glorious place.
Chapter 24, verses 1, 2: “And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”
The connection is so close between the words uttered in the hearing of the multitude and those now spoken to the disciples4that they really constitute one discourse. The last words of Jesus, as recorded in the preceding chapter, referred to God’s house as being left desolate. Now when his attention is called to the structure of the temple, built, as it were, for eternity, he more definitely foretells its utter destruction. Some of the stones in the temple wall were of massive size. It seemed as if they would withstand any human effort, even though all the engines of destruction then known should be employed, and yet this humble Nazarene foretold such an overthrow as would leave no two stones in place. There is historical testimony of undisputed reliability to show that this terrible prophecy was literally fulfilled.
What might be termed the natural cause which led directly to such utter devastation is found in the fact that during the siege of the city many Jews concealed their treasures in the earth. The greed of the Romans, thus excited, led them to make such a diligent search for this spoil as resulted in the entire effacement of the walls.
With this brief statement concerning the utter overthrow of the temple, Jesus begins to show what is included in “all these things” which were to come upon the generation upon whom his woes were pronounced. The more complete specifications were stated in response to the inquiry of the disciples.
Verse 3: “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”
Deeply impressed with what they had heard and evidently reasoning that such a complete destruction of the temple could come only with the end of all things, the disciples sought more definite information concerning these wonderful events, and asked for some sign which would mark their near approach, and the coming of their Master, which they associated with such dread calamities. By responding to their request, and by giving a clear outline of those experiences which would lead up to the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the Jewish nation, and by following on to make known those signs which would serve to indicate the time of his return to this earth, Jesus set his seal of approval and marked as legitimate the desire for such an understanding of the times and the seasons as would enable his followers to co-operate understandingly with him in accomplishing his work in the earth.
There is a wide difference between earnestly seeking for a revelation of God’s will in order to be in harmony with it, and that speculative curiosity which attempts to penetrate the future as a mere exercise of intellectual keenness.
In replying to the questions of the disciples, Jesus gave a brief outline, not of general history, but of those occurrences which would have special significance in their relation to God’s purpose and the final establishment of his kingdom in the earth. In doing this, he explains more fully the meaning of the sevenfold woe already pronounced upon the generation then living, which would reach its climax in the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the Jewish nation.
The experience of the people of that generation who rejected the message concerning his first advent, and were then led on step by step to crucify the Lord of glory, and who thus brought the end of their nation in their own time, was typical of the experience of the generation who should reject the message of the second advent, and thus crucify the Lord afresh, and bring the end of the world in their time. The prophecy concerning these two generations, connected by a very brief outline of the ecclesiastical history of the intervening centuries, constitutes what is usually designated as our Lord’s great prophecy. Viewed from this standpoint, it will be seen that the answer of Jesus to the inquiry of his disciples is a continuous prophecy covering step by step, in consecutive order, the whole period of time until he should be manifested in glory; but that it gives a more full outline of the experiences of those two generations, one of which rejected his first advent and as a consequence witnessed the end of their nation, while the other should reject his second advent and as a consequence witness the end of the world. So closely related are the experiences of these two generations, that the prophecy which leads up to the destruction of Jerusalem has a secondary fulfilment in those events in the last generation which lead up to the destruction of the world. The application of this principle of interpretation in the further consideration of the prophecies recorded in this chapter will fully justify it as being both simple and consistent.