“The Two Great Crises: The End of the Jewish Nation and the End of the World”
Deliverance From Destruction
Many centuries before Jesus uttered the prophecy which we are considering, the prediction was made through Moses that if the chosen people should not harken unto the voice of God, “to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes,” they would suffer terrible things at the hands of “a nation . . . from far.” This utterance is worthy of special consideration:— “The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth: a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young: and he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee.” Deut. 28:49-52. It was by no arbitrary decree that the fate here foretold befell the Jewish nation. The failure to appreciate their mission to the world, and the substitution of manifold forms and ceremonies for a genuine Christian experience in the life, and the consequent loss of power which saves from sin, brought the Jewish people into spiritual bondage, and opened the way for them to become subjects of the Roman power. Their persistent refusal to listen to the warning and instruction of the prophets, and the greater longing for their old-time place and power as a nation than for that Christian experience which would restore them to their place in God’s kingdom, led them on to the rejection of the message borne by John the Baptist, and as a natural consequence, to the rejection and crucifixion of Him who took the flesh in order that he might save his people from their sins. This crowning act of unbelief determined the fate of the nation, and brought upon it the experiences foretold through Moses. In view of this impending calamity, Jesus instructed his disciples how to make their escape from the doomed city:— Matt. 24:15-18: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoso readeth, let him understand): then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains: let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.” By comparing this instruction with that recorded in the Gospel by Luke, we learn clearly what is intended by “the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet:” “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains;” etc. Luke 21:20, 21. “The abomination of desolation,” which prefigured the desolation of Jerusalem, was the Roman army surrounding the city. The full meaning of the reference to Daniel’s prophecy will become more apparent after we consider what was suggested to the Jewish mind by the term “abomination.” Anything which savored of, or suggested, idolatry was, according to the divine definition, an abomination in the sight of the Lord, so that the word was applied to the idol itself. Thus we read:— “And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father. Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.” 1 Kings 11:6-8. Concerning the reform work carried on by King Josiah, we learn:— “And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.” 2 Kings 23:13. Writing of the experiences of one who forms his own god from the stock of a tree, the prophet Isaiah declares:— “He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire: and the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshipeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me: for thou art my god. They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they can not see; and their hearts, that they can not understand. And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree? He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he can not deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand?” Isa. 44:16-20.4 It is thus evident that an idol is an abomination, and that when one substitutes a false god for the true and living God, he is putting a lie in place of the truth, even as the apostle Paul writes of the worshipers of pagan deities in his day, who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.” Rom. 1:25. The Roman army which was to accomplish the desolation of Jerusalem was fittingly designated as “the abomination of desolation,” since the ensigns and images borne upon its standards were objects of worship—false gods and abomination; for, as Tertullian says (Apologetic, chap. XVI, page 162), “The entire religion of the Roman camp almost consisted in worshiping the ensigns; in swearing by the ensigns; and in preferring the ensigns before all other gods.” To the same effect Josephus testifies:— Now the Romans upon the flight of the seditious to the city, and upon the burning of the holy house and of all the buildings around about, brought their ensigns to the temple, and set them over against its Eastern gate, and there did they offer sacrifices to them.—“Wars of the Jews, Book 6, chap. 6, par. 1.” Not only the space included within the walls of the city, but also all that within a circuit of a certain number of furlongs outside the walls was considered holy ground. When, therefore, the Roman army planted their standards inside this territory “the abomination of desolation,” was standing in the holy place. The reference which Jesus makes to the prophecy of Daniel is an indirect, but none the less strong testimony in favor of the study of prophecy, with the assurance that an understanding of the words read will be granted. Those who pronounce the prophecies of Daniel as the product of a disordered imagination, or as being too obscure to be understood, or as being the work of an impostor who lived at a later time than the Daniel who was prime minister at the court of Darius, should weigh these words of Jesus. To him the predictions of the prophecy were of divine authority, and he commended them to his disciples as containing the key to the hope of their deliverance from the doomed city. The Christian believers acted upon the instruction given to them by the divine Teacher, and at the opportune moment fled from Jerusalem and other cities of Judea to places of safety, and were thus delivered from death; and, as Bishop Newton writes, “We do not read anywhere that so much as one of them perished in the destruction of Jerusalem.” The circumstances which opened the way for heeding the Saviour’s instruction may be briefly summarized: The first expedition against Jerusalem was led by the Roman general, Cestius Gallius, who “pitched his camp upon the elevation called Scopus, or the watch-tower; which was distant seven furlongs from the city.” Some particulars of his attempt to capture the city are given by Josephus:— When Cestius was come into the city, he set the part called Bezetha, which is called Cenopolis, or the new city, on fire: as he did also to the timber market, after which he came into the upper city, and pitched his camp over against the royal palace; and had he but at this very time attempted to get through the walls by force, he had won the city presently: and the war had been put an end to at once. . . . In the meantime many of the principal men of the city were persuaded by Ananus, the son of Jonathan, and invited by Cestius into the city, and were about to open the gates for him; but he overlooked this favor, partly out of his anger at the Jews, and partly because he did not thoroughly believe that they were in earnest. . . . Now it was that a horrible fear seized upon the seditious, insomuch that many of them ran out of the city, as though it were to be taken immediately. But the people upon this took courage; and where the wicked part of the city gave ground, thither did they come in order to set open the gates and admit Cestius as their benefactor; who, had he but continued the siege a little longer, had certainly taken the city. . . . It then happened that Cestius was not conscious either how the besieged despaired of success, nor how courageous the people were for him; and so he recalled his soldiers from the place; and by despairing of any expectation of taking it, without having received any disgrace, he retired from the city without any reason in the world.—“Wars of the Jews, Book 2, chap. 19, pars. 4-7.” The Jews were greatly elated at the withdrawal of Cestius, and pursued the fleeing army “as far as Antipatris.” They then “came back running and singing to their metropolis.” To all human appearances, victory had turned on the side of the Jews, and Jerusalem was now a safe place in which to reside, but the Christians recognized that the time mentioned by Jesus had come, and therefore, obeying his words implicitly, they fled from both the city and the country to the mountainous districts, out of the path of contending armies. Thus they were saved from the destruction soon to come upon Jerusalem, not as the result of their own foresight, but through trustful obedience to the words of Jesus. The downfall of Jerusalem was a type of the downfall of the world; and as the believers in that time were delivered through their faith in, and obedience to, the divine instruction, so will it be at the last day. While those who are guided by human wisdom are saying, “Peace and safety,” and are assuring their followers of a millennium of glorious prosperity, the believers in the divine message for this generation will know that the end of all things is at hand, and will be prepared for their escape from the fires of destruction. In the olden time it was necessary for the believers to remove only a comparatively short distance from their homes, as Jerusalem and Judea alone were the prey of the invading army; but in this generation, with the whole world doomed to destruction, those who are delivered must be taken from the earth; therefore the apostle Paul writes: “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air.” But it will require “the faith of Jesus” “to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.”