Destruction of Jerusalem.
The terrible visitation of God's wrath upon Jerusalem has been eagerly seized upon, by many, as the fulfillment of all the vengeance against sin which the Bible threatens. So when Malachi speaks of the day "that shall burn as an oven," or Peter of the melting of the elements with "fervent heat," or Paul of the revelation of the Son of God "in flaming fire," these awful declarations are said to have been fulfilled when Jerusalem was destroyed. Undoubtedly when Noah preached the coming of the flood, the antediluvians had some great woe, which had come on mankind some centuries before, to cite to him as the real fulfillment of all God's threatenings against sin. They satisfied their own minds so that they regarded not his warnings. But in spite of all this comfortable explanation, the flood came and destroyed them all. The destruction of Jerusalem now swallows up all the unpleasant truths of Scripture. But instead of that terrible event calming the fears of the guilty, it ought to alarm them. If God has marked iniquity in the Jews, and inflicted on them such terrible blows, will he not do the like by the Gentiles?