Prophecy No. 6: Cities Waste and Sanctuaries Desolate
By W. H. Blaisdell
The next prediction concerning the Jews which we will notice reads as follows: “And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries into desolation.” Lev. 26:31. In the writings of the infidel Volney, Ruins, book i., we find the evidence that this prophecy has met a perfect fulfillment. The language here referred to is very significant, and especially so, from the fact that the writer, when he penned these words, did not use this language for the purpose of showing a fulfillment of the prediction, as he was an infidel, but was only giving a description of his travels in that ancient land. Here are his words:— “Here, said I, here once flourished an opulent city; here was the seat of a powerful empire. Yes; these places, now so desert, were once animated by a living multitude; a busy crowd circulated in these streets now so solitary. Within these walls, where a mournful silence reigns, the noise of the arts, and the shouts of joy and festivity, incessantly resounded. These piles of marble were regular palaces; these prostrate pillars adorned the majesty of temples: these ruined galleries surrounded public places. Here a numerous people assembled for the sacred duties of religion, or the anxious cares of their subsistence. . . . And now a mournful skeleton is all that subsists of this powerful city! Naught remains of its vast domination but a doubtful and empty remembrance! To the tumultuous throng which crowded under these porticoes has succeeded the solitude of death. The silence of the tomb is substituted for the bustle of public places. The opulence of a commercial city is changed into hideous poverty. The palaces of kings are become a den of wild beasts; flocks fold on the area of the temple, and unclean reptiles inhabit the sanctuary of the gods.” “And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.” Verse 32. The same writer witnesses to the fulfillment of the prediction contained in this verse in the following language:—“Alas! I have passed over this desolate land! I have visited the palaces, once the theater of so much splendor, and I beheld nothing but solitude and desolation. I sought the ancient inhabitants and their works, and could only find a faint trace, like that of the foot of a traveler over the sand. The temples are fallen, the palaces overthrown, the ports filled up, the cities destroyed, and the earth, stripped of inhabitants, seems a dreary burying place. . . . Everything, continued I, confounds my reason, and fills my heart with trouble and uncertainty.”—Book i. Let the reader here mark the striking similarity between the language in the prophecy and that of the historian as he gives a description of that ancient country, and of the feelings of astonishment which he experienced while passing over the desolate land. The prophecy says: “I will bring your land into desolation. The historian says: ‘Alas! I have passed over this desolate land;’ and also, ‘I beheld nothing but solitude and desolation.’ The prophecy says: ‘Your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.’ The historian says: ‘Everything, continued I, confounds my reason, and fills my heart with trouble and uncertainty.’ ‘And I will scatter you among the heathen.’ Verse 33; also Deut. 28:64. ‘And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other.’ In Horn’s Introd., p. 123, we find the following language, which shows how perfectly the specifications of prophecy contained in these verses have been fulfilled:—“Though dispersed throughout all nations, they have remained distinct from them all; and, notwithstanding the various oppressions and persecutions to which they have in every age been exposed in different parts of the world, ‘there is not a country on the face of the earth where the Jews are unknown. They are found alike in Europe, Asia, America, and Africa. They are citizens of the world, without a country. Neither mountains, nor rivers, nor deserts, nor oceans, which are the boundaries of other nations, have terminated their wanderings. They abound in Poland, in Holland, in Russia, and in Turkey. In Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and Britain, they are more thinly scattered. In Persia, China, and India—on the east and west of the Ganges—they are few in number among the heathen. They have trodden the snows of Siberia, and the sands of the burning desert; the European traveler hears of their existence in the regions which he cannot reach, even in the very interior of Africa, south of Timbucto. From Moscow to Lisbon, from Japan to Britain, from Borneo to Archangel, from Hindostan to Honduras, no inhabitant of any nation upon earth would be known in all the intervening regions but a Jew alone.” Though there are many more predictions contained in these chapters which can be shown to have been perfectly fulfilled, we shall here notice only those contained in one more verse. “And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee.” Deut. 28:37. It is truly astonishing how the Jews have continued to resist the customs and habits of society and still exist as a distinct and separate people after so long a period of time. One writer speaks on this point as follows:—“In the face of the power of the Chinese Empire, in spite of the tortures of the Spanish inquisition, amid the chaos of African nationalities and the fusion of American democracy, in the plains of Australia and in the streets of San Francisco, the religion, customs, and physiognomy of the children of Israel are as distinct as they were three thousand years ago, when Moses wrote them in the Pentateuch, and Shishak painted them on the tombs of Medinet Abou. How does the infidel account for it? It will not do to allege the favorite story about purity of blood and Caucasian race; for the question is, How does it happen that this people, and this people alone, have kept the blood pure, while all other races are so mingled that no other race can be found pure on earth? Besides, lest any should suppose such a cause sufficient for their preservation, another nation descended from the same father and the same mother—the children of Jacob’s twin brother—have utterly perished, and there is not any remaining of the house of Esau. Human sagacity, with all the facts before its face, cannot give any rational account of the causes of this anomaly. It cannot tell to-day why this people exists separate from, and scattered through, all nations, from Kamschatka to New Zealand; how, then, could it foretell, three thousand years ago, this singular exception to all the laws of national existence? While the sun and moon endure, the nation of Israel shall exist as God’s witness to God’s word—an undeniable proof that the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”—Fab. of Inf., pp. 149, 150. It is a fact that the Jew is everywhere looked upon with astonishment. Suppose a person who had spent the most of his days among some of the retired scenes of country life, visits for the first time a friend living in some of our large cities. The friend proposes to spend a few hours in taking his guest about the city, and showing to him some of the wonders, curiosities, and astonishing sights, which may be seen in the place. As they pass along the street, they soon come to the place of business of one or more Jews. Would the friend be likely to pass by without calling the attention of his guest to the fact? By no means. He would be very likely to address him in language like this: ‘There are some Jews in here! Did you ever see any? Let us go in and see them,’ &c. Or suppose that as they pass along the street, the friend sees at a little distance a Jew. Would he be likely to pass him by unnoticed as he would any other man? Not at all. But would more likely say: ‘There goes a Jew! Did you ever see one?’ And perhaps their pace is much quickened that the guest may have the privilege of getting a fair view of the wonderful man before he passes out of sight. Such facts prove that the Jews are regarded with curiosity and astonishment. Thus is the prediction literally fulfilled. The prophecy also declares that they shall become a proverb and a byword. It will not be necessary to consult the historical page for evidence that this prediction is fulfilled. It is probable that every person who reads this article has been many times a personal witness to its fulfillment, though perhaps some may not have been aware of the fact. Have we ever heard it said of a person, that he is as rich as a Jew, or that he will lie like a Jew, and other similar expressions? If so we have heard the name of the Jew actually used as a byword, and therefore have witnessed the literal fulfillment of this prediction.