Matthew 24:2, commentary and pictures

Jesus foretold the complete overthrow of the Jerusalem temple, so that not one stone would be left upon another but all would be thrown down into ruins. The prediction was startling because the temple seemed permanent, built of massive stones and magnificent buildings enlarged and adorned over more than forty years with great wealth, labor and skill. It was fulfilled to the letter forty years later when the Romans burned and razed the temple and city despite efforts to save it, and more than a million perished in the siege. Its meaning is twofold, foreshadowing both Jerusalem's destruction and the terrors of the last great day in the final judgment of the world by fire. With the temple overthrown its animal sacrifices would serve no more, because Christ the Lamb of God offered Himself for sin and fulfilled what they foreshadowed, calling all to watch and be ready for His coming in power and great glory.

Temple Setting and Prediction

The prediction is that the Jerusalem temple would be completely overthrown, so that not one stone would be left upon another but all would be thrown down into ruins. It was striking because the temple seemed permanent, its stones massive and finely built and its buildings magnificent and beautiful, giving every appearance of strength. It had been enlarged and adorned over more than forty years with great wealth, labor and architectural skill, Herod the Great lavishing upon it Roman wealth and Jewish treasure while even the emperor enriched it. That work included enormous blocks of white marble, some brought from Rome, lavishly set in place to make the splendor dazzling.

Jesus spoke the words after leaving the temple for the last time following His denunciation of the Jewish rulers. He sat with His disciples on the Mount of Olives looking across at Jerusalem and the temple in its dazzling splendor. The discourse of Matthew 24 and 25, to which the words belong, was given shortly before He entered Gethsemane, after a day of work and amid the Pharisees' efforts to trap Him, and it included predictions and warnings.

The words were given as a solemn and startling answer when the disciples called attention to the temple, admiring its strength, beauty and durable materials. They were amazed and filled with awe and wonder at the answer. They could not see how it could be fulfilled and believed the beautiful structure must stand forever, so they desired to understand its meaning more fully. They therefore asked when these things would be and what would be the sign of His coming and of the end of the world.

John lived long enough to witness the fulfillment, seeing the Jewish temple in ruins with no stone left upon another.

Fulfilled in Jerusalem's Fall

The declaration was carried out when the Romans burned the temple and razed both temple and city, demolishing it stone by stone despite the determined efforts of Titus to save the sacred place. What the soldiers did in tearing it down fulfilled the word of One greater than Titus. The prediction was fulfilled to the letter forty years later, when Jerusalem was destroyed and more than a million people perished in the siege.

In that fulfillment the city was seen besieged by the Roman army, its people suffering starvation and terrible violence, and its very site plowed as a field. Crucifixion, which had fallen into disuse in Judea soon after Christ's death because the scenes at His death, the malignity of the priests, the rage of the people, the convulsions of nature and the supernatural darkness had struck terror to the Romans, was revived with the Jews themselves as victims. Multitudes perished by crucifixion, crosses were planted upon Calvary as thickly as forest trees, and there came upon them the same doom they had pronounced upon Christ.

The ruin came as God's retributive judgment after years of labor to bring the nation to repentance. Jerusalem rejected its visitation and the world's Redeemer, repeatedly rejected God's light and finally refused to honor His Son, so that God's protection was withdrawn. Its rebellion against God and hostility toward Rome brought the calamity upon it, for it refused the chance of safety through submission to the invading armies and was left without heaven's protection through disobedience. That judgment vindicated God's honor and magnified His law. Beyond the burning of the temple was seen the nation scattered, its people driven among foreign lands without a secure home, and their descendants facing persecution and rejection.

Type of Final Judgment

The prediction of complete overthrow, that not one massive, finely built stone of the temple would remain upon another despite its apparent strength but all would be reduced to ruins, carries a twofold meaning, foreshadowing the destruction of Jerusalem and also prefiguring the terrors of the last great day. It reaches beyond Jerusalem to the final judgment of the world and its more terrible destruction by fire, when the Lord rises to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. Hearing the foretelling of Jerusalem's destruction led the disciples to ask when these things would be and what would be the sign of His coming and of the end of the world, and His answer interweaves the destruction of Jerusalem with the still greater final destruction of the world. In that interwoven answer the destruction of Jerusalem is used as a type of the world's final destruction by fire, and the warning given to the disciples about what they would meet at the hands of their fellow men is also a warning for later believers.

Jerusalem represents the world, and the overthrow of the temple is connected with the world's more terrible destruction. Both judgments follow the refusal to acknowledge the truth God has given, with Jerusalem's ruin following its people's rejection of Christ and the withdrawal of God's protection. Christ's prediction of Jerusalem's destruction as the result of its rebellion also points to the destruction of the world at the end of its history, when people will continue to refuse God's mercy.

He blended the two events because the disciples could not bear or fully understand a complete account of what lay ahead. They mistakenly connected the temple's destruction with Christ's return, expecting Him then to overthrow the Jews' enemies and establish a temporal kingdom at Jerusalem. Before that retribution would come upon the apostate nation, which would further reveal its hostility to Christ through its treatment of His followers.

That destruction of Jerusalem was not the second advent, though Universalists used it to claim that Christ had already come. The verse belongs to Christ's outline of important events in the history of the world and the church from His first advent to His second, including Jerusalem's destruction. That great prophecy in Matthew 24 gives the history of the present dispensation through to the complete restitution of all things, with the closing scenes of this world's history as its most thrilling and momentous part. The Olivet discourse about Jerusalem's fate and the scenes of His second advent also foretells that His followers will face humiliation, reproach and suffering from the time He is taken from them until His return in power and glory.

The chapter also foretells events preceding the coming of the Son of man. It outlines what is to come upon the world, including the perils of the last days, and its warnings show that judgment is coming upon wicked cities and that people facing destruction in sin must be warned. Foreseeing Jerusalem's downfall and destruction, Christ looked beyond the immediate moment across ages and centuries.

End of Sacrificial System

The razing of the Jerusalem temple so that not one stone remained upon another meant the temple and its animal sacrifices would no longer serve their former purpose. Christ the Lamb of God offered Himself for sin and for the sins of the world, fulfilling what those sacrifices had foreshadowed. Their symbols met their fulfillment in Him, and after that self-offering animal sacrifices could no longer atone for sin.

The prediction is a lesson in the purification of religion by making outward forms and ceremonies of no effect. The temple system was to be abolished by Christ's true offering of Himself as the living sacrifice. Christ announced Himself greater than the temple, the One in whom all Jewish ceremony and typical service finds its fulfillment. He stands forth in the place of the temple, with all the offices of the church centering in Himself alone.

The disciples did not yet understand this reason for the calamity at the time. They understood Jesus' words later after the events had taken place. As judgment for rejecting Christ, the city and temple would be destroyed, for the rejected stone would fall upon His rejecters, breaking and scattering their glory like dust.

Warning and Readiness Today

The prediction belongs to the sure word of prophecy that is the foundation of faith, to be carefully studied and brought to the attention of all, both believers and unbelievers, and explained by ministers and teachers to those under instruction. Its fulfillment is taking place in the present time with unmistakable evidence that Christ's coming is at hand, so matters of lesser and minor consequence are to be left out in order to present its essential truths. It is to be studied together with the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation and in connection with Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, because its truths decide the eternal destiny of souls and call the church to arouse.

It stands as part of the description in Matthew 24 and 25 of Christ's second coming to this world, when the sign of the Son of man appears in heaven and all the tribes of the earth mourn and see Him coming in the clouds with power and great glory, sending His angels with a trumpet to gather His elect from the four winds. The day and hour is known to the Father only, and the coming will be as the days of Noah when people were eating and drinking and marrying until the flood came and took them away, so all must watch and be ready because the Son of man comes in an hour not expected. The faithful and wise servant who gives meat in due season and is found so doing will be made ruler over all goods, while the evil servant who says his lord delays his coming and smites fellow servants and eats and drinks with the drunken will come to sudden judgment and be cut asunder and given a portion with the hypocrites with weeping and gnashing of teeth, portraying the condition of the church at His coming and calling true believers to earnest zeal. The same warning calls for discernment and faithfulness to God rather than adopting worldly policies or joining worldly confederacies, with constant watchfulness for coming events.

The overthrow foretold shows that God looks upon impenitent cities and sends messages of reproof and warning by His messengers, and when the messengers are despised and the messages rejected and patience will not turn hearts to Him, He sends judgments which no human power can stand against. The disciples were amazed and could not see how the throwing down could be fulfilled, because the massive stones of the grand, beautiful temple made it seem that the structure must stand forever. That unbelief is the same confidence the inhabitants of San Francisco had that their grand, towering structures could not be destroyed, yet judgment fell upon that city as upon Jerusalem. No human structure can withstand God's judgments when warnings are persistently rejected and repentance refused, and lofty buildings will be cast down because of sin in the closing days of earth's history. Matthew 24 outlines what is to come upon the world, including the perils of the last days, showing that judgment is coming upon wicked cities and that people facing destruction in sin must be warned.

Stately earthly architecture and worldly riches trusted as the chief good will crumble into dust and lie in ruins, so heaping them up is a poor investment ending in eternal loss. Its lesson in the perils of the last days now present is urgent warning of those perishing in sin and liberal use of money as a treasure lent by God to advance the last message of mercy and sustain gospel work. Self-denial and sacrifice of earthly riches secures eternal riches and entrance through much tribulation into the kingdom of heaven.

The rejection of the Son of God decided that nation's destiny, fulfilled to the letter forty years later when Jerusalem was destroyed and more than a million people perished in the siege. That fulfillment warns that rejecting God's holy memorial, the Sabbath, may likewise decide the fate of professed Christians.

The destruction described includes a still greater destruction, the destruction of the world, which is near at hand when the history of this earth is to be swallowed up in an endless eternity. In view of this, members of the church of God should not spend their time in dissension and strife, criticizing and condemning one another. No human being is given the work of sitting in judgment and passing sentence upon brethren, for that work Christ alone can do.