Prophecies Respecting the Jewish Nation Which Have Been Remarkably Fulfilled
The Bible contains predictions of events which no human sagacity could have foreseen, and these prelictions lave been exactly and remarkably accomplished.
The subject of prophecy is so extensive, and the difficulty of presenting, with brevity, the argument which it furnishes so great, that if I had not determined to give a general outline of the evidences of revelation, I should have omitted this topic as one to which justice c innot be done in so short an essay.
But I would lot be understood as intimating, that
:hi evidence from prophecy is of an infijioi kind. So far from believing this to be the fact, I am persuaded that whoever will take the pains to examine the subject thoroughly, will find that this source of evidence for the truth of revelation is exceeded by no other in the firmness of conviction which it is calculated to produce. Prophecy possesses, as a proof of divine revelation, some advantages which are peculiar. For the proof of miracles we must ha’’e ifGcourse to ancient testimony; but the fulfilling of prophecy may fall under -”ur own observation, or may be conveyed to us by living witnesses. The evidence of miracles cannot, in auy case, become stronger than it was at first; but that of prophecy is continually increasing, and will go on increasing, until the whole scheme of predictions is fulfilled. The mere publication of a prediction furnishes no decisive evidence that it is a revelation from God; it is the accomplishment which completes the proof As prophecies have been fulfilled in every age, and are still in a course of being fulfilled; and as some most remarkable predictions remain to be accomplished, it is plain, from the nature of the case, that this proof will continue to increase in strength.
It deserves to be well weighed, that any one prediction which has been fulfilled, is of itself a complete evidence of divine revelation; or to speak more properly, is itself a revelation. For certainly no one but God himself can foretell distant future events, which depend entirely on the purpose of Him” who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. ’
If, then, we can adduce one prophecy, the accouiplishment of which cannot be doubted, we have established the principle that a revelation has been given; and if m one instance, and to one person, the probability is strong that he is not the only person who has been favoured with such a communication.
The remark which is frequently nade, that most prophecies are obscure, and the mearing very uncertain, will not affect the evidence arising from such as are perspicuous, and of which the accomplishment is exact. There are good reasons why these t’utuit »vents should sometimes be wrapped up in the coveiing of strong figures and symbolical language; so that often the prophet himself, probably, did not understand the meaning of the prediction which he altered. It was not intended that they should oe cajiable of being clearly interpreted, until the key va” furnished by the completion. If these observations are just, the stvidy of the prophecies will become ni)re and more interesting every day, and they will shed more and more light on the truth of the Scriptures.
What I shall attempt, al present, and all that is compatible with the narrow limits of this discourse, will be, to exhibit a few remarkable predictions, and refer to the events in which they have been fulfilled. They who wish for further satisfaction, will find it in the perusal of Bishop Newton’s excellent Dissertations on the Prophecies, to which I acknowledge myself indebted for a considerable part of what is contained in this chapter, and to Keith on the Prophecies,
The first prophecies which I shall produce, are those of Moses respecting the Jews. They are recorded, principally, in the twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus and in the twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy; of which the following predictions deserve our attention.
1. “The Loi’d shall bring a nation against thee from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shall not understand.” This prophecy had an accomplishment in the invasion of Judea by the Chaldeans and by the Romans, but more especially the latter. Jeremiah, when predicting the invasion of the Chaldeans, uses nearly the same language as Moses. “Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from afar, 0 1 ouse ot Israel, saith the Lord; it is an ancient nation, a nation ‘whose language thou knowest not.”* And again, ‘Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the
Jcr. X. 15.
EVIDENCES OF CnKISTIANIT T. 133
‘leaven.“* But with still greater propriet;/ nuiy it 06 said that the Romans were a nation ‘’from afar;” the rapidity of whose conquests resembled the eagle’s flight; the standard of whose armies was an eagle; and whose language was unknown to the Jews.
The enemies of the Jews are always characterized as “a nation of fierce countenance, who shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favour to the young” — an exact description of the Chaldeans. It is said, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 17, that God brought upon the Jews “the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, nor him that stooped for age.” Such also were the Romans. Josephus informs us, that when Vespasian came to Gadara, “he slew all, man by man, the Romans showing mercy to no age.” The like was done at Gamala.
2. It was predicted, also, that their cities should be besieged and taken. “And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst.” This was fulfilled when Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came against Samaria, and besieged it,t when Sennacherib came up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and when Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem, burned the temple, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem round about. J The Jews had great confidence in the strength of the fortifications of Jerusalem. And Tacitus, as well as Josephus, describes it as a very strong place; yet it was often besieged and taken before its final destruction by Titus.
In their sieges they were to suffer miKh ty famine, “in the straitness wherewith their enemujs should distress them.” Accordingly, at Samaria, during the siege there was a great famine, “so that an ass’s head was sold for four score pieces of silver.”§ And when Jerusalem was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no
* Lam. iv. 19. t 2 Kings xxv. 10.
+ 2 Kings xviii. 9, 10 § 2 Kings vi. 6.
134 EVIDKNCKS OF CfRHTIAMTT
bread for the people of the land.”* And i.i the siege of the same city by the Romans, there was a most distressing famine.t
It was foretold that in these famines women slionld eat their own chiltlren. “Ye shall eat,” says Moses, “the flesh of your s)ns and of your daighters.” And again, “thou shalt eat the fruit ot thme jwu body.”J “The tender and the delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot upon the ground, for delicateness and tenderness — she shall eat her children for want of all things, secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in thy gates.” This extraordinary prediction was fulfilled six hundred years after it was spoken, in the siege of Samaria, by the king of Syria; when two women agreed together to give up their children to be eaten; and one of them was eaten accordingly. § It was fulfilled again nine hundred years after Moses, in the siege of Jerusalem, by the Chaldeans, “The hands of the pitiful women,” says Jeremiah, “have sodden their own children.” II And again, fifteen hundred years after the time of Moses, when Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans, Josephus informs us of a noble woman killing and eating her own sucking child; and when she had eaten half, she secreted the other part for another meal.
3. Great numbers of the Jews were to be destroyed. “And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude.” In the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, it is computed that eleven hundred thousand persons perished by famine, pestilence, and sword. Perhaps, since the creation of the world, so many persons never perished in any one siege as this. The occasion of so great a multitude of people being found at Jerusalem, was, that the siege commenced about the celcbiation of the lassover; and the people throughout the adjacent
2 Kings XXV. 3. § 2 Kings vi. 28, 29.
t Josephun de Jud. Bcllo. ‘| Lam. ;v. 10.
t Jer. xxvi 29. Deut. xxvii 23.
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIAN! T. ] A^
country look refuge in Jerusalem, at the afproach of the Roman army.
Moses also predicted that the Jews should be carr’ad back to Egypt, and sold as slaves for a very low price, and described the method of their conveyance thither: “and the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, where you shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.” Josephus informs us that when the city was taken, the captives who were above seventeen years of age, were sent to the works in Egypt; but so little care was taken of these captives, that eleven thousand of them perished for want. There is every probability, though the historian does not mention the fact, that they were conveyed to Egypt in ships, as the Romans had then a fleet in the Mediterranean. The market was so overstocked that there were no purchasers, and they were sold for the merest trifle.
4. It is moreover predicted, in this wonderful prophecy of Moses, that the Jews should be extirpated from their own land, and dispersed among all nations. “And ye shall be plucked from off” the land whither thou goest to possess it. And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from one end of the earth even unto the other.” How remarkably has this been fulfilled. The ten tribes were first carried away from their own land by the king of Assyria; next, the two other tribes were carried captive to Babylon; and, finally, when the Romans took away “their place and nation,” their dispersion was complete.
5, The Emperor Adrian, by a public edict, forbade the Jews, on pain of death, to set foot in Jerusalem: or even to approach the country around it. In the time of Tertullian and Jerome, they were prohibited from entering Judea. A:id from that day to this, the number of Jews in the holy land has been very small. They are still exiles from their own land, and are found scattered through almost every country on the globe.
It was foretold that, .iOtwithstanding their dispersion, they should not he totally destroyed, hut should still exist a distinct people. “And yet for all that, wnen they he in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I ahhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to hrcak my covenant with them.” “What a marvellous thing is this,” says Bishop Newton, “that after so many wars, battles, and sieges; after so many rebellions, massacres, and persecutions; after so many years of captivity, slavery and misery; they are not “destroyed utterly,” and though scattered among all people, yet subsist a distinct people by themselves! Where is any thing like this to be found in all the histories, and in all the nations under the sun?”
The prophecy goes on to declare, that they should be every where in an uneasy condition; and should not rest long in any one place. “And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest.” How exactly has this been verified in the case of this unhappy people, even to this day! There is scarcely a country in Europe from which they have not been banished, at one time or another. To say nothing of many previous scenes of bloodshed and banishment, of the most shocking Kind, through which great multitudes of this devoted people passed in Germany, France, and Spain, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; eight hundred thousand Jews, are said by the Spanish historian, to have been banished from Spain, by Ferdinand and Isabella. And how often, when tolerated by goven.- ment they have suffered by the tumults of the people, it is impossible to enumerate.
The prophet declares that “they should be oppressed and crushed alway; that their sons and their daughters should be given to another people; that they should he mad for the sight of their eyes, which they should see.” Nothing has been more common in all countries where the Jews have resided, than to fine, fleece, and oppress them, at will; and in Spain and Portugal their children have been taken ‘••om thr’n” by order if the government, to be ednca
EVlIiKNCES OK CHKISTI ANl’I’Y. 137
led in the Popish religion. The instances in which their oppressions have driven them to madness and desperation, are too numerous to be stated in detail.
6. Finally, it is foretold by Moses, “That they should become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word, among all nations; and that their plagues, should be wonderful,” even great plagues, and of long continuance. In every country the Jews are hated and despised. They have been literally “a proverb and a by-word.” Mohammedans, Heathens, and Christians, however they may differ in other things, have been agreed in vilifying, abusing, and perse- >,uting the Jews. Surely the judgments visited on t..ls peculiar people, have been wonderful and of long continuance. For nearly eighteen hundred years, they have been in this miserable state of banishment, iispcrsion, and persecution.
The prophecy of Isaiah respecting the restoration of the Jews to their land after seventy years captivity, is very remarkable. Cyrus is designated by name, not only as the conqueror of Babylon, but as the restorer of Israel and rebuilder of Jerusalem. “That saith of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure; even saying to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built; and to the temple thy foundations shall be laid.“* We are informed by Josephus, that when Cyrus had got possession of Babylon, the predictions concerning himself were made known to him, and that he was struck with admiration at the manifest divinity of the writing. This will account for the kindness of this prince to the children of Israel, and the opportunity which he gave them to return to their own land, and the facilities which he granted for the restoration of the temple. Indeed, it is certain from what is said in Ezra, that, by some means, Cyrus knew that God had appointed him to rebuild the temple for there it is written,” That the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyus, king rf Persia, that he made a pioclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying. Thus saith Cyrii*
Isa. xliv. 28.
the king of Persia, the Lord God Df heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He hate
CHARGED ME TO BUILD A HOUSE IN JERUSALEM WHICH IS IN JUDAH.”
He then gave liberty and encouragement to the people of God to engage in this pious enterprise, and to receive pecuniary aid from all who were disposed to co-operalp in this good work. And, as the sacred vessels of the temple had been brought to Babyloa by Nebuchadnezzar, these Cyrus brought forth and delivered to the proper officer, to be brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem.
“What nation,” says the distinguished writer already quoted, “hath subsisted as a distinct people in their own country, so long as these have done in thoir dispersion, into all countries? And what a standing miracle is this exhibited to the view and observati’>n of the whole world!” “Here are instances of prophecies delivered above three thousand years ago, and yet, as we see, fulfilling in the world, at tb»s very time; and what stronger proof can we desire c»( the divine legation of Moses? How these instances may affect others, I know not, but for myself I miL«t acknowledge, they not only convince, but amaze aiiM astonish me beyond expression.”