Further Predictions

S. Mark xiii. 14–23

The prophet Daniel had aroused the fears of the people by a prediction, thrice repeated, of the cessation of sacrifice in the Temple, and the setting up of an “abomination that maketh desolate.” It seemed to have received its fulfilment when Antiochus, after putting to the sword 40,000 Jews, desecrated the sanctuary by offering swine upon the altar of burnt-offering, erected a statue of Jupiter Olympius within the sacred precincts, and forbade the performance of all Jewish rites. Indeed, the desolation was so complete that nothing but the heroic valour of the Maccabean patriots saved the people from total extinction.

Our Lord showed that the full meaning of the prophecy was by no means exhausted, but the history of that terrible desecration was about to be repeated. There was destined to be, however, one distinguishing feature that would vastly intensify the calamity. It is not recorded either here or in Daniel, but the Jews believed that the “sanctuary would be burnt, when a sedition should invade the Jews, and their own hands pollute the Temple.” It may have been through some traditionary prediction, such as that of Hosea, only clothed in more definite form, “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself.” Bearing this expectation in mind, we have little difficulty in discovering what “the abomination of desolation” really was. It was not the presence of heathen troops stacking their arms on the consecrated pavement; neither was it the standards pitched by Titus amidst the smoking ruins, though from the Pagan devices which they bore every Jew held them in “abomination.” 1 However in other respects they may have answered the description, they fell short in this, that they could serve no such purpose as our Lord designed, as a signal to the Christians to flee from the city. Escape would be difficult, even after the final investment, but wholly impossible when once Jerusalem was in the hands of the enemy. We find the most exact fulfilment in the pollution of the Holy Place caused by the Zealots. Three years before the close of the siege they occupied the Temple, stopped the daily sacrifice, and made the Sacred Enclosure their headquarters for rapine and murder. The people were completely paralysed by their reckless ferocity; but at last the noble Ananus, the one man who might have saved the city, had not God willed it otherwise, roused his countrymen to a sense of the frightful sacrilege. The attempt, however, to expel them only aggravated the desecration, for the courts were deluged with blood, and 8000 bodies lay slain within the consecrated walls. This was “the abomination of desolation” which our Lord foresaw; and it is worthy of notice that it was interpreted by the Christians as the predicted signal for their departure, for their flight to Pella among the mountain fastnesses of Gilead coincides, in point of time, with the seizure of the Temple by this band of marauders.

The necessity of escaping to avoid the horrors of the siege was so urgent that Jesus saw fit to enforce it under a variety of figures. In the East the flat roofs of the houses often form a thoroughfare from one end of the street to another. If it should happen that any one should be on the house-top when the tidings reached him that the predicted signal had been given, delay was so dangerous, that, leaving all thought of his worldly goods behind, he must use all possible expedition in reaching the gates of the city. If again he should be working in the field, having gone forth from his home in his coat or tunic, let him not think of going back to fetch his cloak, but escape for his life without a moment’s delay. Happy the woman who found herself free from impediment when the signal should be given, with no child at her breast to retard her flight! Unhappy their fate, S. Matthew adds, if the trumpet should sound on the Sabbathday! He Who said that the Sabbath was made for man could hardly mean that the two thousand cubits of a Sabbath journey might not be exceeded under such a pressure as this; but He knew the strength of their scruples, and how reluctantly others would assist them in their escape, even if they themselves could overcome their objections.

The afflictions with which the city was threatened were destined to exceed all that had ever been experienced in the memory of man. And here, as in all else, history records the exact fulfilment of the prophecy.

War, tyranny, sedition, famine, and disease combined in an unparalleled manner to aggravate the miseries of the siege. The assassins, by their desperate daring and reckless disregard for human life, inspired all alike with fear. The rival factions vied with each other for the mastery, and there was no recognised centre of control or government. Incredible horrors were perpetrated by the starving masses congregated within the walls. The most loathsome food was sold at an enormous price. Mothers even slew the children at their breasts, and devoured them in their madness; so that the threatened curse for disobedience was literally fulfilled: “The tender and delicate woman among you... her eye shall be evil toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.” As many as a million 1 of human beings perished by the sword and disease. Those who attempted to escape from these frightful calamities, and throw themselves on the mercy of the besiegers, were instantly crucified. As many as five hundred at a time of these miserable fugitives might be seen writhing before the walls; and this went on till, as the historian says, “room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses for the victims;” and he sums up all in the pregnant sentence, echoing so exactly the prophecy of our Lord, “Neither did any other city ever suffer such miseries, nor did any age ever breed a generation more fruitful in wickedness than this was from the beginning of the world.”

“Except that the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh should be saved.” A multitude of causes contributed to hasten on the end. The chief were these. The population of Jerusalem was swelled far beyond its normal extent by the investment having taken place when the Passover was being celebrated. Further, a great fire broke out at the commencement of the siege, and destroyed large magazines of corn and food which would have sufficed for many years. Yet again the defence was weakened by internal factions, which wholly prevented the besieged from presenting an united front to their assailants. It was the conviction of Divine interposition that drew forth from Titus, as he entered the city and realised the strength of the position, the confession that without doubt God had fought on their side, and expelled the Jews from fortifications which no men or machines could have ever overthrown. This cutting short of the days was designed in the counsels of Almighty God to save the nation from utter extermination, and “for the elect’s sake.” Whether these latter were the Christians 1 besieged in the doomed city, or Jews whom the dissolution of their polity would attract to the New Faith, or in some mysterious way the remnant of the chosen race according to the election of grace, we can only conjecture. Enough for us to know that in the midst of judgment God remembered mercy.

Eighteen centuries have passed away, and the monuments of this awful catastrophe still survive for our admonition. On the Via Sacra at Rome, amidst the mouldering sculpture of the Arch of Titus, records of the Fall of Jerusalem may still be traced. City after city has arisen on the ruins of that which was once “the joy of the whole earth,” but only to succeed to the inalienable heritage of siege and desolation. It is a standing witness to the consequence of neglected warning. Christ closed His threatenings with the caution, “Take ye heed, behold, I have foretold you all things.” Prophet after prophet had called to them to repent, but the people turned a deaf or disobedient ear to every invitation. Then God sent His Son to arrest their attention, and for three years He went in and out among them, healing their sick, giving sight to the blind, and restoring the dead to life again, — doing everything to win them back and lead them to repentance; but at last, when they despised and rejected Him, and crowned the great pile of their iniquities by an unparalleled crime, they were left, for the vindication of Divine justice, to perish in a corresponding ruin.

Note: In addition to this it is generally believed that the Roman eagles were actually regarded as objects of worship.

Note: This was not possible after the Zealots had fully established themselves, as they refused to allow any one to leave the city.

Note: Cf. p. 38.

Note: Cf., for distinctive Jewish dress, Edersheim, Life and Times, i. 621-3. The short under-coat only was worn at work; the outer cloak would be an impediment, so was left at home.

Note: Josephus is not considered wholly reliable in his record of numbers. The total killed in Jerusalem he puts at 1,100,000.

Note: Other causes of minor significance were the desire of Titus to get back to Rome with all possible speed, his friendship for Josephus, and his love for the Jewess Bernice. The first led him to prosecute the siege with the utmost expedition; the two latter to show mercy and consideration to the prisoners.

Note: The recorded fact of the escape of Christians seems to point to one of the latter as the right interpretation. U