Not One Stone Upon Another

Not One Stone Upon Another

What was to become of the temple in Jerusalem?

ONE DAY when Jesus and his disciples were talking about the beautiful stonework of the temple, Jesus surprised them by prophesying of its future destruction. He said, “The time is coming when all these things will be so completely demolished that not one stone will be left on top of another” (Luke 21:6).

“Teacher,” they asked, “when will all these things take place? And will there be any sign ahead of time?” (v. 7).

After telling about future wars and persecutions he said, “And when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will know that the time of the desolation has arrived” (v. 20). Jesus went on to say, “For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people” (v. 28). Wrath is an expression used throughout the Bible for God’s judgment on those who have broken his covenant. The Jews had broken God’s covenant by rejecting their Messiah.

Jesus ends his prophesy of the destruction of Jerusalem by saying, “They will be brutally killed by the sword or sent away as captives to all the nations of the world. And Jerusalem will be conquered and trampled down by the Gentiles until the age of the Gentiles comes to an end” (v. 24).

Approximately thirty-three years later the events leading up to fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy began to unfold. In A.D. 66 a Jewish revolt against the Romans was triggered when a Roman official stole money from the temple treasury. Fighting broke out in Jerusalem, and soon a full-scale revolt was under way. Jewish extremists took control of Jerusalem and massacred the Romans there. The Roman legate in Syria learned of the massacre and assembled an army. His attempt to storm Jerusalem was thwarted, so he ordered a retreat that soon turned into a rout.

When news of the Jewish uprising reached Rome, one of Rome’s most experienced generals, Vespasian, was dispatched to Judea to deal with the revolt. Accompanied by his son Titus and three Roman legions, Vespasian conquered Galilee in 67. In the early summer of 68 as he marched toward Jerusalem, word came of the death of Nero, the emperor. Vespasian then withdrew to Caesarea to wait for news of who would emerge as emperor.

In July 69 Vespasian himself was proclaimed emperor, and he turned over his army to Titus. By the end of 69 Titus had subdued all of Judea except for Jerusalem and three outposts overlooking the Dead Sea. In the spring of 70 Titus began his siege of Jerusalem. The Jews from outside the city were so confident of their eventual victory that just prior to the siege, great numbers of pilgrims entered Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover.

The city was full when the siege began in earnest. The Romans broke through the walls of the city and fought the Jews house by house, destroying the city as they went. On September 2, A.D. 70, the conquest was complete. The temple had been burned, and not one of its stones was left standing on another. Historian Josephus reported that over a million Jewish lives were lost in the siege. Ninety-seven thousand were taken away captive. The Jews had paid a fearful price for rejecting their Messiah.

Reflection

The disciples might have been surprised by the harsh things that Jesus told them were going to happen to their temple and their people, the Jews. But God’s covenants contain both blessings and curses. The Jews experienced God’s curse in A.D. 70 for breaking God’s covenant by rejecting their Messiah. Today we are under the New Covenant. Those who commit their lives to Jesus the Messiah receive the blessings of the covenant, forgiveness of sin, and eternal life, and those who do not, receive its curses.

For we know the one who said, “I will take vengeance. I will repay those who deserve it.” He also said, “The Lord will judge his own people.”

Hebrews 10:30