View of the Hebrews

Page 17

30 DESTRUCTION OP JERUSALEM. NESTRUCTION to give them deliverance from their domestic horrors. Such was the state of Jerusalem when Titus appeared before it with a besieging army. But he came not te deliver it from its excruciating cute upon it divine vengeance; tortures; dictions of our Lord Jesus Christ, that the abomination of desolation but to exe- to fulfil the fata] pre- standing “ when ye see in the holy piace—when ye see Jerusalem compassed about with armies,—then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.” ‘ Wheresoever the carcass is, there shall the eagies be gathered together.” Jerusalem was now the carcass to be devoured; the Roman eagles had ar- rived to tear it as their prey. The day on which Titus had encompassed Jerusalem, was the feast of the passover. Here let it be remembered, that it was the time of this feast, (ona preceding occasion) that Christ was taken, condemned and executed. It was at the time of this feast, that the heifer, in the hands of the sacrificing priesis, brought forth a lamb. And just after this feast at another time, that the miraculous besieging armies were seen over Jerusalem, just before sunset. And now at the time of the passover, the antitype of this prodigy appears inthe besieging army of Titus. Multitudes of Jews had convened at Jerusalem from surrounding nations to celebrate this feast. Ah, miserable people,—going with intent to feed on the paschal lamb; but really to their own final slaughter, for rejecting “the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world!” ‘The Jews had imprecated the blood of the true Paschal Lamb, (by them wantonly shed) on themselves and on their children. God was now going in a signa! manner to take them at their word. Hehence providentially collected their nation, under sentence of death, as into a great prison, for the day of execution. And as their execution of Christ was signal, low, dezrading,—the death of the cross; so their execution should be signal and dreadful. The falling city was now crowded with little that devoted people. The unexpectedly to the Jews, short of two -tnillions of event came suddenly and as the coming of a thief. OF and almost Ike lightning. JERUSALEM. Josephus 31 notes this; and thas without design, shows the fultilmentof these hints of Christ, that his coming should be like a thief inthe night, and like lyhtning shining under the whole heav- ens. The furious contending factions of the Jews, on finding themselves environed with the Roman armies, laid aside (for the moment) their party conteutions, sallied out, rushed furiously on their common foe, and came near utterly destroying the tenth legion of the Romanarmy. ‘This panic among the Romans occasioned a short suspension of hostilities. Some new confidence hence inspired the hopes of the Jews: and they now determined to defend their city. But being a little released from their terrors of the Romans, their factious resentments again rekindled, and broke out in great fury. ‘The faction under Eleazer was swallowed up in the other two, under John and Simon. Slaugh- ter, conflagration and plunder ensued. A portion of the centre of the city was burned, and the inhabitants became as prisoners to the two furions parties. The Romans here saw their own proverb verified: « Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat.? Whom God will destroy, he gives up to madness.” The invading armies knew how to profit by the madness of the Jews. They were soon found by the Jews to have possession of the two outer walls of their city. This alarm reached the heart of the factions, and once my. more united them against the common ene- But they had already proceeded too far to retreat from the effects of their madness. Famine, with its ghastly horrors, stared them in the face. It had (as might be expected) been making a silent approach ; and some of the more obscure had already fallen before it. But even this did not annihilate the fury of faction, which again returned with redoubled fury, and : presented new scenes of wo. As the fe amine Increased, the sufferers would snatch bread from each oth€rs mouths, and devour their sra in unp rep are d. T'o oe on Pe tortures wer e inf lic ted, 00d Was violently y taken y hus: bands from WiviVes,es, and : a = . : 1 i :