From the crest of Olivet, Jesus looked upon Jerusalem. Fair and peaceful was the scene
spread out before Him. It was the season of the Passover, and from all lands the children
of Jacob had gathered there to celebrate the great national festival. In the midst of gardens
and vineyards, and green slopes studded with pilgrims’ tents, rose the terraced hills, the
stately palaces, and massive bulwarks of Israel’s capital. The daughter of Zion seemed in
her pride to say, I sit a queen and shall see no sorrow; as lovely then, and deeming herself
as secure in Heaven’s favor, as when, ages before, the royal minstrel sang: “Beautiful for
situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, . . . the city of the great King.” Psalm
48:2. In full view were the magnificent buildings of the temple.

The rays of the setting Looking down to the last generation, Jesus saw the world involved in
a deception similar to that which caused the destruction of Jerusalem.
Illustration © Review and Herald Publ. Assoc.sun lighted up the snowy whiteness of its marble walls and gleamed from golden gate and tower and pinnacle. “The perfection of [18] beauty” it stood, the pride of the Jewish
nation. What child of Israel could gaze upon the scene without a thrill of joy and
admiration! But far other thoughts occupied the mind of Jesus.

“When He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it.” Luke 19:41. Amid the universal rejoicing of the
triumphal entry, while palm branches waved, while glad hosannas awoke the echoes of
the hills, and thousands of voices declared Him king, the world’s Redeemer was
overwhelmed with a sudden and mysterious sorrow. He, the Son of God, the Promised
One of Israel, whose power had conquered death and called its captives from the grave,
was in tears, not of ordinary grief, but of intense, irrepressible agony.

His tears were not for Himself, though He well knew whither His feet were tending.
Before Him lay Gethsemane, the scene of His approaching agony. The sheepgate also
was in sight, through which for centuries the victims for sacrifice had been led, and
which was to open for Him when He should be “brought as a lamb to the slaughter.”
Isaiah 53:7. Not far distant was Calvary, the place of crucifixion. Upon the path which
Christ was soon to tread must fall the horror of great darkness as He should make His
soul an offering for sin. Yet it was not the contemplation of these scenes that cast the
shadow upon Him in this hour of gladness. No foreboding of His own superhuman
anguish clouded that unselfish spirit. He wept for the doomed thousands of Jerusalem—
because of the blindness and impenitence of those whom He came to bless and to save.

The history of more than a thousand years of God’s special favor and guardian care,
manifested to the chosen people, was open to the eye of Jesus. There was Mount Moriah,
where the son of promise, an unresisting victim, had been bound to the altar—emblem of
the offering of the Son of God. There the covenant of blessing, the glorious Messianic
promise, had been confirmed to the father of the faithful. Genesis 22:9, 16-18. There the
flames of the sacrifice ascending to heaven from the threshing floor of Ornan had turned
[19] aside the sword of the destroying angel (1 Chronicles 21)—fitting symbol of the
Saviour’s sacrifice and mediation for guilty men. Jerusalem had been honored of God
above all the earth.

The Lord had “chosen Zion,” He had “desired it for His habitation.”
Psalm 132:13. There, for ages, holy prophets had uttered their messages of warning.
There priests had waved their censers, and the cloud of incense, with the prayers of the
worshipers, had ascended before God. There daily the blood of slain lambs had been
offered, pointing forward to the Lamb of God. There Jehovah had revealed His presence
in the cloud of glory above the mercy seat.

There rested the base of that mystic ladder connecting earth with heaven (Genesis 28:12; John 1:51)—that ladder upon which angels of God descended and ascended, and which opened to the world the way into the holiest
of all. Had Israel as a nation preserved her allegiance to Heaven, Jerusalem would have
stood forever, the elect of God. Jeremiah 17:21-25. But the history of that favored people
was a record of backsliding and rebellion. They had resisted Heaven’s grace, abused their
privileges, and slighted their opportunities.

Although Israel had “mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and
misused His prophets” (2 Chronicles 36:16), He had still manifested Himself to them, as
“the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and
truth” (Exodus 34:6); notwithstanding repeated rejections, His mercy had continued its
pleadings. With more than a father’s pitying love for the son of his care, God had “sent to
them by His messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because He had compassion on
His people, and on His dwelling place.” 2 Chronicles 36:15. When remonstrance,
entreaty, and rebuke had failed, He sent to them the best gift of heaven; nay, He poured
out all heaven in that one Gift.

The Son of God Himself was sent to plead with the impenitent city. It was Christ that had
brought Israel as a goodly vine out of Egypt. Psalm 80:8. His own hand had cast [20] out
the heathen before it. He had planted it “in a very fruitful hill.” His guardian care had
hedged it about. His servants had been sent to nurture it. “What could have been done
more to My vineyard,” He exclaims, “that I have not done in it?” Isaiah 5:1-4. Though
when He looked that it should bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes, yet with a
still yearning hope of fruitfulness He came in person to His vineyard, if haply it might be
saved from destruction. He digged about His vine; He pruned and cherished it. He was
unwearied in His efforts to save this vine of His own planting.


For three years the Lord of light and glory had gone in and out among His people. He
“went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil,” binding up the
brokenhearted, setting at liberty them that were bound, restoring sight to the blind,
causing the lame to walk and the deaf to hear, cleansing the lepers, raising the dead, and
preaching the gospel to the poor. Acts 10:38; Luke 4:18; Matthew 11:5. To all classes
alike was addressed the gracious call: “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

Though rewarded with evil for good, and hatred for His love (Psalm 109:5), He had
steadfastly pursued His mission of mercy. Never were those repelled that sought His
grace. A homeless wanderer, reproach and penury His daily lot, He lived to minister to
the needs and lighten the woes of men, to plead with them to accept the gift of life. The
waves of mercy, beaten back by those stubborn hearts, returned in a stronger tide of
pitying, inexpressible love. But Israel had turned from her best Friend and only Helper.
The pleadings of His love had been despised, His counsels spurned, His warnings
ridiculed.


The hour of hope and pardon was fast passing; the cup of God’s long-deferred wrath was
almost full. The cloud that had been gathering through ages of apostasy and rebellion,
now black with woe, was about to burst upon a guilty people; [21] and He who alone
could save them from their impending fate had been slighted, abused, rejected, and was
soon to be crucified.

When Christ should hang upon the cross of Calvary, Israel’s day as a
nation favored and blessed of God would be ended. The loss of even one soul is a calamity infinitely outweighing the gains and treasures of a world; but as Christ looked upon Jerusalem, the doom of a whole city, a whole nation, was before Him—that city, that nation, which had once been the chosen of God, His peculiar treasure.

Prophets had wept over the apostasy of Israel and the terrible desolations by which their
sins were visited. Jeremiah wished that his eyes were a fountain of tears, that he might
weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of his people, for the Lord’s flock that
was carried away captive. Jeremiah 9:1; 13:17. What, then, was the grief of Him whose
prophetic glance took in, not years, but ages! He beheld the destroying angel with sword
uplifted against the city which had so long been Jehovah’s dwelling place.

From the ridge of Olivet, the very spot afterward occupied by Titus and his army, He looked across the
valley upon the sacred courts and porticoes, and with tear-dimmed eyes He saw, in awful
perspective, the walls surrounded by alien hosts. He heard the tread of armies marshaling
for war. He heard the voice of mothers and children crying for bread in the besieged city.
He saw her holy and beautiful house, her palaces and towers, given to the flames, and
where once they stood, only a heap of smoldering ruins.

Looking down the ages, He saw the covenant people scattered in every land, “like wrecks
on a desert shore.” In the temporal retribution about to fall upon her children, He saw but
the first draft from that cup of wrath which at the final judgment she must drain to its
dregs. Divine pity, yearning love, found utterance in the mournful words: “O Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how
often would I [22] have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”

O that thou, a nation favored above everyother, hadst known the time of thy visitation, and the things that belong unto thy peace! I have stayed the angel of justice, I have called thee to repentance, but in vain. It is not
merely servants, delegates, and prophets, whom thou hast refused and rejected, but the
Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer. If thou art destroyed, thou alone art responsible. “Ye
will not come to Me, that ye might have life.” Matthew 23:37; John 5:40.

Christ saw in Jerusalem a symbol of the world hardened in unbelief and rebellion, and
hastening on to meet the retributive judgments of God. The woes of a fallen race,
pressing upon His soul, forced from His lips that exceeding bitter cry. He saw the record
of sin traced in human misery, tears, and blood; His heart was moved with infinite pity
for the afflicted and suffering ones of earth; He yearned to relieve them all. But even His
hand might not turn back the tide of human woe; few would seek their only Source of
help. He was willing to pour out His soul unto death, to bring salvation within their reach;
but few would come to Him that they might have life.

Two days before the Passover, when Christ had for the last time departed from the
temple, after denouncing the hypocrisy of the Jewish rulers, He again went out with His
disciples to the Mount of Olives and seated Himself with them upon the grassy slope
overlooking the city. Once more He gazed upon its walls, its towers, and its palaces.
Once more He beheld the temple in its dazzling splendor, a diadem of beauty crowning
the sacred mount.

A thousand years before, the psalmist had magnified God’s favor to Israel in making her
holy house His dwelling place: “In Salem also is His tabernacle, and His dwelling place
in Zion.” He “chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which He loved. And He built His
sanctuary like high palaces.” Psalm 76:2; 78:68, 69. The first temple had been erected
during the most prosperous period of Israel’s history. Vast stores of treasure for this
purpose had been collected by King David, and the plans for its construction were made
by divine inspiration. 1 Chronicles 28:12, 19. Solomon, the wisest of Israel’s monarchs,
had completed the work.

This temple was the most magnificent building which the world ever saw. Yet the Lord had declared by the prophet Haggai, concerning the second temple: “The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former.” “I will shake
all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory,
saith the Lord of hosts.” Haggai 2:9, 7.

After the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar it was rebuilt about five hundred
years before the birth of Christ by a people who from a lifelong captivity had returned to
a wasted and almost deserted country. There were then among them aged men who had
seen the glory of Solomon’s temple, and who wept at the foundation of the new building,
that it must be so inferior to the former. The feeling that prevailed is forcibly described
by the prophet: “Who is [24] left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and
how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?” Haggai 2:3;
Ezra 3:12. Then was given the promise that the glory of this latter house should be
greater than that of the former.

But the second temple had not equaled the first in magnificence; nor was it hallowed by
those visible tokens of the divine presence which pertained to the first temple. There was
no manifestation of supernatural power to mark its dedication. No cloud of glory was
seen to fill the newly erected sanctuary. No fire from heaven descended to consume the
sacrifice upon its altar.

For centuries the Jews had vainly endeavored to show wherein the promise of God given
by Haggai had been fulfilled; yet pride and unbelief blinded their minds to the true
meaning of the prophet’s words. The second temple was not honored with the cloud of
Jehovah’s glory, but with the living presence of One in whom dwelt the fullness of the
Godhead bodily—who was God Himself manifest in the flesh.

The “Desire of all nations” had indeed come to His temple when the Man of Nazareth taught and healed in the sacred
courts. In the presence of Christ, and in this only, did the second temple exceed the first
in glory. But Israel had put from her the proffered Gift of heaven. With the humble
Teacher who had that day passed out from its golden gate, the glory had forever departed
from the temple. Already were the Saviour’s words fulfilled: “Your house is left unto you
desolate.” Matthew 23:38.

Let men beware lest they neglect the lesson conveyed to them
in the words of Christ. As He warned His disciples of
Jerusalem’s destruction, giving them a sign of the approaching
ruin, that they might make their escape; so He has warned the
world of the day of final destruction and has given them
tokens of its approach, that all who will may flee from the
wrath to come. Jesus declares: “There shall be signs in the sun,
and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress
of nations.” Luke 21:25; Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:24-26;
Revelation 6:12-17. Those who behold these harbingers of His
coming are to “know that it is near, even [38] at the doors.”
Matthew 24:33.

“Watch ye therefore,” are His words of admonition. Mark 13:35. They that heed the warning shall not be left in darkness, that that day should overtake them unawares. But to them that will not watch, “the day of the
Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” 1 Thessalonians 5:2-5.

The world is no more ready to credit the message for this time than were the Jews to
receive the Saviour’s warning concerning Jerusalem. Come when it may, the day of God
will come unawares to the ungodly. When life is going on in its unvarying round; when
men are absorbed in pleasure, in business, in traffic, in money-making; when religious
leaders are magnifying the world’s progress and enlightenment, and the people are lulled
in a false security—then, as the midnight thief steals within the unguarded dwelling, so
shall sudden destruction come upon the careless and ungodly, “and they shall not
escape.” Verse 3.

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