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Destruction of Jerusalem
11
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 a grassy slope over-
looking the city. Once more he gazed upon its walls, its towers and
palaces. Once more he beheld the temple in its dazzling splendor, a
diadem of beauty crowning the sacred mount.
A thousand years before had the psalmist magnified God’s favor
to Israel in making her holy house his dwelling-place: “In Salem is
his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Zion.” [
Psalm 76:2
.] “He
chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which he loved. And he
built his sanctuary like high palaces.” [
Psalm 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. 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
[24]
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
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
.] Then was given the promise that the glory of this latter
house should be greater than 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