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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 4
them as a nation, and in all the woes that followed them in their
dispersion, they were but reaping the harvest which their own hands
had sown. Their sufferings are often represented as a punishment
visited upon them by the direct decree of God. This is a device by
which the great deceiver seeks to conceal his own work. By stubborn
rejection of divine love and mercy, the Jews had caused the protec-
tion of God to be withdrawn from them, and Satan was permitted to
rule them according to his will. The horrible cruelties enacted in the
destruction of Jerusalem are a demonstration of Satan’s vindictive
power over those who yield to his control.
We cannot know how much we owe to Christ for the peace and
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protection which we enjoy. It is the restraining power of God that
prevents mankind from passing fully under the control of Satan. The
disobedient and unthankful have great reason for gratitude for God’s
mercy and long-suffering in holding in check the cruel, malignant
power of the evil one. But when men pass the limits of divine
forbearance, that restraint is removed. God does not stand toward
the sinner as an executioner of the sentence against transgression;
but he leaves the rejecters of his mercy to themselves, to reap that
which they have sown. Every ray of light rejected, every warning
despised or unheeded, every passion indulged, every transgression
of the law of God, is a seed sown, which yields its unfailing harvest.
The Spirit of God, persistently resisted, is at last withdrawn from
the sinner, and then there is left no power to control the evil passions
of the soul, and no protection from the malice and enmity of Satan.
The destruction of Jerusalem is a fearful and solemn warning to all
who are trifling with the offers of divine grace, and turning away
the pleadings of divine mercy. Never was given a more decisive
testimony to God’s hatred of sin, and to the certain punishment that
will fall upon the guilty.
The Saviour’s prophecy concerning the visitation of judgments
upon Jerusalem is to have another fulfillment, of which that terrible
scene was but a faint shadow. The second advent of the Son of God
is foretold by lips which make no mistake: “Then shall all the tribes
of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the
clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he shall send
his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather
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together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to