30
The Great Controversy 1888
slaughter that followed, more than a million of the people perished;
the survivors were carried away as captives, sold as slaves, dragged
to Rome to grace the conqueror’s triumph, thrown to wild beasts in
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the amphitheaters, or scattered as homeless wanderers throughout the
earth.
The Jews had forged their own fetters; they had filled for them-
selves the cup of vengeance. In the utter destruction that befell 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.
Says the prophet, “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself;” “for thou
hast fallen by thine iniquity.” [
Hosea 13:9
;
14:1
.] Their sufferings are
often represented as a punishment visited upon them by the direct
decree of God. It is thus that the great deceiver seeks to conceal his
own work. By stubborn rejection of divine love and mercy, the Jews
had caused the protection of God to be withdrawn from them, and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
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 for-
bearance, 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God, persistently resisted, is at last withdrawn from the sinner, and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
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the offers of divine grace, and resisting the pleadings of divine mercy.
Never was there given a more decisive testimony to God’s hatred of
sin, and to the certain punishment that will fall upon the guilty.