The current turmoil in the Middle East has prompted premillenial advocates to once again point to Jerusalem. Their belief is that all Jews will reconvene there at the establishment of Jesus' earthly kingdom, with the temple being rebuilt and its worship being reinstated.

In addition to this being an incorrect understanding of the prophecies of Biblical writings such as the book of Revelation, it is also a complete "miss" on grasping the activities surrounding the Lord's Second Coming as well as the nature of His true kingdom, the church.

The truth about Jerusalem is that it served its purpose in being part of the Jewish system and nation through which the Messiah entered the world. When the time came for the Law of Moses to be abolished, the time came for Jerusalem's destruction as well (Colossians 2:15; Matthew 24:1-2; Luke 21:20-24).

This destruction was plainly foretold. In Matthew 24:15-21, Jesus said: "Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation, 'spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand)," {16}''then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." {17}"Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house." {18}"And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes." {18}"But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!" {20}"And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath." {2i}"For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be." {22}"And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened." {23} "Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ! 'or 'There!' do not believe it." {24}"For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect." {25}' 'See, I have told you beforehand." Jesus, on his way to Calvary, said to the women who lined His way with their tears: "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts which never nursed!' Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us!' and to the hills, 'Cover us!'" (Luke 23:28-30).

A second reason for Jerusalem's destruction is mirrored in the words of Jesus as He wept over the city: "0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate..." (Matthew 23:37-38) Israel's rejection of the promised Messiah was punished by God in His allowing enemies of the Jews to destroy their beloved Jerusalem. The way this happened is both interesting, and yet tragic.

Israel had begun to violently rebel after years of Roman rule. When the Roman garrison of soldiers stationed at Jerusalem was attacked and murdered, the line had been crossed. Secular historians, such as Josephus and others, recount how the Roman war machine under generals Vespasian (who would later become emperor) and Titus began to roll through the Jewish heartland around Jerusalem crushing city after city. Flavius Josephus was spared in this carnage and thus was present at the destruction of Jerusalem. His account is vivid.

Josephus tells of the army of Titus, numbering tens of thousands, encamping four miles from the northern entrance to Jerusalem. Soldiers, horsemen, mercenaries, heavy artillery. Jerusalem, being only one square mile in size, but surrounded by walls and guarded by deep valleys on its west, south, and east sides, was most vulnerable to the north. After destroying the surrounding suburbs in April A.D. 70, the heavy artillery catapults were brought in to fire at the north wall. These catapults, Josephus estimates, could hurl 130 pound stones for a distance of up to ^l/4 miles. They did just that in their devastation of the north wall. Huge banks of trees were constructed to allow Roman soldiers to climb up and over the wall. It took fifteen days, but the north wall was finally breeched.

Upon breeching the first wall to the north of Jerusalem, Titus' men ran into heavy Jewish resistance. Titus decided to pull back somewhat and starve the Jews out. Within three days, Roman soldiers had built a wall and sealed off the entire city. No one in or out. When the food supplies ran low and ten finally out completely, there was widespread robbery and looting.

Josephus says: "Then did the famine widen its progress, and devoured the people by whole houses and families. The upper rooms were full of women and children that were dying of famine. The lanes of the city were full of the bodies of the aged. The children, swelled with famine, fell down dead wherever their misery seized them. Those who looted houses often found them to be no more than graves of the dead bodies inside."

Josephus also explains that the number of dead bodies and the stench that came about because of them prompted people to begin throwing dead bodies over the walls and into the valleys below. Josephus estimated the number of bodies to be somewhere around 600,000. This was so heinous that when the Roman general, Titus, saw it he was reported to have spread his hands toward heaven and to have called on God to witness that this disposal of the dead was not his doing.

The desperation of the Jews in Jerusalem showed in many ways. They ate anything for food - leather girdles, shoes, leather taken from shields, old hay, trash, and even what they could find in the city's sewers and dunghills. One woman even roasted and ate half of her own infant son, until thieves broke in and stopped her as a result of their own horror at the sight of what she was doing.

Josephus says that so great was the desire to escape starvation, that some would even eat small pieces of gold, then surrender to the Romans hoping to later cough up the gold and use it to ransom their own lives. When the Romans heard of this, the soldiers began cutting open all who would surrender.

As the second and third walls were breeched, Josephus recounts:

The final days of the siege saw the temple destroyed, all walls surrounding Jerusalem were thrown down and burned, 97,000 captives were taken and either sold as slaves or used for sport (as food for wild beasts in gladiatorial contests) in various Roman cities. All together, according to Josephus and other historians, there were 1,100,000 Jews who died by either the sword or starvation.

The destruction of Jerusalem reminds us of important things. First, the consequences of rejecting God and His plan for salvation are dire. Jesus said, "Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." (John 8:24). Second, when God allows a thing to be destroyed, it is not done in a half-job sort of fashion. In 2 Peter 3:10-12, the destruction of the world and its surrounding universe will be just as devastating as A.D. 70 was to the Jew. Peter's words in Acts 2:20 show the nature of the punitive judgment of God, "The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD."

Jerusalem will never become again the jewel it once was. It will not be resurrected as an earthly kingdom city of Christ. Judaism will not be restored as the system of man's earthly religion. And, the earth itself will be burned up forever. These facts, taken together with the lessons voiced earlier in this study, make it a serious matter to obey the Lord while there is time and opportunity (2 Corinthians 6:2).