Matthew 24:1

MATT. 24

CHRIST FORETELLS THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE; SIGNS OF HIS COMING; THE PARABLE OF THE FIG TREE; FAITHFUL AND UNFAITHFUL SERVANTS

And Jesus went out from the temple, and was going on his way; and his disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple. But he answered and said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. (Matthew 24:1-2)

Jesus went out from the temple ... The significance of these words is revealed in the prediction Christ immediately made of the final overthrow of the temple. When Christ goes OUT FROM any society, individual, or institution, its overthrow is certain, and the consequence is always destruction. The buildings which the disciples pointed out to Jesus with such evident admiration were fully entitled to praise. Josephus' description of Herod's temple states that the front of it was covered with heavy golden plates, that it was constructed of green and white marble blocks of immense dimensions, 67' 10:5' 10:6' in size, and that it appeared like a mountain covered with snow, the ungilded parts being exceedingly white. The golden facade reflected the rising sun with fiery splendor; and, in the words of the rabbis, "He who has not seen the temple of Herod has never seen a beautiful building."[1]

Christ's prophecy of the overthrow of the temple was so remarkably fulfilled that the actual site of that once-glorious ancient edifice is now uncertain. Josephus recorded the thorough demolition and destruction of the proud walls which appeared so beautiful to the disciples; but, even if no history remained of how it was done, the present uncertainty as to the site and the utter absence of any significant remains of the ancient glory are proof enough that Jesus' words were totally fulfilled.

Nor was the destruction of the temple intended by Titus who had charge of the siege of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. He even gave a commandment against its demolition, intending to preserve it as "a monument to the empire."[2] But the decrees of kings and emperors and generals were of no avail against the will of him who had sentenced it to destruction. Just as Pilate's order to break the legs of Christ was countermanded by the Lord, centuries before it was given, so Titus' order to spare the temple was not heeded. God's will, not Titus' order, prevailed.

Included in the prophecy of the destruction of the temple, there was also inherent the accompanying destruction of Jerusalem, also prophesied by Christ (see latter part of preceding chapter), The departed glory of Jerusalem was mentioned by Farrar in these words:

He who, in modern Jerusalem, would look for the relics of the ten-times-captured city of the days of Christ, must look for them twenty feet beneath the soil, and will scarcely find them. In one spot alone remain a few massive substructions to show how vast is the ruin they represent; and here, on every Friday, assemble a few poverty-stricken Jews, to stand each in the shroud in which he will be buried, and wail over the shattered glories of their fallen and desecrated home.[3]

In view of the size of the stones used in building the temple, it must have appeared highly improbable that every one of them would be thrown down, and yet that is exactly the way it happened. The fire which ravaged the cedar beams and furnishings within melted the gold with which much of the temple was overlaid. It ran down into the crevices of the mighty stones, and the soldiers literally left no stone unturned as they sought to recover the yellow metal that had adorned Herod's temple as loot.

[1] J. R. Dummelow, One Volume Commentary (New York: Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 701.

[2] James Macknight, A Harmony of the Four Gospels (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1950), p. 412.

[3] F. W. Farrar, The Life of Christ (New York: A. L. Burt Company), p. 378.