Rock solid

Most of us probably have read or heard about the Ten Commandments that Moses received on top of Mount Horeb in Midian. Many of us remember seeing Charlton Heston as he portrayed Moses in the classic Cecil B. Demille film The Ten Commandments. But what is usually not understood by most of us is that there were actually two sets of stone tablets; the first set Moses broke into pieces as he arrived back at base camp. In chapter 10 of Deuteronomy we read as God instructs Moses to make another set of tablets. This may be a small point, but I believe it is significant as it points out from the very beginning that man would never be able to keep the law that was etched into cold, hard stone. Instead man would choose to follow his own path towards destruction breaking God’s law every step along the way.

From chapters 11 through 28 of Deuteronomy we find Moses explaining love, obedience, blessings, curses and what will happen to them if they don’t heed all of these laws and regulations God has commanded. In chapter 28 we find 14 verses covering the blessings and 54 verses covering the curses that God promised would befall them if they did not choose to be obedient. As I was reading through this list of curses, I remembered reading about an eyewitness account by the Jewish historian Flavious  Josephus. The text sounded very familiar to me and seemed to document the prophecies Deuteronomy 28:47-57 predicted would happen. 

In 70 A.D. the Roman general Titus commenced a four month siege against Jerusalem’s residents and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims that had traveled to the city for mandatory annual temple feasts.  Josephus recorded horrific, macabre situations that befell Jerusalem from within as 60,000 thousand Roman soldiers were attacking from outside the walls of the city’s defenses. The details of the crimes are gruesome, hard to fathom and made me sick to my stomach. In my excitement I made the mistake of reading this historical account to my wife and father who happened to be with me in the room as I was studying. After I had finished reading they both appeared a bit perturbed and angry that I had shared all these gory details with them and left the room.

The account of the sacking of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. is not for the faint-hearted but if you still want to read about Jerusalem’s fate, you can read about it in Josephus’ eye-witness account. You may also want to read Deuteronomy 28:47-57 which predicted this event from the Roman army’s emblem of the eagle to the horrific cannibalism and suffering that Jerusalem was subjected to. The siege was predicted 1200 years before the event transpired, describing the event almost word for word. It’s so amazing that this kind of depravity could have taken place so close to the Holies of Holy, the place where God would appear to men through Israel’s High Priest. It’s clear that God’s warning about obedience, blessings and curses came to pass and was fulfilled in brutal fashion during the four month Roman siege.

Jesus also talked about this event in Matthew 24:1-2 “Then Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and His disciples came up to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, ‘Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.’” History records that this event happened as the chilling destruction of the walls of the temple are recorded by Josephus. Also recorded is the fact that Titus’ commanded that the temple complex should remain untouched. The Jewish temple was one of the wonders of the world, a treasure for sure, complete with furnishings overlaid in gold and doors and gates shimmering in silver. He wanted to preserve the architecture of the temple with its white limestone blocks, cedar rafters and boasted that, while the inhabitants were to be trodden down, not a hand should be laid on this building complex.

What happened next was that as the fighting got nearer to the end the Jewish resistance holed up in the temple complex and a Roman solider threw a torch to the large wooden doors and gates. As the silver melted it caused the fire to spread and soon the entire temple was ablaze. The gold and silver covered furnishings melted to the ground allowing the precious molten metal to leak between the cracks in the stone walls and floor.

So the Roman soldiers literally removed every stone, throwing them down over the wall to gain access to the gold and silver and fulfilling Christ’s prediction that not one stone would be left upon another. God’s Word is living, active and sharper than a two edged sword and the stones are still piled up where they landed at the bottom of the wall.