Jerusalem was destroyed.
Jesus uses "tough talk" about the nation's capital.
Jesus offered some tough talk. Like, er, well, "judgment." Ah, er, difficult providences. Nah, not from the loving Jesus?!?! Covenantal curses from Leviticus? Nah, we knew Leviticus was edited into non-canonical oblivion. And, after all, we aren't that upset with Mr. Marcion. Nah, please don’t raise that nasty little subject. It's so gauche; it lacks good taste. One or two cubes of sugar for the tea? Ask your Schleiermachian-based instructor for explanation; but here’s Jesus to "help with your formation" (the word "school" is so passé).
Luke 21: 5-7: "5 Then, as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and donations, He said, 6 “These things which you see—the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.” 7 So they asked Him, saying, “Teacher, but when will these things be? And what sign will there be when these things are about to take place?”
21.20: “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near.”
About 33 years later, A.D. 66, chaos began for Israel.
In A.D. 66, a Jewish revolt broke out against the Roman over-lords. A Roman official put his hand into the financial cookie jar of the Temple. One thing led to another and a full scale revolt heated up over old tensions and old beliefs. Some Romans in Jerusalem were killed. Extremists took over.
A war broke out lasting near-wise four years. Jerusalem was “full when the Roman siege began in earnest,” (492), that is, "full of" people. Was it timed for the Feast of Tabernacles, Rosh Hashanah, and the Day of Atonement? Joiachim Jeremias noted, somewhere (sorry, we don't have the footnote at hand), that for Passover, nearly 1 million Jews would assemble in Jerusalem. Acts 2 gives a picture of people from various "tongues" assembled for Pentecost (which, as you know, Canterbury and Western, schismatic, charismatic babblers misinterpret and misapply.)
On September 2, A.D. 70, “the conquest was complete.” The Temple was burned. Stones were upended and overturned. Josephus claimed that 1 million Jews lost their lives in this conflict. 97,000 were taken captive.
Titus’s Arch in Rome, a football field away from the Coliseum, commemorates the Roman victory over the "covenantally-cursed rebels" (Gal.3.13; Rom.9.1ff). They were Lo-Ruhama and Lo-Ammi (Hos.1.6, 8), a people of "no mercy" and "no longer" God's people, a radical overt, legal, religious and political shift in their individual and national status before the holy God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In short, "You chaps are no long My people" is the idea. Whoa!
Believing Christians are the "people of mercy" and the "people of God" (Rom. 9-11; Gal. 3), but that would take us far afield from September 2, 70 A.D., the day the Romans destroyed Jerusalem.
Rusten, E. Michael and Rusten, Sharon. The One Year Christian History. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2003.
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