Gates of the City

Division of the Seventieth Week and the Death of the Ceremonial Law

As we just saw in the last chapter, what divides the 70th week is the event of Jesus Christ fulfilling the prophetic purposes of the sacrifices through His own sacrifice for our sins, which thereby caused the legal mandate for the Temple sacrifices and oblations to cease. For having fulfilled their purpose, they were now dead, and to perform them would be the “sacrificing of Jesus Christ afresh and a putting Him to an open shame,” which in the eyes of God is an abomination. This stands in a stark contrast to the popular theology which teaches the 70^th week’s division occurs when the antichrist breaks the alleged treaty he supposedly will make with the Jews, and then 3 ¹/₂  years later he forces them to cease their reinstated practice of animal sacrifices.

So once again I am asking you to please place all your theological persuasions safely upon the altar of God that you might be able to examine these things afresh. For what I hope to show is how Jesus being “cut off,” points to His death and resurrection as something designed before the foundation of the world, not only to be the means of our salvation, but also is meant to be a confirmation of both the surety and power of God’s ability to keep His covenant to His people, or as the verse says, “he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and then in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.”

We start with recalling two of the six distinct things which the angel stated would be accomplished within the 70 weeks.

First, “to make an end of sins” – which remember the earlier discussion in chapter 14, how the Hebrew word, chatta’ah, and how this phrase here does not mean an end to “sin” itself. For if that were the case, it would have been accomplished with the first, “finish the transgression.” For all sin is the transgression of God.

 I John 3:4 – Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

Again,  “end of sins” means an end of the sin-offerings, and this our Lord Jesus did when He offered His spotless soul and body on the cross, once and for all, as a sin-offering sacrificed unto God upon behalf of all mankind. Thereby, the authority and mandate requiring the animal “sacrifice and oblation to cease” with Jesus’ own self-sacrifice upon the cross.

Second, To make reconciliation, or “to make atonement” for iniquity, which again, was accomplished once and for all, by Jesus offering up Himself upon the cross and the shedding His blood. As a result the sacrifices, or the sin offerings, became totally unnecessary and again, to continue offering them would prophetically be to “crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and to put Him to an open shame,” (Hebrews 6:6).

Therefore by rejecting the atoning work of the true Lamb of God sacrifice and clinging to mere animal sacrifices, the Jews were now committing a grievous sin in the eyes of God, which the angel says to Daniel was now “an overspreading of abominations.”

So let’s look at Hebrews concerning these sacrifices in contrast with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

Hebrews 9:13 – For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled upon the unclean sanctified to the purifying of the flesh: ¹⁴ How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from these dead works to now serve the living God?

Hebrews 10:4 – For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. ⁵ Wherefore when He comes into the world, He said, Sacrifice and offering You did not desired, rather a body have You prepared for Me: ⁶ For in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have had no pleasure. ⁷ Then said I, Lo I come, (even as in the volume of the book it is written of Me,) to do Your will, My God. ⁸ For above when He said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin You desired not, neither had pleasure in that which is offered by the law; ⁹ And in that He has said, Lo, I come to do Your will, My God, He has taken away the first, that He may establish the second. ¹⁰ Through which by God’s will are we now sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.(see all of Hebrews chapters 9 & 10).

Those sin-offerings commanded by God were holy prophetic actions, magnificently designed so as to proclaim that “mystery” which was planned from the foundation of the world, even the sacrificial death and resurrection of our blessed Lord and Savior. 

Romans 16:25 – Now to Him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, ²⁶ but now is being made manifest, by the scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God, is being made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.

Galatians 3:23 – But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. ²⁴ Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster designed to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

Colossians 1:26 – Even the mystery which had been hid for ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints.

However, those sin-offerings could only proclaim the “mystery” while the Ceremonial Law was approved by God and therefore alive, but once it died, these sin-offerings became a witness of the Jews condemnation by proving the their complete rejection of God’s only provision for their reconciliation. 

Romans 7:1 – Do you not know brothers, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?  ² For the woman which has a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he is alive, but if the husband dies, she is loosed from the law binding her to her husband. ³ So if while her husband is alive she is married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law and therefore is not an adulteress, even though she is married to another man. ⁴ Wherefore, my brothers, you too are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that through Him we should bring forth fruit unto God.  ⁵ For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins which were known by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. ⁶ But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, we should now serve in newness of spirit, and no longer in the oldness of the letter.

Hebrews 6:1 – Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, ² or of the doctrine of baptisms, and of the laying on of hands, and of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. ³ And this will we do, if God permit.

So the witness of scripture confirms that because Jesus Christ died and had risen again, He had “caused the sacrifice and oblations to cease,” as they were no longer required.  Yet by the Jews continuing to offer these “dead works,” these sacrifices became an “overspreading of abominations” for which “He,” that is God, “shall make it [the Temple] desolate, even until the consummation [or the end] and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” 

Desolations are Determined

Matthew 23:36 -Truly I say unto you,  that all these things shall come upon this generation. ³⁷ For Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you which have killed the prophets and stoned them which were sent unto you, how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, but you would not! ³⁸ Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. ³⁹ For I say unto you, that you shall not see Me again, until you shall say, Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord.

Matthew 24:2 – And Jesus said to them, Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, There shall not be left here one stone on another that shall not be thrown down.

Clearly it was the Lord’s earnest desire to gather His people unto Himself, but they “would not.” Therefore, it was inevitable that His judgment would fall upon them. Below are other accounts in the Gospels pertaining to the fate of Jerusalem and the Temple.

Matthew 24:15 – Therefore when you shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, (whoso reads let him understand) ¹⁶ Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

Mark 13:14 – But when you shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that reads understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains.

Luke 21:20 – And when you see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then you shall know that the desolation thereof is at hand. ²¹ Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart go out, and let not them that are in the countries enter therein. ²² For these be the days of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

It is common knowledge that Rome did indeed destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, as well as eradicated the whole geographical and sovereign nation of Israel with its physical boundaries. However, most Christians nowadays have no comprehensive historical knowledge of those events which occurred within Jerusalem and the Temple just prior this desolation. The fact that God was the author of this destruction can be witnessed to in that the author of Hebrews warned the Jewish believers before Jerusalem and the Temple was laid waste and burned that it was in fact getting “ready to vanish away.” Nevertheless, the Apostle Paul also warned that the Jews would enjoy a deceptive time of “peace and safety” just prior to this destruction. 

Hebrews 8:13 – For in that He said, A new covenant, He has made the first old. Now that which decays and is waxing old is ready to vanish away. ^9:1 For in that He said, A new covenant, He has made the first old. Now that which decays and is waxing old is ready to vanish away.

I Thessalonians 3 – For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then shall sudden destruction come upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 

In confirmation to the surety of Paul’s prophetic words, the Jewish historian Titus Flavius Josephus recorded that it was a time of “peace and prosperity” in Jerusalem just “four years” prior to it being encompassed by the Roman army. Mind you that the Jews would often count part of a day, month or year as a numerical whole in their reckoning and thus it may have actually been around three and a half years “before the war began.”  Furthermore, there was a man who was a prophet of sorts who also was named Jesus that entered Jerusalem in those days and began to wail and cry out persistently of its imminent destruction.

Josephus WARS Book 6 – Chap. 5 – para. 3

Jesus, the son of Ananus, a plebeian and a husbandman, who four years before the war began, and at a time when the city was in very great peace and prosperity, came to that feast whereon it is our custom for everyone to make tabernacles to God in the temple, and began on a sudden to cry out aloud, “A voice from the east, a voice from the west, A VOICE FROM THE FOUR WINDS, a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house, a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this whole people!” This was his cry as he went about by day and night in all the lanes of the city.  However, certain of the most eminent among the populace had great indignation at this dire cry of his, and took up the man, and gave him a great number of severe stripes; yet did not he either say any thing for himself, or anything peculiar to those that chastised him, but still went on with the same words which he cried before. Hereupon our rulers, supposing, as the case proved to be, that this was a sort of divine fury in the man, brought him to the Roman procurator, where he was whipped till his bones were laid bare; yet he did not make any supplication for himself, nor shed any tears, but turning his voice to the most lamentable tone possible, at every stroke of the whip his answer was, “Woe, woe to Jerusalem!” And when Albinus (for he was then our procurator) asked him, Who he was, and from whence he came? and why he uttered such words? he made no manner of reply to what he said, but still did not leave off his melancholy ditty, till Albinus took him to be a madman, and dismissed him. Now, during all the time that passed before the war began, this man did not go near any of the citizens, nor was seen by them while he said so; but every day he uttered these lamentable words, as if it were his premeditated vow, “Woe, woe to Jerusalem!” Nor did he give ill words to any of those that beat him every day, nor good words to those that gave him food; but this was his reply to all men, and indeed no other than a melancholy presage of what was to come. This cry of his was the loudest at the festivals; and he continued this ditty for seven years and five months, without growing hoarse, or being tired therewith, until the very time that he saw his presage in earnest fulfilled in our siege, when it ceased; for as he was going round upon the wall, he cried out with his utmost force, “Woe, woe to the city again, and to the people, and to the holy house!” And just as he added at the last, “Woe, woe to myself also!” there came a stone out of one of the engines, and smote him, and killed him immediately; and as he was uttering the very same presages he gave up the ghost.

Jerusalem, having been encompassed by the Romans, fell into the greatest turmoil within her walls. For the Jews were divided as to what should be done to remedy their desperate condition being under Roman siege. For though they had rejected the Lord Jesus as the Christ, they knew it was a truth when He stated that should a house be divided against itself, it would not stand. Yet within Jerusalem’s walls three factions were warring viciously against each other, killing far more of each other than did the Romans. 

Josephus – Wars Book 5 – Chap.1 – para. 1

THE SEDITIONS AT JERUSALEM AND WHAT TERRIBLE MISERIES AFFLICTED THE CITY BY THEIR MEANS;

WHEN therefore Titus had marched over that desert which lies between Egypt and Syria, in the manner forementioned, he came to Cesarea, having resolved to set his forces in order at that place, before he began the war. Nay, indeed, while he was assisting his father at Alexandria, in settling that government, which had been newly conferred upon them by God, it so happened that the sedition at Jerusalem was revived, and parted into three factions, and that one faction fought against the other; which partition in such evil cases may be said to be a good thing, and the effect of Divine justice. Now as to the attack the zealots made upon the people, and which I esteem the beginning of the city’s destruction, it hath been already explained after an accurate manner; as also whence it arose, and to how great a mischief it was increased. But for the present sedition, one should not mistake if he called it a sedition begotten by another sedition, and to be like a wild beast grown mad, which, for want of food from abroad, fell now upon eating its own flesh.

For Eleazar, the son of Simon [leader of one fraction], who made the first separation of the zealots from the people, and made them retire into the temple, appeared very angry at John’s insolent attempts, which he made everyday upon the people; for this man [John, a leader of another fraction, son of a certain man whose name was Levi, that drew them into this rebellion, and encouraged them in it] never left off murdering; but the truth was, that he could not bear to submit to a tyrant who set up after him. So he being desirous of gaining the entire power and dominion to himself, revolted from John, and took to his assistance Judas the son of Chelcias, and Simon the son of Ezron [a leader of the remaining fraction], who were among the men of greatest power. There was also with him Hezekiah, the son of Chobar, a person of eminence. Each of these were followed by a great many of the zealots; these seized upon the inner court of the temple and laid their arms upon the holy gates, and over the holy fronts of that court. And because they had plenty of provisions, they were of good courage, for there was a great abundance of what was consecrated to sacred uses, and they scrupled not the making use of them; yet were they afraid on account of their small number; and when they had laid up their arms there, they did not stir from the place they were in. Now as to John, what advantage he had above Eleazar in the multitude of his followers, the like disadvantage he had in the situation he was in since he had his enemies over his head; and as he could not make any assault upon them without some terror, so was his anger too great to let them be at rest; nay, although he suffered more mischief from Eleazar and his party than he could inflict upon them, yet would he not leave off assaulting them, insomuch that there were continual sallies made one against another, as well as darts thrown at one another, and the temple was defiled everywhere with murders. 

With these three fractions fighting against each other, and Eleazar and his party using the Temple as a strategic base of operations, these events caused many of the pious citizens and strangers who were still desirous to make sacrifices and offerings unto God to fall victims to Jerusalem’s internal strife. Therefore, when one carefully examines these horrors which occurred during the siege of Jerusalem, the following words of Jesus begin to ring piercingly loud with prophetic clarity.

Luke 13:1 – There were present at that season some that told Him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. ² And Jesus answering said unto them, Do you suppose that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans because they suffered such things, because they suffered such things? ³ I tell you, Nay: but, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. ⁴ Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think you that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? ⁵ I tell you, Nay: but, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish.

Josephus’ record of the fall of Israel with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple is worthy of a thorough reading by all professing believers. For in it they might learn to truly fear God and fervently pray His grace be not frustrated in their lives less He remove His protective presence and forbearing mercies. For these rebellious murderers who were now polluting His house were the very people to whom He had committed His oracles, that they might be faithful stewards and lights unto a world that knew not God. A people He had called by His name to be shining witnesses that their God was the true and Living One, “Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.”

To present the whole of Josephus’ record of these things is not practical. Therefore, I will share only a few more brief parts to convey the severity of men’s plight when God abandons them for their persistent rebellion against Him. For God had forewarned them that if they forsook Him and continued rejecting His pleas that He would turn against them and drive them out of His land.

Deuteronomy 28:63 – And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you and to bring you to naught; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go into to possess it.

Matthew 21:42 – Jesus said unto them, Did you not read in the scriptures, How the stone which the builders rejected, the same becomes the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes? ⁴³ Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. ⁴⁴ And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

Josephus – Wars Book 5 – Chap. 1 – para. 3

3. But now the tyrant Simon, the son of Gioras, whom the people had invited in out of the hopes they had of his assistance in the great distresses they were in, having in his power the upper city, and a great part of the lower, did now make more vehement assaults upon John and his party, because they were fought against from above also; yet was he beneath their situation when he attacked them, as they were beneath the attacks of the others above them. Whereby it came to pass that John did both receive and inflict great damage, and that easily as he was fought against on both sides; and the same advantage that Eleazar and his party had over him since he was beneath them, the same advantage had he, by his higher situation, over Simon. On which account he easily repelled the attacks that were made from beneath by the weapons thrown from their hands only; but was obliged to repel those that threw their darts from the temple above him by his engines of war; for he had such engines as threw darts, and javelins, and stones, and that in no small number, by which he did not only defend himself from such as fought against him,  but slew moreover many of the priests, as they were about their sacred ministrations. For notwithstanding these men were mad with all sorts of impiety, yet did they still admit those that desired to offer their sacrifices, although they took care to search the people of their own country beforehand, and both suspected and watched them; while they were not so much afraid of strangers, who although they had gotten leave of them, how cruel soever they were to come into that court, were yet often destroyed by this sedition; for those darts that were thrown by the engines came with that force, that they went over all the buildings, and reached as far as the altar, and the temple itself, and fell upon the priests, and those that were about the sacred offices; insomuch that many persons who came thither with great zeal from the ends of the earth, to offer sacrifices at this celebrated place, which was esteemed holy by all mankind, fell down before their own sacrifices themselves, and sprinkled that altar which was venerable among all men, both Greeks and Barbarians, with their own blood; till the dead bodies of strangers were mingled together with those of their own country, and those of profane persons with those of the priests, and the blood of all sorts of dead carcasses stood in lakes in the holy courts themselves. And now, “O must wretched city, what misery so great as this didst you suffer from the Romans, when they came to purify you from your intestine hatred! ‘For you could be no longer a place fit for God, nor could you long continue in being, after you have been a sepulcher for the bodies of your own people, and have made the holy house itself a burying-place in this civil war of yours. Yet may you again grow better, if perchance you will hereafter appease the anger of that God who is now the author of your destruction.” 

Josephus – Wars Book 5 – Chap. 1 – para. 5

5. They agreed in nothing but this, to kill those that were innocent. The noise also of those that were fighting was incessant, both by day and by night; but the lamentations of those that mourned exceeded the other; nor was there ever any occasion for them to leave off their lamentations, because their calamities came perpetually one upon another, although the deep consternation they were in prevented their outward wailing; for being constrained by their fear to conceal their inward passions, they were inwardly tormented, without daring to open their lips in groans. Nor was any regard paid to those that were still alive, by their relations; nor was there any care taken of burial for those that were dead; the occasion of both which was this, that everyone despaired of himself; for those that were not among the seditious had no great desires of anything, as expecting for certain that they should very soon be destroyed; but for the seditious themselves, they fought against each other, while they trod upon the dead bodies as they lay heaped one upon another, and taking up a mad rage from those dead bodies that were under their feet they became the fiercer thereupon. They moreover were still inventing somewhat or other that was pernicious against themselves; and when they had resolved upon anything, they executed it without mercy, and omitted no method of torment or of barbarity.

It is hard to believe those who God had called by His name had fallen into such horrid conditions and madness; engaging in constant fighting, but not against the Romans, but against their own countrymen. All this while a flood of abominations were being committed within the polluted Temple; this is the historic setting against which all Christians in America should prayerfully consider as they read the following words of Josephus below as he desperately pleads with his countrymen.

Josephus – Wars Book 6 – Chap. 2 – para. 1

HOW TITUS PERSUADED JOSEPHUS TO EXHORT THE JEWS AGAIN [TO A SURRENDER]

“…I dare venture to promise that the Romans shall still forgive you. And take notice that I, who make this exhortation to thee, am one of your own nation; I, who am a Jew, do make this promise to thee. And it will become you to consider who I am that gives you this counsel, and whence I am derived; for while I am alive I shall never be in such slavery, as to forego my own kindred, or forget the laws of our forefathers. You have indignation at me again, and make a clamor at me, and reproach me; indeed I cannot deny that I am worthy of worse treatment than all this amounts to, because, in opposition to fate do I make this kind invitation to you, and endeavor to force deliverance upon those whom God has condemned. For who is there that does not know what the writings of the ancient prophets contain in them, – and particularly that oracle which is just now going to be fulfilled upon this miserable city? For they foretold that this city should be then taken when somebody shall begin the slaughter of his own countrymen. And are not both the city and the entire temple now full of the dead bodies of your countrymen? It is God, therefore, it is God himself who is bringing on this fire, to purge that city and temple by means of the Romans, and is going to pluck up this city, which is full of your pollutions.“

Here we see the depths of sin into which a nation can fall when its people persistently frustrate God’s grace. Once noble men now reduced to brute beasts, behaving like savages towards their own countrymen. And yet, all that actually pales away in comparison to what else Josephus recorded. But first, be reminded of what Jesus said to these rebellious and stiff-necked Jews.

Matthew 24:19 – And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

Josephus – Wars Book 6 – Chap.3 – para. 3 & 4

ANOTHER DESCRIPTION OF THE TERRIBLE FAMINE THAT WAS IN THE CITY

Now of those that perished by famine in the city, the number was prodigious, and the miseries they underwent were unspeakable; for if so much as the shadow of any kind of food did any where appear, a war was commenced presently, and the dearest friends fell a fighting one with another about it, snatching from each other the most miserable supports of life. Nor would men believe that those who were dying had no food, but the robbers would search them when they were expiring, lest any one should have concealed food in their bosoms, and counterfeited dying; nay, these robbers gaped for want, and ran about stumbling and staggering along like mad dogs, and reeling against the doors of the houses like drunken men; they would also, in the great distress they were in, rush into the very same houses two or three times in one and the same day. Moreover, their hunger was so intolerable, that it obliged them to chew every thing, while they gathered such things as the most sordid animals would not touch, and endured to eat them; nor did they at length abstain from girdles and shoes; and the very leather which belonged to their shields they pulled off and gnawed: the very wisps of old hay became food to some; and some gathered up fibers, and sold a very small weight of them for four Attic [drachmae]. But why do I describe the shameless impudence that the famine brought on men in their eating inanimate things, while I am going to relate a matter of fact, the like to which no history relates, either among the Greeks or Barbarians . . .

There was a certain woman that dwelt beyond Jordan, her name was Mary; her father was Eleazar, of the village Bethezob, which signifies the house of Hyssop. She was eminent for her family and her wealth, and had fled away to Jerusalem with the rest of the multitude, and was with them besieged therein at this time. The other effects of this woman had been already seized upon, such I mean as she had brought with her out of Perea, and removed to the city. What she had treasured up besides, as also what food she had contrived to save, had been also carried off by the rapacious guards, who came every day running into her house for that purpose. This put the poor woman into a very great passion, and by the frequent reproaches and imprecations she east at these rapacious villains, she had provoked them to anger against her; but none of them, either out of the indignation she had raised against herself, or out of commiseration of her case, would take away her life; and if she found any food, she perceived her labors were for others, and not for herself; and it was now become impossible for her any way to find any more food, while the famine pierced through her very bowels and marrow, when also her passion was fired to a degree beyond the famine itself; nor did she consult with anything but with her passion and the necessity she was in. She then attempted a most unnatural thing; and snatching up her son, who was a child sucking at her breast, she said, “O you miserable infant! for whom shall I preserve you in this war, this famine, and this sedition? As to the war with the Romans, if they preserve our lives, we must be slaves. This famine also will destroy us, even before that slavery comes upon us. Yet are these seditious rogues more terrible than both the other. Come on; be you my food, and be you a fury to these seditious varlets, and a by-word to the world, which is all that is now wanting to complete the calamities of us Jews.” As soon as she had said this, she slew her son, and then roasted him and ate the one half of him, and kept the other half by her concealed. Upon this the seditious came in presently, and smelling the horrid scent of this food, they threatened her that they would cut her throat immediately if she did not show them what food she had gotten ready. She replied that she had saved a very fine portion of it for them, and withal uncovered what was left of her son. Hereupon they were seized with a horror and amazement of mind, and stood astonished at the sight, when she said to them, “This is mine own son, and what has been done was mine own doing! Come, eat of this food; for I have eaten of it myself! Do not you pretend to be either more tender than a woman, or more compassionate than a mother; but if you be so scrupulous, and do abominate this my sacrifice, as I have eaten the one half, so let the rest be reserved for me also.” After which those men went out trembling, being never so much affrighted at anything as they were at this, and with some difficulty they left the rest of that meat to the mother. Upon which the whole city was full of this horrid action immediately; and while everybody laid this miserable case before their own eyes, they trembled, as if this action unheard of had been done by themselves. So those that were thus distressed by the famine were very desirous to die, and those already dead were esteemed happy, because they had not lived long enough either to hear or to see such miseries.

Even before the Jews entered the Promise Land, God had warned them of these horrors into which sin would take them, but they would not listen.

Deuteronomy 28:53 – And you shalt eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, which the LORD your God you given you in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith your enemies shall distress you: ⁵⁴ So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave: ⁵⁵ So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith your enemies shall distress you in all your gates. ⁵⁶ The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, ⁵⁷ And toward her young one that comes out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith your enemy shall distress you in your gates.

All this happened because they refused to listen to God whose only desire was to do wondrous things for His people. Instead, history records how these abominations worked to bring the Temple to its full and utter end. These things were foretold by the Angel Gabriel and bear witness to the accuracy of the sure word of prophecy. Let’s end this chapter with another strong admonition delivered against the Jews of those very days, written before these things came to past in the New Testament.

Hebrews 2:1 – Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. ² For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; ³ Then how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him.