Mark 13:1-4

CONTENTS.

The LORD foretells the Destruction of the Temple; and the sad Calamities of the Jews. His solemn Cautions to his Disciples in the Expectation of those woeful Events.

AND as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto him, Master, see what manner of stones, and what buildings are here! (2) And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings? there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. (3) And as he sat upon the mount of Olives over against the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, (4) Tell us, when shall these things be and what shall be the sign when all these things shall be fulfilled?

When we read, as in this scripture, of JESUS departing from the temple, and connect with it that it was his farewell departure, for he never again entered it, what solemn thoughts it awakens? When the LORD departs, woe to that land, woe to that house or family, where the LORD's gracious presence is not. No sooner had Lot departed front Sodom than the next account is the destruction of it. Genesis 19:22. And who shall say how much the Christless owe in being saved from instant ruin, both in nations, and cities, and families, from the seed of CHRIST living in the midst of them.

This second temple, though so vastly inferior to the glory of the first, or Solomon's temple, so called, that the ancient men who had seen the former, wept at beholding this latter. Ezra 3:12. And see the LORD's promise in consequence thereof. Haggai 2:1. and which was literally fulfilled when the SON of GOD in our nature entered it: this second temple was a wonderful building. It had been repaired by Herod; and Josephus, the Jewish historian, saith, that some of the stones were of a magnitude even to forty-five cubits long, five high, and six broad. JESUS declared that such should be the desolation of the place, when the LORD visited it for the rejection of CHRIST, that not one of these immense stones should be left upon another. And we are told in history, that when Titus, under whose army Jerusalem was sacked, heard of this prophecy of CHRIST, he endeavoured to counteract it; but such was the impetuosity of his army, that no orders could restrain them, and CHRIST's prediction was literally fulfilled.