There is no city in the whole world which fills so important a place in
the Word of God as Jerusalem. There are several others which are more
prominent in the world’s politics, but in the great economy of God, as
revealed in Sacred Scripture, Jerusalem stands out pre-eminent above them
all. We Englishmen think of London, with its vast population and
enormous wealth, as the leading city of the world; but except in so far
as it is the capital of one of the isles of the sea, it has no place in
prophecy. The French look upon Paris as the most beautiful city of
Europe, and the centre of European influence; but, unless it is the
predicted seat of the Beast, which some persons are disposed to consider
it, it is literally nowhere in the Word of God. And Rome, which all
regard with something of awe and veneration, as being associated with the
most thrilling histories of the past, is described in the Prophetic Word
as the seven-hilled city on which is seated the mystic Babylon, the great
whore of the Apocalypse. But the whole of Sacred Scripture abounds in
allusions to Jerusalem. History, poetry, and prophecy are all full of
it. It is described as ‘beautiful for situation,’ and ‘the joy of the
whole earth.’ The people of God are taught to pray for it, and the
promise is given that those who love it shall prosper. The sacred feet
of the Son of God trod the pavement of its Temple, and we are assured
that it will never disappear from God’s great dealings with mankind,
until the New Jerusalem shall descend from heaven from our God, and there
shall be new heavens and a new earth at the coming of the Lord of Glory.
It was the sight of this beautiful city, with its magnificent Temple
crowning the heights of Mount Moriah, that drew from our blessed Saviour
the remarkable prophecy contained in the 24th of St. Matthew and the 21st
of St. Luke. The disciples had pointed out to Him the buildings of the
Temple; and afterwards, as they sat together on the Mount of Olives, on
the opposite side of the valley, He taught them the vanity of all earthly
strength. He told them that of the beautiful Temple not one stone should
be left upon another. And He also taught them that there would be a
lengthened period of desolation and humiliation; for that Jerusalem
should be ‘trodden under foot of the Gentiles until the times of the
Gentiles should be fulfilled.’ Jerusalem was to be not merely beaten
down, but kept down, until a certain predicted period should expire. But
while the words distinctly predict a long period of desolation, they no
less clearly imply the assurance of an ultimate restoration. They teach
that Jerusalem is not to be trodden down for ever, but only till the
times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled; implying, as clearly as words
can, that when those times are expired, the Holy City shall rise again in
its beauty. The words predict a desolation for a limited period, and at
the close of that period, restoration.
I have not time to discuss what is meant by ‘the times of the Gentiles.’
Suffice it to say that I believe it to be this present Gentile
dispensation; this time of Gentile power and Gentile opportunity; this
time during which God is gathering out His elect people from the Gentile
world, and is employing a Gentile Church in the sacred ministry of the
Gospel of His grace. It seems to be the time of the ingathering of the
Gentile Church, for it is to last, according to St. Paul, ‘until the
fulness of the Gentiles be come in’; and it is clearly the time of the
exercise of Gentile power, for they are Gentiles by whom Jerusalem is to
be trodden under foot.
But I do not wish to occupy time in any discussion of this period, but
rather to invite your special attention to those Gentile powers which
have trodden Jerusalem under foot. Which are they? and how do they now
stand?
What, then, are the Gentile powers which have trodden down Jerusalem? In
the course of the eighteen hundred years of her humiliation there have
been times during which there have been short interruptions in the sway
of the ruling powers. But, looking at the period as one great whole, and
fixing our attention on the conspicuous outlines of history, we find that
there are two powers which stand out conspicuous above all the rest as
the great oppressors of the Holy City. These are Rome and the successive
forms of that Mahommedan power of which the present head is Turkey. Rome
trod her down at the siege of Jerusalem, and Turkey holds her down now.
Rome cast her to the ground, and when she was down Turkey set its foot on
her neck. Rome hurled her to the dust, and Turkey now tramples her in
the mire. Rome destroyed God’s Temple, and actually ploughed up the
sacred ground on which it stood. Turkey maintains on the sacred site the
mosque of Omar; and on that holy hill where Abraham offered Isaac, where
David offered the oxen of Araunah, where Solomon built his Temple, and
where the Lord Jesus, the Son of David, cast out all that was unholy;
there, by Turkish authority, now stands a Mahommedan mosque; and there no
Jew is permitted to set his foot, the only privilege allowed him being to
kneel in the Street of Wailing outside the enclosure, and there weep for
the desolation of Jerusalem.
There is something very remarkable in this fact, because these are the
two powers especially connected with the two great predicted apostasies,
Popery and Mahommedanism; Rome being the seat of the Popedom, and the
Sultan of Turkey the recognised head of the Mahommedan apostasy.
But I have no time now to examine that connexion, nor is it my present
object to do so. The one fact I desire to leave perfectly clear on your
mind is this, that Rome and the Mussulman power of which Turkey is now
the head, are the two Gentile powers which for the last eighteen hundred
years must be charged with having trodden down Jerusalem.
And now what is the present position of these two powers? And how do
they stand in Europe? What is the condition, and what the prospect, of
these two great oppressors of Jerusalem?
As for Rome, as a political power it has ceased to exist, for I need not
say that the modern kingdom of Italy has nothing to do with it. It is
not built on the old lines, but is altogether a new creation, an
extension of the kingdom of Sardinia. Now there can be no doubt whatever
that the vast, iron-footed, undivided Roman Empire, of which Titus was
emperor at the time he trod down Jerusalem, has long since passed away.
Different historians may assign different dates to its dissolution, but
no one doubts for one moment that it is dissolved. The power that
trampled down Jerusalem is broken up into ten kingdoms, and the Imperial
head is no more. There is no successor to the throne of Titus, and the
throne itself is in fragments.
It is very remarkable also that the Papal head which succeeded the
Imperial has within the past few years come also to an end as a political
power. After the division of the undivided empire the ten kingdoms were
to a great extent held together by the Papal head which succeeded the
Imperial. The Pope claimed to be the sole authority from which the kings
derived their power, and before the Reformation, all Europe acknowledged
his claims. He was supposed to hold all the crowns of Europe in his
hand. But that is all over now. The kings have taken away his dominion.
As a political power the Papal head has followed the Imperial. According
to Sir G. Bowyer, in the _Times_ of Nov. 10, 1874, ‘The Pope has been
dethroned, and all his dominions and property have been reduced to a
palace, a church, and a garden,’ it does not seem, therefore, very
probable that Rome in either shape will ever again tread down Jerusalem.
We may safely say that the first of the two oppressors is no more.
But what shall we say of the second? of that Turkey which is the only
power now treading down Jerusalem? I would meet this by another
question. Is there any politician in Europe who has the least
expectation of Turkey remaining in its present position for another ten
years? Whatever little political power it retains is dying out as fast
as it can die. Its exchequer is bankrupt. Its credit is gone. Its
character for good faith is at an end. Its armies are unpaid. Its
subject populations are rising against the intolerable burdens of its
injustice and oppression; and the Turks themselves have lost heart in the
melancholy conviction that their days are numbered.
Thus of the two powers that have trodden down Jerusalem, one is already
extinct and the head of the other at its last gasp. The foot of the Sick
Man is the only foot now remaining on the neck of Jerusalem, and the Sick
Man is dying. Surely it is not unreasonable to ask the question, ‘When
he dies, why should not Jerusalem arise and be free’?
The result is that, without dwelling on any minute detail, we are brought
by the great, long-continued facts of European history, to the most
important conclusion that, in all probability, we are approaching the
time when Jerusalem shall no longer be trodden down of the Gentiles, and
when therefore, the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled. It is only
reasonable to suppose that when the oppressors are taken out of the way
the oppression will come to an end; and, therefore, as one of those two
oppressors is already fallen, and the other falling so fast that all the
powers of Europe seem unable to keep him in his place, there is surely
good reason to hope that before long the captive will be free, and that
the time may not be far distant when we shall hear the cry, ‘Shake
thyself from the dust; arise and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself
from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.’
And it certainly is a most remarkable fact that, simultaneously with the
consumption of Rome and the decay of Turkey, there has been a wonderful
awakening of interest in Jerusalem and the Jews. The explorations in
Palestine are very like a fulfilment of the prophecy, ‘Thy servants take
pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof’: and if they are,
there is good reason to hope that ‘the time to favour her, yea, the set
time, is come.’
But the interest in the people is more remarkable than that in the
country. Before the great Evangelical revival at the commencement of
this century no one seemed to have any idea that the Jews had any part in
their own Messiah. They were treated as an outcast people, and as for
their conversion, no one seems to have thought of attempting it until the
formation of the Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, in
the year 1808. But now there are Christian missionaries labouring
amongst them in most of the principal towns of Europe, and, indeed, in
almost all the leading centres of their scattered population. The New
Testament has been translated into Hebrew, and very nearly twenty-five
thousand copies are being annually circulated amongst the Jews. The
state of feeling towards them has passed through a complete revolution,
so that of England it was said not long since by a learned and
influential Italian Jew, ‘God has blessed, and will bless, England;
because her great men, both in Church and State, take an interest in the
children of Jacob.’ Such facts are most important in themselves; but
when it is borne in mind that this interest in Jerusalem has been
awakened just at the time of the consumption of the political power of
Rome, and has been going on side by side with the decay of Turkey, it
certainly ought to lead all students of the Word of God to consider
carefully whether the times of the Gentiles may not be drawing to a
close, and the day of redemption may not be beginning to dawn on
Jerusalem.
But some may be disposed to say, How are we concerned with Jerusalem, and
what does it matter to us whether Jerusalem is trodden under foot, or
free? I fear this is a very common feeling throughout society, and that
there are thousands and tens of thousands of professing Christians who
are perfectly indifferent as to the condition of Jerusalem. But it ought
not so to be, for if it be a place cared for by the Lord, it ought to be
also cared for by His people. Besides which, even on selfish principles,
we should take an interest in Jerusalem; for, as our position as Gentiles
in Christ Jesus is most intimately connected with the fall of Jerusalem,
so our brightest hopes in Him are bound up with its recovery. In proof
of this I would ask you to turn to Ps. cii. 16, where you read, ‘When the
Lord shall build up Zion he shall appear in glory!’ The return of the
Lord is, therefore, connected with the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and,
whenever we see His hand restoring the city, we should begin to look out
in confident hope for the glorious and happy day when He Himself will
come to take the Kingdom. As a student of the Word of God, I should be
very much surprised if He were to come before Jerusalem is raised from
the dust; but when it is raised, it seems clear from Scripture that there
will be nothing in the great prophetic series any longer to delay His
appearing. {102}
So in our Lord’s discourse, as recorded by St. Matthew and St. Luke, we
are taught the same thing. The object of the discourse is not, as has
been sometimes thought, to confound the taking of Jerusalem with the
Second Coming, but to distinguish them, and to warn the disciples against
the danger of mistaking the siege of Jerusalem for the coming of the
Lord. It is the restoration of Jerusalem, not the fall, which is
connected with the Advent. Our Lord, therefore, distinguishes between
the fall and the recovery and describes the various signs that shall
precede each. So up to Luke xxi. 24, we find the description of the
desolation, concluding with the prophecy, ‘Jerusalem shall be trodden
down of the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.’ But
in ver. 28 we find the promise of the glorious recovery in those sacred
words, ‘When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift
up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.’ The 24th verse
describes the desolation, the 28th the restoration, and the whole long
period described as the times of the Gentiles, with the signs of the
latter days, intervenes between the two. Now look at the account of the
redemption. It includes clearly a release from the captivity and the
rise of Jerusalem, when the time of its treading down shall have come to
an end. But that is not all, or nearly so. The redemption there
described is identified with the return of the Lord Himself; for in ver.
27 we read, ‘Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with
power and great glory.’ Those then who pray for the peace of Jerusalem
will rejoice for Jerusalem’s sake in its recovery. Those servants of God
who take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof, will have
their hearts gladdened when they see her rebuilt. But that is not all,
or nearly all, for whenever that happens, the whole Church of God, and
every member of it in every nation under heaven, may look up and lift up
their heads, for the Lord Himself will soon appear. Once more, then, are
we taught our deep interest in the decay of Turkey. When Turkey falls
there is every hope that Jerusalem will rise; and when Jerusalem rises,
the next thing for us to look out for will be the Advent of the Lord.
All Christians, therefore, should rejoice in the decline of the Ottoman
Empire, for the fall of the Mussulman is the hope of the Jew, and the
return of the Jew will be the blessed harbinger of the triumphant advent
of her glorious King. Rome beat down Jerusalem, and Rome, as a political
power, is no more. Turkey is now treading her down; but its decay is
begun, and its days are numbered: so that we may earnestly hope it will
be but a little while, possibly a very little while—within the lives of
many present—when the great promise of God shall be fulfilled, and,
according to the prophecy, ‘The moon shall be confounded, and the sun
ashamed, when the Lord of Hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in
Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.’ God grant that all the
readers of this little book may be found looking for His appearing, and
ready to welcome Him with their lamps burning brightly, when the cry is
heard, ‘The Bridegroom cometh!’
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