The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | Page 18

The European Union in Prophecy
their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my
people." Isaiah 49:15; Lamentations 4:10. Again was fulfilled the warning prophecy
given fourteen centuries before: "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, . . . 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 thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates." Deuteronomy 28:56, 57.
The Roman leaders endeavoured to strike terror to the Jews and thus cause
them to surrender. Those prisoners who resisted when taken, were scourged, tortured,
and crucified before the wall of the city. Hundreds were daily put to death in this
manner, and the dreadful work continued until, along the Valley of Jehoshaphat and
at Calvary, crosses were erected in so great numbers that there was scarcely room to
move among them. So terribly was visited that awful imprecation uttered before the
judgment seat of Pilate: "His blood be on us, and on our children." Matthew 27:25.
Titus would willingly have put an end to the fearful scene, and thus have spared
Jerusalem the full measure of her doom. He was filled with horror as he saw the bodies
of the dead lying in heaps in the valleys. Like one entranced, he looked from the crest
of Olivet upon the magnificent temple and gave command that not one stone of it be
touched. Before attempting to gain possession of this stronghold, he made an earnest
appeal to the Jewish leaders not to force him to defile the sacred place with blood. If
they would come forth and fight in any other place, no Roman should violate the
sanctity of the temple. Josephus himself, in a most eloquent appeal, entreated them
to surrender, to save themselves, their city, and their place of worship. But his words
were answered with bitter curses. Darts were hurled at him, their last human
mediator, as he stood pleading with them. The Jews had rejected the entreaties of the
Son of God, and now expostulation and entreaty only made them more determined to
resist to the last. In vain were the efforts of Titus to save the temple; One greater than
he had declared that not one stone was to be left upon another.
The blind obstinacy of the Jewish leaders, and the detestable crimes perpetrated
within the besieged city, excited the horror and indignation of the Romans, and Titus
at last decided to take the temple by storm. He determined, however, that if possible
it should be saved from destruction. But his commands were disregarded. After he
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