The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | Page 9
The European Union in Prophecy
and rebellion, now black with woe, was about to burst upon a guilty people; and He
who alone could save them from their impending fate had been slighted, abused,
rejected, and was soon to be crucified. When Christ should hang upon the cross of
Calvary, Israel's day as a nation favoured and blessed of God would be ended. The
loss of even one soul is a calamity infinitely outweighing the gains and treasures of a
world; but as Christ looked upon Jerusalem, the doom of a whole city, a whole nation,
was before Him--that city, that nation, which had once been the chosen of God, His
peculiar treasure.
Prophets had wept over the apostasy of Israel and the terrible desolations by
which their sins were visited. Jeremiah wished that his eyes were a fountain of tears,
that he might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of his people, for the
Lord's flock that was carried away captive. Jeremiah 9:1; 13:17. What, then, was the
grief of Him whose prophetic glance took in, not years, but ages! He beheld the
destroying angel with sword uplifted against the city which had so long been
Jehovah's dwelling place. From the ridge of Olivet, the very spot afterward occupied
by Titus and his army, He looked across the valley upon the sacred courts and
porticoes, and with tear-dimmed eyes He saw, in awful perspective, the walls
surrounded by alien hosts. He heard the tread of armies marshaling for war. He heard
the voice of mothers and children crying for bread in the besieged city. He saw her
holy and beautiful house, her palaces and towers, given to the flames, and where once
they stood, only a heap of smoldering ruins.
Looking down the ages, He saw the covenant people scattered in every land, "like
wrecks on a desert shore." In the temporal retribution about to fall upon her children,
He saw but the first draft from that cup of wrath which at the final judgment she
must drain to its dregs. Divine pity, yearning love, found utterance in the mournful
words: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them
which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together,
even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" O that thou,
a nation favoured above every other, hadst known the time of thy visitation, and the
things that belong unto thy peace! I have stayed the angel of justice, I have called thee
to repentance, but in vain. It is not merely servants, delegates, and prophets, whom
thou hast refused and rejected, but the Holy One of Israel, thy Redeemer. If thou art
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