Page 101 - Satan in the Sanctuary

Moses to Moshe—A Bloody Site 103

member Micah, and Urijah—prophets of the ancient days
.—who prophesied against Jerusalem accurately enough.
And so they imprisoned their prophet.
The Jews were lulled into a false sense of security by
their several successful defenses of the capital over the four
centuries since Solomon. The Egyptians, the Syrians, and
the brutal Assyrians had all assaulted walled Jerusalem,
with its strategic highlands. They had all failed to take the
city.
But, Jeremiah had pointed out, the defenders had the
power of God with them in those reverent days. Things
were different now. The Jews had turned from God over
the centuries. Did they think that the Almighty could not
turn the tide against them? Did they suppose that they
would be forever guaranteed impregnability because of the
devoutness of their ancestors?
Jeremiah lived to be a heartbroken witness to the exact
fulfillments of his prophecies.
We find in Josephus, a Romanized Jewish historian of
the first century A.D., an interesting reference to a miracle
on the scene of the destruction of Solomon's Temple. It's
as if God did indeed take a hand. Josephus wrote in con-
nection with the destruction of the second Temple, which
we shall look at presently, but he did take notice of a cer-
tain special event that had to do with the first temple:
"As for Titus [the Roman general who destroyed the sec-
ond temple in A.D. 70], those springs that were formerly
almost dried up when they were under your power—since
he is come—run more plentifully than they did before." 1
Josephus is talking about the springs of water outside Jeru-
salem. The water supply was always critical for the invading
army in that hot region. The historian noted that Titus and
his Roman troops had plenty of water available from