Page 102 - Satan in the Sanctuary

104 Satan in the Sanctuary

springs which had formerly been so miserly that the water
had been rationed:

You know that Siloam, as well as all other springs that
were without the city, did so far fail, that water was sold
by distinct measures; whereas they now have such a great
quantity of water for your enemies, as is sufficient not
only for drink both for themselves and their cattle, but
2
for watering their gardens also.
The occupying Romans had water galore, for their civilian
pursuits and, most importantly, for the troops who besieged
Jerusalem. And now the historian harks back to the time
of Nebuchadnezzar's attack: "The same wonderful [re-
markable] sign you had also experienced formerly, when
the fore-mentioned king of Babylon [Nebuchadnezzar]
made war against us, and when he took the city and burnt
3
the Temple."
This information certainly underlines Jeremiah's warn-
ing that God can control military matters, and will use the
Gentiles ("Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my ser-
vant" Jer 27:6) to punish His people and will even comfort
them while they are at it.
Josephus is not a Bible writer, of course, but is a well-
documented secular historian to whom we owe credence
for many corroborated reports of the times.
Jeremiah took little satisfaction in seeing the accuracy of
his prophecy. He became the saddest of men over the de-
struction of the holy city, the starvation of the people, and
the deepest cut of all—the burning of the house of God.
In a fervor of misery he wrote the book of Lamentations,
setting to the music of a dirge the desolation of Jerusalem.
This majestic moment, one of the peaks of the great litera-
ture of the Old Testament, cannot be sufficiently quoted