We caught just a few minutes of the History Channel while eating lunch. It was about the Colosseum in ancient Rome, that pagan temple to cruelty and the vain amusement of the masses. They would flock there day after day to watch gladiators fight each other to the death and ravenously hungry lions kill and eat Christians. It was Disneyland gone horribly wild and cruel, and it was our TV violence live.
Two poignant facts stood out:
(a) This enormous structure built after the conquest of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D. was financed by the treasures of the Jewish Temple which Rome had taken as the spoils of their expensive war.
(b) The laborers who built the structure were largely Jewish slaves captured in that last siege.
This was historical and theological irony that caused immense rejoicing in Satan’s kingdom of darkness.
Think of it: up until the Savior had pronounced the woes upon the Pharisees in Matthew 23:13ff., the Temple had been the divinely recognized “house of God” on earth for the true church of that time. The Jews who rejected Jesus thought their wonderful Temple would stand forever, but He told His disciples that “not one stone shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down” (Matt. 24:2). The destruction of Jerusalem, and Solomon’s Temple in 586 B.C., was terrible, but this of 70 A.D. was the most frightful humiliation any nation in history had ever experienced. All so unnecessary!
And now the rejectors of Jesus toil as slaves to build it, while their looted Temple supplies the cost of building the most horrible “temple” Satan has ever had on earth. Thus the Enemy gloats over his hatred of what was formerly the true “church” on earth.
A prominent speaker at a huge assembly of serious-minded Christian youth (General Youth Conference) recently declared openly that World Wars I and II need never have cursed this earth but for the unbelief and hard-heartedness of God’s professed people who “just like the Jews” rejected glorious truth that “the Lord in His great mercy sent” them—truth that was an emblem of Christ Himself.
Rather than give Satan an advantage in creating another “Colosseum” as precious time going by, would it not be better for us to humble our hearts before the Lord in repentance?
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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