THERE is properly no division here. Jesus, obeying the call of Jehovah, is on His journey, though it be a sorrowing one, to the joy set before Him, and now on His way out, at the door of the temple, “He looked up.” His eye and heart had ceased, after many a struggle, to take interest in anything there, but He looked up when He came to the treasury, where were deposited offerings for the repair of the temple, which His heart was so entirely set on. “He saw rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.” Their act did not sympathize with His purpose, but “ He saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites: “ her act touched His heart, for it bore apt resemblance to His own destined and incipient one, for He was on His way in deep penury to give all the living that He had to repair and rebuild the temple of God; and this was her act. How different from that of the scribes! It also illustrates the future act of the nation, when in its widowhood and destitution it should readily surrender “the last farthing “for the true temple of God. I think “the two mites” may refer to a “double” suffering; (Is. 40:1.) yet, while the Lord is meditating on the great cost at which the temple would be set up on an external basis, He is interrupted by some who, in little unison with His feelings, spoke of it, “how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts.” This admiration, so discordant to His mind and judgment, draws from Him a plain and succinct account of its coming destiny, even that “the days will come in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another which shall not be thrown down.” They cannot mistake this, and hence the questions: “When shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?” We should remember, in seeking the interpretation of an answer, that it is necessary to keep in mind the question which called it forth, and it unconnected with any other thought. Some of the Jewish people here only defined the pronoun; “they” ask two questions respecting the total destruction of the temple, and, consequently, answers to these questions only ought we to look for or comprehend in the reply. To you who are interested in that sad scene, the first thing you have to guard against is, being “deceived,” and by what? It is not false doctrine. It is by many coming in Christ’s name, and saying, I am assuming power and authority, (earthly of course,) in the name of Christ. This will soon begin, but do not go after them. The mere commotions of nations and your own persecutions, which shall turn to you for a testimony, are no signs of proximity to this terrible moment; but “when you shall see Jerusalem encompassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh,” but “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” If the times of the Gentiles are not expired, Jerusalem must continue to be trodden down by them. When one ends, the other ends; and if one, the times of the Gentiles, still exists, as all must allow, then also must the other; and hence it is vain to expect one to cease, which many attempt, without the cessation of the other. That is, the times of the Gentiles must cease, if in this day the restoration of Jerusalem could be effected; so that they who attempt it only expedite their own removal from the scene, though it is evident they do it not with this object: not only shall there be signs in heaven and on the earth and sun, but also men, whose hearts are failing them with fear, shall see the Son of man (Christ in manhood) coming in a cloud with power and great glory. It is not merely Jews or disciples shall see, but those who are afraid to see Him.
These things are but the harbingers of the day of redemption, a period full of meaning and interest to an embarrassed Jew: that day comes not till preceded by all these sorrows and calamities. God is a righteous God. His grace always reigns through righteousness, and He will ever judge His people. To convey the results of all this in a mystery, plain to the instructed but sealed up to unbelief, He spike a parable. “Behold a fig tree and all the trees; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is nigh at hand; so likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.” Now, I think it is plain that this parable is no part of the answer to the two questions, but rather what was to happen, consequent on the answer to them being accomplished. I believe the fig tree is a symbol of Israel’s national condition, as the vine of its moral, and the olive of its testimony, and that “all the trees” represent the nations of the earth; there is great advancement among them; there is every indication of summer being nigh; they shall say peace and safety, but destruction is imminent, and man’s kingdom is at an end, for “ the kingdom of God is nigh, at hand.” And let none suppose that this is addressed to the Church; for, as if to guard us against the thought that these things, after the lapse of so many years, could not happen to Israel, the Lord distinctly assures us that this generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled. All the predictions recorded here are either fulfilled, or this generation has not passed away; and if it is asserted that they are fulfilled, why is Jerusalem trodden down of the Gentiles? Why do the times of the Gentiles continue Why? have not men seen Christ in manhood, in power and great glory? for as yet He was seen by them only in weakness, “crucified in weakness;” and, surely, the time has not yet come which shall be a snare TO ALL them which dwell on the face of the whole earth, but as the earth shall be the scene of such terrible judgments, the faithful are exhorted to “watch, therefore, and pray always;” and that the more dissociated they are from earth and its enjoyment, the more sure they will be to ESCAPE the judgments coming on it. It is not that they are triumphantly to pass through, but escape (ἐκφυγεῖν, literally, to “fly out”) “all the things which shall come to pass, and stand before the Son of man.” I can understand how the moral of this can apply to the Church, as well as to the Jewish remnant, to whom it is evident these words are primarily addressed.
Perhaps we have, in our Lord’s division of His time at this moment, for He is the same yesterday and today, some insight as to His present and future engagements; the nights are spent on the mount of Olives, and the days in the temple. This is the night emphatically, and Christ is on the mount, the heavenly mount; there real green olive trees flourish. But when the day has fairly dawned, He will appear in His temple, and “the people will come early in the morning to Him in the temple to hear Him,” for the people shall be willing in the day of His power. (Ps. 110.)