The Jews burned their own food thinking they could force GOD'S Hand to help them ...then 70 A.D. happened.
JESUS is the Cornerstone of The Living Temple that cannot be shaken.
Hebrews 12:25-29
See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:
Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
For our God is a consuming fire.
Still reviewing the clip and I like the linkage and sequence of events leading up to the demise of Jerusalem and the end of that age.
1. After the Crucifixion of Christ, for about another 30 years or so later, the two witnesses were still alive and well in Jerusalem. The new generation of Christians carries the messages of the 2 witnesses - Moses of the Law of God, and Elijah representing the prophets who spoke of the gospel of God during their own time.
2. The two witnesses of true spiritual truth, purposely instigated and aroused the local authorities of the Pharisees and Sadducees to persecute the Hebrew Christians. They hated the Two Witness of God and the Hebrew Christian of Abraham's promise.
The two witnesses brought a message of grave judgment to Jerusalem if they continued to reject Christ, and not turning away as repentance for their evil acts of spiritual idolatry.
3. In 66 AD, a zealot skirmish broke out within the walls of Jerusalem. These people became restless and wanted power and a seat at the table of local governance. It drew the attention of a Roman General Gallus. He brought a small army down from the North from Syria and temporarily placed Jerusalem under siege.
The effect of the Romans' presence excited the Nationalists, the zealots, with their cry for political representation on par with the religious elite. They stirred up the locals and appealed to their national loyalty. They even assembled a small army of several thousand.
The Romans for the first time being outside of the walls of the City, in attack formation, placed the local elite in a quandary as they were always in league with the Romans, and against the Christians. They had no choice and eventually recognized the zealots' growing political power.
Another effect of the Roman presence caused the Christians to flee out of Jerusalem and surrounding areas into the hills, as they remembered what Christ said about the time Roman soldiers would surround the walls of Jerusalem. This was their signal to flee with haste, and they took it. By doing so, this also caused the two witnesses to continue to preach within Jerusalem more vigorously, for 3.5 years, preaching repentance and judgment and the gospel of salvation, from God.
Suddenly, the Romans soldiers left and the zealot army pursued them and defeated them. The zealots returned as National heroes and now held a political edge. These zealots now believed that God was on their side. That God was going to intervene and rescue Jerusalem as he had done throughout its history. So now the two witnesses were down on the streets, dead, gone, forgotten, trodden underfoot by the new spiritual thinking of God's protection and salvation for Jerusalem once again.
4. Now the famous Roman general Vespasian with his 60,000 troops then came down for the Euphrates after hearing of Gallus' defeat, and systematic pillaged, burnt down villages and towns and killed all in his path going South. Many escaped his path and fled into Jerusalem thinking it was a safe haven. And thus its population grew very quickly in the process. How ironic that fleeing into Jerusalem was still considered God's holy safe haven after all they had witnessed from the Romans.
The zealots believed so much in God's divine intervention, they actually burn the food, to deliberately pick a fight and to force God's hand to act on their behalf against Vespasian.
So Jerusalem celebrated this empty message of hope and salvation, by partying and gifting each other. They also got rid of the two witnesses or so they thought.
By the beginning of 70 AD, the remaining 'dying' as embers of a fire, the few voices representing the two witnesses, preaching repentance and imminent judgement, took the true spirit of God of Israel with them to the hills, or they were martyred. They were all raised up! What was left in Jerusalem when Titus, the new god of Jerusalem's people came inside its walls and the temple, was spiritual emptiness and chaos. The spirit of the Jews were gone, and only an empty shell remained for good.
The atmosphere was one of simultaneous despair, famine, death and destruction, and misplaced hope in God's imagined revenge. Insanity of knowing all will die soon ensued until the end. And they continued in a doomsday type of festive mood, with celebrations of false hope and false joy. It was finished, indeed.
.................more to it of course.....first cut...
