Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate Tries to Rebuild Jerusalem's Walls - Forgets to Get Landlord Permission (A.D. 363):

A Bust of Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate, A.D. 361 - 363

Called Julian the Apostate by some Christians, and sometimes referred to as Julian II, Flavius Claudius Julianus was the last pagan Roman Emperor. He felt that the decline the Roman Empire was facing in his day was in part due to the neglect of the ancient gods of Rome, much ignored in his day in favor of worshiping Yahweh and Jesus, Yahweh through Jesus, through the Holy Spirit....in other words: Christianity. He was therefore not a friend of Christianity in his politics, and actively tried to restore the worship of the false gods that Rome had once believed in. 

Ammianus Marcellinus was his most famous biographer and chronicler. A surviving writing of Ammianus' describes a certain odd event; it was a brief and one-sided clash, if you will, between God's plans and Julian's.  Julian felt that whenever a non-Christian religion was strengthened that Christianity was thereby weakened - which was one of his goals. So, he commissioned a man named Alypius of Antioch to lead an effort to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem so that the Jewish faith could be properly practiced again. Some Jews were becoming Christians.  Julian wanted to give them a non-Christian option. 

The city of Jerusalem was still rubble from its destruction in 70 A.D. by the Romans. But God had allowed - or rather assigned - that destruction upon the Jews for their corrupt behavior and their rejection of Jesus. And He had His own date in mind for the regathering of the Jewish people: May 14, 1948. (though that was probably unknown to everyone at that point in history). Julian was trying to wreck God's timeline, though he didn't know it.

Consequently, when workers went to Jerusalem and tried to work on moving the rubble and restoring the foundations, balls of flame issued outwards from the rock piles, shooting forth onto the workers, scorching them. (I could not find out if the workers actually died, or just received burns from these flames.) Soon the workers refused to continue, and the project was dropped. Julias never tried this particular undertaking again.

God was facing a declared enemy in Julian, it would seem. Christianity was God's new path for mankind's salvation, and Julian was trying to weaken it and then drive it out of power and influence within the Roman government. And also, he was rebuilding Jerusalem hoping that would be to the detriment of Jesus. All bad choices, as God attested with this mighty act of discouragement.