68 A.D.:  The Odd Call of the Watchman On the Wall!

  According to the Jewish historian Josephus, who was an eyewitness to the destruction of Jerusalem and wrote about it in 68 A.D., when the Romans built giant stone throwing machines and set them up to hurl rocks that weighed about 1 talent (approx. 70 pounds) at the walls of Jerusalem, an odd pattern developed.

  This comes from the William Whiston translation of "Josephus, the Complete Works" by Nelson Books, from the 'The Wars of the Jews' section of the book, Loeb numbering system 5.6.3 and the accompanying corresponding footnotes for that section.  You can get this book at a lot of large bookstores, and many Christians would greatly enjoy it.  Mine was $8.99 on sale, as I recall, but it's usually about $25.00. 

The rocks that the Romans hurled there at Jerusalem were a hard bright white type of stone, easily spotted as they flew.  And there was the noise of the machine also.  So the Jewish watchmen on the walls would call out to warn people that a stone was being lobbed up and over the city walls, so that the people within the beseiged city could rush to lay down or get behind something big and solid.  In this way, they avoided injury pretty successfully, though the rocks killed some and did much damage. 

  But here is what is odd:  According to Josephus, who wrote a history called 'The Wars of the Jews' in Latin and Greek, and when writing in either language used words meaning the same thing, the watchmen on the walls of the doomed city of Jerusalem, from which all Christians had already fled, got in the habit of crying out:  "The Son Cometh!" in Hebrew whenever these large rocks were launched.  "The Son Cometh!" 

  Jesus made it known that for rejecting Him as their Messiah, there would be bad times coming.  And before His crucifixion He told his Apostles (who were marveling at the magnificent Temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem) that a time was coming when not even one stone would stand upon another.  This was accomplished through this same Roman siege and war, A.D. 66 - A.D. 70. 

  In the end Rome and its allied forces breached the outer walls of Jerusalem on the 17th of Tammuz, (that's also the particular Jewish date it was on July 4th, 1776.  Recognize that date?  It's celebrated as Independence Day in the United States) and a few weeks later Rome entered the inner city, and on the 9th of the Jewish month Av (commemerated as Tisha B'Av) Romans burnt the temple of Yahweh, this renovation of which had been built for the Jews (his subjects) by King Herod the Great. They entered the inner city, slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Jews who were hiding or trapped inside, and enslaved a great many others beyond that.  Many went to Egypt to be salt mine slaves, some went to Rome as slaves, etc.  Later, the Romans pried the temple's stones off of each other, both in order to level the city to destroy it for future use, and also in some areas to search for melted gold from the Holy Temple's burning. 

  Tisha B'Av was also the day that King Solomon's temple of Yahweh (the First Temple) had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar about 650 years before.  In fact, so many bad things have happened to the Jewish people on that day - Tisha B'Av - that they refer to it as the 'Saddest Day' on some occasions.  The destruction of the last rebel-held city during the Bar Kochba revolt, a great Jewish expulsion from Spain in 1492, and a quite long list of other great calamaties.  An internet search of Tisha B'Av easily pulls them up if you are interested.

  And beyond this, I believe that Jesus is not only referred to symbolically as a rock sometimes in scripture, but in the Book of Daniel I think Jesus was also depicted as a stone flying down from heaven onto the feet of a giant metallic man shaped statue (a 'collosus') that frightened Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar around 600 B.C. in a prophetic nightmare that Nebudchanezzar had, and which the captive Jewish prophet Daniel interpreted for the worried king. 

  But why did the Jewish watchmen shout this strangely worded warning?  One can only conjecture.  A rock comes flying down from above, and so you shout "The Son cometh!"?  Were they familiar with Jesus having called Himself the Son of God, and with the warnings Jesus had given them for rejecting Him as the Messiah?  Or did the habit develope through some other means?  We will probably never know.  But, the stones eventually did their work, and as the Son had said, the stones of Jerusalem were scattered, as were its people.

  It is a terrible thing for people to fall into the hands of the Lord when they have angered Him!  He can create men from dust!  He has no regard for disobedient men who cannot be brought to repentance, or for nations that cannot leave their evil course and return, humble and contrite, to seek the forgiveness of God Almighty and Jesus, His Son and our Savior.  Are Americans not such a people?  Is America not such a nation?  Other nations certainly may be also! 

  Maybe we should all try to mentally examine our selves through the eyes of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and seek a path that will please Him and show our gratitude and love, loyalty and appreciation to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit who gave us a chance to save our souls!!  Maybe there is still time to do what ancient Jerusalem was too proud and misled to do.  As individuals, perhaps we will succeed.  Sadly, scriptures say that as a creature in general, the end times will find us still desperately sinful.