Lesson of the Fall of Jerusalem

If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day,
the things which belong unto thy peace!
but now they are
hid from thine eyes.
For the days shall come upon thee,
that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee,
and compass thee round,
and keep thee in on every side,
and shall lay thee even with the ground,
and thy children within thee;
and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another;
because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
 Luke 19:42-44

"The disobedient and unthankful have great reason for gratitude for God's mercy and long-suffering in holding in check the cruel, malignant power of the evil one.

But when men pass the limits of divine forbearance, that restraint is removed. God does not stand toward the sinner as an executioner of the sentence against transgression; but He leaves the rejectors of His mercy to themselves, to reap that which they have sown.

Every ray of light rejected,

every warning despised or unheeded,

every passion indulged,

every transgression of the law of God,

is a seed sown which yields its unfailing harvest.

The Spirit of God, persistently resisted, is at last withdrawn from the sinner, and then there is left no power to control the evil

passions of the soul, and no protection from the malice and enmity of Satan. 

 

The destruction of Jerusalem is a fearful and solemn warning to all who are trifling with the offers of divine grace and resisting the pleadings of divine mercy."
Great Controversy p.36 E.G.W.