Now let’s continue on with Solomon. Again, I want to repeat – the beginning and the ending, and it’s not how you begin, it’s how you end. That’s the important lesson that we’re going to learn here, you see. And not only that, we will see that that applies not only in our lives, in the lives of people, in the lives of nations, but also in the life of the church. And we are going to see that here Solomon had everything. Now just like today people think, “Boy, if I had the perfect job, and I made “x” amount of dollars, and I lived in this kind of house, and I had this kind of car, and I had all of these things – I’d be happy. I’d be obedient. I’d love God.” Would you? Did Solomon? Did Israel? No. Let’s see what happened.

Well, after he built the temple and his house, here came the queen of Sheba one of many ambassadors from all the nations of the world. And please understand this, they had ships that went all around the world. Solomon had everything. He had absolutely everything that he wanted. Plus he had God’s blessing. So what a way to start out. The queen of Sheba was just so absolutely taken back when he showed her everything, and told her everything, she was just amazed.

Well, let’s see what happened here. Let’s see what happened to Solomon. Let’s come down here to 1 Kings 10:18. “Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the best gold. The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round behind [so it had a big round thing behind it]: and there were stays on either side on the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the stays” (1 Kings 10:18-19). So here he was in his throne…you can just see two lions like cherubim right there. Of course, you know, you’ve heard of the lion of the tribe of Judah. That’s Christ so that’s why they had the lions there. And then he had a platform and he had twelve lions – three on each side all around it.

Now let’s come down here to verse 21. You talk about luxury, you talk about wealth, you talk about having everything your heart would desire. “And all king Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver: it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon.” It says that silver was just kind of like pavement on the street. Well, I tell you, if you put silver out on pavement on streets today it wouldn’t be there in the morning. It would be all stolen away at night.

And then he had this navy, big trading combine going through the whole world. “For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks. So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom” (vs. 22-23). Now you would think that the people would be so inspired that God poured out these blessings upon him. You would think that Solomon would be so humble, so grateful for everything that God had given him. Now you see, he never learned the one basic lesson: everything comes from God. And when you forget that everything comes from God and you start going your own way then you’re in deep trouble. So they brought all these things. He was wealthy.

Now then, instead of turning to God and loving God and serving Him, he fell victim to his own vices, and his own excesses. Let’s read it, chapter 11. “But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love.” Well now, you talk about a big husband/wife problem. Multiply this hundreds and hundreds of times over. “And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines:…” And they all had to be pleased. And so what did Solomon do? He pleased them. Got himself in trouble with God. “…And his wives turned away his heart” (1 Kings 11:1-3). Now the thing that is so profound here is this: we do not have an account that Solomon repented. Now we can’t make a judgment on what God’s final judgment is going to be. But we’ll have to say that it’s certainly far different than what it’s going to be for David.

“For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth…” The same sin that God sent the children of Israel into captivity for, right? “…The goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD, and went not fully after the LORD, as did David his father” (vs. 4-6). Now we’re living in the same kind of age today, aren’t we? Yes, indeed. How many people are smitten with exactly the same thing, that because of the physical circumstances around them they don’t fully follow God? Yet they think they are doing good. Well, maybe they don’t have all these wives, maybe they’re not given over to these same things here. Granted. But still, nevertheless, if you don’t fully follow God you’re in trouble. So he did evil.

Now verse 7, when he did evil instead of repenting, now he could have repented. He could have put all those wives away but I guess he didn’t want to face the wrath of all these women being angry at him, so then he decided to please them a little more. Instead of pleasing God, Solomon – verse 7, “…built an high place for Chemosh,…” Well after all wasn’t he qualified to build those temples? Did he not build the temple of God? So couldn’t he make nice temples to these gods? And after all, and you have the temple mount over here, then across the valley over to the west – there became the mount of abominations where Solomon built all the temples to all the foreign gods. Now how are you going to have the children of Israel worship and follow God, come to the temple of God, when they come into Jerusalem here’s the king that’s supposed to represent God, and what does he do? He’s built all these temples to these other gods to please his wives. Now how many temples and prayer sanctuaries, and incense offerings were there? Let’s read it.

So he “…built an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods. And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods: but he kept not that which the LORD commanded.” Yet you have to understand this, that Solomon in his own mind was probably convinced that God would overlook it. Not so. “Wherefore the LORD said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant” (vs. 7-11). So that’s what He did. But for David’s sake He said He wouldn’t do it until he died.

So his son Rehoboam then came in and was the belligerent young man who said, “If you think that my father’s leg was heavy upon you, wait till I lay my little finger upon you.” And so then the split came. Rehoboam kept the tribe of Judah and some of the Levites. Jeroboam, his servant, was given an opportunity. And God sent a prophet to him, Ahijah, and said, “Look, you’re going to have 12 tribes. Now if you will follow God and keep his commandments, I’ll build you a dynasty just like I did for David.” Well, Jeroboam didn’t do that. His start was terrible from the beginning, and his ending was absolutely horrible. And the end result of that was that the children of Israel were sent off into captivity, and God put them away. He retained Judah and Jerusalem for David’s sake. And you can read the history of the kings. There were good kings there were bad kings, there were kings that were righteous, etc. And so all the way through…what you might do in a Bible study, just go ahead and go through and read the history of the kings of Israel and of Judah. There will be some great lessons for you to learn.

So anyway, what happened with it? How did it come out? Well, the children of Israel were sent off into captivity. Later so were the children of Judah. God raised up an enemy. You see, when God is not pleased with His people and they don’t listen to Him, and they don’t obey Him, and they don’t keep His commandments, and they go do their own thing and go after other gods, then God raises up an enemy and He changes sides. So He raised up Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon and he came and he took away the temple. He destroyed the temple, carried off the children of Israel into captivity into Babylon. They were there for seventy years. God said, “After seventy years, I’m going to bring some of you back.” Now let’s see how they began, and then we will see how they ended.

Now let’s come to the book of Haggai. Here are the captives coming out from Babylon. And they are there, they have the high priest Josedech. They have the prophet Haggai, and they have Zerubbabel the governor. Now they didn’t start out too good. Now let’s read that, book of Haggai. There we go, there’s Zechariah. It’s just before the book of Zechariah. Now again, now again, didn’t start out too good. They didn’t learn the lessons they needed to learn while they were in captivity. So they came back and they were actually ignoring God when God had brought them back for the mission to rebuild the temple.

So let’s pick it up Haggai 1:2. “Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built.” “Well, we’ll do it later.” No, God wanted it built now. “Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?” (Hag. 1:2-4). God wants a house built. See, men want to have a temple. God wants to have a house. There’s a difference. We’re going to see that’s very important.

“Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.” Now here’s a great lesson for us too. Now in all of these things there are great lessons for us. “Ye have sown much, and bring in little;…” And we could say, “How long have you been in the church, and how much have you done, and now what do you have in the end? Do you have little or much? “…Ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes” (vs. 5-6). Look, they had inflation back then too. And they had inflation because they weren’t serving and obeying God. They were out there saying, “Well look, we can do God’s work later.” Don’t a lot of people do the same thing today? “Oh, I didn’t pray today, I’ll pray tomorrow. Oh, I didn’t study today, I’ll study tomorrow.” And so then tomorrow comes and then, “Oh go, it’s so busy. I just haven’t had time. Oh God, help me. I’m going to bed, I’m tired. I don’t have time to pray and study.” And you’re neglecting the important thing. That’s what they were doing here.

“Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.” Stop and think. And maybe during this Feast of Tabernacles we can all consider our ways. And we can look back and we can think about, “Well, how did I begin? How am I ending?” That’s the question. So He says, “Now I want you to do something. I want you to stop doing your thing, and do what I want you to do.” You “Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD. Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of Mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house” (vs. 7-9). So I might put here a New Testament quote: “He that has ears to hear, let him hear” because there’s a great lesson in this. To many people are going around doing their own thing, and they are using that which is God’s to accomplish what they want to do, and it’s just the same thing that happens here. They never have enough to give to God.

“Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.” So when you turn against God and you don’t do the things that God wants you to do, what’s going to happen? Everything’s going to go, if I could use the phrase, “to hell in a hand basket”. And it’s gone. So, “Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet,…” So they repented. So they considered their ways and repented. Now a good lesson for us: we consider our ways, we need to repent. “…As the LORD their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the LORD. Then spake Haggai the LORD’S messenger in the LORD’S message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the LORD.” So now since they repented God is with them. “And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God,…” (vs. 10-15). So when everybody is doing what God wants and obeying the voice of God, guess what? God sends His Spirit. God stirs them up. Things happen. Things are done. Things are accomplished. Why? Because God’s blessing is upon it. And that’s a very important thing for us to understand. So they came and did it.

Now then, here’s another message. And he says here verse 1. “In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month [that’s the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, right? Yes, it is.], came the word of the LORD by the prophet Haggai, saying, Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying, Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory [before I destroyed it because of the sins of the people]? and how do you see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?” It’s just a small little itty-bitty temple that they had there. So He says… Now, now I want you to notice again when they’re starting to do the work of God it’s the same message, isn’t it? You know, the question is: in all the beginnings and all the endings, and all the ups and all the downs, and the in and outs, are we ever going to learn the lesson that what God says, He means? So He says, “Yet now be strong [where have we heard that?], …O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the LORD, and work: for I am with you, saith the LORD of hosts:…” (Hag. 2:1-4). So now they started out great. Now let’s see what happened.

Let’s come to the book of Ezra. Book of Ezra. We need to go back to Ezra and let’s come to Ezra 6 and let’s see what happened here. Now Ezra 6:15, “And this house was finished on the third day of the month Adar [now that’s the month before Nisan], which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king. And the children of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy,…” (Ezra 6:15-16). That’s a different dedication than what people look to as Hanukkah today. So when you read in John 10 that at the feast of dedication, Jesus came there, I’m inclined to believe it’s the feast of dedication here, which is the authentic one, rather than the feast of dedication under the Maccabee’s. So let’s go on. So what did they do? They offered at the dedication of the house of God. It lists everything. They set the priests, verse 18, by their courses. The children of Israel kept the Passover upon the fourteenth day of the first month. Hey, they returned to God, God blessed them, everything was fine. However, however things took a turn for the worse, as we will see here in just a bit.

But let’s come over here to Nehemiah 8 and let’s see what they did. Let’s see that they kept the feast of God, and let’s see that they kept the Feast of Tabernacles also. Let’s pick it up here, Nehemiah 8:1. “And all the people gathered themselves together as one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel. And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month.” So this is the Feast of Trumpets. “And he read therein before the street…” and so forth, “...from the morning until midday, before the men and the women, and those that could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive unto the book of the law.” They were listening. They were ready to do what God had said. “And Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood [and so it was raised up so he could speak to the people], which they made for the purpose;…” (Ne. 8:1-4). And then it lists all the ones who stood with him.

Verse 5, “And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people; (for he was above all the people;) and when he opened it, all the people stood up: and Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground.” So then they found out that they were to go ahead and keep the feast of booths. Verse 14, “And they found written in the law which the LORD had commanded by Moses, that the children of Israel should dwell in booths in the feast of the seventh month:…” (vs. 5-6, 14). That’s the Feast of Tabernacles. That’s what we’re doing. That’s what we’re keeping.

Now then let’s understand they had some house-cleaning to do. Yes, they returned to God to keep Trumpets, probably also Atonement. If they kept Trumpets and Tabernacles you know that they also kept the Day of Atonement. Then they had some house-cleaning to do. Then they had to have all those who married the children of the Ammonites, and the Moabites and so forth, all the strange wives – to put them away. And so they did. Some didn’t. The ones who didn’t went up to Samaria and they joined with Manasseh the renegade priest, and they built another temple up there in Samaria, which down even to the time of Christ was that which was in competition with Jerusalem. So from that time coming clear down to the time of Christ.

Now we’re going to go ahead just a little bit further and then we’ll come back and we’ll pick it up again before the fall of the temple. But what I want to do, and what I want to bring out here is a very, very important thing concerning the temple. And concerning building a house for God, because that is so important when we understand what God is building, and where He is dwelling, and how that fits into the Feast of Tabernacles.

Now first of all let’s cover a principle that’s very important. Let’s come back here to the book of Acts. And right at the beginning of the church, they understood this. And this is how Stephen got himself in trouble, so let’s come back here to Acts 7. He was accused of speaking against the temple of God, and against the things of the customs in the temple, so he was hauled up before the Sanhedrin. And he began explaining everything going right down through the history just like we have done here. So let’s come down here and look at it.

Acts 7:47, “But Solomon built Him an house. Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,…” So he quotes Isaiah 66. “Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool: what house will ye build Me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of My rest? Hath not My had made all these things?” (Acts 7:47-50). And the people of Israel never learned. And the Jews never learned. They trusted in the physical things – “…The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD are these” (Jer. 7:4). And if you speak against the temple, well you’re blaspheming against God, because after all this is God’s temple. Well it’s only God’s temple in as much as they obeyed God. Because the whole history is this: if you don’t love God and obey Him and keep His commandments, He’s going to take that away which you think is holy because you’re trusting in the wrong thing. If you trust in a temple, if you trust in a ritual, if you trust in how beautiful it is and how great it is, you’re not trusting in God.

Now notice what he says here. Notice Stephens witness to the Sanhedrin. “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy [Spirit] Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of Whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it” (vs. 51-53). So just like the children of Israel they didn’t repent. They were angry and took him out and stoned him. And that was the final judgment against them. God now better destroy the temple. So let’s come ahead to 70 AD. Let’s see what happened. Remember how many times does God, when the people forsake Him, He forsakes them and joins the enemy. He did that with the king of Babylon, didn’t He? Yes, He did. And we’re going to see that in the fall of the temple in 70 AD even Titus understood that God was with him and against the Jews.

Now I’m going to read to you what I have written for part of the commentary concerning the fall of the temple, because that was a key and important event in 70 AD.

“In Palestine by the spring of 70 AD the stage was set for the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. [Which Jesus said no stone would be left.] The noted Jewish historian Josephus wrote that during Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread a record number of Jewish pilgrims, who were pious followers of Judaism came from all parts of the Roman Empire to keep the Passover and the feast.”

Now here again, God entraps them in their own thinking. Perhaps they thought that if all these people would come and keep the Passover that surely God would intervene. He would send them aside because they already rejected Jesus Christ, and surely He would deliver us from the hands of the Romans. And they had an understanding of the book of Daniel so they pretty well thought that this would happen. So He caught them in their own delusion and in their own misunderstanding of the scriptures, their own misinterpretations, because they come to the scriptures and they want their own way rather than God’s way. So he recorded, Josephus did, because the Romans let them go in. Hey that’s a good way to trap them. Let them get in the city. So there were 2,700,200 persons who were pure and holy. Now that’s a tremendous number of people when the population of Jerusalem is normally, at that time, was normally about 80,000. Two million, two hundred thousand. And of course the food that they stored in Jerusalem always for about six months – they always had about six months supply of food – obviously with all those people would be gone in nothing flat. So what happened?

“After the multitudes were in the city the Roman army under Titus surrounded Jerusalem and it’s doom was sealed. Soon Jerusalem would be utterly destroyed. Within the city and it’s temple the internal fighting’s between various Jewish factions killed many thousands. In addition, because of the tremendous number of people trapped in the city the food supply was soon exhausted. Coupled with the assaults by the Roman army, tens of thousands died of famine with many resorting to cannibalism. In the streets rotting bodies were heaped high and stacked in the upper rooms of houses. So appalling was the scene that when the Romans enter the city they could hardly believe what they witnessed was true.”

Josephus described this horrifying carnage that they encountered.

“So the Romans being now become the masters of the wall, they both placed their incense upon the towers and made joyful acclamations of victory they had gained as having found the end of this war much lighter than the beginning. For when they had gotten upon the last wall without any blood shed, they could hardly believe what they found to be true. But seeing nobody to oppose them they stood in doubt as to what such an unusual solitude could mean.

When they went in numbers into the lanes of the city with their swords drawn, they slew those whom they overtook without mercy. Set fires to the houses whether the Jews had fled, burned every soul of them and laid waste a great many of the rest. And when they were come to the houses to plunder them, they found in them entire families of dead men, and the upper rooms full of dead corpses (that is, of such that died by famine).

Then they stood in horror at this sight and went out without touching anything. But although they had this commiseration for such as were destroyed in that manner, yet they had not the same for those who were still alive. But they ran everyone through with their sword whom they met with and obstructed the lanes with their dead bodies. And the whole city was run down with blood to such a degree indeed, that the fire of many of the houses were quenched by these men’s blood. And truly it so happened that though the slayers left off at evening, yet did the fires greatly prevail in the night and all was burning. [That is, of those other houses.] Hundreds of thousands perished by pestilence, sword, crucifixion, and famine.”

Josephus summarized this awful carnage:

“Now this vast multitude is indeed collected into remote places but the entire nation was now shut up by the fate as in prison. And the Roman armies compassed the city when it was crowded with inhabitants accordingly the multitudes of those that were therein perished exceeded all the destructions that either man or God had ever brought upon the world.”

Josephus related the final numbers of casualties and the number of those that were made slaves:

“Now the number of those that were carried captive during the whole war was collected to be 97,000, as was the number of those that perished during the whole siege eleven hundred thousand, or that is, 1,100,000. The greater part of whom were indeed of the same nation.” [That is, they were citizens of the Jews.]

Now continuing here:

“After the Romans had gained full control of Jerusalem, Josephus further reported what the Romans did to those who had survived the siege. All who were still alive were herded into the women’s court of the temple and Titus put Fronto [who was one of his lieutenants] in charge of their fate.

So this Fronto slew all those who had been seditious, and robbers, and who were impeached by others. But of the younger men he chose out the tallest and most beautiful and reserved them for the triumphant [that is the triumphant victory march in Rome]. And for the rest of the multitude that were above seventeen years old, he put them in bonds and sent them to Egypt to work in the mines.

Titus also sent a great number into the provinces as a present to them, that they might be destroyed upon their theatres by the sword, and by the wild beast. But those who were under seventeen years of age were sold for slaves.

Now during those days wherein Fronto was distinguishing these men, there perished for want of food, 11,000. Some of whom did not taste any food through their hatred toward their guards, and others did not take it even when it was given to them. The multitude was so very great and they were in want even of corn for their sustenance. When the end finally came the city was razed to the ground.

Now at the end the Romans set fire to the extreme part of the city, and burnt them down and demolished it’s walls. Now as soon as the army had no more people to slay or to plunder because there remained none of the objects of their fury, for they would not have spared any had there remained any other work to be done, Caesar gave orders that they should demolish the entire city and the temple.”

And the way they got every stone undone was they built fires, poured water on it, the stones were cracked, and then they were able to split open and they had all of the Jewish slaves do the work in tearing down the temple.

“There is no question that such an awesome destruction of the city and the temple which bore the name of God was in fact the execution of His judgment against a rebellious and sinful people. Even Titus realized that God had delivered the city into his hands, and had given him the victory over the Jews.”

Josephus wrote:

“Now when Titus was come into this the upper city, he admired not only some other places of strength in it but particularly those strong towers which the tyrants in their mad conduct had relinquished. For when he saw their solid altitude, the largeness of their several stones, the exactness of their joints, so also how great was their breadth and how extensive their length, he expressed himself in the following manner: ‘We certainly had God for our assistant in this war. And it was none other than God who ejected the Jews out of these fortifications, for what could the hands of men, or any machines do against overthrowing these towers.’

Thus Jerusalem and the second temple were destroyed on Ab 9 and 10 (September 3 and 4), 70 AD, exactly 655 years to the day after the Babylonians destroyed the first temple in 586 BC. True to the prophecies of Jesus Christ, there was not one stone left upon another that was not thrown down. However, Fort Antonia remained under the Roman General Marcus Antonius, named for Marcus Antonius the General, was not destroyed by the Romans for it was Roman property. And after Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, Fort Antonio again became the garrison for the soldiers of occupation.”

And so to this day that mammoth western wall is the foundation of Fort Antonio.

Now, let’s just cover one other thing here. The Jews looked at the seventy years captivity from the destruction of the temple in 586 BC to the return out of Babylon, and they looked at the current destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD by Titus and they said, it’s going to be rebuilt in 70 years. This is why in 135, beginning right about 135, that Rabbi Akiba proclaimed Bar Kockba the messiah and they had the war to deliver Jerusalem out of the hands of the Romans so they could rebuild their temple. And the Jews met a worse and final fate in trying to do that. And I forget what the movie is, but the movie which shows how they conquered the fort of Masada, which was the last thing that the Romans destroyed in God’s punishment to the Jews.

So the lesson is this: it’s not how you begin, it’s how you end. And you have to come back tomorrow for the rest of the story.

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