Christ Foretelling The Destruction Of Jerusalem. "When shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?" Matt. 24:3. 1. How did Christ feel concerning Jerusalem, as He was about to make His final visit to the city before His crucifixion? “And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and _wept over it_, saying, 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.” Luke 19:41, 42. 2. In what words did He foretell its destruction? “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.” Verses 43, 44. 3. What pitiful appeal did He make to the impenitent city? “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” Matt. 23:37. 4. As He was about to leave the temple, what did He say? “Behold, your house is left unto you _desolate_.” Verse 38. NOTE.—That which was to fill up their cup of iniquity was their final rejection and crucifixion of Christ, and their condemnation and persecution of His apostles and people after His resurrection. See Matt. 23:29-35; John 19:15; Acts 4-8. 5. Hearing these words, what questions did the disciples ask? “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?” Matt. 24:3. NOTE.—Christ’s answers to these questions are worthy of the most careful study. The destruction of Jerusalem and the overthrow of the Jewish nation attending it are a type of the final destruction of all the cities of the world, and the overthrow of all nations. To some extent, therefore, the descriptions of the two great events seem to be blended. When Christ referred to the destruction of Jerusalem, His prophetic words reached beyond that event to the final conflagration when the Lord shall rise out of His place “to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity,” and when the earth “shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.” Isa. 26:21. Thus the entire discourse was given not for the early disciples only, but for those who were to live during the closing scenes of the world’s history. During the discourse Christ did, however, give definite signs, both of the destruction of Jerusalem and of His second coming. 6. In His reply, how did Christ indicate that neither the end of the world nor of the Jewish nation was immediately at hand?