And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. 2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
Matthew 24:1-2
Traveling toward Jerusalem from the east you would pass through the small town of Bethany not long before catching sight of something unique and glorious. First, however, you would have to cross the Mount of Olives from where you could look across the Kidron Valley, north to the Garden of Gethsemane, south to the old city, and beyond the main attraction, you would see the Antonia Fortress standing sentinel over the city.
As the sun set behind you, you would have to shield your eyes as the waning rays of the sun reflected off the temple. With walls made of polished marble and portions overlaid with gold it caught the sun and amplified it for all around to see.
The beauty of the temple was matched only by its scale. For ten years, over 10,000 men labored to build 1640 feet of wall to hold what would function as the world’s largest religious site, and which remains to this day the largest man-made platform in the world. Some of the stones weighed over 100 tons each! The entire temple and surrounding buildings would eventually take 80 years to complete.
One day as Jesus and His disciples walked through and viewed this impressive site Jesus declared,
“See ye not all these things?… there shall not be left here one stone upon another…”
The grandest site they had ever seen would be destroyed.
So it will be with every building, idea, accomplishment, invention, or aspiration of human origin.
Jesus wanted His apostles to have the right perspective on life and eternity. God alone is worthy of all praise and glory.
Paul demonstrates this to the Ephesians by his repeated refrain of “in Christ”!
John would realize this as Heaven’s choir declared, “Worthy is the Lamb!”
May God give us the proper perspective, to frame the temporary by the eternal, and to invest our lives only in what will last.
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