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In Acts 28: the prefigured blindness fell (Acts 28: 25-27). Consequently, for
the first time, the salvation of God was sent to the Gentile without the mediation of the
Jew. Here in this chapter the hope of Israel comes to a temporary end; here the
impending judgment falls, and from this time, the Jew passes from the scene; his
covenants, promises, and hope are suspended, a mystery is made known, and a
newly-created "New Man" takes the foremost place.
The history and fortunes of the people of Israel are very closely associated with their
city and temple. This can be seen by reference to the structure set out in Volume XXIX,
page 208, where every reference to "The house of God" in the O.T. is recorded,
together with a most perfect structure of Israel's spiritual history, drawn from the books
of Chronicles.
In A.D.70 Jerusalem was destroyed and the temple razed to the ground. Titus ordered
his soldiers to dig up the foundations of the temple and the city, and Terentius Rufus,
who was left in command, actually ploughed up the site of the temple, thus unwittingly
fulfilling the prophecies of Micah and of the Saviour:
"Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become
heaps" (Micah 3: 12).
"Your house is left unto you desolate" (Matt. 23: 38).
"There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down"
(Matt. 24: 2).
It can, we trust, be assumed without further evidence that the destruction of Jerusalem
and the temple in A.D.70 (forty years after the crucifixion) was not merely a "local"
incident, but that it was "national" and "final".
The date of Acts 28: is given in the notes of the A.V. as A.D.63. The chronology
of the Acts is discussed and exhibited in our work entitled "The Apostle of the
Reconciliation", pages 13-20, and is too complicated a theme to be reconsidered here.
The question as to the date of Acts 28:, however, does not arise; we merely indicate
that it is very near to the national calamity that has made Israel lo-ammi, "not My
people", for the past nineteen centuries.
The "dismissal" of Israel pronounced with such solemnity in Acts 28:, and the
dismissal of Israel pronounced with equal gravity in Matt. 13:, 23:, 24: are related
to one another as de jure is to de facto. Often a period intervenes between the sentence as
pronounced and the sentence as executed. Moreover, there are occasions when an appeal
or an extension of leniency may interpose, which, to the uninstructed, may appear to
nullify the original sentence. So in the case in point we hope to show from the Scriptures
that the following are the facts:
(1)
The "dismissal" of Israel was the putting into effect the long threatened
"divorcement" of that people.
(2)
The dismissal de jure took place during the Saviour's public ministry.
(3)
A stay of execution was granted, and a second appeal made at Pentecost.