The Story

The priests and scribes had tried to entrap the Lord in His words. We learn now of one beautiful thing which He saw before He left the temple for the last time.

Recall the courts of the temple: that of the priests next about the altar, of the Israelites, of the women, of the Gentiles; each at a lower lever, reached by steps and beautiful gateways. It was in the court of the women, perhaps upon the steps, that the Lord sat after teaching the people, and watched those who came with gifts. For in this court was a chamber where costly presents that people brought to the temple were kept. And there were treasure chests into which they put offerings of money for different uses of the temple. Some came with great show and wished others to see them as they put in much. The Lord saw such people among the rest. And some came carelessly and put in what they could easily spare. Now there came one poor woman. All knew by her dress that she was a widow. She came timidly with two mites. They were little copper coins, the two together being worth less than half a cent. ("Farthing" stands in the Gospels for two different coins, one four times as much as the other. The smaller is named here and in Matthew 5: 26, the larger in Matthew 10 :29) It was the smallest gift allowed by law; it was all she had. She did not know that the Lord sat by watching her; but He saw her gift, and He saw the thoughts and feelings that went with it. These He values more than money, and He told the disciples that the poor widow put in more than all the rest. The Lord sees everything that we do, and the feelings with which we do it. What men think a great gift or action the Lord may count very little. But whatever is done with unselfish love He counts greatest. This beautiful picture closes the Lord's teaching in the temple. The last verses of the chapter seem to refer to the several last days, and do not mean that the Lord came again on the next day to the temple. "And every day He was teaching in the temple; and every night He went out, and lodged in the mount that is called Olivet."

Perhaps the afternoon shades were lengthening as the Lord with the disciples went out from the temple and across the Kidron to the Mount of Olives. Picture the city as it lay before them, above the shade of the Kidron; the palace and towers on Mount Zion, the white buildings of the temple, and the wall with its great stones, some, it is said, thirty and even forty feet in length. "Master," one of the disciples said, "see what manner of stones, and what buildings." "Seest thou these buildings?" the Lord answered, "there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down." You remember how the Lord wept over the city and foretold its destruction on the Sunday when the people cried, Hosanna. (Luke 19: 41-44) His words were literally fulfilled in the year 70, when the Roman general Titus destroyed Jerusalem. But the Lord spoke not so much of the natural city and temple, as of true ways of life and worship which were nearly at an end among the Jews.

As the shades of evening deepened the Lord sat on the slope of the Mount of Olives, over against the temple. Peter and James and John and Andrew, and perhaps other disciples, sat with Him and listened as He told them more of the sad days which should come. He told them of wars and famines and earthquakes, and days of trial. The sun and moon would be darkened and the stars would fall. But then would come brighter days, as when after winter the trees begin to bud and give promise of summer, for He Himself would come again to comfort His people. The disciples thought only of natural wars and natural darkness, but we know that the Lord spoke of wars and darkness in men's minds. And the coming again which He promised, was a new and more powerful sense of His presence, which has now taken place in the opening of the Lord's Word to the New Church.

1. Whose gift did the Lord say was most precious? What made it so?

2. What troubles did the Lord say were coming to Jerusalem? What brighter promise did He give?

3. Where did the Lord spend the nights after these last days of teaching in the temple?

Spiritual Study

The widow's mites. Who are the rich who cannot enter heaven? Who are the poor in spirit? The poor widow represents all who know their own weakness and helplessness and trustfully put all that they have at the service of the Lord. What two elements in worship and in life are represented by the two mites? (E. 118; A. 9198)

The stones of the temple. What did the Lord say is the stone on which His church is built? The sure, unchanging truth that He is the Christ the Son of the living God - God become man to dwell with us. (Matthew 16 16-18) This was the cornerstone which the builders rejected. (Luke 20:17) This and other holy truths about the Lord and heaven are represented by the beautiful stones in the walls and foundations of the Holy City. Jews and Christians have been proud of the holy truths in their possession; they have boasted of the great stones of their temple. But the stones have fallen apart and crumbled when the commandments of God have been made of none effect by disobedience and by the inventions of men. Read of the stones of Solomon's temple in 1 Kings 6:7. (E. 411; A. 8581)

As you read the predictions of the last days, keep in mind that they describe the time of spiritual distress, before the Lord's second coming through the opening of His Word to the New Church. Notice a few particulars. There have been wars between truth and falsity and between different false teachings in the church; there have been earthquakes, when all that was accepted as most sure has been overthrown; and famines, when souls have starved for some true knowledge of heavenly things. And why all this? Because they have rejected the Lord's apostles, His words of Divine truth. But the Lord provides that something of heavenly life shall survive the dark times. When Jerusalem is encompassed with armies, when the teachings of the church are beset with false arguments, there is safety in the mountains, in states of love to the Lord; and in the countries, in the exercise of simple charity. Compare the housetop and the field, in Luke 17: 31. (A. 8505; E. 313)

The sun and moon and stars are darkened when all heavenly light is extinguished. Now the clouds of the Lord's Word open to bring Him again near to men. Trees of intelligence of every beautiful and useful kind, spring into life. We see them all about us, especially the fig tree of interest in good works of natural benevolence. It is the sign of the Lord's coming, and of brighter, happier days. (R. 331-334; E. 403)

The woe to those who are with child and who give suck in the troubled times means that in those evil days it is impossible to receive new gifts of heavenly life, or if they are received to preserve them. (E. 693, 710)

"This generation shall not pass away," is a promise that something of the simple Christianity of the disciples would endure through the evil days. Compare John 21: 18-23. The words had also a reference to the peculiar preservation of the Jewish nation. (A. 3479, 4231) Heaven and earth would pass, the internal and external things of the Jewish Church, but the Lord's Word would endure. Every finite, human state or attainment in earth or heaven passes by as men advance to higher states. The Lord and His Divine truth alone are perfect and unchanging.

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