FORSAKEN?

The fascinating arch, the Arch of Titus, is on highest point of the Via Sacra, in Rome. Its inscription reads: The Senate and People of Rome To the divine Titus, Vespasianus Augustus, son of the divine Vespasian. Built in 82 AD, by Emperor Domitian, it commemorates the victory of his deified brother, Titus, over Jerusalem in 70 AD. (It was restored by Pope Pius VII in 1822.) This Arch has become the prototype for other famous arches: the Arc de Triomphe (1806), the National Memorial Arch (1910) in Valley Forge, the India Gate (1931) in New Delhi, etc.

The Arch of Titus is an incredibly important monument, the only existing depiction of the looting of the Temple of Jerusalem during its sacking—the seven-branched menorah and trumpets are strikingly visible. In fact, the menorah on the Arch served as the model for that on the emblem of the State of Israel. And Roman Jews have always refused to walk under it, until 1948, when, with the founding of the State of Israel, prominent ones in the Jewish community conducted a solemn procession through the Arch, but in the opposite direction to that taken by the victorious Romans. Jerusalem had been “refounded.”

The Sack of Jerusalem occurred on the ninth day of the month of Av (Tisha B’Av; in July in 2010). Tisha B’Av, remembering this sad day of Jewish history, is a day of mourning—the biblical book of Lamentations is customarily read that day. Around one million Jews were killed in that First Jewish Roman War, and about 100,000 captured and enslaved. The Temple was utterly destroyed by fire. Josephus, the Jewish historian, seems to think Titus didn’t really want to destroy the Temple, but to use it for his own Roman gods. In any case, the general (later Emperor) refused a wreath of victory, turning it down saying that there was “no merit in vanquishing people forsaken by their own God.”

This guy, Titus, may have had something there. God threatens to forsake those who forsake Him.

… the LORD is with you
when you are with Him.
And if you seek Him,
He will let you find Him;
but if you forsake Him,
He will forsake you.
2 Chronicles 15:2

But not for long.

... in Your great compassion
You did not make
an end of them or forsake them,
For You are a gracious
and compassionate God.
Nehemiah 9:31

Though discipline might come, this gracious and compassionate God does not forsake His own for ever.

This theme is echoed in the New Testament as well. God’s people are never forsaken, in the eternal scheme of things.

… He Himself has said,
“I will never desert you,
nor will I ever forsake you,”
so that we confidently say,
“The Lord is my helper,
I will not be afraid.
What will man do to me?”
Hebrews 13:5–6

Will there be suffering here on earth? For sure, perhaps even peril to life and limb.

For to you it has been granted
for Christ's sake,
not only to believe in Him,
but also to suffer for His sake,
Philippians 1:29

But forsaken? Never, because of the payment for our sins, made by Jesus Christ, God incarnate, on the cross. We will never be forsaken … because He was, on our behalf.

I’m forgiven because you were forsaken,
I’m accepted, you were condemned,
I’m alive and well,
Your Spirit is within me,
Because you died and rose again.
Amazing love, how can it be?
That you, my King, would die for me!
Billy James Foote (1997)