Evidence Supporting Supernatural Control of Human Events

• What evidence supports that the temple was destroyed on the same day of the year by both Babylon in 586 B.C., and by Rome in A.D. 70.?
• Let's begin with Babylon's destruction of Solomon's temple in 586 B.C. Jeremiah recorded the date on which Solomon's temple was destroyed by the Babylonians. Jeremiah specifies that the destruction of the temple occurred on the 10th day of the fifth Jewish month. Consider Jeremiah's words written in the 6th century BC.

"On the tenth day of the fifth month, which was in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard, who was in the service of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. And he burned the house of the Lord [the Temple of Solomon], the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; even every large house he burned with fire" (Jer. 52:12-13).

• More than 600 years later in A.D. 70, the Jewish historian Josephus witnessed the destruction of Herod's temple by Rome. Consider Josephus' words about the temple's destruction written in the 1st century AD.

"Titus retired into the tower of Antonia, and resolved to storm the temple the next day, early in the morning, with his whole army, and to encamp round about the holy house; but, as for that house, God had for certain long ago doomed it to the fire; and now that fatal day was come, according to the revolution of ages; it was the tenth day of the month Lous [Av], upon which it was formerly burnt by the king of Babylon.^"(1)

• Josephus reveals that the Romans set fire to the temple on the 10th day of the fifth Jewish month, the same day on which the Babylonians destroyed Solomon's temple. What an amazing event to occur at such a sacred site.
• Josephus depicts the second temple's destruction as a mystical event. He pondered on why Titus, the Roman general, ordered his soldiers to put out the fire that engulfed the temple. But the soldiers did not obey Titus since they despised the Jewish people and lusted for the gold that adorned the holy building.

In summation, Josephus wrote about the beauty and vast wealth of the temple. Devastated by the temple's destruction, Josephus wrote, one might "comfort himself with this thought, that it was fate that decreed it to be, which is inevitable, both as to living creatures and about works and places also. However, one cannot but wonder at the accuracy of this period thereto relating; for the same month and day were now observed, as I said before, wherein the holy house was burned formerly by the Babylonians."⁽²⁾

• I believe it to be highly germane that we ask, "What is the significance of Solomon's temple and Herod's temple being destroyed on the same day of the year?"
• In the light of my research, there are two alignments in Daniel's "time-oriented" prophecy that culminated in the year AD 70 at the temple's destruction. The first alignment being that Daniel's "time-oriented" prophecy conceals exactly 14,000 days. The second alignment is the fact that Herod's temple was destroyed on the same day as Solomon's temple. These alignments show supernatural control of human events in the 1st century and are charted as follows:

References:

1. Flavius Josephus, The Complete Works of Josephus, translated by William Whiston, (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1960), "Wars of the Jews," b 6, c 4, s 5, p 580.
2. Ibid., p 581