The disciples were admiring the temple, and Jesus asked them to look at it before He told them its end. Gill says they were "intent on the outward splendour, and worldly grandeur of it," and "almost thought it incredible" that so strong a building could be destroyed. Jesus' question gathers all of it into view, "all these things," so that His next words land with full weight. Matthew Henry puts it this way: "It will do us good so to see them as to see through them, and see to the end of them."

Jesus answers His own question at once: "There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down" (Matthew 24:2). No reply from the disciples is recorded. Later, as He sat on the mount of Olives, they came to Him privately and asked, "when shall these things be?" (Matthew 24:3).

The temple was famous for its massive stones. Barnes, citing the Jewish historian Josephus, reports stones "more than 70 feet long, 10 wide, and 8 high." Luke notes that it "was adorned with goodly stones and gifts" (Luke 21:5).

Barnes writes, "Yet in the short space of 40 years all this was accomplished exactly," when the Romans under Titus destroyed Jerusalem. He reports from Josephus that the temple was burned "against the will of Caesar," meaning Titus, and he quotes the Jewish scholar Maimonides that a Roman officer, Terentius Rufus, "with a plowshare tore up the foundations of the temple."

Jesus had just told the leaders, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate" (Matthew 23:38). Now, walking out of that house, He tells His disciples it will be thrown down. The building they admired was under judgment, and God's purposes did not depend on its stones.

Matthew Henry draws the lesson: "A believing foresight of the defacing of all worldly glory, will help to keep us from admiring it, and overvaluing it." Jesus' question teaches His followers to see the world's most impressive things in the light of what God has said about them.