Jerusalem
JERUSALEM is "the city of the great King": it was
Jesus who called it so. When he came to it "lowly and riding upon an
ass", and was rejected by its leaders, he said: "Behold, your house
is left unto you desolate . . . Ye shall not see me henceforth, TILL ye shall
say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord" (Matt. 23:38-39).
Shortly after he amplified this by saying: "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the
Gentiles UNTIL the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled ... THEN shall ye
see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory" (Luke
21:24-27).
No man with any respect for the Lord Jesus
Christ could speak slightingly of Jerusalem.
But further than that, no careful reader of his words would think only of the
city's historic past; Jesus looks to its future, and links it with his own. He
has not finished with Jerusalem,
and none who love him will disregard it.
In all this Jesus was basing his own
teaching on the words which God "spake in time past unto the fathers by
the prophets". Their theme had been: "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem : they shall
prosper that love thee". Let us see some of the beautiful things they said
about it.
1. Jerusalem
is the place which God chose to place His name there.
"Then there shall be a place which the
Lord your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there" (Deut.
12:11). "But I have chosen Jerusalem,
that my name might be there" (2 Chron. 6:6).
2. Jerusalem
is the city of Christ.
"Thy king cometh unto thee" is the
language of prophecy addressed to Jerusalem
(see Zech. 9:9; Matt. 21:1-7). Because Jerusalem
was God's city, Jesus forbade his friends to swear by it (see Matt. 5:35). If
it was sacred to him, should it not be so to those who profess to follow him?
3. A day is coming when "the glory
of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together" (Isa.
40:5). Jerusalem
will be the centre from which it shines forth to "fill the earth as the
waters cover the sea" (Hab. 2:14).
"Out of Zion
shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isa. 2:3). "Arise,
shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people:
but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And
the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy
rising" (Isa. 60:1-3). "Be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which
I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem
a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the
voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying"
(Isa. 65:18-19).
4. Jerusalem,
down-trodden and in affliction with her children, is divinely assured of
happier days.
"Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto
her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she
hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins" (Isa. 40:2).
"Awake, awake, stand up, 0 Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the
Lord the cup of his fury . . ." "Awake, awake; put on thy strength, 0
Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth
there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake
thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the
bands of thy neck, 0 captive daughter of Zion"
(Isa. 51:17; 52:1-2).
5. If you are to have any part in the
salvation God has promised, it will be as a lover of Jerusalem, and in
connection with her restored glory in the Holy Land.
"Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad
with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for
her: that ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations;
that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For
thus saith the Lord, Behold I will extend peace to her like a river, and the
glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall be
borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees. As one whom his mother
comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And when ye
see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb:
and the hand of the Lord shall be known toward his servants, and his
indignation toward his enemies" (Isa. 66:10-14).
6. At that time, the throne of Jehovah
[Yahweh] shall be established in Jerusalem.
"At that time, they shall call Jerusalem the throne of
the Lord" (Jer. 3:17). "The Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion
and in Jerusalem"
(Isa. 24 :23).
7. The divine glory will therefore be
established in Jerusalem
for ever.
"The name of the city from that day
shall be, THE LORD IS THERE". "Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle
that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be
removed" (Isa. 33:20).\
Should it not be clear from all this that no
man can truly hope for God's salvation who is not a lover of Jerusalem?