O Jerusalem, Jerusalem
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.' " (Mt 23.37-39)
I dreamt recently that I was in Jerusalem in Israel. I was there for the installation of the final and completing stone at the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. The city was awash with Muslim People...predominantly women who were veiled. As I made my way through the Old City to the Mount, jet fighters were flying very low and hard over us. The city was clearly a war-zone.
(1) One Day, the Lord Jesus Christ will return to take His Throne on the Temple Mount, precisely upon the space where the Holy of Holies stood in the Temple of the Lord. At that time will be accomplished the Prophet Zechariah's prediction, which is contained in chapter 4, verses 7 through 9:
"What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of 'Grace, grace to it!' Also the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 'The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will finish it.' "
(Thus also fulfilling, "The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts." Hag 2.9)
Jesus Himself is the Founder and "chief corner stone" of "the household of God"...and upon His return He will be the "capstone", thus with His own Person completing its construction. (Eph 2.20, 1 Pe 2.6&7)
(This being the case, you will better understand why "Kingdom Now" teaching, and the puerile, worldly elitism of the "neo-apostles" is so abhorrent to me. The first, believes the Kingdom of God can exist on the earth, without the King Himself being physically enthroned at its heart. The second, construct thrones for themselves and arrogantly occupy them...making of themselves pseudo-capstones!)
(2) Before the King's Return, there is going to be massive conflict and upheaval (political, social and natural); its final focus will be Jerusalem, God's "throne room". As this Age approaches its biblical climax and conclusion, the devil, unrepentant humankind, and every world-system will mount their final, ferocious, and completely futile opposition.
"This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the centre of the nations." (Eze 5.5)
"They will call Jerusalem 'The Throne of the Lord', and all the nations will be gathered to it." (Jer 3.17)
"Why are the nations in an uproar?...the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed...But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain." (Ps 2)
(3) No matter how many pre-emptive strikes Israel makes against hostile neighbours, immediately before The King comes to save them (both physically and spiritually), great tracts of the current State will be invaded, and half of Jerusalem itself (East?) will be occupied by zealous and militant Muslim Peoples.
"Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the people around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah...For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured...and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city." (Zec 12.2, 14.2)
"Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments...The Lord shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you...But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God...The Lord shall cause you to be defeated before your enemies." (Deut 28)
"When a man's ways are pleasing to the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him." (Pr 16.7)
God has ever required that His beloved Jewish People pay for their security with their obedience to His Law...now incarnate in Jesus, their Messiah and the world's Redeemer.
"You shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end." (Lk 1.31-33)
"My eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a Light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel." (Lk 2.30-32)
(4) Israel's salvation at the End of this Age will be total, complete, and absolute,
"And so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, 'The Deliverer will come from (and to...according to Isaiah 59.20) Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.' 'This is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.' " (Ro 11.26-27)
"When the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah...I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son...Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives." (Zec 12&14)
As our Messianic "father", David Baron (1855-1926, England) prophesied at the dawn of the 20th C, "Suddenly, when the cloud will be thickest, and the anguish most acute...and Israel's enemies be most certain in their own minds of accomplishing their purpose and utterly exterminating that people...then, with the speed of lightning, and attended by all His saints and hosts of angels, shall the same Jesus, who ascended bodily and visibly on a cloud from the Mount of Olivet, so and in like manner, be revealed again; but this time in a special and peculiar manner, as Israel's King and Deliverer." (1)
"Shout for joy, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away His judgement against you, He has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you will fear disaster no more." (Zep 3.14-15)
(5) Nevertheless, something even more important than Israel's reconciliation with their Messiah, and Jerusalem's return to God, occurs at The End...The King returns and reigns.
"And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one...then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths." (Zec 14.9&16)
(6) All of these momentous events will not take place off in a corner; they have already been in the daily news headlines for quite some time. Nor will they be accomplished uncontested! Here mesh (but beyond human "sight" and reason's reach) the sovereignty of God and our (Christian) responsibility. God "works all things after the counsel of his will" (Eph 1.11), and yet "to all those who obey Him" Jesus is "the source of eternal salvation". (Heb 5.9)
Thus we may affirm with David Baron that "as sure as there was a cross planted for him on that Golgotha, outside the walls of Jerusalem, so surely, if the word and oath of our God stand for anything, is there yet to be a glorious throne for our Redeemer and Master on Mount Zion." And yet, this same apostolic Zionist, in the same breath, challenges the Church not "to fold her hands as she has done for many centuries and do next to nothing."
"What your attitude to Israel should be, is plainly shown in the Word of God...It should be an attitude of prayer."
Quoting Isaiah 62.6-7,
"On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves; and give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem a praise in the earth" ...
David Baron challenges us from Eternity, "Do you aspire to be one of 'Jehovah's remembrancers'? Then hark to (this) His command. Let there be the heart's desire and believing prayer unto God for Israel that they may be saved. Has compassion, has gratitude for the wonderful blessings which you have received through them as the channel, yea, has God's clear word of command, ever made your heart go out after this manner in the prayer of faith for poor sick Israel?"
And further, quoting from the Prophet Ezekiel (ch 37), David Baron complains that the Church "has neglected" to prophesy life (both physical and spiritual) to the "dry bones" of Israel. "And yet," he observes, "it (the Church) wonders that there has been no noise, no mighty shaking, or many signs of life among the dry bones.
"Oh, fellow Christian, time is short...who will be up and doing? Who will rise to the Lord's help against the mighty? Who by their prayers and substance will help to carry the Gospel message to poor scattered Israel?" (1)
"So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath (spirit) came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceeding great army." (Eze 37.10)
"For the Lord has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His habitation. This is my resting place forever; Here I will dwell, for I have desired it." (Ps 132.13-14)
"And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down from heaven from God, having the glory of God." (Rev 21.10-11)
(1) "Israel's Present & Future". A series of lectures delivered by David Baron in mid-1890, at Northfield, Massachusetts, USA.
