Throughout its fabled history, through Psalms, Prophets and Prayers, the city of Jerusalem has sustained an unwavering passion in the hearts of Israel’s people. Home to the temple of God, and to the palaces of kings, she has been at once holy ground for sacred worship to the Sovereign Lord, and the city of the great King, from the royal house of David (cf. Psalms 48).
For thousands of years, through captivity and exile, her people have mournfully dreamed of returning to her gates, the security of her towering walls. For in those noble courts of Jerusalem alone are the fortunes of Israel to be found, her aspirations and hopes. O Jerusalem, in you Ezekiel and Isaiah saw the glory of their prophetic anticipations, the fulfillment of the ideal Messianic kingdom. It is your destiny, O Center of the Earth (Ezek. 5:5), to become the pinnacle of world-wide worship as the nations come up to your gates with thanksgiving, and enter your courts with praise.
In Revelation, John did see the dazzling brightness and sheer purity of a New Jerusalem – a city where heaven meets earth, a homestead for man where humanity is illuminated by the glory that emanates from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Upon her streets of gold, the weary feet of those who trample there are transformed into moral beauty and spiritual holiness. It is told that her rivers bear healing for the nations, and throngs of angels will gather to accompany the assembly of the first-born, all those whose names are written in Book of Life, as they gather around the throne of our God in her midst (Hebrews 12:23).
In the Hebrew language she is called Yerushalaim, the “City of Peace.” She is the home of the brave, where men and women are free to live as self-governed citizens, no longer subjected to foreign control, yet maintaining justice and order in perfect harmony by their own sovereign will in a heavenly commonwealth, dwelling together in the unity of brotherhood, independent of all restraints of law because they themselves do the will of God from their hearts.
“O Jerusalem, Mother of us all (Galatians 4:26), how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing (Mt. 23). So I call unto you, through my messengers who love you from the nations, to strike a chord in your heart and stir you again, that your time is now here. For as it is written, ‘I will pour on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a Spirit of Grace, and you will look upon Me whom you pierced, and you shall weep for me as one mourns for an only child’ (Zech. 12:10). This is your day, O Jerusalem, your destiny clear. My Daughter of Zion, lay down your fears, I am here at your gates, watching and waiting for you to arise and sing forth that prayer I so long to hear, ‘How blessed is He who comes in My name.’ Let salvation now come to those far and those near,” Jesus.
