Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May they be secure who love you! Peace be within your walls and security within your towers! For my brothers and companions' sake I will say, "Peace be within you!" For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good. (Verses 6-9)
And when He drew near and saw the city, He wept over it, saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you, because you did not know the time of your visitation." Jesus, Luke 19
Jerusalem. The Holy City was the seat of Judaism. It swarmed with Pharisees and scribes, holy men who interpreted the tomes of Jewish laws they'd derived from the original commandments of God. On a mount within the city stood the Temple, conceived and created by Solomon centuries before. Deep within its heart was the Holy of Holies where God Himself appeared once a year as shekinah glory, gleaming white hot and powerful. Into His presence one priest once a year dared to come, carrying with him the prayers of the people who needed forgiveness for another year's sins. The Temple was holy because God lived there. And God lived there because it's always been His desire to be with those He loves.
When Jesus came into Jerusalem amidst the hosannas as the young donkey on which he rode stepped onto the palm branches laid in their path, He knew. Knew that by Passover the praises would become jeers. Knew the fickle crowds would join in with the priests of their faith and crucify their own Messiah. Because they didn't recognize their salvation. God with them. Emmanuel. Jesus cried as He rode in their midst. He knew what was ahead for them. Understood all He could have saved them from. I think He also cried because He knew, since they didn't realize He was Messiah, they also would not understand He is the physical, once-for-all sacrifice for their sins. There would be no more temple in a few short years. No more sacrifices offered for centuries until our time. Jesus was the bloodied lamb. No need for another.
By 70 A.D., Titus had destroyed the Temple. Josephus Flavius described it from his firsthand account. The Romans surrounded Jerusalem, choking it as they scaled the fortified walls and overran the mount, brutally butchering all Jewish people in their way. The troops stormed the Temple, setting it on fire as the people tried desperately to stop the carnage. "The Temple Mount, everywhere enveloped in flames, seemed to be boiling over from its base; yet the blood seemed more abundant than the flames and the numbers of the slain greater than those of the slayers. The soldiers climbed over heaps of bodies as they chased the fugitives." (Josephus) In the aftermath, the Jews were dispersed, no longer having a country. Until 1948 and the Zionist movement. We live in a significant time. Let's not miss this visitation.
How does the story end this time? I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." Revelation 21
Our God so wants to live in our midst that He came as the conquering Savior to destroy the works of the enemy of our souls. He will have His way. That's how much He loves us. We have been created for an eternity with God, our Father. John says, in Revelation 21, "..and I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day--and there will be no night there...But nothing unclean will ever enter it, not anyone who is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. The purpose of the Temple was to give God a fitting place to dwell on earth. One day the shekinah glory will engulf us, no longer shrunken to a small glowing ball of light, but expanded to the outreaches of eternity to bathe us in His glory. Jerusalem no longer an earthly location, a metropolis devoid of its former glory, but heaven. Home with our Father and the Son who shines within it.
And when He drew near and saw the city, He wept over it, saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you, because you did not know the time of your visitation." Jesus, Luke 19
Jerusalem. The Holy City was the seat of Judaism. It swarmed with Pharisees and scribes, holy men who interpreted the tomes of Jewish laws they'd derived from the original commandments of God. On a mount within the city stood the Temple, conceived and created by Solomon centuries before. Deep within its heart was the Holy of Holies where God Himself appeared once a year as shekinah glory, gleaming white hot and powerful. Into His presence one priest once a year dared to come, carrying with him the prayers of the people who needed forgiveness for another year's sins. The Temple was holy because God lived there. And God lived there because it's always been His desire to be with those He loves.
When Jesus came into Jerusalem amidst the hosannas as the young donkey on which he rode stepped onto the palm branches laid in their path, He knew. Knew that by Passover the praises would become jeers. Knew the fickle crowds would join in with the priests of their faith and crucify their own Messiah. Because they didn't recognize their salvation. God with them. Emmanuel. Jesus cried as He rode in their midst. He knew what was ahead for them. Understood all He could have saved them from. I think He also cried because He knew, since they didn't realize He was Messiah, they also would not understand He is the physical, once-for-all sacrifice for their sins. There would be no more temple in a few short years. No more sacrifices offered for centuries until our time. Jesus was the bloodied lamb. No need for another.
By 70 A.D., Titus had destroyed the Temple. Josephus Flavius described it from his firsthand account. The Romans surrounded Jerusalem, choking it as they scaled the fortified walls and overran the mount, brutally butchering all Jewish people in their way. The troops stormed the Temple, setting it on fire as the people tried desperately to stop the carnage. "The Temple Mount, everywhere enveloped in flames, seemed to be boiling over from its base; yet the blood seemed more abundant than the flames and the numbers of the slain greater than those of the slayers. The soldiers climbed over heaps of bodies as they chased the fugitives." (Josephus) In the aftermath, the Jews were dispersed, no longer having a country. Until 1948 and the Zionist movement. We live in a significant time. Let's not miss this visitation.
How does the story end this time? I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." Revelation 21
Our God so wants to live in our midst that He came as the conquering Savior to destroy the works of the enemy of our souls. He will have His way. That's how much He loves us. We have been created for an eternity with God, our Father. John says, in Revelation 21, "..and I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day--and there will be no night there...But nothing unclean will ever enter it, not anyone who is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. The purpose of the Temple was to give God a fitting place to dwell on earth. One day the shekinah glory will engulf us, no longer shrunken to a small glowing ball of light, but expanded to the outreaches of eternity to bathe us in His glory. Jerusalem no longer an earthly location, a metropolis devoid of its former glory, but heaven. Home with our Father and the Son who shines within it.
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