Date of message: 23 November
2003 Issue
119
Subject: Jerusalem, O Jerusalem
Shalom, Boker-tov (good morning),
During His final week on earth before He was crucified, Jesus was standing
on the Mount of Olives and He looked westward toward Jerusalem and the
apostle Matthew recorded His grief over the city in Matthew 23: 37: -
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God's
messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as
a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you would not let me.
Jesus our Lord loves Jerusalem very much in spite of what the people did
to the prophets and men of God that the Father had sent to warn the people
of impending dangers. Jesus, knowing full well that He Himself would be
crucified in Jerusalem in a few days, wept over the city as He saw into
the future and caught a glimpse of the horrors of the holocaust.
Why was Jesus so compassionate over the city? Why was the Father so bent
on warning the people of the impending dangers of exile during the time
of the prophets Daniel and Ezekiel? To understand the emotions of the
Godhead, allow me to take you off on a side trip.
At the side of the main entrance to all Jewish homes, you will find a
strange looking piece of porcelain flat jar that resembles a miniature
flower vase but it is not a flower vase. On the trunk of this vase, there
is a single Jewish alphabet painted on it. This alphabet is the 21st letter
of the Hebrew alphabet and is pronounced as "shin".
Now inside this vase (or mazzuzah) the Jewish custom would require the
head of the household to insert some of their Old Testament scriptures
promising them protection from harm and to steer them away from evil.
The most common of these promises are found in Deuteronomy 28 and Deuteronomy
11: 8-32.
The Jewish custom of the day would be to kiss the mazzuzah once when the
person leaves the home to go and tend the sheep or to till the land and
sow their seeds. At the end of the day, they would again kiss the mazzuzah
as a gesture of thanksgiving before they entered the home. The mazzuzah
literally mean "El Shaddai protects the family".
The alphabet 'Shin' is also the first letter of "Shaddai" in
'EL SHADDAI' - Almighty God, the all-sufficient One who supplies all our
needs and who watches over us. Hence the mazzuzah reminds the Israeli
of his God who will protect him in his daily ritual of coming in and going
out - his daily routine of work and play.
It should also be noted that the name Jerusalem (or the Hebrew name Yerusalayim)
is written as .
Note the middle alphabet 'shin' is representative of the Name of Shaddai
and hence we read of the declaration of the Lord to King Solomon in 2
Chronicles 6: 6: -
"Yet I have chosen Jerusalem, that My name may be there, and I have
chosen David to be over My people Israel."
It is also interesting to note that the same alphabet of 'shin' is found
right in the middle of our Lord Jesus' Hebrew name of Yeshua .
Moreover, consider the relief map of Jerusalem below.
Notice the three valleys that run through Jerusalem
" The Kidron Valley runs from the top down on the right and it passes
through the Garden of Gethsemane. It is the valley that divides the Mount
of Olives and the Temple Mount.
" The Central Valley (in Old Testament Jerusalem) or the Tyropoeon
Valley (in New Testament Jerusalem) separates the Temple Mount area from
the general area of King Herod's palace grounds.
" The Hinnom Valley can be seen near the bottom of the map and runs
along the side of the grounds of Herod's palace and Caiaphas' house (Caiaphas
was the high priest at the time of Jesus' trial and crucifixion).
Now take a good look at the map and see the alphabet "shin"
carved right out of the contours of the land over which Jerusalem was
built by King David and who reigned in Jerusalem for more than 32 years.
No wonder the Lord declared to King Solomon that He had placed His own
Name in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem (in the Hebrew Yerusalayim) means City of Peace(s). In the Hebrew,
whenever a word is spelt ending with '-im' it is always to be taken in
the plural and hence we may say that Jerusalem is the city of many peace.
Today, modern Jerusalem is inhabited by both the Jews and the Arabs and
there is a certain peace about that city. The Arabs and the Jews have
their own separate quadrants while the Christians have also been assigned
specific areas carefully marked as the Christian quadrant on the map of
Jerusalem.
The love affair that the Father has over Jerusalem will continue to perpetuate
even after our Lord Jesus returns for His own people at the Second Coming
and He will begin His millennial reign in Jerusalem. Yes, Jerusalem will
be chosen over the other major mega-cities in this world and Jesus will
sit on His throne in Jerusalem and reign for a thousand years.
From the time of Jesus till 1967, Jerusalem had been under the control
of non-Jews - the Romans, the Crusaders, the Arabs, Ottoman Turks and
finally the British - and all of them had to relinquish their priced city.
The Israeli Defence Forces captured East Jerusalem from the Jordanians
at the end of the six-day war when six nations colluded to attack Israel
on all six fronts. In their hour of need, the Lord came and stood in the
gap for them and delivered them and their territories over to the Israelis.
My friends, Jesus did prophesy over Jerusalem that He will return when
the times of the Gentiles had fully come and Jerusalem had once again
become a city on its own in the hands of the Children of Israel and that
was fulfilled in June 1967. Technically speaking, Jesus can come back
any time now that the status of the city of Jerusalem has been established.
Are you ready for that day?
One day, after all the Christians have been taken home to be with the
Lord, and should you by any chance be reading this article, be assured
that Jesus loves you so much that He already demonstrated His love for
you on the cross. There will be no condemnation for you once you put your
faith in Him but you will have eternal life (Romans 8:1). The Lord cannot
lie. For Him, whatever He speaks will come to pass.
If you have not already received Jesus into your heart and you would like
to do so, then pray this simple prayer to invite Him into your heart and
immediately you will experience His peace coming your way.
Thank you Heavenly Father for Your love for me in that while I was still
far off You sent Your only Beloved Son Jesus Christ to die for all our
sins and because of His death and resurrection, I have been forgiven and
now I am set free. Thank you that I am no longer condemned but I am now
a child of God,
Lord Jesus, thank you for coming into my heart and for giving me the Holy
Spirit in my life to remind me of my special position as a child of God
the Father and as Your child, I can now start enjoying all Your blessings
for my life. Thank you also for the wonderful gifts that the Holy Spirit
brings along with Him and for imparting those gifts into my life.
Thank you because of what You had accomplished for us on the cross and
having risen from the dead for our justification, I am now eternally forgiven
of all my sin, greatly blessed among all men, a highly favored child of
God, deeply loved by the Father and completely protected in the Lord and
in the most precious name of Jesus Christ, Yeshua Ha' Mashiah, I pray.
Amen.
If you have prayed this prayer for the first time, welcome to the Family
of the Father (and it is a very large universal family). It is important
that you are not alone facing your personal challenges but that you can
obtain good help wherever you are. Why not take the time to find your
own local Christian family (local church) and worship the Father together?
You will be greatly encouraged when you meet together to worship the Father,
for fellowship and for the study of the Word of Christ.
Start receiving the blessings of the Father as you walk with Him in faith.
It is your inheritance in Christ and He wants you to start enjoying these
blessings right now. You do not need to wait until you reach heaven and
there is more from where they come from.
And my friend, continue to exercise the gift of praying in tongues and
with the usage, more gifts of the Holy Spirit will be imparted to you.
The Lord blesses you and keeps you,
The Lord makes His face shine upon you and be gracious to you and all
your loved ones,
The Lord lifts up His countenance upon you and gives you His shalom peace.
Numbers 6: 24 -26
Have a blessed week ahead, Shavrou-tov
Shalom,
Andrew L W Lee
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