Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

“The Lord has afflicted His Zion,
  The City He loved so well,
Where He deign’d, like a couching lion,
  In glory and strength to dwell.

And why has Jehovah forsaken
  The place of His ancient throne,
His Vine from the wilderness taken,
  To flourish for Him alone?

Ah! deem not the Holy One cruel.
  Had Israel loved His will,
She had sparkled the costliest jewel,
  The beauty of nations still;

The Lord had been still her defender,
  And she, the queen of the earth,
In holiness, freedom and splendour,
  Had gloried in Shiloh’s birth.

But she fell — and her crown of glory
  Was struck from her rebel brow,
And with feet all wounded and gory
  She wanders in exile now.

Yet, sad one, distrust not our pity;
  Though some may wring out thy tears,
We will weep for the Holy City,
  And sorrow o’er former years.

Thou art stricken, dethroned and lowly,
  Bereft of a home on earth,
Yet still to our hearts thou art holy,
  Thou land of Messiah’s birth!

He sprang from thy chosen of daughters,
  His star o’er thy hills arose,
He bathed in thy soft-flowing waters,
  And wept o’er thy coming woes.

He wept, who in secret yet lingers,
  With yearnings of heart, over thee;
He, He, whom thy blood-sprinkled fingers
  Once nailed to the cursed tree.

Dark deed! it was thine to afflict Him;
  Yet longs His soul for the day
When thou in the blood of thy Victim
  Shall wash thy deep stains away.

Thou land of the Cross, and the glory,
  Whose brightness at last will shine —
Afar through the earth — what a story
  Of darkness and light is thine!

He died as a lamb; — as a lion
  He spares thee, nor can forget
His desolate exiles of Zion,
  He waits to be gracious yet.”

The deliverance of Jerusalem from the yoke of the Turk is undoubtedly the outstanding event of the war. It has thrilled the whole civilized world and set Jewry in every land rejoicing. Its immediate influence on the present titanic struggle may not be so great as would have been a signal victory to the allied arms on the Western front, but it has its significance in regard to a larger issue, even that of the establishment of Christ’s kingdom on the earth and the wider outlook of permanent peace for every tribe and nation under heaven. Its significance lies in the fact that the British Government has declared that its determined policy is to restore the land to the Jewish people as a nation, and this policy has behind it the approval and the conscience of the whole of the British peoples.

It is plainly set forth in the sure word of prophecy that the reign of righteousness for which the whole creation groans will be inaugurated by the personal presence of the Lord Jesus Christ; that Jerusalem will be the metropolis of His earth-wide kingdom, and that the children of Jacob must be gathered into the land promised to their fathers before these things can be. So that this solemn pledge given on the part of the British Government indicates unmistakably the direction of the march of events. And the whole world has taken notice of it, and Christians are rejoicing, and the Jews in every land are “sounding the loud timbrel” as though this brilliant feat of arms in Palestine and the surrender of Jerusalem to the British would immediately end the long travail of Jacob’s Children, and usher in the kingdom of the Lord.

But this is not the case. This event is the prelude to the opening of the darkest chapter in the chequered history of this remarkable race, and Jerusalem has still to pass through her most appalling hour.

Bright hopes will arise in the breasts of those who look not to God and believe not His word, but who put their trust in an arm of flesh. These hopes will rise high as the holy land becomes peopled with its rightful nation. But then shall come the rule of the scornful men who make lies their refuge (Isaiah 28:14-15); and of Antichrist; then shall come the “time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7); of “the great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:21) a time in which if the days are not shortened no flesh shall be saved (v. 22); and the fowls shall summer upon Israel and the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them (Isaiah 18:6) until all hope in man’s help is extinguished and they are prepared to say, “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God” (Psalm 20:7).

Before considering more closely what the Word has to say as to the things to come, let us cast our thoughts back and learn how the future of this great city is mirrored in its early annals as given to us in the Scriptures, and learn also that God cannot be thwarted in the fulfilment of His purposes, no matter how long they may be delayed by the opposition of Satan and the unbelief of men.

Genesis 14 — King of Salem and God’s Purpose

Arguments have been advanced to prove that Salem, of which Melchizedek was king, was not Jerusalem, but Psalm 76 settles this question for us. Consequently we take Genesis 14 to be the first allusion to the city in the Scriptures, and there we see God’s purpose as to its great destiny. Melchizedek appears as the priest of the Most High God, who is possessor of heaven and earth, and in whose hands lies the final disposal of all things; he appears to refresh and gladden and bless Abram after his victorious fight with the kings in the valley of Shaveh, and in this, his dramatic and only appearance in the word, he stands out as a beautiful foreshadowing of the Lord Jesus Christ as the great royal Priest. Righteousness and peace are to be the two great characteristics of the coming Kingdom of Christ. He was King of Righteousness and King of Salem — Peace, and God’s purpose is to set Him as His King in Zion. It is also written of Him, “The Lord has sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 110). And again, “Thus speaks the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is the BRANCH, and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord: even he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and HE SHALL BE A PRIEST UPON HIS THRONE; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both” (Zechariah 6:12-13). And again, “… The prince of peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this” (Isaiah 9:6-7). Christ is the King who shall reign in righteousness, and Jerusalem, the city of sin and sorrow, shall be Salem, His tabernacle, from which peace shall flow to the uttermost bounds of His domain. He will bring forth the bread and wine of divine blessing to comfort and invigorate and gladden that distressed yet godly remnant that shall endure through the great tribulation and whose faith shall gain for them the victory over all their enemies (Matthew 24:13; Zephaniah 3:12-13). And then will they respond to the challenge, “Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem … The King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee; thou shalt not see evil any more. In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not … The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing” (Zephaniah 3:14-17). And then shall the words be true, “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge” (Psalm 48). And this city is to be the centre as well as the joy of the whole earth, and all nations shall go up year by year to it, to worship the King, the Lord of hosts (Zechariah 14:17). Wonderful indeed is the future of Jerusalem, wonderful because the Lord has chosen to place His Name there.

Joshua 10 — Adoni-zedec — Antichrist

The second mention of the city occurs in Joshua 10, and there we learn that an implacable foe to God’s purpose and people had established himself there. And this king, Adoni-zedec, became the leader of a confederation of kings, the sworn foes of any who were not the foes of God’s people. He sets forth that opposition to the will of God which grew strong in Jerusalem and took complete possession of it when the Son of God, who came in His Father’s name, was led forth bearing His cross to Golgotha. This opposition will be personified in Antichrist who shall come in his own name, and shall yet reign at Jerusalem. He will be inspired by Satan to persecute and endeavour to exterminate God’s elect (Revelation 13:15; Matthew 24:22), and then finally to fight against the Lamb in order to hold the city against Him (Revelation 19:19-20). But in standing up against the Prince of princes he shall be broken without hand (Daniel 8:5). And just as Joshua made the captains of his army put their feet upon the necks of Adoni-zedec and his allies, so will the Lord give His saints complete victory over Antichrist and all their enemies, and will lead them, as the true Joshua, into the rest that remaineth for the people of God.

Judges 1:5-7 — The Harvest of Tribulation

In Judges 1:5-9 we have a further mention of the city, and here we learn the third outstanding fact in the history of Jerusalem and its people, namely, that in them has been and will yet be exemplified that stern law, “What a man sows that shall he also reap.” We read that “Adoni-bezek fled; and they pursued after him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and his great toes.” Such treatment of a fallen foe seems both unchivalrous and cruel, but the reason of it is not hidden from us, as he had served others so was he served. He immediately acknowledges the justice of his punishment, and in that state of self-judgment is brought to Jerusalem.

In no city in the world has this law of sowing and reaping operated so inexorably as in Jerusalem, her history since she became the city of David is one long record of it. But for the greatest of all her crimes she has yet to suffer. She rejected her Messiah, spat in His face, delivered Him to the pagan power, and cried, “His blood be upon us and our children,” and held high festival when He was crucified as a malefactor. That generation reaped a fearful harvest from this sowing, for according to Josephus 1,100,000 perished during the siege of Titus in A.D.70, and the temple and its precincts “were so thoroughly levelled and dug up that no one visiting would believe it had ever been inhabited.” But the harvest of that crime has not been fully reaped. The woes through which the city has passed will be exceeded in the time of Jacob’s trouble, until it will seem as though none would survive. But those sufferings will bring the nation to repentance before God, they will cry to Him for deliverance, and not till then shall the terrible entail be broken. Their Messiah will appear for their deliverance, and when they look upon Him whom they had pierced their sorrow will be deep and real and they will acknowledge the justice of their punishment, and the Lord will comfort them and lead them, a repentant and restored people, into Jerusalem, a redeemed and restored city (Zechariah 12:10-14; 13:1; 14:1-4; Isaiah 52:9).

2 Samuel 5 — David takes the city — Zion

In 2 Samuel 5 Jerusalem emerges from the unimportant place that it had occupied in Israel and becomes the great centre and pride of the nation, but for this the God-appointed king had to appear, and he it was who subdued it completely for the first time, and called it Zion.

The Jebusites had held the city since the entrance of Israel into the land. They were descendants of the accursed Canaan, and their name means “trodden down.” May they not represent man in his unregenerate condition — whether Jew or Gentile, who remains “blind and lame” in spite of all advantages, even those advantages that the law gives? May they not represent for us the state of man, under the yoke of sin and trodden down by Satan, needing to be born again, needing the grace of God ministered from the throne of which Zion speaks? We are persuaded that this is the lesson we are to learn here from.

It was David the King who took possession of Zion. But the blind and the lame that were in it were abhorred by him, the grace that could deliver such from their bondage was not in him, its manifestation awaits the coming of “Great David’s greater Son.” He has already been, and as He walked in His temple, Zion’s true but unrecognized King, and “THE BLIND AND THE LAME CAME TO HIM, and He healed them” (Matthew 21:14). And when His kingdom shall be established in Zion, “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, and the lame man shall leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing” (Isaiah 35:5-6).

David was the rejected and suffering man of God’s choice, and afterwards the warrior and victorious king, and the turning of the city of the Jebusites into Zion by him tells of how the once suffering and rejected Christ, soon to come forth as the warrior king, will establish Israel in blessing not on the ground of law, but on the principle of grace, that is instead of their blessing depending as of old upon their faithfulness, they will draw everything through Christ from God. “And this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put my laws into their minds and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord: for all shall know Me from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:10-12). There we get what Zion will mean to Israel.

David who in figure established Zion prepared for the building within it of the temple of God, that in the people’s worship there might ascend to God a suited response to His grace to them, and it is a point of deepest interest to note that the spot chosen for God’s house, the spot from which peace offerings and burnt offerings ascended to God from the altar that David built, was the threshing floor of a Jebusite, Araunah by name. He had two names — Araunah, which means “Jah is firm,” and Oman, which means “strong.” And it was at the threshing floor of this Jebusite that the sword of judgment was arrested. Was he one of those weak Jebusites who had become strong in the sense of Jehovah’s firmness and faithfulness to His own word and name? It would seem so. Indeed in the knowledge of God he seems to have been for the moment greater than David, for it is recorded of him, “All these things did Araunah, AS A KING, give to the king. And Araunah said to the king, The Lord thy God accept thee” (2 Samuel 24:30). Pity that David spoilt the beauty and grace of that by insisting upon paying for all he got.

But it will be in the sense of God’s faithfulness, the firmness of Jah to His own word, that Jerusalem will be established, and that the people will draw near to Him in His holy temple. Psalm 89 gives us a most beautiful unfolding of God’s word and His faithfulness to it, and when Salem becomes His tabernacle and His dwelling-place Zion, Jerusalem and all Israel will say, “Blessed be the Lord forever more. Amen and Amen.”