JERUSALEM AND THE PROMISED LAND
By Rev. Willem J.J. Glashouwer

“…But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and He will give you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in safety. Then to the place the Lord your God will choose as A DWELLING FOR HIS NAME—there you shall bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and the special gifts, and all the choice possessions you have vowed to the Lord. And there rejoice before the Lord your God, you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants…” (Deuteronomy 12:10-12)

When Israel recaptured Jerusalem in 1967, the hearts of devout Jews began to beat faster. Would this be the moment that the temple could be rebuilt, and if so, where? Of course in Jerusalem, on top of Mount Zion, where the temples of Solomon and of Zerubbabel stood, many pious Jews said! The temple that was destroyed in history by heathen nations, Babylon and Rome…But why in Jerusalem? What is it that is so special about Jerusalem? And why on Mount Zion? What is so special about that small mountain, 800 metres above sea level, at the edge of the desert?

The name ‘Jerusalem’, which literally means ‘possession of peace’ is found more than 800 times in the Old and the New Testaments. Other names are used to refer to Jerusalem as well. They include: Ariel, City of God, City of David, City of Judah, Jebus, City of Righteousness, City of Truth, City of the Great King, Holy City, Faithful City, Salem and Zion. Some of these names only appear once, while others appear a couple of times; the name ‘Zion’ appears more than 150 times. When the name ‘Zion’ is used in Scripture, it is used affectionately, passionately, intimately. Altogether there are about 1000 direct references to the City of Jerusalem in the entire Bible.

Let us find out how Israel found out where this special place of God would be. Because it took quite some time before Israel got hold of Jerusalem and realised that this was the place where God would make His Name dwell. It actually took hundreds of years after the entering of the Promised Land that Israel found out where that place was that the Lord would choose as a dwelling for His Name.

It all started with the promise the LORD made to Abraham, the promise about a land, a nation and a blessing. It all started with the calling of Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3:
“…The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you...” (Genesis 12:1-3)
This is the basic covenant that God made with this forefather of Israel and the cornerstone of all the following covenants as well. In meetings that follow with Abraham more details of this covenant are revealed.

“…On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abraham and said: ”To your descendants I give this land, from the River of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates – the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites…” Genesis 15:18-21.
So not an empty land was promised by God, but inhabited by various peoples. One of them, the Jebusites lived in Jerusalem. Joshua had to be strong and courageous and place the sole of his foot upon the Promised Land, the Lord had said (Joshua 1:1-9), and then the Lord would give the land to Israel. Israel had to walk in faith, and in the process of going they would experience the truthfulness of the promises of God. The land was inhabited by the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

Did the LORD Himself see to it that before Israel took possession of the Promised Land, those peoples had willingly moved on? Did Israel enter an empty land? No, Israel had to conquer the Promised Land. In order to achieve that objective, Moses’ successor, Joshua, under whose leadership the people of Israel would enter the land after wandering in the desert for forty years, had to be strong and very courageous. Many times he and the people of Israel were told: “I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.” (Joshua 1:3; see also Deuteronomy 31:1–8, 23) This promise meant that Joshua had to be courageous himself, to go in faith and put down the soles of his own feet. Faith is like that. If you have a vision, if you know in faith that you are called by God to do something, then go out in faith and obedience. And in the going, you will find that you will possess ‘the land’. That God fulfils His promise and makes you realise your calling. But you have to do it yourself. It will not just be tossed into your lap. And when the going gets tough, the tough get going!

After entering the Promised Land and conquering enemy strongholds like Jericho and Ai, Joshua and the Israelites also planned to conquer Jerusalem. Then Adoni-Zedek, king of Jerusalem, joined forces with 5 kings of the Amorites to fight the people of Gibeon, who had escaped the conquest by Joshua by making a treaty with Israel, Joshua 9. The 5 kings try to conquer Gibeon, but Joshua beats them. The LORD fulfils His promise to give the enemies into the hands of the Israelites. Sun and moon stand still, stones fall from the sky (‘ barad’, probably hot stones - not hailstones – are falling from the sky) and Joshua won the battle, Joshua 10. And although he killed the 5 kings – also the king of Jerusalem, we read in Joshua 10:22-27 - apparently he did not conquer Jerusalem. “…Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day (the writer of the book of Joshua says) the Jebusites live there with the people of Judah...” (Joshua 15:63). And that, apparently, remained the case for the next couple of hundred years or so, maybe for 200 – 250 years.

This is remarkable. Although Israel conquered the Promised Land and divided it among the 12 tribes: Jerusalem they did not get! We have to wait till David after Saul has become king over Israel.
In 2 Samuel 5:6-10 and 1 Chronicles 11:4-9 we read how finally the Jebusites were overcome. “…The king [David] and his men marched to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites, who lived there. The Jebusites (who apparently were still full of confidence) said to David, “You will not get here; even the blind and lame can ward you off.” They thought, “David cannot get in here.” Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion, the City of David…” He used the water shaft to get in.“…David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years. In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah thirty-three years…”, 2 Samuel 5:4-5.

A striking parallel with Israel’s history today. Even now that there is the independent State of Israel since 1948: Jerusalem is still hotly disputed. The Palestinians waive their claims; the Muslim Arab world for whom Jerusalem is the third holy city waive their claims; there is the Pope who wants to ‘internationalise’ Jerusalem as a Holy City for Christianity, Islam and Judaism, and there are also the United Nations who do not accept Israel’s decision to make Jerusalem after the Six-Days-War in 1967 the undivided capital of the independent Jewish State of Israel! So even today: there are already 60 years between the ‘conquest’ of the land and the definitive destiny of Jerusalem in the middle of Israel!

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JERUSALEM AND THE PROMISED LAND By Rev. Willem J.J. Glashouwer

JERUSALEM AND THE PROMISED LAND
By Rev. Willem J.J. Glashouwer