WHY JERUSALEM?!

“When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be a great distress in the land and wrath against this people. They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (Luke 21:20-24).

After the Six Day War, from 5-11 June1967, the Israeli government declares on 27 June the city of Jerusalem Unified into one city as the capital of the Jewish State.
On the fifth of June 1967, Jordanian artillery had opened fire on West-Jerusalem from Jordanian occupied parts of the city. Two days later, the Old City and other parts of East-Jerusalem were captured by Israel in counter attack. Israel liberated East-Jerusalem from the Jordanian occupation, under which that part of the city had suffered since 1948, for19 long years. During those 19 years East-Jerusalem was systematically cleansed from Jewish presence. Synagogues destroyed, graveyards desecrated. It was the only short period that Jerusalem was a divided city within its more than 3,000 years existence, so that any Palestinian claim on that part of the city has no historical ground whatsoever. That’s why, according to some people, there already came an end to “the times of the Gentiles” in 1967, because at that moment Jerusalem was not anymore “trampled on by the Gentiles”, and it is again the capital of the land and the State of Israel.

But is that really the case? Are no more Gentiles governing in Jerusalem? Have the nations, the Gentiles no more control over the Holy City? But then, what about the fact that Europe and the United Nations can tell Israel what to do with the land and the ‘occupied’ (= biblical areas of Judea and Samaria, Gaza and the Golan), and its own city of Jerusalem? According to most nations in the world, the definitive status of Jerusalem has not yet been decided.

What’s more, the Arab world has authority over the most holy place in the city: the Temple Mount, Mount Zion, Mount Moriah. That’s where once was God’s temple. That’s where by faith, Abraham was willing to offer his one and only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice (Genesis 22:1-19), trusting that God had the power to even receive Isaac back from death (Hebrews 11:17-19). That’s the place the LORD wanted for His Name to dwell (Deuteronomy 12:11). That’s where King Solomon builds the First Temple (1 Kings 5:8), the site chosen by his father King David (1 Chronicles 21:22-22:1). It’ s the place where, after 70 years in Babylonian exile, the captives from Judah rebuild the temple under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah. Without the temple, the Jews did not consider themselves reestablished as a nation.
The rebuilt temple was much smaller and would never match the splendor of Solomon’s. Some people wept as they remembered the glorious temple that had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar (Ezra 3:12). This temple, lavishly refurbished by Herod the Great (the Herod who killed all the boys under two years of age in an obsessive attempt to kill Jesus, Matthew 2:16), was the one standing at the time of Christ, and greatly beloved by Him (John 2:17). Sadly, that temple was utterly destroyed, as predicted by Jesus Himself (Luke 21:24; Matthew 24:1-2). This deed was accomplished by Titus in 70 AD, in spite of the fact that the LORD had chosen this place as a dwelling for His Name.

Mount Zion, makes Jerusalem to be Jerusalem, the epicenter of the earth. And on that place are now standing the Islamic ‘Dome of the Rock’ and Al Aqsa Mosque. That’s why you could say that Jerusalem is still “trampled on by Gentiles” (non-Jews). Therefore we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that the Jews up to today have no excess to the most holy place in the heart of Jerusalem, the Temple Mount. The control of the Temple Mount is in the hands of the Muslim Wagf (Islamic custodians). The temple Mount is the only place in the world apart from Islamic and totalitarian countries where Jews are forbidden to pray.

The Holy Scriptures seems to point in another direction. Only after the coming of the Messiah, the return of Christ, the times of the Gentiles is over, and we are on our way to that glorious happening. The future for Jerusalem is secure in God’s hands. It is the city of God (Psalm 46:4; 87:3), the city of the Great King (Psalm 48:2; Matthew 5:35). It is the city of the LORD, Zion of the Holy One of Israel (Isaiah 60:14).
Jerusalem is a place of destiny! God has already set countless divine appointments within this city, the heart of Israel. A day of the LORD is coming and His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem…On that day there will be one LORD, and His Name the Only Name! (Zechariah 14:1-9; Acts 1:10-11). The times of the Gentiles are coming to an end. Israel will be restored nationally, in spite of all the protests in the Middle East and worldwide. Israel does not exist by the grace of the United Nations. Israel does not exist by the grace of the European Union. Israel does not exist by the grace of Christendom or Islam. Israel exists by the grace of God, based on an eternal covenant, “He is the LORD our God; His judgments are in all the earth. He remembers His covenant forever, the word He commanded, for a thousand generations, the covenant He made with Abraham, the oath He swore to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant: To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion you will inherit” (Psalm 105:7-11).

“In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, ‘Come let us go up to the mountains of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths.’ The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty has spoken” (Micah 4:1-4).

“In that day, declares the LORD, I will gather the lame; I will assemble the exiles and those I have brought to grief. I will make the lame a remnant, those driven away a strong nation. The LORD will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever (Micah 4:6-7)

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