When viewing the history of Jerusalem as a whole, no other city has suffered as has David’s City. At times the city has been overrun by violent assailants. It is recorded in Jeremiah that the city would surrender after suffering the horrors of starvation.
While Christian and Muslim claims to Jerusalem came much later, the chronicle of the Jews in Jerusalem began three millennia ago, and has never ceased. The link of the Jewish people has been historical, religious, cultural, physical, and fundamental. It has never been voluntarily broken; any absence of Jews from their beloved city has been the result of foreign persecution and expulsion. To the Jews alone belongs David’s City, the City of God.
For the Jewish people whose cry for centuries has been, “Next year Jerusalem,” it is more than a location on the map; it is not just a tourist stop where one can visit various holy sites; Jerusalem is holy. It is the essence of that for which Jews have hoped and prayed and cried and died. It is their God-given land. The God who cannot lie made a vow to His people: The LORD had said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever” (2 Kings 21:7).
The LORD had said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever.”
—2 Kings 21:7
Israel is God’s Dream; the title deed belongs to Him. It is His to bestow on whomever He will—and He has given the right of occupation to the Jewish people. When God made His eternal promises to Israel, there was no United Nations, no United States, no Russia, no European Union, and no Arab League; there were only pagan nations to challenge this dream, to challenge God and His Word. Today, those pagan voices are challenging the right of the Jews to occupy a unified Jerusalem.
When you and I as Christians are apathetic toward God’s Divine plan or His eternal purpose, it means that we are rejecting our Lord’s assignment to the Church. God’s prophetic time clock has been set on Jerusalem time throughout history, and the spotlight of heaven remains shining upon the Jews as His Chosen People. It began with them, and it will end with them.
God’s plan is an eternal one! As Christians, we cannot afford to neglect our responsibility to stand with the House of Israel. It is as important as it is to believe the promises of God. As Christians, we are the engrafted vine; we bow before a Jewish Messiah, and what we do matters in the light of eternity.
Jerusalem is the only city for which God commands us to pray. When you pray for Jerusalem as instructed in Psalm 122:6, you are not praying for stones or dirt, you are praying for revival (2 Chronicles 7:14), and for the Lord’s return.
When you pray for Jerusalem as instructed in Psalm 122:6, you are not praying for stones or dirt, you are praying for revival (2 Chronicles 7:14), and for the Lord’s return.
Also, you are joining our Lord, the Good Shepherd, in His ministry of love and comfort to the suffering House of Israel: “Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:40, NKJV). This is our divine commission.
