Jerusalem: The Place Ha Makom by Billye Brim

Transcription

1 Jerusalem: The Place Ha Makom by Billye Brim While browsing in an antique shop in Maine, I noticed a wonderful old book. My daughter Shelli bought it for my birthday that very day. Its yellowed pages have since given me much inspiration as well as information about one of my heroes, Abraham Lincoln. Published in 1908 as a memorial edition issued to commemorate the 100 th anniversary of Lincoln s birth, this large volume is unique. The treasures it holds are revealed in its lengthy title, copied here exactly as it appears on the title page: The Story-Life of LINCOLN. Biography Composed of Five Hundred True Stories Told by Abraham Lincoln and his Friends selected from all authentic sources, and fitted together in order, forming HIS COMPLETE LIFE HISTORY, by Wayne Whipple. The following incident so struck me that I ed this to President George W. Bush, trusting the Lord to get it to him. Lincoln spoke this spiritually sound reasoning just at the start of the Civil War. This Nation Should Be On The Lord s Side [sic] A member of the church, at a reception, closed his remarks with the pious hope that the Lord is on our side. I am not at all concerned about that, commented the President, for we know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nations should be on the Lord s side. Today s explosive world events are not political they are spiritual. As such, the Lord has a side. It behooves nations and their leaders to be on the Lord s side the Creator s side. It is not hard to ascertain God s side. For it is clearly revealed in His holy written Word, the Bible. Jerusalem: The Apple of God s Eye (Zechariah 8:14) The pages of the Book are replete with God s will for Jerusalem the apple of His eye. The terrible Oslo Accords were doomed to failure from their foolhardy beginnings. First because they were against the revealed will of the Lord for the Land. And the ill-advised agreement pushed off until last the Palestinian s Authority demand for Jerusalem. My Israeli friends who are conversant with the Bible said from the beginning, That which is meant to bring peace will bring us war. It did indeed. And it may eventually lead to the final battle of this age, the battle for Jerusalem (Zechariah 12 and 14). Why? What is so special about Jerusalem? For concerning Jerusalem, God speaks judgment upon the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye (Zechariah 8:14). I have long known there was something special about Jerusalem that God knew and Satan knew but I did not. So I have studied much about it and have learned a little. I have learned that to the Creator: In this world, there is a special Land Israel. In that Land, there is a special city Jerusalem. In that city, there is a special mount the Temple Mount, Moriah. On that mount, there is a special rock an outcrop of bedrock upon which Abraham offered Isaac (Genesis 22) and upon which the Holy of Holies eventually stood. The Jewish Oral Tradition, said to be from Sinai, calls this rock the Evven Shetiyah, literally, the Foundation Stone the foundation of Creation. Here it is believed man was created and then removed to the garden the LORD God planted eastward in Eden (Genesis 2:8).

2 Jewish tradition teaches, Jerusalem is the center of the world. The Bible supports this. Ezekiel 5:5 says, Thus saith the Lord God; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries round about her. God gave the children of Israel strict orders before they entered the Promised Land. Deuteronomy 12:2; 4-5; Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree: 4 Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God. 5 But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come: 11 Then there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you; your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto the LORD: 12 And ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite that is within your gates; forasmuch as he hath no part nor inheritance with you. 13 Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest: 14 But in the place which the LORD shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee. Israel was not permitted to burn incense with sacrifices wherever they desired, but only in the place Ha makom where God would choose to place His Name (v. 5). God chose Jerusalem for His sacred purposes. At first, Israel did not know the location of this place, although they touched it from Abraham s day. Melchizedek (Hebrew: righteous king ) who met Abraham with bread and wine on his return from the slaughter of the kings is called King of Salem, or Shalem (Genesis 14:18). This Salem came to be Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. Salem, the last half of the city s name, comes from the same root as shalom and carries the meaning of wholeness, completeness, and peace. When we are instructed to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, it is referring to the peace that comes from being whole. A divided Jerusalem is not the will of the Lord. Abraham encountered the place in the offering up of his son, Isaac, which afforded the world so much. Genesis 22:2-4, And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. 3 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. 4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.

3 Abraham was led by the Lord to the rock on Mount Moriah to offer up his son. And Abraham called the place Yahwey Yireh, or the mountain where Jehovah sees and is seen. This Yireh became the first part of the name of the city Yerushalayim, as it is known in Israel. Jacob s Ladder: The Gate of Heaven In Jacob s flight from Esau, he encountered the place without personally designing to do so. Genesis 28:11-13; 16-18; And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. 13 And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; 16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not. 17 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. 18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. 22 And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee. David s heart longed to find the place (Psalm 132:5). Through a strange-to-us incident David bought the Jebusite threshing floor the place where the world, like the harvest, is judged (2 Samuel 24). At the dedication of the Temple, God revealed it to be located at the place. 2 Chronicles 7: And the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice. 13 If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; 14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 15 Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. 16 For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. 17 And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded thee, and shalt observe my statues and my judgments; Ariel Sharon: The Place Satan, through Muhammad and the false religion he fathered, attempted to foil the plans of God for the world and for the place by building a Dome over it as quoted:

4 In the 690s there was erected the first great building which clearly asserted that Islam was distinct and would endure. This was the Dome of the Rock, built on the site of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. 1 I often take groups to the Dome and pointed out Satan s clever ruse to thwart God s clearly revealed plan for the site of the Millennial Temple and the Dome would have to come down (Ezekiel 40). Sometimes someone would point to the Arabic writing in the top of the Dome and ask me what it said. I never knew until I learned this is the oldest written manuscript of the Koran and the blasphemy it contains: The building of the Dome in this place has been convincingly interpreted as a symbolic act of placing Islam in the lineage of Abraham and disassociating it from Judaism and Christianity. The inscriptions around the interior, the earliest known physical embodiment of the texts from Qur an, proclaim the Greatness of God [Allah] the Mighty, the Wise, declare that God and His angels bless the Prophet, and call upon Christians to recognize Jesus as an apostle of God, His word and Spirit but not His son. 2 This sheds light on a prophetic chapter which tells how the current trouble will turn out: Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the enemy hath said against you [the mountains of Israel] Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession: Therefore prophesy and say. (Ezekiel 36:2-3). Read the chapter and know this is talking about the disputed area called the West Bank or the occupied territories. Again remembering this nation must be on the Lord s side. Jerusalem s Glory and Future The Glory of God is the presence of God manifested. The Temple Mount is the place where the Glory of God manifested in the past and will manifest again. (And, of course, Satan contests God s revealed outcome.) Regarding the Glory of Jerusalem: 2 Chronicles 5, The Glory manifests Ezekiel 4:12, The Glory departs Ezekiel 43:4-5, The Glory will return! Regarding the future of Jerusalem: Zechariah 12 and 14, The Scene of the last battle of this age Zechariah 14:4, The Lord returns Zechariah 14:9, The City of the Great King Zechariah 14:16, The Capital of the Earth during the age of the Millennium. Entrance to Heavenly Jerusalem Jerusalem Above I close with this prophetic statement by David Baron, who died in It reveals not only the glorious future of the city, but also tells why the raging conflict continues until the return of the Messiah King: 1 Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples (Warner books, Inc., New York, NY) p Ibid.

5 There is another restoration, or return of scattered Israel foretold by all the prophets. Not of remnant only, but of the whole people and the joy and blessedness of returned and redeemed Israel in literal [earthly] Zion will be a type and reflection also of the even fuller joy and greater blessedness of the ransomed of the Lord out of every nation and people and tongue which will then be safely gathered unto Him in the heavenly Zion, the Jerusalem that is above, of which the literal Jerusalem will, during the millennial period, be, as it were, the earthly vestibule. 3 3 David Baron, Israel in the Plan of God (Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI 49501)