Pray for the peace of Jerusalem
peter_asirvatham@yahoo.co.in 

Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. "Do you see all these things?" he asked. "I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down."

 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"

Matthew 24: 1-3

Jesus' prophetic words came true about forty years later. In 70 AD, on the 9th of Av (fifth month in the Jewish calendar) The Temple of The LORD was destroyed and the Holy City - Jerusalem sacked by the Roman general Titus. The destruction was complete, what remained of the Temple was a portion of its wall called today as the Western Wall. It was a sad day for the Jews, it still is - the destruction of The Temple is commemorated by devout Jews every year as Tisha B'Av (9th of Av).

    Jerusalem has a long history since and before the siege and destruction of The Temple. A brief look at the history of Jerusalem will help us see God's hand fulfill the words spoken through his prophets concerning Israel and Jerusalem.

    After the Israelites exited Egypt immediately after the first Passover (which they were to commemorate every year), God spoke to them through Moses in the wilderness that he would decide the place where they should celebrate the Passover year on year (see Deu 12: 5 and Deu 16: 1-8). However, even after the conquest of Canan under Joshua's leadership and subsequent judges, Jerusalem did not become the chosen city - until the time of David. It was under young David's leadership that Jerusalem fell completely into Israel's hands.

    King David deeply desired that he build The Temple for The LORD, but God willed that King Solomon build it. It was a magnificent temple that Solomon built. But because of Solomon and some subsequent kings' misdemeanors God brought the Babylonians against Judah,  Jerusalem was sacked and The Temple destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.

    The exiled Jews returned 70 years later under Zerubbabel and Ezra, and Nehemiah re-built the walls of Jerusalem.

    During the time of Jesus, Israel and Jerusalem was under Roman occupation. In the run-up to the siege of Jerusalem, devout, zealous Jews had taken over the Holy City in AD 66. Rome put Titus (later Emperor) to take back the city, and Jerusalem fell in 70 AD. 

    With the conversion of Roman Emperor Constantine to Christianity in 325, he sent his mother, Queen Helena to The Holy Land to locate places of Christian importance and build shrines - notably The Church of The Holy Sepulchre.

    About three hundred years later the prophet of Islam, Mohammed came to "the farthest mosque" (Jerusalem is never mentioned by name in the Qur' an) on a flying horse - el buraq, in one giant leap from Mecca. Mohammed, it is believed, ascended to heaven on his Night Journey from where The Temple had existed six hundred years earlier. After the death of Mohammed, the first Caliph conquered The Holy Land and built the Al-aqsa mosque in 685 on the spot where Mohammed had supposedly ascended to heaven.

   The Muslim conquest of the Holy Land in the 7th century and the destruction of The Church of The Holy Sepulchre five hundred years later fueled the Christians to launch the Crusades - to wrench the Holy Land, especially Jerusalem from the Muslims. The first Crusade was started in 1095 and subsequent Crusades lasted for almost two hundred years.

    At the end of the First World war the Holy Land changed hands from the Muslim Ottomans to the British.

    When the British Mandate of Palestine ended and the British left without implementing the UN Partition Plan of Palestine, Israel declared its statehood on 14th May 1948. As expected fighting broke out immediately with all her Arab neighbours going to war to "push the Jews into the sea." When the fighting ended, however, Israel had more territory than she would have otherwise got under the UN Partition Plan. And Jerusalem, which according to the UN Plan was to have become an International City, fell into Jewish hands. However, east Jerusalem which has the Old City, The Temple Mount and the Western Wall went to the Jordanians. That changed in June 1967. In a spectacular and stunning war that lasted only six days Israel took on the might of Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian armed forces and defeated them all. One of the prayers that Diaspora Jews prayed since the destruction of The Temple was "Next year in Jerusalem" - a prayer rising out of a deep desire and longing to pray from the Holy City where the Temple of The LORD had existed.

    That dream came true on 7th June 1967. After nearly two thousand years Jerusalem was in Jewish hands!

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    The Mount of Olives is a ridge to the east of the Old City of Jerusalem. Being higher than the Temple Mount it offers a panoramic view of the Old City. As I beheld this awesome view on the morning of 30.04.2008 I recalled the Psalm 122 (see my blog entry - Our feet are standing in your gates O Jerusalem). The Psalm 122 is a pilgrims' psalm - for verse 1 says "I rejoiced with those who said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD."

    Jerusalem has changed hands so many times since the time our Lord spoke about the impending doom. The years 1948 and 1967 are two dates in which God brought to fulfilment his words spoken through his prophets concerning Israel and Jerusalem.

    In my blog entry, Sh'ma Yisrael,  I'd written about the Shema. The Shema is a prayer said at the Western Wall and, since 7th June 1967 Jews have been able to recite it freely there.

    In this post, I've posted a video I'd made from two songs from a Messianic Praise album by the name Sh'ma Yisrael. The first song is the Shema and the next - a documentary, of the radio broadcast made by an Israel Defense Force soldier as the IDF fought its way into the Old City on 7th June 1967. With this audio I've mixed video footage of our pilgrimage and other footage of the Six Day War I'd taken from the Internet.

    The Israeli soldiers entered the Old City through the Lion's Gate (also called St. Stephen's Gate). On our second and last day in Jerusalem we too entered the Old City through the same gate for the Via Dolorosa.

 

    Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Psalm 122: 6