III. THE JERUSALEM SIGN

Looking at the world in the light of the Scriptures, we discover that Jerusalem is the abiding city. She is to be the center of governmental authority when Jehovah establishes His everlasting kingdom in the earth. Jerusalem was the city of David. It is the seat of his throne, which, by the covenant of Jehovah, is to continue for ever (2 Sam. 7:16; Psa. 89:34-37). As Messiah-King, Jesus, the Son of David, came to Jerusalem and was rejected. While weeping over that city He told her that she knew not the time of her visitation. He prophesied that Jerusalem would be destroyed, that she would even be leveled to the ground. She was destroyed in the year 70 by Titus. Christ also prophesied that Jerusalem would be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. We should note the word “until,” for Jerusalem will not always be trodden down. It is only until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Jerusalem in the hands of Gentiles is God’s sign concerning the fact and continuance of Gentile rule.

What is said of the future of this city? Do not form opinions from the politics of the world. Look into God’s unerring Word. It matters little what statesmen may decree. The future of this city is made clear by the Word of God. Her future is one of the great themes of prophecy. Isaiah uttered at least twenty-five predictions regarding this city which are yet unfulfilled. No prophecy of the Old Testament pertains to the “New Jerusalem”: it is all concerning the literal city in Judaea. According to prophecy, it was the literal Jerusalem which was to be laid in heaps. So, also there is very much Scripture given to prophecies concerning the present literal desolateness which she has so long experienced. But it is this same literal Jerusalem which is to be built again and from which the word of Jehovah is to go forth (Isaiah 2:3). During these days of her dispersion, Israel’s thought and prayer is always for Jerusalem:

“If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning” (Psa. 137:5).

“I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night; ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth” (Isaiah 62:6-7).

“At that time [in the kingdom] they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem” (Jer. 3:17).

“For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth” (Isaiah 62:1. See, also, Isaiah 62:2-12).

Such is the message of prophecy regarding Jerusalem. The present indication of fulfillment is found in the fact that Jerusalem and Judaea have been wrested from the Turk and are now held by a people who are committed, both by their own desires and by the obligations of a sacred trust, to restore these possessions to the children of Abraham to whom they were given for an everlasting possession.