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WEEKLY
Volume 3 Number 3
15 June 2008
The Jerusalem to Come
(Message delivered by the Rev Dr
Jeffrey Khoo at True Life Church on March 2, 08)
There is a Jewish proverb which says, “Ten measures
of beauty descended on the world; nine went to Jerusalem, and one to the
rest of the world.” Jerusalem is the most beautiful city in the world,
it is true. This is because unlike any other city, it is God’s chosen
City of Peace, for that is what Jerusalem means, to bless the whole
world with salvation peace that comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Prince of peace, and Him alone. So important and prominent is Jerusalem
that it is mentioned 811 times in the Bible.
If you look at the world map, you will see that
Jerusalem is at the centre of the world as ordained by God, “Thus
saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem:
I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round
about her” (Ezek 5:5). Jerusalem is thus
the heart and health of the world. If Jerusalem is not well, the world
is not well. When there is no peace in Jerusalem, there is no peace in
the world. The Lord enjoins us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem,
“Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they
shall prosper that love thee” (Ps 122:5).
Although there is no peace in Jerusalem today, we are
sure peace will come one day as prophesied in the Judeo-Christian
Scriptures, but the question is when? The biblical answer is: Not now
but soon.
Jerusalem Now
The Jews were a dispersed people longing for home. In
AD 70, they were driven out of their homeland by the Romans to make a
home for themselves in foreign lands. But they were never truly at home
in foreign lands, and have always longed to return to Jerusalem.
L’shana ha’ba-ah b’Yerushalayim. “Next year in Jerusalem” was how
they greeted one another at Passover. They hoped they could keep the
Passover in Jerusalem by the next year. That year finally came in 1948
in fulfilment of Isaiah 11:11-12, “And it shall come to pass in that
day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover
the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from
Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar,
and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an
ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of
Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah
from the four corners of the earth.”
Although they had their land back, they did not have
peace. The Arabs and Palestinians were against the Jews occupying
Palestine and the modern state of Israel. 1948, the year of independence
was a year of war. And since 1948, it has been war after war after war:
War of Independence (1948), Sinai Campaign (1956), Six Day War (19687),
Yom Kippur War (1971), Lebanese War (1982), Gulf War (1991), Hezbollah
War (2006). News of an imminent war with Syria is now in the air. It is
no wonder that Author Netanel Lorch called the wars of Israel “One Long
War.” There have been many efforts to make peace in Jerusalem between
Israel and her Arab neighbours, between the Jews and the Palestinians,
but peace has been elusive.
There is no peace now, but peace will come
eventually. The initial peace that Jerusalem will experience will be a
false peace, a man-made peace, a peace forged by the Antichrist—a
Hitler-like dictator—only ten times worse. We read of him in Daniel
9:24-27, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy
holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and
to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting
righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the
most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of
the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the
Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street
shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after
threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself:
and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and
the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the
end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the
covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall
cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading
of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation,
and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”
The prophetic week is a week of years not days. One
week equals seven years, so 70 weeks equal 490 years. From the command
to rebuild Jerusalem down to the crucifixion of the Messiah are 7 plus
62 weeks which give us 483 years. These years are already over and ended
when Christ, the Jewish Messiah, was crucified and resurrected in AD 30.
The final week or the last 7 years is yet future, and looking at the
signs of the times, we can expect it to arrive soon. This 70th
week of Daniel will commence when the Antichrist signs a peace treaty
with Israel. But in the midst of the week or the middle of the 7 years
(i.e. at the 3½ -year point), the Antichrist will break the peace
treaty, set himself up as God and persecute Israel. This period of
persecution will last for 3½ years, and then at the end of the 7 years
of great tribulation, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of peace, will
return to fight a war which will end all wars—Armageddon (Rev 19:11-21).
The Antichrist and his armies will be defeated, and Christ will save
Israel, reign over the whole earth from Jerusalem for a millennium (Rev
20:6).
Jerusalem Then
The disciples of Jesus Christ knew of Israel’s future
greatness in light of God’s promises in the Old Testament. That was why
before Jesus ascended to heaven, they asked Him, “Lord, wilt thou at
this time restore again the kingdom to
Israel?” (Acts 1:6). But the Lord answered
them, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the
Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that
the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both
in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth”
(Acts 1:7-8). The good news of Jesus Christ must first be preached
throughout the world. Judgement is coming, but God “is longsuffering
to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come
to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9). Jesus said, “And this gospel of the
kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all
nations; and then shall the end come” (Matt 24:14).
Israel for her sin in rejecting her Messiah is now
blinded by God (Rom 11:1-31). But this blindness is only temporary for
after Israel is chastened by God, she will be restored to greatness and
Jerusalem will become the capital of the world. Did not the Prophet
Isaiah say, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the
mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the
mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall
flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go
up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he
will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of
Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem”
(Isa 2:2-3)? “Mountains” and “hills” symbolise political powers, big and
small. Mount Zion or Jerusalem will one day be the political centre or
headquarters of the world. The United Nations (UN) is now headquartered
in New York City, but one day the true United Nations will be
headquartered in Jerusalem under one Head—the Lord Jesus Christ, and all
nations will meet in Jerusalem to seek His law and judgement, and they
will submit to Him and obey Him without question. Only then, will there
be true peace; no more weapons, no more wars, but peaceful and
harmonious co-existence, working side by side cultivating the rich and
fertile lands of the earth that God will give to them: “And he shall
judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall
beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks:
nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn
war any more” (Isa 2:4).
Jerusalem Ever
This earthly Jerusalem under Christ will only last
for a thousand years, and will give way to the heavenly Jerusalem—the
New Jerusalem—which will last forever. The New Jerusalem which is
eternal is described in Revelation 21:1-3, 10-27, “And I saw a new
heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were
passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city,
new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying,
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them,
and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be
their God. …
“And he carried me
away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that
great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most
precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; … and the street
of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. And I saw no
temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of
it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine
in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light
thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light
of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into
it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall
be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honour of the
nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that
defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but
they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
Let us make sure our names are written in the Lamb’s
Book of Life, that we have booked our place in the New Jerusalem to
come, that there is a mansion waiting for us there prepared by our Lord
Jesus Christ Himself (John 14:1-6). As Christians, we do not see this
sin-cursed world to be our home; we look forward to our heavenly home in
the world to come. Our beloved pastor—Rev Dr Timothy Tow—has said it
well in this hymn he wrote,
We’re a pilgrim band now headed for the glory land
of light.
We are trav’ling thro’ the wilderness of night.
We’ve a home that’s far away beyond the heaven and
the stars.
In the New Jerusalem!
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