Jerusalem in the Scriptures :: Christianity Bible Scriptures Essays

Jerusalem in the Scriptures 37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 "See! Your house is left to you desolate; 39 "for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'" (Matthew23:37-39) Jerusalem in the Scriptures is symbolic of the Church in general. The word "Jerusalem" means "city of peace". Paul writing to the church at Galatia makes a distinction between the two Jerusalems - the natural one and the spiritual one. Both Jerusalems are described symbolically as mothers with children. 25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children; 26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. (Galatians 4:25-26) We see that when Jesus laments over Jerusalem, He is actually lamenting over BOTH the natural Jerusalem AND the spiritual one. From history we know that Jerusalem had a record for killing the prophets God sent to her to warn her to repent of idolatry. The irony of it all, is that the city of God had a tendency to reject God Himself when He came to them in the form of these men. This led to the ultimate of all ironies - the rejection of the man Jesus, who was in fact God in the flesh. And all this by those zealously attempting to adhere to the principles of God but at the same time rejecting the person of God in Jesus. 37 "And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form. 38 "But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe. 39 "You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 "But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. (John 5:37-40) We, as born-again believers, have the seed of the word of God living and abiding in us because we were willing to "come to Him" and "believe in Him". Likewise, as we learn to recognise those sent by God, we will be able to receive the word living in them which may be the very anointing we need to have the yokes and bondages destroyed in our lives and be changed from glory