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  • Jerusalem Defiled Awaits Her King

    Jerusalem Defiled Awaits Her King

    THE FOLLOWING IS AN UPDATED POST ABOUT JERUSALEM by Roger Harned originally published on

    TALK OF JESUS .COM

    APRIL 14, A.D. 2014

    stone wall "city of David" in Hebrew and English in Jerusalem

    about Palm Sunday in Jerusalem

    Do you with eyes to see Jerusalem as it is and was in the time of Jesus see it?

    a crowd of people with palm branches processing toward Jerusalem
    Hosanna to the Son of David:

    It is not unlike today.

    Jerusalem is no longer Holy to the Lord!

    The dome of the false prophet boasts victory over the Jesus of the Jews.

    Christ did not claim the city or the mount or the Temple.

    The Messiah King of the Jews did not win the battle of the day.

    AND thus far, JESUS has not won the battle of this day!

    Jerusalem dome of the false prophet towering over temple mount
    Peter, Philip and many others have encountered false teachers and false prophets from the very earliest days of Christ’s Church.

    ~ A.D. 30

    Jerusalem had been taken by Rome, as it once had been conquered by Babylon.

    The enemies of the Jews have their own gods. Stone idols, Myths, false prophets who are mere mortals from their cultural past, men and women who are and will remain dead.

    The enemies of the Jews of Jerusalem have their own cities with their own gods. 

    For two millennia since that notable kingly entry of the Son of Man worshiped as He approached Jerusalem, anti-Christs have opposed their own Savior, the Messiah and Eternal King of not only the Jews but a KING of KINGS over all of the world for all of time into eternity.

    You must understand that these are battles for God.

    These are battles AGAINST God in every generation until the last.

    CLAIM to Jerusalem is important

    Is it an international island of Palestine?

    Does Jerusalem legitimately reclaim its nation of Israel bequeathed once more to it by a United writ of the Nations which had opposed Zion’s rule for millennia?

    Not even David ruled in Jerusalem for many years of his reign.

    Yet as it is now, and in certain prescribed seasons, the hills of Jerusalem rise into a yearly international spotlight of the world. It was during one of these great feasts that the Messiah of Israel approached its gate on what Christians now call Palm Sunday.

    פֶּסַח

    pesaḥ [Passover]

    Why do the Jews make pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover?

    What were all the Jews commemorating?

    And let us not forget that Jesus was a Jew - a son of man born to the line of David - the Messiah Savior of Israel making His way there on Palm Sunday.

    God had saved the Hebrew people from Egypt and led them by His promise to Israel. Jerusalem was Holy to the Lord for the chosen people of the Lord.

    Moses did not build the Temple.

    THE TEMPLE

    Built by Solomon and completed ~957 Before Christ,

    King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed Solomon’s temple around 586 or 587 B.C.

    model of the First Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem

    Putting aside the false claims of the false prophet (that Jerusalem was not given to the Jews, but belongs to Arabs), God had a personal relationship with the Hebrew people.  Moses had met with God in the Tabernacle — a tent of worship and forerunner of the Temple.

    God would make His Presence known at various times… in the Tabernacle and in the Temple.

    King David brought the Tabernacle to Jerusalem.

    Yet the LORD commanded that The Temple would be built by King Solomon. This was at a time when the Lord blessed Israel with great power and might for His own glory.

    AND of course no good Jew would neglect a reverence and respect for:

    • Moses who had led them from slavery in Egypt,
    • David who had conquered most of the people and lands of Canaan (Palestine) and
    • Solomon, who not only built the TEMPLE but conquered vast surrounding lands, nations and peoples who then sent great riches to Israel.

    (But all that had been before great division and disobedience to the LORD by generations of Kings who mostly did ‘what was evil in the sight of the LORD.)

    • Therefore the LORD’s Temple built by Solomon had been destroyed, Jerusalem captured and then both eventually restored on a much smaller scale.

    Israel’s false client Kings, The Herod’s

    Herod's temple

    The Temple itself (we ought to remind ourselves) is NOT the Temple Solomon built which was completely destroyed.

    The Temple also was NOT the Temple Nehemiah rebuilt, but a prideful project of Herod to build back bigger than the LORD’s intention.

    A.D. 70

    Herod’s Temple would be destroyed by the Romans just 40 years after Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, crucifixion and resurrection.

    Christ’s entry into Jerusalem and history remain controversial even to this day in the year of our Lord, 2023.

    Jesus had been rumored to have fed thousands in the wilderness just like Moses had fed the Hebrew people by the hand of God for forty years.  

    Word on the street had it that Jesus was approaching Jerusalem, again. AND, as always, the crowds gathered.. this time along the road from Bethany where rumor has it that this JESUS, the Galilean of Nazareth and Capernaum, had raised a man from the dead and told him to follow with the funeral crowds to Jerusalem’s Passover feast.

    This time the crowds (under the watchful eyes of their Roman captors) would pour into the city as Jesus would enter like the conquering King David, look around (doing nothing) — and then leave.

    But the overall purpose of the LORD God (which no mortal man understood at the time) was worship through a NEW COVENANT of grace and a personal filling of the Holy Spirit of God.

    Jesus brought not the Tabernacle of God to Jerusalem, but the Very Presence of God.

    Roger@TalkofJesus.com

    Jesus was coming into Jerusalem for the Passover feast. Everyone would be there… waiting for their King and Savior.

    • Did He really have the power of God?
    • Is He the promised one, as John the Baptizer had preached?

    One more thing about Jerusalem and its buildings:

    Llike any city, people lived there, people worked there, people visited there.

    (Tourism was and still is big, especially during the big religious holidays. And of course the out-of-town tourists here for the festival are NOT all acceptable to our ‘religion‘ which celebrates this feast.)

    Like anywhere else, the rich ran things and the poor just got by.

    The rulers of the city were the leading Jews: Priests, Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, Temple guards and Temple police, officials of Herod’s household and officials of Herod’s governments of the city and of the region.

    All of these had their role to play. And not so unlike today the religious establishment managed the money of their patrons well.

    The King IS here. He IS in the Temple.

    This particular Temple was built by Herod, grandfather of this King Herod. With Rome’s help the Great King Herod had been the great builder of many great buildings in Jerusalem and the surrounding area.

    As a point of fact, the Temple (of any era) was just another Grande building used as a place of worship.

    Imagine the grandeur of the present-day Vatican and you will have an image of Herod’s Third Temple, where Jesus would soon make a scene after riding triumphantly to the Gate of Jerusalem on a donkey.

    Vatican City night
    Vatican City

    Yet a church or Cathedral without Jesus is just a building.

    The Temple without God was just a building.

    BUT THIS WAS NEVER GOD’S INTENTION!
    THE LORD’S VICTORY IN JERUSALEM
    WAS NEVER INTENDED FOR A PALM SUNDAY PARADE.
    For this Celebration of Christ’s Holy Presence
    Was just a prelude to His victory
    Of the Cross.

    إشعياء – Isaiæ – Ησαΐας – יְשַׁעְיָהוּ

    56:7 וַהֲבִיאוֹתִים אֶל־הַר קָדְשִׁי וְשִׂמַּחְתִּים בְּבֵית תְּפִלָּתִי עוֹלֹתֵיהֶם וְזִבְחֵיהֶם לְרָצוֹן עַֽל־מִזְבְּחִי כִּי בֵיתִי בֵּית־תְּפִלָּה יִקָּרֵא לְכָל־הָעַמִּֽים׃


    That’s it (for the Palm Sunday procession of Israel’s Messiah to Jerusalem).

    On Monday of HOLY WEEK the Lord Jesus will have something to say about Scripture. Jesus’ ACTS in the TEMPLE will fulfill it.

    Even those I will bring to My holy mountain

    And make them glad in My house of prayer.

    Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar;

    For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”

    Isaiah 56:7 LSB

    To Be Continued…

  • A Light of Revelation to the Gentiles

    A Light of Revelation to the Gentiles

    Birth of John the Baptist Foretold

    Luke 1:5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord…

    The Birth of John the Baptist

    57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. 58 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. 59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, 60 but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.”

    (a few months later in Jerusalem, which is near to Bethlehem)

    Jesus Presented at the Temple

    22 And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord…

    25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, 28 he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,

    29 “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
    according to your word;
    30 for my eyes have seen your salvation
    31     that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
    32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
    and for glory to your people Israel.”

    33 And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

    (Jesus was eight days old; then Joseph fled from the wrath of Herod to Egypt.)

    We have picked up the story of Jesus’ early ministry 30 years later.

    He is filled by the Holy Spirit, baptized by John, faced Satan for 40 days in the wilderness and returned to Nazareth and the surrounding towns to preach repentance.

    Jesus has been rejected by his own brothers and neighbors of Nazareth. The people of Nazareth try to stone Him!

    Jesus moves to Capernaum. He teaches and performs miracles on the Galilean hillsides. All the time, of course, Galilee is under the administration and watchful eye of Rome. A Roman army could occupy any town at any time if they perceived a threat from its people or a charismatic leader with thousands of followers listening to his teaching. Of course, watchful Roman ears would have the intelligence to hear what such a Galilean would be saying to his followers. Rome and the gentile solders certainly knew Jesus prior to His triumphal entry into Jerusalem which would occur just three short years from now.

    Christ Jesus is not only a teacher and friend of the Jews. Jesus IS a light and salvation to the gentile Romans.

    The Prophesy of Luke 1:

    30 …for my eyes have seen your salvation
    31     that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
    32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
    and for glory to your people Israel.”

    (Next we continue Jesus’ journey and witness to Capernaum and Nain in Galilee.)

  • Judea of Herod

    Judea of Herod

    (Just a bit more Roman history before we continue in Luke 7)

    Prior to Roman Rule:

    • Judah in path of invading armies crossing eastern Mediterranean shores
    – Judah controlled by Syrians, Greeks, Romans, others over the years
    • Syrians took over in 198 B.C., introduced Greek culture to Jews
    – Jews allowed to keep religion, but some adopted Greek culture, gods
    • In 175 B.C., Syrians insisted Jews worship Greek gods; Jews refused
    – Jewish religion was outlawed; some fled to hills, prepared to fight
    Rebels Fight Syria
    • Jewish priest and five sons led fight to drive out Syrians
    – son Judah Maccabeus led revolt with his force, the Maccabees
    • Tiny Jewish force faced larger, better equipped Syrian army
    – rebels knew countryside and defeated Syrians in many battles
    • Maccabees regained Jerusalem by 164 B.C.

    Rome Conquers Judea
    • Romans conquered Judah (Judea) in 63 B.C.
    • Roman rulers kept strict control over Judea
    • Jewish kings, religious leaders appointed by Rome

    Leader(s) of the Maccabees Timeline
    167 BC: Mattathias, the Hasmonean
    166 – 161 BC: Judas Maccabaeus, the Hammer of the LORD
    161 – 143 BC: Jonathan Apphus, the Wary
    143 – 135 BC: Simon Thassi, the Zealous Guide

    Although the Maccabees, and later their descendants, the Hasmoneans, managed to keep Israel free from foreign oppression for almost 150 years, this abruptly ended with King Herod who was not a Hasmonean at all.

    The Hasmonean dynasty, which leaped onto the stage of history with such dramatic heroism, disappeared from that same stage with cruel suddenness. The despot Herod, whose régime was forced upon the unwilling Jewish populace by his Romans overlords, was fully aware that the aura of Hasmonean charisma would constitute a continual threat to his power, and hence he undertook to ruthlessly murder all the remaining descendants of that family, including his beloved wife Mariamne, granddaughter of the Hasmonean ruler Hyrcanus II. Herod executed her on trumped-up charges of disloyalty, as he did afterwards to the two sons she had borne him, Alexander and Aristobulus. – Wikipedia

    Herod builds another Temple in Jerusalem and many buildings throughout Judea with the support of Rome.

    Herod the First of Judaea, known to history as Herod the Great

    • Alexander died in 76 B.C. and Salome ruled alone until her death in 67 B.C. Upon the death of the queen a civil war broke out between her two sons. Herod’s father Antipater II sided with Hyrcanus…
    • Rome had intervened in Syria and ousted their King and posted Legions in Syria.
    • Caesar and Pompey were also in a Roman civil war for power. Herod’s father had supported Caesar and was made Procurator of Judea.
    • Herod loyally supported Antony against Octavian until 31 B.C.  Octavian defeated Antony, but had no one to replace Herod and gave him some of Antony’s territories given by Antony of Rome to Cleopatra of Egypt.
    • Near the time of Herod’s death (just prior to the birth of Jesus) Herod feared a coup from his own sons as more civil unrest broke out in his Kingdom of Judea (given to his family as political compromise by Rome).

    HEROD’S PERSECUTIONS

    Herod’s persecutions were infamous and they even extended to his own family.

    Herod, knowing that his Jewish credentials were suspect, had married Miriam—the granddaughter of Hyrcanus and therefore a Hasmonean princess—largely to gain legitimacy among the Jewish people. But he also loved her madly. As Josephus relates:

    Of the five children which Herod had by Miriam, two of them were daughters and three were sons. The youngest of these sons was educated in Rome and died there but the two eldest he treated as those of royal blood on account of the nobility of their mother and because they were not born until he was king. But what was stronger than all this was his love he bore for Miriam which inflamed him every day to a great degree.

    The problem was that Miriam hated him as much as he loved her, largely because of what he had done to her brother, Aristobulus.

    Herod had made Aristobulus High Priest at the age of 17, and watched with trepidation as the young man became hugely popular. This was not surprising as Aristobulus was a Hasmonean with a legitimate right to be High Priest – a genuine Jew and a genuine cohen.

    But this threatened Herod too much and he had him drowned.

    • Luke does not retell the story of Joseph and Mary fleeing from Bethlehem to Egypt before returning to Nazareth after Herod’s death. We do, however get a flavor of the controversy of the Herod’s vs. the Jews in the story of John the Baptist.

    Although we have looked past the calls of John the Baptist to the people and the King for repentance to the call of Jesus to the multitudes for repentance, Luke also reports more of John’s relationship with Jesus in chapter 7.

    To be continued in Luke 7.