Tag: jerusalem

Reflections: Jerusalem – a city of Kings

[ Lament over Jerusalem ]

“O Jerusalem,Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! – words of Christ Jesus – Mathew 23:37

1 Chronicles 2:

A Genealogy of David

These are the sons of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, ²Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

³The sons of Judah: Er, Onan and Shelah; these three Bath-shua the Canaanite bore to him.

Now Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death.

⁴His daughter-in-law Tamar also bore him Perez and Zerah. Judah had five sons in all.

1 Chronicles 3

Descendants of David

These are the sons of David who were born to him in Hebron: the firstborn, Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelite; the second, Daniel, by Abigail the Carmelite, ²the third, Absalom, whose mother was Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur; the fourth, Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith; ³the fifth, Shephatiah, by Abital; the sixth, Ithream, by his wife Eglah; ⁴six were born to him in Hebron, where he reigned for seven years and six months.

And he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

⁵These were born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan and Solomon, four by Bath-shua, the daughter of Ammiel;

⁶then Ibhar, Elishama, Eliphelet, ⁷Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia,⁸Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet, nine. ⁹All these were David’s sons, besides the sons of the concubines, and Tamar was their sister.

Jews and Christians take joy in speaking of Abraham, faithful sojourner and father of nations. Jews and Christians speak well of Jacob, who God renamed Israel, and his favored wife Rachel. Jews and Christians proclaim the might and right of the heart of young David as he slew Goliath the Philistine [*Palestinian] by faith, while Saul was indecisive after he disobeyed the LORD.

Jews and Christians and the nations proclaim the wisdom and wealth of young Solomon, who asked the LORD for wisdom and received abundant blessing throughout His reign over a United Kingdom of Israel, feared and respected by the enemies of the LORD.

Yet Jews and Christians fail to warn the generations of the failures of compromise, failures of a price paid by David for alliances with kings and wives of other faiths.

Even more so, Solomon failed in wisdom as his years progressed: wives and concubines believing in everything but God! Sons and daughters believing in anything but God!

Generations of Kings and compromise for plans not from God and a future of generations who knew nothing of the God of Israel or the Law of the Promise.

WE THE PEOPLE depose the LORD our God.

Will we not reap the harvest of lawyers, Judges, Priests and Kings of unrighteousness?

Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com

How history fails to recall the failures of sin so evident from century to century; civilization to loss of civility; a time of promise to a time of judgment.

Jerusalem is a city captured, conquered, destroyed, deserted, re-inhabited, rebuilt, destroyed again, conquered again, rebuilt once more time and time again throughout the ages.

Jerusalem is the city of the Temple: built (by Solomon), destroyed, rebuilt (by Ezra and Nehemiah), destroyed again, rebuilt by its captors (Rome) on the ruins by the King who did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. (Herod, if you fail to understand the politics of Jesus’ Jerusalem of the first century.)

* The kingdom was divided during Ishbosheth’s reign;
David was king over the tribe of Judah.
Kings of the United Kingdom (c 1025-925 BC)
King	Relationship to Previous King	God’s Judgment
Saul	none	did evil
Ishbosheth*	son	(unknown)
David	none	did right
Solomon (AKA Jedidiah)	son	did right in youth, evil in old age

Israel first became divided.

Two countries: only Judah with Jerusalem as the place for its King.

As Prophets warned: Israel fell first. (The area north of Judah was later was known as Samaria.)

Yet true Prophets of the LORD also warned Judah of her faithlessness and whoredom. Judah and Jerusalem fell under the rule of Kings who did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD.

Kings of Judah (c 925-586 BC)			Kings of Israel (c 925-721 BC)
King	Relationship to Previous King	God’s Judgment	King	Relationship to Previous King	God’s Judgment
Rehoboam	son	did evil	Jeroboam	servant	did evil
Abijam (AKA Abijah)	son	did evil
Asa	son	did right

			Nadab	son	did evil
			Baasha	none	did evil
			Elah	son	did evil
			Zimri	captain	did evil
			Omri	captain	did evil
			Ahab	son	did evil

Jehoshaphat	son	did right

			Ahaziah	son	did evil
			Jehoram (AKA Joram)	son of Ahab	did evil

Jehoram (AKA Joram)	son	did evil
Ahaziah (AKA Azariah or Jehoahaz)	son	did evil
Athaliah	mother	did evil	Jehu	captain	mixed
Joash (AKA Jehoash)	son of Ahaziah	did right in youth, evil in old age

			Jehoahaz	son	did evil
			Joash (AKA Jehoash)	son	did evil

Amaziah	son	did right in youth, evil in old age

			Jeroboam II	son	did evil

Uzziah (AKA Azariah)	son	did right

			Zachariah	son	did evil
			Shallum	none	did evil (surmised)
			Menahem	none	did evil
			Pekahiah	son	did evil
			Pekah	captain	did evil

Jotham	son	did right
Ahaz	son	did evil

			Hoshea	none	did evil

Hezekiah	son	did right

			Assyrian captivity

Manasseh	son	did evil
Amon	son	did evil
Josiah	son	did right
Jehoahaz (AKA Shallum)	son	did evil
Jehoiakim (AKA Eliakim)	son of Josiah	did evil
Jehoiachin (AKA Coniah or Jeconiah)	son	did evil
Zedekiah (AKA Mattaniah)	son of Josiah	did evil
Babylonian captivity

Source: http://www.vtaide.com/gleanings/Kings-of-Israel/kings.html

To be continued…

March 27, 2015

Jerusalem, Jerusalem – 2
O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, hear my prayer.
Listen, O God of Jacob. – Psalm 84:8

Events B.C.
- ~2000 Abraham meets Melchizedek, King of Salem and Priest of “God most high” (El Elyon), Genesis 14:18 -20, Hebrews 6:20-7:22). Abraham journeys three days from Beersheba or Gerar to Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice in obedience to God’s command. God provides a ram as a substitute. (Genesis 22, Hebrews 11:8-19). Mt. Moriah is the site of the Temple Mount.
- 1000 The Jebusite stronghold in Jerusalem is captured by King David. The city of David is built south of the Temple Mount.
- 910 Solomon’s Temple is plundered by Shishak (Sheshonk) Pharaoh of Egypt. Much gold and silver are taken. (1 Kings 14:25-28, 2 Chronicles 12:1-11
- 716 Hezekiah, king of Jerusalem, with help of God and the prophet Isaiah resists Assyrians attempt to capture Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 32). Wells and springs stopped up.
- 586 9th of Av. Nebuchadnezzar burns the city, and destroys the Temple. He murders many of the inhabitants and carries off a great number into captivity. (2 Kings 24-25, 2 Chronicles 36). The destruction of Jerusalem is the starting date for the “Times of the Gentiles”–Yeshua said, “Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the gentiles until the times of the gentiles are fulfilled” (Luke 21:24 ). Messiah’s return in glory will close this period of Israel’s history.
- 517 Through the leadership of Nehemiah and Zerubbabel, the Second Temple is completed despite fierce opposition and delays. An altar of sacrifice is built on the Temple Mount. Temple is completed after a fifteen year delay.
- 332 Flavius Josephus records that Alexander the Great’s invading army is met by priests outside of Jerusalem. They convince him not to destroy Jerusalem by showing prophecy contained in Scripture concerning him. Alexander spares city and the Temple.
- 334-167 The Hellenistic Period. The Jews, in the land, are under the successive dominion of the Greeks, then the Ptolemies of Egypt, and then the Seleucids of Syria. This is the third great world empire to dominate the Jews during the times of the gentiles. It is the belly-and-thighs-of-brass era (Daniel 2:32. 39; Josephus, Antiquities 11.7-12.6; Daniel 11:2-20).175-163 The reign of Antiochus IV Epiphanes whom Daniel saw as a type of the coming Antichrist (Daniel 8:1-2; 11:21-35; Josephus, Antiquities 12.5-9; 1 Maccabees 1:16:16; 2 Mac. 4:7-9:28).167-63 The Maccabean revolt and subsequent Hasmonean dynasty in Judea. A short time of Jewish independence. This is the little-help period of Daniel 11:34. (Josephus, Antiquities 12.6-14.4).
“O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, hear my prayer. Listen, O God of Jacob,” wrote David.

You may not have followed every ebb and flow of the battle for Jerusalem for the last 3000 years.

…it is supposed that David penned this psalm when he was forced by Absalom’s rebellion to quit his city, which he lamented his absence from, not so much because it was the royal city as because it was the holy city, witness this psalm, which contains the pious breathings of a gracious soul after God and communion with him.

The events in Jerusalem prior to Jesus Christ, the Messiah of God, do not seem to echo the voice of an almighty God. The events of scripture do not always lead us to a faith where we would confidently stand stronger in our faith in the LORD of Heaven’s armies.

Yet into this history of defeat of God’s chosen and destruction of the Temple of God’s chosen came a Son of Man, sacrificed on the cross for your sins and for mine.

Luke 13:34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

In death, Christ has defeated sin and death.

In resurrection, Christ IS risen to victory as the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.

In victory, Christ Jesus will return once more.
May 21, 2014
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
about Palm Sunday in Jerusalem
~ A.D. 30
CLAIM to Jerusalem is important
פֶּסַח
pesaḥ [Passover]
THE TEMPLE
King David brought the Tabernacle to Jerusalem.
Israel’s false client Kings, The Herod’s
One more thing about Jerusalem and its buildings:
إشعياء – Isaiæ – Ησαΐας – יְשַׁעְיָהוּ
about Palm Sunday in Jerusalem

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

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!

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?
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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.
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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.

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

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

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…
April 14, 2014