Jerusalem and God's Holy Plan

How should a Bible believing Christian view Israel and Jerusalem? That is one question that is not easy to give an answer to in today's political climate. Any misinterpretation of words or thinking can bring out anger in those whom might be closely affected by what is happening.  I wanted to speak on this topic, but I want to take a different approach, one that I feel I can speak too.

Much has gone on and much we do not know. Personally, I spent a lot of time in my educational background studying the political climate in the middle east and the history of what has happened there. I've also heard the plights of Palestinian friends and what they've had to go through and I have had the privilege to see the holy land for myself.  Yet, I dare not say that I am an expert on the subject. Living there, being part of the every day life is a whole different thing.

Jerusalem has been the center of the main religions in the world and thus, it has also been the center of much of what is on the news. The city has a vast importance, and we cannot disregard this. Most people believe it is a city that no one has a claim too, that it is shared. Though, in Genesis 17:8, God speaks to Abraham and says, "The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God."

So we can see from the beginning, that the land of Israel was promised to the descendants of Abraham and that it shall be everlasting. If God lied, then this promise would be null and void. There is much more on this subject and what the Bible says regarding it is both vast and deep. One book could not cover it all and thus, one blog post limits what I can say. Though one thing that is of importance to mention is that God directed Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on the mountain(Mount Moriah) in which the Holy Temple was later to be built. At the last minute, God provided Abraham with a ram to sacrifice and thus showed through this a future prophecy of what Jesus would do on the cross for us, by giving His life for our sin.

The city of Jerusalem was established as the capital of the Jewish nation back in 1000 B.C. by King David and has had significant meaning ever since. After the Jewish people were banished by the Babylonians, they were able to come back and rebuild the city and later the temple. The Jews kept their nation through the Roman conquest as it was added to the empire. This was also during time where Jesus of Nazareth was born. Around 72 A.D., Jerusalem was sacked by the Romans due to their rebellion against the empire. The nation of Israel did not exist again until 1948, even though there were still some Jews who lived there in peace with their Palestinian neighbors.

Here is my point with this brief history.  If we look at the books of the prophets Ezekiel, Joel, and Zechariah among others, we see that there are still future prophecies that are going to happen. Ezekiel 36 speaks to that God will bring the Jews back to the holy land and cleanse them from their sin. Zechariah says that God will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land(Zech 13:2). So we see God promising that he will bringing the Jews back to the promised land and restore it.

Secondly, the end times will have a focus on Jerusalem. Zechariah 12:3, "On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. And 14:2 reads, "I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it."  Joel, another prophet speaks by saying in 3:1-2, "In those days and at that time, when i restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will put them on trial for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel, because they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land."  Are we not seeing this starting to happen right now? How much anger is against the Jewish nation? I believe it will only get worse leading up to the fulfillment of these prophecies.

To sum it up, here are the three points that I want to make.

1) God has a plan for the Jews and this involves his holy land of Israel that He gave to them through Abraham.
2) God's plan was to bring the Jews back to Israel and to save them, give them a new heart, one not of stone.
3) The nations will rise against Israel for their anger against her and Jerusalem will be the focal point of all this.

Though, it is not for the sake of the Jews that God is doing this, it is for the sake of His holy name.

I will end by quoting Ezekiel 36:22-27,

"Therefore say to the Israelites, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. 

I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.

"‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 

And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws."

Sin Humbles Us

Human interactions are based on self-interest and self-motivation as we tend to do what we think is best for ourselves rather than others. Even if it is for others, our motivations are not pure, we want the recognition that comes with doing something "good". Our friends become only those who do not offend us, those with whom we agree with and act like us.

Once you are saved, I believe that you develop a sense of self-awareness through the Holy Spirit. You start seeing your problems as what they are...flaws created by sin. The effect of salvation through Jesus is that it brings about a consciousness to sin as the Holy Spirit makes its home within us. We start to understand sin for what it is and the power it has on our lives and on others. We see its effects more clearly, the destructive power that it has and how it ruins our lives and those around us.

Sometimes, I do not think we truly understand how frightening sin is and how it dictates our lives. No matter what character in the Bible that we read about, there was always a flaw. Even David whom was mentioned was a man after God's own heart, committed adultery and tried to cover it up by murdering the woman's husband. I do not think that this was David's plan to begin with, but sin creeps in and destroys when we least expect. As the Bible says, everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). When the prophet Nathaniel came to hold David accountable for his sin, it humbled David, and he had to pay the consequences for his actions.

Even still, we look at other people to be examples of a Christian who walks with God. It is through real life examples of others that we create a stronghold to keep ourselves strong in faith. To say that it is possible to live a sinless life. But these people, these examples in our life, never seem to work out. Their mistakes causes us to falter and wonder if living a Holy life is even possible. We lose the encouragement that we can win the fight against sin and the schemes of the devil.

This sin, this inability to do what is right at all times, does humble us. We hurt others with our actions, we cause others to stumble who rely on us for encouragement, and we do things out of our own selfish desires. We see the consistent failures of those around us and wonder if there is such a thing as a good Christian? We fail others ourselves…and we feel regret, thinking if its even worth it to try and live for God. Paul says,

“I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.” Rom. 7: 18-25 (NIV).

Along comes Jesus, whom the Bible says is without sin. 1 John 3:5 says, "But you know that He appeared so that He might take away our sins. And in Him is no sin." He becomes this example for us. This encouragement that you can fight the sin in your life and overcome it. We may never be perfect in this life, but we should not give up hope to strive for the sake of righteousness.

Micah 6:8 says that God wants us to walk humbly with him. Thus, God is not looking for your perfection and we need to understand that we cannot live this life trying to do what is right on our own. We need to rely on God. His strength will guide us, His Holiness will lead us, and His might will hold us up. People do not want to see our pride of being better than them, they want to see someone who realizes that no one can reach this place without help, without guidance, without the Holy Spirits help. Our love and forgiveness with each other is what pulls those who sin back up. Do we do this all the time? Heck no! But I think that love and forgiveness is an easier step than judging. Let God be the judge and let us encourage instead. As Thessalonians 5:11 says, "Encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing".

I constantly feel a heavy burden of weight on my shoulders to achieve to the standards of a “good” Christian. Even though having high standards for myself is important and sin and hurt to others weigh heavy on my heart. I have to understand that I cannot achieve anything fruitful without the guidance of the Holy Spirit. That is why Jesus sums up the old testament in one sentence as he knew beyond a doubt that being under a law dos and don'ts will not give us the heart for others that He wants us to have.

“[Jesus] said, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” - Luke 10:27

We should be humbled by sin and the consequences that it has on our lives. We need to realize the gravity of it and the sickness it brings. So let us be humbled by our sin, not to fall into depression because of it, but instead with a want to change it. And instead of letting those who sin fall and be left at the bottom…why do we not just…dive in after them? Should we not rescue our fellow brothers and sisters from the depths that sin brings? So, let us continue to fight for the sake of righteousness so we can be the kingdom of God on this Earth to others.