Israel, Jerusalem and the End Times

 Israel is dominating the news again with the Hamas invasion and Israel’s declaration of war.

 Like many, I have visited Israel.  I have descended the path from the Mount of Olives, strolled among the shops, lunched on falafel with hummus and pita, walked the Via Dolorosa, prayed at the Western Wall, visited the Temple Mount and walked the ramparts of Jerusalem.

 There is no place on earth like Jerusalem, built on the southern slope of Mount Moriah where Abraham ascended with  his son Isaac beside him bearing a bundle of firewood.  It was here that God provided the sacrifice, a ram caught in the thicket over 4,000 years ago.  His descendants returned hundreds of years later after the Egyptian captivity and the Exodus.  The young king David chose Jerusalem for his capital 3,000 years ago and his son,  Solomon built the first temple. Jesus was crucified outside its gates 2.000 years ago. And it was here that He rose from the dead. It is difficult to sift through centuries of warfare and reconstruction to find the original sites and to imagine them as they were. 

 Alexander the Great conquered Jerusalem in 332 BC. The Romans in 63 BC. After demolishing the city in 70 AD, Rome rebuilt it in 135 AD. After Constantine, Jerusalem came under Roman Christian rule which included construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which was destroyed by the Persians 300 years later. In 638 the Caliph Omar captured Jerusalem and brought it under Islamic rule. The Dome of the Rock was built in 691 where Solomon’s Temple once stood.  Between 1099 and 1250 rule over Jerusalem shifted repeatedly between Muslims and Christian Crusaders ending with Islamic rule between 1250 and 1517.  For the next 400 years Jerusalem was ruled by the Ottomans until British rule was established in 1917 following WWI. The present state of Israel was created in 1948 following WW II and the Holocaust. Jerusalem was a divided city until Israel took possession of Old Jerusalem in 1967. In the light of this long history and current events, the words of Zechariah and the words that Jesus spoke only days before His crucifixion sound remarkably relevant. 

 Zechariah wrote, “It will come about on that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will injure themselves severely. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it,” (Zechariah 12:3).

Jesus said, "Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.  There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress among the nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves,  people fainting from fear and the expectation of the things that are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near,” (Luke 21:20-28).