Then I saw 'a new heaven and a new earth', for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. Revelation 21:1-2, NIV

 

I am going to end the way I started – with Jerusalem and beseeching prayer for this place of such significance to God.

 

As we are in the final stretch of Passion Week and are meditating on the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ, it is safe to say that Jerusalem hovers in the background.

 

It was literally a few days before the horror of his crucifixion that Jesus had made his way there entering it triumphantly on a donkey. As foretold by the prophets, Jesus knew that He would lay down his life outside of the city only days later.

 

The night before his crucifixion, after a sweat-and-blood-drenched prayer at Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives, he rose up resolute. He was ready to obey in a high-stakes duel with death and the devil. What followed was the most horrific thing that mankind as a collective had ever done to God: we killed the God-man.

 

Yet, it was at Calvary that He outwitted, outsmarted and outplayed Satan. Colossians 2:15 states that, “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

 

And, Jerusalem is also the spot where he said he would be making his return, the Second Coming as it is known.  And it is going to be glorious. Last time, he was slain – the Lamb of God died without as much as whimper; in obedience, He said nothing in his defence.

 

But when he comes back, the Lion of Judah is taking no prisoners. He is coming back with a veritable army of believers and angels and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Philippians 2:10-11)

 

Jerusalem is a stone’s throw away from the very place where a man called Jacob who God called Israel had a dream. There, the promises made to his grandfather, Abraham, and father, Isaac, had been confirmed to him. Jerusalem and its existence have been as controversial as peace in the Middle East has been fleeting. Yet, one day, there will be a new, heavenly Jerusalem.

 

At this significant time of year, I implore you to pray for Jerusalem, for Israel, and that the truth of God’s Word will have impact on people who still need to know our beloved “Yeshua Hamashiach” (Jesus the Messiah).

 

Prayer: Father God, thank you for the greatest gift you could have given us: Jesus. We praise you and lift your name on high. Amen