O Jerusalem, Jerusalem

O JERUSALEM,

JERUSALEM

37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!

38 "See! Your house is left to you desolate;

39 "for I say to you, you shall see Me no

more till you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'"

(Matthew23:37-39)

Jerusalem in the Scriptures is symbolic of the Church in general. The word "Jerusalem" means "city of peace".

Paul writing to the church at Galatia makes a

distinction between the two Jerusalems - the

natural one and the spiritual one. Both

Jerusalems are described symbolically as mothers

with children.

25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia,

and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is,

and is in bondage with her children;

26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which is

the mother of us all. (Galatians 4:25-26)

We see that when Jesus laments over Jerusalem,

He is actually lamenting over BOTH the natural

Jerusalem AND the spiritual one. From history

we know that Jerusalem had a record for killing

the prophets God sent to her to warn her to

repent of idolatry. The irony of it all, is that the

city of God had a tendency to reject God

Himself when He came to them in the form of

these men. This led to the ultimate of all ironies

- the rejection of the man Jesus, who was in fact

God in the flesh. And all this by those zealously

attempting to adhere to the principles of God

but at the same time rejecting the person of God

in Jesus.

37 "And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has

testified of Me. You have neither heard His

voice at any time, nor seen His form.

38 "But you do not have His word abiding in

you, because whom He sent, Him you do not

believe.

39 "You search the Scriptures, for in them you

think you have eternal life; and these are they

which testify of Me.

40 "But you are not willing to come to Me

that you may have life. (John 5:37-40)

We, as born-again believers, have the seed of the

word of God living and abiding in us because we

were willing to "come to Him" and "believe in

Him". Likewise, as we learn to recognise those

sent by God, we will be able to receive the word

living in them which may be the very anointing

we need to have the yokes and bondages

destroyed in our lives and be changed from glory

to glory into the image of the Lord. Many times

we struggle with not being able to overcome the

carnal nature because we fail to recognise His

"form" when He comes to us. Let not the Lord

say about us the same that He said to the

Pharisees: "But you are not willing to come to

Me that you may have life".

Speaking on the heavenly Jerusalem, Paul tells

the Hebrew church:

22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to

the city of the living God, the heavenly

Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of

angels,

23 to the general assembly and church of the

firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God

the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men

made perfect,

24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new

covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that

speaks better things than that of Abel.

(Hebrews 12:22-24)

As in the natural Jerusalem, the Jerusalem from

above has a history of stoning and killing those

sent to her, especially those sent to warn her

about her apathy and idolatry. As in her natural

counterpart, she has failed to recognise the

person of Jesus coming to her through these

prophets. Seeing them more as threats to her

security and well-being, she has tended to

embark on a mission of persecution motivated

by self-preservation. A root to this has been her

insecurity. Because she lacks an understanding of

the love and grace of God, she will tend to resist