Salvation is of the Jews: Part 2

Allen Webster

Topic(s): God's Will, Old Testament

God chose Jerusalem, the Jew’s capitol, as His city. Moses didn’t know where it would be, but He knew that God would one day choose a place for his name (Deuteronomy 12:21; 14:23; 16:2, 6). For a while God placed His name at Shiloh (Joshua 18:1; Jeremiah 7:12). When the man after God’s own heart became king of the people of God’s heart, this place was transferred to Jerusalem (1 Kings 5:5–6).

Jerusalem is mentioned in the Scripture 1,031 times (including synonyms Zion, city of David, holy city, Salem, and Jebus), more than any other location¹. Jerusalem, the most important city in the holy land, is situated high in the central hill country of Israel between the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea.

• Jerusalem is first mentioned in Scripture in Genesis 14:18, under the name Salem (cf. Psalm 76:2). This was about 2,000 B.C.
• It is first called Jerusalem in the days of Joshua (10:1), when Adonizedek was its king.
• About 1,000 B.C., David took the city by challenging his men to go up a gutter and attack the mountain fortress of the Jebusites. He promised the man who did so would get to be captain of the army. The one who did, Joab, would play prominently in David’s story for the rest of his life.
• When Solomon was king, he increased the city’s size from 11 to 32 acres and built his great temple there.
• About 700 B.C. Hezekiah strengthened the city’s defenses by building a 1,750-foot tunnel around the city’s only water sup-ply, the Gihon Spring
• In 587 B.C., the temple, buildings, and wall were destroyed by the Babylonians (2 Kings 25:10).
• Around 440 B.C., they were rebuilt by Nehemiah.
• Starting in 37 B.C., Herod built stronger walls, the fortress of Antonia, a moat, a fancy palace, and aqueducts to bring in more water.
• Jerusalem is last mentioned in the Bible in its last chapter, where it figuratively stands for heaven (“the holy city,” Revelation 22:19)².
• The city was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70 and was a small military camp until the fourth century.

The city’s greatest claim to fame is that Jesus taught, suffered, died, was buried, and resurrected there. Jesus lamented over the city,

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! (Matthew 23:37).

Today, God has placed His name upon the church (Acts 20:28; 1 Corinthians 1:2).

God chose the Jew’s Temple as His earthly house. The temple was “a sacred house erected on the summit of Mount Moriah for the worship of God.”³ David had it in his heart to build God a temple (1 Kings 8:18), but God forbade him because he was a man of war (1 Chronicles 28:3). Solomon constructed it, and God moved in!

And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD (1 Kings 8:10–11).

God later moved out and Jesus informed His generation: “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate” (Matthew 23:38). Note that God had been vacated His house and turned it over to them. Jesus further prophesied the “not one stone would be left upon another” and that the entire city would be “trodden down of the Gentiles” (Luke 21:6, 24). This was literally fulfilled when the Roman General Titus assaulted the city and laid it waste in A.D. 70. When the temple was burned, some of the gold that covered most of its interior and exterior melted and ran into the crevices of the rocks. The greedy soldiers literally broke apart the stones to get the nuggets out, thus fulfilling Jesus’ prophecy!

Today, God’s temple is the church (Ephesians 2:21; 1 Corinthians 3:17).

The Oracles of God were first given to the Jews. When Paul wondered aloud what advantages the Jews had over the Gentiles, this was the first one that came to mind. He wrote, “What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God” (Romans 3:1–2). He later added that to the “Israelites . . . pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises” (Romans 9:4). The Jews recognized this advantage all through their history. The psalmist noted, “In Judah is God known: his name is great in Israel . . . He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel” (Psalm 76:1; 147:19).

The heart of Moses’ Law was the Ten Commandments, which, of course, were entrusted to the Jewish people. One author noted, “As the sun is the source of illumination . . . the moon is the source the reflection . . . and that’s just what the Jews were for many years by giving us the Ten Commandments!”

Today, God has committed His Word to His apostles (Galatians 2:7; 1 Timothy 1:11), who in turn committed it to the church, the “pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15).

Footnotes

¹As far as I can tell. Egypt is mentioned, 551; Babylon, 260; Assyria, 108.
²The name Jerusalem is last found in Revelation 21:10.
³Easton. Faussett adds, “The top of the hill having been leveled, walls of great stones (some 30 ft. long) were built on the sloping sides, and the interval between was occupied by vaults or filled up with earth.The lower, bevelled stones of the wall still remain; the relics of the eastern wall alone being Solomon's, the south-ern and western added later, but still belonging to the first temple.”