Earlier this past week President Trump announced that the United States would finally move it's embassy to Jerusalem, thus officially recognizing that city as the capitol of Israel. This action is opposed by the rest of the world's nations because of the desire of Muslim nations to not only eliminate Israel but also for their desire to have Jerusalem be the capitol of an independent state of Palestine. Yet this it is a huge event prophetically.
Jerusalem is a key piece in any prophetic puzzle. It makes it's first Biblical entry (Genesis chapter 14) around 2000 BC after Abram defeats the forces of several kings and frees his nephew Lot. Prior to this God had called Abram to leave Ur and go to a land He would show him. He tells Abram to walk the length and breadth of the land promising that every place he goes would be his. The extent of this promise is much larger than where current Israel is today.
Coming home from the victory Abram is met by Melchizedek the priest king of Salem who blesses him. Abram in return gives Melchizedek a tithe of a 10th of his spoils. Immediately after this God makes an eternal covenant with Abram whom he soon renames Abraham, promising the land not only to Abraham but to his descendents as well. God warns Abraham that his people would be removed from the land for 400 years but it then would be restored to them.
A thousand years after Abraham the Jewish people did returned from their sojourn in Egypt, they conquer a portion of what God had promised, are ruled by judges and priests and eventually demand that God give them a king like the other nations. Saul becomes the first king and is replaced by David. It is David who defeats the ancient city state of Salem which is now known as Jerusalem and makes it the nation's capitol city.
When David dies his son Solomon becomes king. Israel expands greatly in extent and wealth and it is Solomon who builds the first great temple in Jerusalem. After Solomon dies the nation splits. The 10 northern tribes years later are conquered by the Assyrians who deport all the Jews and replace them with other peoples. The southern two tribes of Judah and Benjamin are where Jerusalem is located and years later it too is conquered by the Babylonians who level Jerusalem, destroy the temple and deport most but not all of the Jewish population to Babylon where they are in captivity for 70 years.
It is toward the end of this 70 year period when Daniel inquires of God as to the exact timing of the restoration of the Jewish people to the land and to Jerusalem. The answer to his prayer is delivered by the angel Gabriel who provides Daniel with the great prophetic scope of Jewish history which extends even to the last days.
Babylon is defeated by the Persians and Cyrus makes a decree allowing the Jews not only to return but permits them to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem as well.
A second temple, not as glorious as the first, gets built on the same site in Jerusalem around 349 BC It has a major rebuilding project that lasts from about 30 BC to 40 AD which makes it again one of the wonders of the ancient world but it is destroyed as is Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD. The second temple period also represents a time when the Jewish people are not autonomous, being ruled in turn by the Persians, Greeks and then Romans, just as prophesied to Daniel.
In 70 AD not only are the temple and Jerusalem destroyed but most of the Jewish people are either killed or sold into slavery and scattered around the Roman empire. The city eventually gets rebuilt, there are many different nations or empires that get their turn to control the city, some which deny any Jewish presence at all and some which slaughter, depending on who is favored, any Jews, Muslims or Christians living there.
The walls of Jerusalem, so evident in any modern photo of the city, are not original but were built in the 1500's. None of the buildings that exist today were there at the time of Christ. The Muslims became interested in Jerusalem in the 600's but there were time periods when they, like the Jews, were not even allowed access to the city.
Around 30 AD Jesus, 40 days after He rose from the grave, ascended from the Mt. of Olives near Jerusalem into the clouds. He promised that He would one day return in His glory to rule the nations from Jerusalem. The early Christians expected Jesus to come back at any time but as time went on the association with the Jewish faith became less and less and the Biblical promise of Jesus physical return and the events immediately preceding it were not taken literally by the Church. The promise to the Jewish people of an eternal homeland also was forgotten by the Church.
The Reformation restored to the Church much of what was lost on many levels but it took a couple of hundred years before people began to once again consider what the Bible had to say about a Jewish homeland and Jesus actual return to rule the nations from Jerusalem for 1000 years. Sir Isaac Newton in the 1700's actually spent quite a bit of time researching Daniel and Biblical end time prophecy.
Christians who were studying Biblical prophecy on a literal basis began to understand that there were certain things and events that needed to happen prior to Jesus returning. The two major ones were that there had to once again be a Jewish nation with Jerusalem at it's core and there had to be constructed a new Jewish temple.
Think of the situation just 100 years ago. The backwater region of Palestine had a population of less than 100,000, mostly nomads, but because of the Zionist movement beginning in 1897 the population was now growing. Jerusalem was divided into 4 uneven quarters - Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Armenian and many of the Muslims living there had come from a variety of neighboring countries. The Muslim part of the city, or East Jerusalem, contained the holy sites, such as the Temple Mount, which were considered so sacred to the Jews. Jerusalem had been under the control of the Ottoman Empire for 400 years until December of 1917 when British forces took the city during WWI. The aftermath of WWI redrew the map of the Middle East and Jewish people were given limited permission to return to their ancient land.
So 100 years ago, unless you trusted that God would do what He said He would do, it still seemed very unlikely that there would ever be a Jewish nation with Jerusalem at it's core and a Jewish temple in Jerusalem.
On May 18,1948, against all odds, Israel once again became a sovereign nation. The next day they were attacked by the 5 surrounding Arab nations but prevailed. In June of 1967 there was another war and it was at this time that Israel took control of East Jerusalem including the holy sites. Although they later returned control of the Temple Mount to Jordan is was now theirs to give and theirs to take.
If you think about it, 1967 was first time since Daniel was exiled that Israel existed as a sovereign nation with full control over Jerusalem. And 2017, because the U.S., the world's most powerful country, it will be the first time that Jerusalem is recognized by the world as Israel's capitol. That means that time wise we are surely in the last days and it should not be too long before construction begins on a new Jewish temple.
Although I believe the Church will be raptured before that time we await the return of the priest king Jesus, who will descend from the same place He ascended. An earthquake will split the Mt. of Olives in two forming a great valley and the rebelling nations will be defeated. One day there will be a new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven but now we see her as a visible symbol that all God's promises are righteous and true and will come to pass.
Here is a poem I wrote about that city.
Oh Sweet Jerusalem
Oh sweet Jerusalem
you who stoned the prophets
are a stumbling stone
and cup of trembling
Oh dearest Corner Stone
you longed to gather your people
under loving protective wings
but they would not listen
Oh swift Advocate
you sent out sons and daughters
with singing and firm foundation
unto distant nations
Oh ancient Mt. Zion
your barren years are over
two thousand years waiting
the King is now coming
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