This morning as I read this verse one more time (after repeating it in my head throughout this past week), I couldn't help but say, "Jerusalem! Jerusalem!" and the "Holy City Hymn" by Frederick Weatherly started resounding in my mind. I looked up the lyrics and read through the last verse...this is where Weatherly depicts the Jerusalem that John saw in his vision:
And once again the scene was chang'd
New earth there seem'd to be,
I saw the Holy City
Beside the tideless sea
The light of god was on its streets
The gates were open wide,
And all who would might enter
And no one was denied.
No need of moon or stars by night,
Or sun to shine by day,
It was the new Jerusalem
That would not pass away
"Jerusalem! Jerusalem
Sing for the night is o'er
Hosanna in the highest
Hosanna for evermore!"
Jerusalem! Jerusalem, sing for the night is o'er! Jerusalem has held such a special place in God's history of our world. It IS His Holy City and will be restored as His crown jewel in the new earth when it comes down from heaven, from God Himself.
I often think that if I were an atheist, just the course of world events over the past 60 years would cause me to stop and ponder! Why, for almost 2,000 years did the Middle East, the area of mankind's origin according to the Bible, lie in almost total obscurity, and then in the mid- to latter part of the 20th century rise to become the center of the world's attention? Why was Israel, a nation obliterated and its people scattered throughout the world, able to be resurrected into a nation in 1948, retaining its own native language, something that's never before happened? Why, now, in 2016, is the United Nations sanctioning Israel, above all of the other world's nations including North Korea and Iran, five times over for human rights violations?
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3
"He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." Isaiah 11:12
"Then say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land."
Ezekiel 37:21
"O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God! For behold, your enemies make an uproar; those who hate you have raised their heads. They lay crafty plans against your people; they consult together against your treasured ones. They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!” For they conspire with one accord; against you they make a covenant— ..." Psalm 83:1-18
The reason, for me, is clear to see. It is God's plan being fulfilled. We get to witness these things after the fact and compare them to Biblical prophecy and realize that our God is faithful and true, and the Bible holds up in all of its knowledge of things to come.
But, in the end...in the end of this old earth story...Jerusalem is glorious! And as Weatherly's song suggests, I believe we will go in and out freely to enjoy its beauty and its radiance. For then it will have become truly God's Holy City...a city as we've never seen before!
Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna for evermore!
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