Jerusalem is in bondage with her children. She is in bondage to sin, uncleanness, and to the rejection of her Messiah. Jerusalem has been in bondage since the Roman, General Titus, wrecked and burned her with fire in 70 A.D. We might say that her bondage goes back to the moment the Son of God died on His cross or when the Jewish mob cried, “Give us Barabbas, but crucify Jesus.” It was a faithful Jewish apostle that stated, “For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children” (Galatians 4:25).
There is no biblically named city as important as Jerusalem. A truly born again Christian cannot study the Bible, including the life and death of Jesus Christ, and, especially, Bible prophecy and not become fixated on Jerusalem. The name Jerusalem and other derivatives of that name total well over one thousand occurrences in Holy Scripture. It is the Father’s counterpart of His own Heavenly Jerusalem. God Himself chose this city and named it after His Heavenly capitol. For any person or persons on earth to call this city their capitol except the Jewish families is certainly close to blasphemy. To a devoted Jew, Jerusalem is “their oasis in the desert.” No Jewish person can dare forget Jerusalem.
No city or country in this entire world will be free until Jerusalem is free. That statement can set you back, but take a moment to consider. The Son of God had walked through the cobblestone streets of this city that He dearly loved before He sat on the Mount of Olives and spoke revelational truth to His disciples. One of the far-reaching remarks was about the future of this city that would soon reject Him as the Messiah. He stated, “And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21:24).
Jesus Christ proclaimed clearly that one of the conditions that would rule these Gentile nations was trouble and troubles and more troubles. “Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven” (Luke 21:10-11). The Prince of Peace will settle the troubles of Jerusalem and His kingdom will crush the Gentile empires to establish His One World Order. Jesus clearly confirmed the revelations of Daniel, “Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth” (Daniel 2:34-35). The Peace of Jerusalem will mean the peace of the kingdoms of the earth because the entire world will be annexed to the “Promised Land.”
It would not be fair to you if I did not also include Daniel’s interpretation of the previous verses, “And in the days of these kings, shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure” (Daniel 2:44-45). Peace in Jerusalem will be peace in every city and every nation of the world.
Angels are busy night and day keeping watch from the top of the walls of Jerusalem and guaranteeing that every prophetic plan will be fulfilled. “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth” (Isaiah 62:6-7). It is sad to see the multitudes that have written off the nation of Israel and the prophetic future of Jerusalem. Such ideas are clearly the imagination of unclean spirits or demons. These people and their ideas can no more be fulfilled than God can be ejected from His own beautiful Jerusalem.
His Pearly White City is so spiritually and prophetically connected to earthly Jerusalem that for one to fail both must fail. If the earthly family of Jesus Christ does not inherit their Jerusalem, then the virgin born Jewish Son will not inherit His New Jerusalem. David spoke of this heavenly city and tied it to the earthly prototype, “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King” (Psalm 48:1-2).
The same Son of God that promised Jerusalem and the Promise Land to His kin, the Jews, is the Son of God that was manifest out of the Ivory Palaces of Heavenly Jerusalem. For any religion, nation, or army to think of possessing this city and driving the Jewish people into the sea is insane.
Yes, the City of Jerusalem is in bondage at the present. However, the recordkeeping and promise keeping Father that sits in His Heavenly Temple with His Son will soon say, “It is enough.” The Father will look to His Son on His Right Hand and declare that the hour has come. He will speak to His exalted Son concerning Himself and Jerusalem, the chosen city, “Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married” (Isaiah 62:3-4). What a prophetic certainty to know this is in our future.
Joseph R. Chambers
jrc@pawcreek.org