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Jerusalem Reading
I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
"Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars--their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."
Behold, one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb."
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.
It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
But this was not always so. For the time was not so distant when our Savior cried,
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, `Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' "
Lord God began to speak, almost to Himself. “Jerusalem was once filled with worship. For a brief time My sons and daughters from all nations would sing as they made pilgrimage to My Temple for my holy days; the times and seasons- that I had appointed for all who loved me, to come to My city to worship Me. For I had said to Moses:
"Speak to the Israelites and say to them: `These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.
But they profaned my Sabbaths and My New Moons. They began to worship the gods of the nations. Worthless things. My people played the whore. They worshipped Me with their lips, but their hearts were far from me. Yes they came on the appointed times, but even so, not with pure and loving hearts. They couldn’t wait until they returned home to their other gods. My heart ached:
All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations--a people who continually provoke me to my very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick;
My prophets understood. Isaiah spoke for me telling the people
Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts My soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.
So I told Hosea:
I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days--all her appointed feasts.
Jeremiah shared my grief
The roads to Zion mourn, for no one comes to her appointed feasts. All her gateways are desolate, her priests groan, her maidens grieve, and she is in bitter anguish. For God has laid waste his dwelling like a garden; he has destroyed his place of meeting. The LORD has made Zion forget her appointed feasts and her Sabbaths; in his fierce anger he has spurned both king and priest.
My heart started to break. What else could He have done? He sighed, “My people had to understand the holy days were expressions of our relationship – My Covenant of love which I’d made first with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and then through Moses. The people had to understand that they were defiling My Covenant and dishonoring My Name.
But in His mercy the Lord our God gave us hope through the prophet Zephaniah
The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."
He says, "The sorrows for the appointed feasts I will remove from you; they are a burden and a reproach to you. At that time I will deal with all who oppressed you; I will rescue the lame and gather those who have been scattered.
At that time when I will gather you; at that time I will bring you home. I will give you honor and praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes," says the LORD.
But first there was the issue of sin. No one could enter God’s holy city, or His loving presence with sin. We had rejected His love. We had betrayed His covenant – we’d promised to obey and then broke every promise. We had abandoned His blessing by worshipping other gods – putting things and people, worthless idols before our eyes. We were covered with our own filth.
But worst of all, we rejected our Messiah, God’s own Son. God Himself in human form. Despite what all the prophets had told us we refuse to believe and nailed Him to a cross. Even when witnesses saw Him rise from the grave, seeing we would not see and hearing we would not hear.
How could God ever rejoice in us again? How could He ever give us the joy of our pilgrim feasts? Because He is love and promised:
"I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be great. The land will mourn,
But "On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.
And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance!
As He promised, in His holy justice, the Lord had to take vengeance on those who had come against the apple of His eye. The Land, God’s beloved land would still have some hard times…
In those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will enter into judgment against them concerning my inheritance, my people Israel, for they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land.
I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.
Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.
The LORD will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem; the earth and the sky will tremble. But the LORD will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people of Israel. "Then you will know that I, the LORD your God, dwell in Zion, my holy hill. Jerusalem will be holy; never again will foreigners invade her.
On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and half to the western sea, in summer and in winter. The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.
The mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
This is what the LORD Almighty says: "In those days ten men from all languages and nations will take firm hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, `Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.' "
Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD Almighty, they will have no rain. This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles.
Finally Jerusalem will be the Praise in all the earth.
"In that day the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills will flow with milk; all the ravines of Judah will run with water. A fountain will flow out of the LORD's house and will water the valley of acacias. But Egypt will be desolate, Edom a desert waste, because of violence done to the people of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood. Judah will be inhabited forever and Jerusalem through all generations.Their bloodguilt, which I have not pardoned, I will pardon."
The Lord will judge between many peoples and will settle disputes for strong nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the LORD Almighty has spoken.
Sing, O Daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O Daughter of Jerusalem! The LORD has taken away your punishment; he has turned back your enemy. The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you; never again will you fear any harm.
Listen; hear the voices of the heavenly hosts shouting: “Hallelujah! The Lord God omnipotent reigns!”
God’s covenant with man is established.
The King is on the Throne.
Now Jerusalem will be called:
- The Praise of the earth
- The Throne of the Lord
- The Lord’s Dwelling Place
- The Bride, the Wife of the Lamb!
- And the earth is filled with the knowledge of His glory as every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus is Lord. Jerusalem is filled with worship and she looks with joy and excitement to her anointed and appointed feasts when her sons and daughters sing:
"You are worthy because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth."
"Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!"
"To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!"
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