Monday, March 23, 2020
Jeremiah 4: Jerusalem’s Story as Our Own
When people gathered in on a western hilltop above the Jordan River sometime between the years 4300 to 3300 B.C.E., the city of Jerusalem came into being; her early artisans were known for their stone and copper work. During the Middle Bronze Era (3300-2100 B.C.E.) the people fortified the city then known as Jebus and her people in the surrounding hills, known as the Jebusites (1 Chronicles 11) began to form a confederation with other peoples in the area. It was this tribe that fought against Joshua and the Israelites (Joshua 9).
In the Late Bronze and Iron Ages (1600-332 B.C.E.) Jerusalem’s people increased the city walls and size that changed only slightly and remained until the time of Nehemiah (about 445 B.C.E.) The city was a 12 acre site just south of today’s Temple mount bordered by the Kidron and Tyropoeon Valleys when captured by David; King Solomon nearly tripled the city to an area of about 32 acres when the temple-palace complex was built over a converted threshing floor. Jerusalem’s city and Temple become a center of worship, trade, culture and power until she was taken by the Babylonians and many of her people sent into exile. Re-built by Nehemiah she struggled to return to her former fame but was taken by Alexander the Great in 333 B.C.E. and later by the Romans. She was again destroyed in the year 70 C.E.
Western history records the centuries of struggle between Christians and Muslims for control of Jerusalem until 1948 when the state of Israel is formed and the Jewish people are called “home,” but Jerusalem today still remains a city in conflict, divided and troubled yet also united and renowned.
As we move through the Lenten season, we are invited to visit with Jerusalem for a short time each noon to explore her days of glory, her times of trial, her humiliations and her celebrations. In so many ways her history might be ours. Born out of a desire to flourish, nurtured by a hope for the eternal, and struggling through faith and doubt, Jerusalem offers us a tour of her life; she brings us her story full and open. Last week we prayed as we went up to Jerusalem. Now that we are within God’s holy precinct, let us offer our own lives back to the Creator. Let us spend time with God as we examine the life of Jerusalem as our own life in macrocosm. And let us return to God honestly, fully and openly . . . to examine the story of our own lives.
Each day this week, visit Jesus’s last journey at: https://www.thebiblejourney.org/biblejourney1/6-jesuss-last-journey-to-jerusalem/
Damascus Gate image from a Times of Israel blog at: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/jerusalem-then-and-now-a-journey-in-photos/ to visit Jerusalem then and now.
“The Jebusites.” and “Jerusalem.” ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY BIBLE (NIV). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2005. Print.
For atlas references visit: http://bibleatlas.org/jerusalem.htm
The Noontimes 