When compared with the great cities of the world, Jerusalem is small. It stands alongside no great river as do London, Paris, or Rome. It boasts no port, no major industries, no mineral wealth, or even an adequate water supply. The city doesn’t stand on a major thoroughfare connected to the rest of the world. Why then is Jerusalem the naval of the earth, the shaft that propels the world ever forward?
The answer can be found in its spiritual significance. Jerusalem is the home of two of the world’s monotheistic faiths, Judaism and Christianity, and is claimed by a third, Islam. Biblical prophets proclaimed that from Jerusalem the Word of the Lord would go out to the world—a Word, which would change the moral standards of all mankind.
The spiritual stature of Jerusalem is echoed in its physical situation; it stands upon the Judean hills high above the surrounding countryside. Traveling to Jerusalem is always spoken of as “going up to Jerusalem.” Those who leave the City of God are said to “go down”—in perhaps more than just the physical sense.
When viewing the history of Jerusalem as a whole, no other city has suffered as has David’s City. At times the city was overrun by violent assailants. It is recorded in Jeremiah that the city would surrender after suffering the horrors of starvation…and be reduced to cannibalism (Jeremiah 19).
While Christian and Muslim claims to Jerusalem came much later, the story of the Jews in Jerusalem began three millennia ago and has never ceased. The link of the Jewish people has been historical, religious, cultural, physical, and fundamental. It has never been voluntarily broken; any absence of the Jews from their beloved city has been the result of foreign persecution and expulsion. To the Jews alone belongs David’s City, the City of God.
For the Jewish people whose cry for centuries has been, “Next year Jerusalem,” it is more than a location on the map, it is not just a tourist Mecca where one can visit various holy sites; Jerusalem is holy. It is the essence of all for which the Jews have hoped and prayed and cried and died. It is their God-given land. “The LORD had said to David and to Solomon his son, ‘In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever’” (2 Kings 21:7).
Israel is God’s dream; the title deed belongs to Him. It is His to bestow on whomever He will—and He has given the right of occupation to the Jewish people. When God made His eternal promises to Israel, there was no United Nations, no United States, no Russia, no European Union, and no Arab League; there were only pagan nations to challenge this dream, to challenge God and His Word. Today, those same pagan voices are challenging the right of the Jews to occupy a unified Jerusalem.