BECAUSE THOU HAST REJECTED KNOWLEDGE

(Jerusalem – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow)

By

Pastor Robert B. Record

   In the 19^th Chapter of Jeremiah we have a prophecy concerning Judah and Jerusalem that is usually ignored, or passed over by students of Bible prophecy as being of little consequence. Yet it has a tremendous bearing on the prophetic utterances concerning Jerusalem in these last days.

In Jer. 19:1-3, we find the Lord addressing Jeremiah with these words, “Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests; and go forth into the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee, and say, Hear ye the word of the Lord, O Kings of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.”

Dropping down, now, to verses 10-11, we find the Lord addressing Jeremiah, who is standing before the ancients of the people and holding the earthen bottle, saying, “Then thou shalt break the bottle in the sight of men that go with thee, and shall say unto them, thus saith the Lord of Hosts: Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again.”

   When our Lord cursed the fig tree, as in Mark 11:12-14 that it dried up from the roots, He was actually fulfilling the prophecy in Jeremiah 19:10-11 where God declared that both the city of Jerusalem and its inhabitants would be broken so as not to be made whole again. You will recall that the remnant of the Judah remnant in Babylon were given a 70 week charter and brought back to Palestine under Ezra and Nehemiah.  This charter brought them to Christ, and since they were the custodians of the kingdom (Else Jesus could not have taken the Kingdom from them), they were expected to bring forth the fruit of the kingdom. Their failure to do so is signified by the cursing of the barren fig tree.

   And the fact that it dried up from the roots,” signified the end of the Jewish Nation. It had served its purpose, and the time of its charter had run out. The “budding of the fig tree” at the close of this age does not mean that new life is to be injected into the dead fig tree.  Rather, it indicates the efforts of some Zionist Jews to claim real Israel’s inheritance. And while they have been aided and abetted by many religious leaders who labor under the delusion that the Jew and Israel are one and the same, it is a false claim that must come to nought! 

   It needs to be pointed out and emphasized here, that prophetic Jerusalem is not the old Jerusalem! To put it in other words, the old Jerusalem is not the new!  Just as the city of Babylon has a symbolic meaning denoting the religious, political and economic systems of our day, and just as the circumcision of the flesh is a type of circumcision of the heart, and just as the old Temple is a type of the spiritual temple that God is building, so the old city of Jerusalem is a type of the new, or the redeemed nation of Israel and its people. But few there are who seem to see this. Because the prophets speak of, “Jerusalem,” many jump to the conclusion that it means the restored city of the past. But, not so!

   The word, Jerusalem, means – “Habitation of peace.” It was chosen by God as the city to bear His name. It was to be the religious center of the nation, and to it the people were to seek sanctity. And so they did for many years.

  But all this was changed when Israel incurred the curse of the Law and God divorced them and put them away. The city where God met with His people was to be broken as an earthen bottle that it could not be made whole again.  All this took place in 70 A.D., when God brought the Roman, Titus against it with a terrible destruction. To be sure, the temple and the city were destroyed and rebuilt time and again, even after the divorcement, but it was no longer the center of the religious life of the nation. And the city is still in existence today, but it is no longer the place where God has put His name. He will put it on the New Jerusalem, or the restored nation of Israel.  This is the city that Abraham awaited which hath foundations whose Builder and Maker is God. (Heb.11:10)

   Confirming that the old Jerusalem is not the new, let us turn to Isaiah 65:17-25, where we find the Lord describing the conditions that will prevail in the New Jerusalem. In verses 17-19 we read: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.”

It is the people of Israel, not the city that is in view here!

   You will please note from these verses that the new heavens and the new earth are actually a change in the moral, social and spiritual condition of God’s people in the kingdom age. Heaven is to come to earth in the kingdom of our God. Suffering, injustice and oppression will be a thing of the past, and will be replaced with joy and rejoicing. In II Peter 3:13, Peter refers to this passage in Isaiah where he says, “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” What makes the heaven and earth new?  The fact that the old order of things has passed away and has been replaced with one in which dwelleth righteousness. It is a righteousness resulting from an obedience to God’s law, and the enforcement of that law.

   I have said all this by way of pointing out some absurd and ridiculous interpretations of scripture by those who try to make the new Jerusalem a rebuilt city patterned after the old!  As we have already stated, it is rather the city that Abraham awaited, which had foundations whose Builder and Maker is God.

   That the old Jerusalem is not a literal city like unto the Old, let us turn to the 21^st chapter of Revelations where the new Jerusalem is likened unto a bride adorned for her husband. And let us keep in mind that the language here, is highly symbolic. In Rev.21:2 we read, “I, John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” There are those who take this language literally, and they would have you believe that a literal city is going to descend out of heaven. It does not come to earth, but lies suspended in the heavens. This city is to be the abode of the bride, which they hold is the church! Such teaching is without any foundation in fact.

   John declares that the new Jerusalem is prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. That should tell us something. In verse 9, an angel talks with John, saying, “Come hither, and I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” John is then carried away in spirit to a great and high mountain where he is shown the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, and having the Glory of God. In symbolic language the angel describes the bride as a city. It is a city  which embraces the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, and the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. It is the nation of redeemed Israel, and it but reminds us of the words of Jesus in Matt. 19:28, in answering the query of His apostles as to what their future reward might be. His reply was, “When the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit on the twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

   Now if the bride is the new Jerusalem, and it is, and if the old city where God once placed His name was broken so as not to be made whole again, where is the rhyme or the reason for making prophetic Jerusalem a restoration of the old Jerusalem? It is just poor Bible exegesis.  Yet Bible students are doing it all the time. Let me give you a few samples.

   Having mistaken the old Jerusalem for the new, certain prophecy preachers are greatly concerned about rebuilding the temple.  The Mosque of Omar sits on the old temple site, and the Arabs are not about to let anyone remove or destroy it. But the temple of ancient days is not to be rebuilt, it was but a type of the spiritual house, or temple that God is building with ‘living’ stones. (Read Eph.2:19-22 & I Peter 2:5.)

   In Zechariah 12:3 (Moffatt) we are told that God was going to make Jerusalem an awkward boulder for the nations to lift. And any who attempt it will but hurt them-selves. And then God adds, “Yes and all nation shall be gathered to attack it. “ Now let me ask you, what is there about the modern Jerusalem in the hands of the Jews that would cause all nations to attack it?  It is hardly bigger than the State of New Jersey.  And if the United States would withdraw its moral and financial support of little Israeli, it would dry up like a vine without water.  But what if you make prophetic Jerusalem to be the land of re-gathered Israel here on this North American Continent, it makes all the sense in the world.  To be sure, we must yet be awakened and restored, but we are the beginning of modern Jerusalem just the same. And the prophets declare of just such an attack against America in the Battle of that Great Day of God Almighty. (Rev.16:13, 14, 16)

   Another mistaken prophetic interpretation is that of Isaiah 31:5, which reads as follows: “As birds flying, so will the Lord of Hosts  defend Jerusalem: defending also He will deliver it: and passing over He will preserve it.” Assuming, as some do, that the old Jerusalem is the new, this verse is popularly set forth as a prophecy which was fulfilled when General Allenby delivered modern Jerusalem from the hands of the Turks when he attacked the city with planes.  But our text says that the Lord of hosts will defend Jerusalem, and defending also He will deliver it.

   Now the only way you can make this verse teach of a deliverance of modern Jerusalem by Allenby, is to take it out of its context. Read this short chapter of nine verses in Moffatt, Farah Fenton, or the Revised Standard Version, especially verse 5, and in no instance does this prophecy lend itself to a deliverance of modern Jerusalem. Let us note verses 6 & 7 in this connection.  â€œTurn to Him from whom you have deeply revolted, O People of Israel. For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.”           When Israel is thus delivered, they are to get back to Jehovah whom they have wronged. None of this took place in the early part of this 20^th century.

This leads us to consider one last passage of scripture dealing with prophetic Jerusalem. It is Luke 21:20-24.  Two sieges of Jerusalem are depicted here, one in 70 A.D. and the other at the close of this age. Verses 20-23 describe the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman General Titus.  It had served its purpose, and was to be replaced by prophetic Jerusalem. That this is so, let us note the words of our Lord in verse 24. He declares that “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”

Now it is true, we still have a city of Jerusalem. But it no longer functions as the religious and political center of Israel. And whatever might be said of the city since its destruction in 70A.D., it cannot be truthfully said that the nations have concerned themselves with it as to “tread it down.”

The key to proper understanding of this 24^th verse lies in our Lord’s reference to the “times of the Gentiles.”  The times of the Gentiles is that period which began with the captivity and divorcement of Israel in 721 B.C. With Israel divorced and scattered among the nations to fulfill their destiny under different names, our Lord introduces what is known as “the Babylonian Succession of Empires.”  A Gentile non-Israel people were to dominate the world stage until such time as Israel had fulfilled their prophetic national history and were ready to be restored to favor with God. By no stretch of the imagination can it be said that the times of the Gentiles had to do with the old city of Jerusalem. It had to do with Israel!  And Israel, emerging on the world scene under different names, was often trodden down by other nations. And blinded to her identity, Israel today labors under the delusion that she is Gentile, and has therefore been given to adopting many of the Babylonian ideas and ways. But now with this age fast drawing to a close, and Israel’s restoration at hand, the time of the Gentiles has about run its course. It is time for Israel too once again become the “head” of nations, and no longer be the “tail.”

Thus it is that God’s call to our people and nation is that of Rev.18:4, where we read, “Come out of her (Babylon) my people that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Thus far we have not heeded this injunction. Most religious leaders do not even know what prophetic Babylon is. Many are even suggesting that the city of Babylon is to be rebuilt. We are thus sharing in her sins and receiving of her plagues.

While the call of God to our people is to come out of the Babylonian system of doing things, we are so bent on our own way and so righteous in our own eyes, that we are rushing on headlong toward a crisis of major proportions. Our leaders do not see that it is our sins as a Nation that are inviting the judgements  of God, and we are thus making no effort to turn from them. It but reminds us of the words of Jesus one day as He stood over the city of Jerusalem and wept, saying, “If thou hadst known, even thou in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace; but now they are hid from thine eyes.” The rejection of light produces spiritual darkness.  Our Lord foresaw the coming invasion of Jerusalem by the Roman army, and that is why He wept. And as our leaders today become more confused and perplexed as they seek to cope with our mounting social, economic and  political problems, they are groping like blind men because they do not know the things that belong to our peace as God’s Israel. We are thus rushing headlong into the “The Time of Jacob’s Trouble.” While God has said that we would be saved out of it, it is going to be rough while it lasts.  It is a judgement of love to prepare us for the Kingdom age.

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Pastor Robert B. Record had a radio program for many years and published many papers similar to this one; all addressed the Christian Israel message and the restoration of His Kingdom and that the nations, the lost sheep of the house of Israel are now gathered, co-located as prophetically noted and promised within the Word – and will emerge triumphant with His return.