The Drama of God and Jerusalem
It’s difficult not to think about God in Jerusalem. The city is flooded with people of different faiths - Jewish, Christian, Muslim, etc - who are seeking a connection with God. Jerusalem is the epicenter of God’s story with humanity: past,present and future. It was here that he chose to dwell in the Temple, here he chose to live and die and rise again, and here he will return to reign. But even so, many Jewish people around the world don’t think about God at all...even in Jerusalem.
Where is God? One Jewish Perspective
When I (Anna Beth) was a senior in college, I had an agnostic Jewish professor. He was my favorite professor in my whole undergraduate career. Brilliant, seasoned, and cynical. He was an expert in the Torah, specifically in the Exodus. He had an interesting perspective on the story of God and humanity: he developed a theory called “The Disappearance of God.” He saw the trajectory of biblical history as one where God started off very close, but gradually moved further and further away until he disappeared from the story altogether.
From his perspective, God began with an intimate relationship with his creation. He walked with Adam and Eve in the garden. Then he chose Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. At the high-water mark of the whole story, Moses and the Exodus, God dramatically demonstrated his power and delivered his people from Egypt. He was present in the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, and he spoke to Moses “as a man speaks with his friend.” (Exodus 33:11)
But then God’s presence began to retract. He acted less and less in the story as time went on. He dwelled in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle and the Temple, accessible only by the high priest, once a year, through sacrifice. Then the Temple was destroyed, and the people went into exile.
When they returned to Jerusalem it was never the same. The second Temple lacked the glory of the first (Ezra 3:12). The prophetic voices in Israel waned and ceased altogether with Malachi. Then the second Temple was destroyed, and the Jewish people were scattered all over the world.
Where is God? A Different Story
Many world religions teach that time is circular and history repeats itself. Hinduism, New Age, and even some streams of Judaism would fall into this camp. But the Bible teaches that time is moving forward. All of history, like a river flowing to the sea, has a set trajectory towards a certain goal. While my professor believed that trajectory implied God moving further and further away from his people, the Bible actually teaches the opposite: God is moving closer and closer to his cherished creation.
While he knew the Scriptures very well, my professor did not know the God of the Scriptures, and he did not know the Messiah. When we see the story through the lens of Jesus and the New Covenant, we see a very different trajectory.
After the book of Malachi, there were 400 years of silence in the land. The silence was broken with an angelic announcement to Mary, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and you shall call His name Immanuel.” (Is 7:14) Immanuel means “God with us.” God did not withdraw from his people, instead he came closer than they believed possible. He “became flesh and dwelled among us” (John 1:14). He walked and talked with people again. He taught the truth of God’s word, proclaiming the kingdom of God and preaching repentance. He gave himself up as a sacrifice, the ultimate demonstration of God’s love for humanity. Then, God came even closer.
As Jesus was crucified, the veil in the temple that separated the Holy of Holies (where the presence of God dwelled) from the rest of the Temple was torn from top to bottom. Not only had God come near, but he made a way for his people to draw near to him.
“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body.”
Heb 10:19-20
After Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to the Father, he promised something to come that was even better than his physical presence. A few days later at the feast of Shavuot or Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came. God came even closer! Not only did he come in the flesh, but now he would dwell inside the hearts of his people. The Holy Spirit, the very presence of God, lives in us as a guarantee of what is to come (2 Cor 5:5). We spent Pentecost in Jerusalem last month, talking to people about Jesus. What a gift!
The story of God and humanity is far from finished. We are now in a time of waiting, living in the tension of the “already” and the “not yet.” His Kingdom lives in us now, ever expanding, as we wait for his return and the establishment of his everlasting kingdom here on earth.
Where is God? The Setting of the Story
The history of God and humanity recorded in Scripture is framed by the relationship between God and Israel. Jesus came as a Jewish man to the land of the Jewish people. There he died fulfilling the words of the Jewish prophets, there he rose, and there he will return. Jesus is coming back to Jerusalem, where he will reign as King!
When Jesus approached Jerusalem the week that he was crucified, he wept over the city. He longed to gather them to himself, but they were unwilling. As he wept, he prophesied to the city: “See, 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.’” (Matt 23:39)
One day, when Israel cries out for Jesus, Yeshua, the Messiah to return and rule as King. He will be united with his people, fulfilling every promise and wiping every tear from our eyes. His name will be the only name (Zech 14:9).
While we can celebrate the beauty of the land of Israel today and all that God has done there, we also must recognize that things are not as they should be. There is not peace in the land.
There is conflict, pain, and darkness. The majority of Israelis reject Jesus as Messiah. We weep with Jesus.
But we know that a day is coming when Jerusalem will be at peace. The prophet Isaiah foretold a day when Jerusalem would be “called by a new name,” and “a praise in the earth.” Her land will no longer be “desolate,” but it will be called “married” to the Lord, her bridegroom. (See Isaiah 62:1-7).
In Revelation we see the ultimate end of the story, “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev 21:2). God will dwell among his people again in paradise, a new heaven and a new earth. We will be with him forever! A restoration of unbroken fellowship, shalom with God, even better than the garden of Eden.
I still pray for my professor who believed that God disappeared from his people’s story. Please pray for the Jewish community around the world, that their eyes would be opened to their God who is so present, so near, longing to gather them to himself. And pray for the peace of Jerusalem, the only city in Scripture for which we are commanded to pray (Ps 122:6).
Never forget - history is going somewhere! The story is the Lord’s, it ends in Jerusalem, and we all have a unique part to play.