Apocalypse Revealed #880
880. Jerusalem in the Word means the church because the Temple and altar were there in the land of Canaan and nowhere else, and sacrifices were made there. Thus it was the focus of Divine worship. The three annual feasts were accordingly also celebrated there, and every male throughout the land was commanded to attend them. For that reason Jerusalem symbolizes the church with respect to worship, and so also the church with respect to doctrine, inasmuch as worship is prescribed by doctrine and is conducted in accordance with it.
Jerusalem means the church, too, because the Lord was there and taught in its temple, and later glorified His humanity there.
That Jerusalem means the church with respect to its doctrine and consequent worship is apparent from many passages in the Word. As for example, from these verses in Isaiah:
For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her righteousness goes forth as a radiance, and her salvation as a burning lamp. Then gentiles shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. You shall also be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will proclaim. And you shall be a crown of glory in the hand of Jehovah, and a royal jewel 1 in the hand of your God... ...Jehovah will delight in you, and your land shall be married.
Behold, your salvation is coming; behold, His reward is with Him... And they shall call them a holy people, the redeemed of Jehovah; and you shall be called a city sought out, not forsaken. (Isaiah 62:1-4, 11-12)
[2] The subject in that chapter is the Lord's advent and a new church to be established by Him. This new church is the church meant by Jerusalem, which shall be called by a new name that the mouth of Jehovah will proclaim; which will be a crown of glory in the hand of Jehovah and a royal jewel 1 in the hand of God; in which Jehovah will delight; and which shall be called a city sought out and not forsaken. This does not mean the Jerusalem inhabited by Jews when the Lord came into the world, for that Jerusalem was of a totally opposite character. It was rather to be called Sodom, as it also is called in Revelation 11:8, Isaiah 3:9, Jeremiah 23:14, and Ezekiel 16:46, 48.
[3] Elsewhere in Isaiah:
...behold, I am creating a new heaven and a new earth; the former shall not be remembered... Be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating. ...behold, I am creating Jerusalem to be an exultation, and her people a joy, that I may exult over Jerusalem and rejoice over My people... Then the wolf and the lamb shall feed together... They shall not do evil... in all My holy mountain... (Isaiah 65:17-19, 25)
In this chapter, too, the subject is the Lord's advent and a church to be established by Him, one that was not established among the people in Jerusalem but among people elsewhere. Consequently that church is the one meant here by Jerusalem, which will be an exultation to the Lord and whose people will be a joy to Him, where the wolf and lamb will feed together, and the people will not do evil.
As in the book of Revelation, we are told here also that the Lord will create a new heaven and a new earth, and that He will create Jerusalem, which have similar symbolic meanings.
[4] Elsewhere in Isaiah:
Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come to you. Shake yourself from the dust, arise; sit down, O Jerusalem! ...Therefore My people shall know My name... in that day; for it is I who speaks: behold, it is I. ...Jehovah has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. (Isaiah 52:1-2, 6, 9)
The subject in this chapter is also the Lord's advent and the church to be established by Him. Therefore the Jerusalem into which the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come, and which the Lord will redeem, means the church, and Jerusalem, the holy city, means the church with respect to doctrine from the Lord and concerning the Lord.
[5] In Zephaniah:
Shout, O daughter of Zion! Be glad... with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! ...The King of Israel... is in your midst; fear evil no longer! ...He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will rest in your love, He will exult over you with exultation... ...I will give you a name and praise among all the peoples of the earth... (Zephaniah 3:14-17, 20)
Here likewise the subject is the Lord and a church established by Him, over which the King of Israel, namely the Lord, will rejoice with gladness and exult with exultation, and in whose love He will rest, who will give them a name and praise among all the peoples of the earth.
[6] In Isaiah:
Thus said Jehovah, your Redeemer and your Former..., who says to Jerusalem, "You shall be inhabited," and to the cities of Judah, "You shall be rebuilt."... (Isaiah 44:24, 26)
And in Daniel:
Know and perceive: from the going forth of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks... (Daniel 9:25)
It is apparent that Jerusalem here also means the church, since it was the church that the Lord restored and rebuilt, and not Jerusalem, the Jewish capital.
[7] Jerusalem means a church established by the Lord also in the following passages. In Zechariah:
Thus said Jehovah, "I will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, and the mountain of Jehovah Zebaoth a holy mountain." (Zechariah 8:3, cf. 8:20-23)
In Joel:
Then you shall know that I am Jehovah your God, dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain. Then Jerusalem shall be holy... And it will come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip with new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk..., and Jerusalem (shall abide) from generation to generation. (Joel 3:17-21)
In Isaiah:
In that day the offshoot of Jehovah shall be beautiful and glorious... And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy - everyone recorded among the living in Jerusalem. (Isaiah 4:2-3)
In Micah:
...in the latter days the mountain of Jehovah's house shall be established on top of the mountains... For out of Zion doctrine shall go forth, and the Word of Jehovah from Jerusalem... ...to you... the former kingdom shall come, the kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem. (Micah 4:1-2, 8)
In Jeremiah:
At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah, and all the nations shall be gathered..., because of the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem. No more shall they go after the justification of their evil hearts. (Jeremiah 3:17)
In Isaiah:
Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts; let your eyes see Jerusalem, a tranquil habitation, a tabernacle that will not vanish; its stakes will never be removed, nor any of its cords be broken. (Isaiah 33:20)
And so on elsewhere, as in Isaiah 24:23; 37:32; 66:10-14; Zechariah 12:3, 6, 8-10; 14:8, 11-12, 21; Malachi 3:2, 4; Psalms 122:1-7; 137:4-6.
[8] Jerusalem in these places means a church which the Lord would establish, and not Jerusalem in the land of Canaan inhabited by Jews. This can be seen from passages in the Word which say that Jerusalem was completely ruined and would be destroyed, as in Jeremiah 5:1; 6:6-7; 7:17-18; Luke 19:41-44; 21:20-22; 23:28-30; and in many other places.
V:
1. The word translated as "jewel" here means a diadem or crown in the original Greek and Latin, but the writer's definitions of the term elsewhere make plain that he regularly and consistently interpreted it to mean a jewel or gem.
Ezekiel 41
1
He brought me to the temple, and measured the posts, six cubits broad on the one side, and six cubits broad on the other side, which was the breadth of the tent.
2
The breadth of the entrance was ten cubits; and the sides of the entrance were five cubits on the one side, and five cubits on the other side: and he measured its length, forty cubits, and the breadth, twenty cubits.
3
Then went he inward, and measured each post of the entrance, two cubits; and the entrance, six cubits; and the breadth of the entrance, seven cubits.
4
He measured its length, twenty cubits, and the breadth, twenty cubits, before the temple: and he said to me, This is the most holy place.
5
Then he measured the wall of the house, six cubits; and the breadth of every side room, four cubits, all around the house on every side.
6
The side rooms were in three stories, one over another, and thirty in order; and they entered into the wall which belonged to the house for the side rooms all around, that they might have hold [therein], and not have hold in the wall of the house.
7
The side rooms were broader as they encompassed [the house] higher and higher; for the encompassing of the house went higher and higher around the house: therefore the breadth of the house [continued] upward; and so one went up [from] the lowest [room] to the highest by the middle [room].
8
I saw also that the house had a raised base all around: the foundations of the side rooms were a full reed of six great cubits.
9
The thickness of the wall, which was for the side rooms, on the outside, was five cubits: and that which was left was the place of the side rooms that belonged to the house.
10
Between the rooms was a breadth of twenty cubits around the house on every side.
11
The doors of the side rooms were toward [the place] that was left, one door toward the north, and another door toward the south: and the breadth of the place that was left was five cubits all around.
12
The building that was before the separate place at the side toward the west was seventy cubits broad; and the wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length ninety cubits.
13
So he measured the house, one hundred cubits long; and the separate place, and the building, with its walls, one hundred cubits long;
14
also the breadth of the face of the house, and of the separate place toward the east, one hundred cubits.
15
He measured the length of the building before the separate place which was at its back, and its galleries on the one side and on the other side, one hundred cubits; and the inner temple, and the porches of the court;
16
the thresholds, and the closed windows, and the galleries around on their three stories, over against the threshold, with wood ceilings all around, and [from] the ground up to the windows, (now the windows were covered),
17
to [the space] above the door, even to the inner house, and outside, and by all the wall all around inside and outside, by measure.
18
It was made with cherubim and palm trees; and a palm tree was between cherub and cherub, and every cherub had two faces;
19
so that there was the face of a man toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side. [thus was it] made through all the house all around:
20
from the ground to above the door were cherubim and palm trees made: thus was the wall of the temple.
21
As for the temple, the door posts were squared; and as for the face of the sanctuary, the appearance [of it] was as the appearance [of the temple].
22
The altar was of wood, three cubits high, and its length two cubits; and its corners, and its length, and its walls, were of wood: and he said to me, This is the table that is before Yahweh.
23
The temple and the sanctuary had two doors.
24
The doors had two leaves [apiece], two turning leaves: two [leaves] for the one door, and two leaves for the other.
25
There were made on them, on the doors of the temple, cherubim and palm trees, like as were made on the walls; and there was a threshold of wood on the face of the porch outside.
26
There were closed windows and palm trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch: thus were the side rooms of the house, and the thresholds.
