THE antiquity of Jerusalem is very great, if it really be (as Josephus affirms) the Salem of Melchizedek, for we have now to add to the two thousand one hundred and seventy-seven years, which he gives as the period of its existence, the eighteen hundred which have passed since he wrote “The Wars of the Jews.”
If it bore the name of Salem in Abraham’s day, it had become changed by the time that Joshua led Israel into the Promised Land; it was then known as “Jebus,” and the name of the Jebusites is a familiar one in the list of nations to be expelled by Israel. The name of its then reigning king reminds one of the ancient Melchizedek― “Adonizedek,” Lord of Righteousness―but there the likeness ends. He attacked Gibeon because of its covenant with Joshua, but the battle ended in the rout of the Canaanites. Though allotted to Benjamin, Jebus was not taken, but after Joshua’s death Judah attacked it and set it on fire. It would appear that this capture was only partial, for farther on in the chapter we read that Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites, but, says the sacred writer, they “dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day.” Probably it was only part of the city, the Mount Zion of after history and a stronghold, which was so retained by the Jebusites. Later on it was called “the city of a stranger, that is not of the children of Israel.”
The “stronghold of Zion” did not come into the possession of Judah till David himself took it after he was king. It hence received the name “The city of David,” which must not be confounded with the like New Testament title, by which Bethlehem is meant.
We can only touch upon the changes which grew up under the hands of David, and of his son, Solomon. The work of the former seemed to have reference chiefly to strengthening the city. “He built round about,” says the Scripture, which apparently refers to the wall. According to Josephus, Solomon “built the walls of Jerusalem much larger and stronger than those that had been there before,” and set great towers upon them. One great event in its history was the bringing thither the ark of God, and setting it in its place in the midst of the tabernacle that David had pitched for it. From that moment its dignity was wonderfully heightened. It was now not merely “the city of David”; Jehovah’s Name was there; it was “the mountain of His holiness.” The desire of David’s heart, however, was forbidden him―the building a house for God to dwell in. The site was secured by him from Araunah, the Jebusite king, and he stored the materials for the work, but the honor of building the Temple was reserved for Solomon, who carried out that grand work, and further adorned the city with his own palace. We can hardly conceive the glorious appearance and wealth of Jerusalem― “a city, in the palaces of which all the vessels were of pure gold, where spices, precious stones, rare woods, and curious animals were accumulated in the greatest profusion; where silver was no more valued than the stones of the street, and considered too mean a material for the commonest of the royal purposes” ―such a city, and in such times of peace as Solomon enjoyed, furnished no unworthy type of the glory which yet awaits it under the reign of the true Solomon―the Prince of Peace.
Of course, the beauty of Zion did not consist merely of its architectural adornments. Its situation was striking, ― “beautiful,” is the Psalmist’s word. It stood on the edge of one of the highest, tableland: of the country. Only from the south, where Hebron rose higher than Zion, was there a descent to the city, on every other side the hill ended abruptly, while the journey from every point but the south was an ascent, and “going up” to Jerusalem was no mere figure. “It must have always presented the appearance,” writes one, “beyond any other capital of the then known world, ―we may add, beyond any important city that has ever existed on the earth, ―of a mountain city, breathing, as compared with the sultry plains of the Jordan or of the coast, a mountain air; enthroned, as compared with Jericho or Damascus, Gaza or Tyre, on a mountain fastness.” Upon its appearance when viewed from a distance we do not dwell this has been already touched upon in a previous paper on Bethany. But no modern descriptions are more eloquent than the touching exclamations of the ancients. How lovingly did the Jews of old dwell upon its strength and its beauty “Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever,” is the assertion of its strength. “Comely as Jerusalem,” is the simile in Solomon’s Song of Solomon “Zion, the perfection of beauty,” “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth,” is the language of various Psalms, and these last two expressions Jeremiah has brought together in his sad Lamentation after its desolation, showing their proverbial character: “Is this the city that men call ‘The perfection of beauty,’ ‘The joy of the whole earth’?”
With Solomon’s death came a change. Rehoboam was of a different temper from his father and his grandfather. Not that Jerusalem depended for its prosperity or its decline upon the abilities of its kings. We shall do well to mark the reason of its downfall; it is a lesson to our own souls. “When Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the Lord.” For this reason the Lord “left him in the hand of Shishak,” king of Egypt. The Egyptian host came up against the city; Rehoboam made no resistance, and the city was stripped of its treasures.
We cannot closely follow its chequered after history; remarkable among other things for the number of times it was besieged. “In the fifteen centuries which elapsed between these two points (namely, its capture by the men of Judah and its destruction by Titus), the city was besieged no fewer than seventeen times; twice it was razed to the ground, and on two other occasions its walls were leveled. In this respect it stands without a parallel in any city ancient and modern. The last of the sieges related in Scripture was that under Nebuchadnezzar. A vassal to Babylon, Zedekiah had been made king by Nebuchadnezzar, but the former broke his oath and rebelled, and the city was invested, taken, set on fire, and utterly destroyed, its beauteous Temple sharing in the desolation. So desolate was it, that an enemy spoke of it as the “heaps of rubbish which are burned.”
In time the Babylonian power was broken, the Persian took its place, and, in exact fulfillment of the prophetic word, decrees were made authorizing the return of captive Judah and the rebuilding of the beloved city. Under many adverse conditions the work was carried out, the wall was restored, and a temple built. Upon the fall of the Persian power, Alexander the Great marched up to Jerusalem, and was met by the priests in full priestly garments. The new ruler treated the Jews most kindly, and gave them permission to enjoy their own laws. Passing over the period which elapsed till the days of Herod, though that period was eventful enough, we find that in the year B.C. 39, Herod, who had been appointed king by the Romans, laid siege to Jerusalem at the head of a Roman force. The besieged made a resolute defense, and though Herod commanded a proclamation to be made that he had come for the good of the people and the preservation of the city, they relaxed none of their efforts to hold their own. After sometime the city fell, and then the Romans, incensed at the time lost, fell upon, the inhabitants like “a company of madmen,” sparing neither man nor woman, old or young. It was by Herod’s own personal intervention (he fearing that such ravages would only leave him king of a desert) that the slaughter was arrested and the Temple preserved. In the hands of Herod many improvements were made fortifications and public buildings were built, but, greatest work of all, the Temple was rebuilt, ―the Temple with which our Lord was familiar, and which was, as the Jews reminded Him, forty and six years in building. It was in no spirit of adoration, such as moved David to the work, that Herod carried out his wonderful operations, though he asserted that by so doing he intended to make a thankful return to God, after the most pious manner, for what blessings he had received from Him. But Josephus is probably nearer the mark when he says that Herod intended it to be for “an everlasting memorial” to his own name.
In splendor and beauty this Temple, “adorned with goodly stones and gifts,” equaled, if it did not even exceed, the Temple of Solomon. It was a mass of marble and gold, having the appearance at a distance of “amount of snow, fretted with golden pinnacles.” Some of the stones employed were of an almost fabulous length-some as much as seventy feet long, others forty-three feet high. To such stones as these, and to the buildings as a whole, did the disciples call the attention of the Lord: “What manner of stones and what buildings are here!” “Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.”
Such was the sad answer of the Lord, and too soon was the prophecy fulfilled. Only forty years passed and the sorrows fell. The horrors of that time it is impossible to conceive; the besieged, rent by internal dissensions, fighting one against another; famine fighting against all; while outside the city walls the legions of Rome irresistibly, if slowly, moved on from point to point, capturing first one position, then another, laying hold of the miserable wretches who sought to escape from the city, whipping, tormenting, and crucifying them, nailing those they caught, says Josephus, “one after one way, and one after another, to the crosses by way of jest; when their multitude was so great, that room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses wanting for the bodies.” At last the city fell, and fire and slaughter did their horrid work; the glorious Temple was burnt, thousands of persons were killed, and thousands more taken captive. For it had been an accession to the distresses of the time that the siege began just as the whole country had come up to Jerusalem to the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the city was thronged with people.
Since that day, the city has been trodden down of the Gentiles; but the end is not yet. The prophetic word makes it plain that still further distresses await it, but glory is in store as well, when its sorrows shall have ceased and Jehovah’s King shall be set upon His holy hill of Zion. How long, or how soon that maybe we cannot tell, but to Jew and to Christian this famous city must ever be of surpassing interest, to the latter, at present, even more than to the Jew. For it is the city that Jesus loved; the city over which He wept, and outside whose gate He died. There, too, will He reign gloriously; the promises of blessing shall be as exactly fulfilled as have been its woes; Jerusalem shall be “safely inhabited,” and its name shall be called “Jehovah-Shammah”― “the Lord is there.” Jr.