Standing on the Mount of Olives, where untold numbers have stood down the centuries before me, I let my gaze take in the magnificent expanse of Jerusalem’s Old City, half framed by the converging Kidron and Hinnom valleys which become one to my left - the rocky gorge cutting down through the Judean wilderness to the Dead Sea.
One day, a powerful fresh river will flood that canyon and bring life to the lifeless water far below…
My eyes play over the scarred battlements on top of the ancient yellow walls of the City of Peace that has never known peace.
They sweep the eastern wall with its sealed Gate Beautiful (Golden Gate) closing this access to the platform that covers Mount Moriah - the Temple Mount.
Spires, minarets and synagogue roofs pepper my field of vision, crowding the space inside the walls, vying for prominence in - and control of - the most venerated city in the world.
Just outside the famous Jaffa Gate, Jerusalemites and tourists are bringing their custom to the first stores and cafes that have opened for business in the new Millo Mall. Across the road stand the already occupied million-dollar homes and tree-lined boulevards of “David’s Village,” and adjacent to it, the solid stepped horseshoe structure of Jerusalem’s Citadel Hotel.
Further west, crane after construction crane boasts of the building boom that is rapidly changing the face of the modern city. Climbing up to fill the skyline are hundreds of luxurious apartment blocks with names like “Jerusalem of Gold,” “David’s Crown” and the “King David’s Palace and Residences” that will line the newly-designated “Derech Hamelech” (”Way of the King”).
How interesting it is, this focus on Israel’s greatest king. Of course, it is more than interesting; It’s exceedingly meaningful; in my eyes a very real sign of the times.
For nearly three millennia, since the death of Solomon and the rupture of his kingdom, Israel’s people have been waiting David’s return in the shape of Messiah, the One Who will restore the Kingdom to Israel once more.
Their anticipation and hope has always increased in desperate days.
Heaven knows how desperately many are looking for Him now.
Plagued by persistent peril, after decades of war and relentless, round-the-clock terrorism, the Jews - even many of those who most vehemently protest that it is not so with them - are starting to despair.
Sixty years ago this November, breath blew on the hope that had all but been snuffed out in the gas chambers and crematoria of Europe.
It burst into a tiny flicker of flame.
For the briefest of moments, the Gentile hatred of the ages was put on hold as the United Nations voted to partition Palestine so that a Jewish homeland could come into being once more.
Regretting their decision, the world body has sought from almost that very day to reverse the process that unfolded as Arab army after Arab army tried but failed to rub out the State of Israel.
Israel stabilized, increased the size of its borders by defeating - in wars of self defense - several aggressive Arab armies and - 40 years ago - restoring Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem for the first time in more than 2000 years.
As the miracles happened, the hope grew. Surely, the Jews thought, they had at last found a safe place to live as a nation.
Squinting my eyes against the glare, I can just make out Israel’s flat-topped parliament building - the Knesset, situated behind the construction sites and a fraction to the north.
A shrine and a beacon to those who worship democracy, the Knesset has increasingly become for Israel’s most God-fearing Jews, a place of darkness and harbinger of gloom; its most ardent activity repeatedly directed against those who still choose to believe the ancient promises - that the land of Israel was given exclusively to the people of Israel by One Whose authority exceeds that of any and all of its elected officials.
Today Israel is led by yet another prime minister more beholden to the United States than to the LORD; more concerned about Israel’s acceptance by the nations than about Israel’s calling to be a light to them.
Ehud Olmert has embraced, and plans to implement as quickly as possible, the world’s plan for the Jewish state. Shimon Peres, Israel’s “high priest of peace” has just been made state president and has vowed to work in tandem with Olmert to realize his dream of creating Palestine. US President George W. Bush is racing to see his vision of two states living side by side in peace before he has to vacate the White House next year.
This plan, this dream, this vision will see Israel’s borders confined to just a fraction of their ancient homeland; the Jews’ claim to the cradle of their nationhood relinquished for all time; the graves of their forefathers and the place in which the Twelve Tribes were established according to their inheritance taken from them; the land they prayed to return to for 2000 years denied them; and their ability to defend and protect themselves - in fact to survive as a nation - gravely compromised.
Things certainly look bleak for Israel’s Jews.
Hundreds of millions of devout Muslim Arabs believe that Israel’s days are numbered and that Allah is bringing the Jews back from the four corners of the earth to visit his judgment upon them in their land - Israel’s “great graveyard.”
Hundreds of millions of devout Christians see Israel as a curiosity; many believing that the Jews are being returned to their land where two-thirds of them will be slaughtered in the Battle of Armageddon and those who survive will convert to Christianity.
Hundreds of millions of devout secular humanists believe that the UN vote to partition Palestine was the biggest mistake made by the international community in the 20th century, and that it must be reversed.
Hundreds of millions of people believe that Israel is a warmongering and abusive nation that has stolen another people’s country, massacring them and making refugees out of the rest.
Not a single nation on the face of the earth is willing to stand up and fight for the right of the Jews to their own, small, divinely-promised homeland.
Despite the “never again” mantra of world leaders who “pledge” to ensure that another holocaust will not take place, not a single one of them is prepared to stand unequivocally and single-mindedly against any and every effort to inflict another holocaust on the Jews.
Israel stands alone.
It is true that there are many in Israel who, despite the bloody and painful outcome of the Oslo Agreements, which left over a thousand Jews killed and many thousands more wounded; despite the again and again repeated failure of the Palestinian Arabs to abide by any of their agreements; despite the ever-intensifying hostility of the international press - despite all the animosity and all the betrayals - still choose to place their hope and their trust in the United States and one or two other world leaders. Desperate for peace, they will believe all lies and swallow all deceptions, and will still be lured into believing the unbelievable.
And - as if they had not been betrayed by prime minister after prime minister - they continue to speculate about which of the current raft of potential candidates for the next prime minister will be “good for the Jews.”
In a July 17 message headed “Redemption is at hand,” Hebron’s Gary Cooperberg wrote:
“We are getting to the point where even the most absurd concepts are being accepted as normal and reasonable. The very survival of our nation appears to be under grave threat by our own leaders. All likely contenders for the office of our next prime minister are cut from the same cloth and promise no improvement.
“Clearly redemption is closer than ever. When the majority of Jews finally realize that none of our leaders is able to help us they will turn in desperation to our Father in Heaven. They will begin to understand that the only explanation for our very existence is owing to His infinite mercy and personal protection. Then we will return unto Him in penitence, prayer and supplication and seek to serve Him by observing His Law. Then we will become worthy of His miracles which will permeate the world and fulfill the prophesies which have yet to come to pass. He will send us one True Jewish Leader who will lead us in battle and return genuine Jewish pride and fear of G-d to our nation.”
Redemption is at hand. Many Jews are yearning and looking for the coming of the Son of David. And He will come, He has not abandoned them and He will not leave them at the mercy of the rapacious, God-hating and rejecting nations that are gathering, drooling, to divide up this little land and leave its people - God’s people - at the mercy of their foes.
We are living in the days of Messiah. He is coming soon. His feet will touch down here, right where I stand. Then He will cross the Kidron Valley and take up His place on the Throne of David that will stand inside the glorious new Temple – right over there, on the Temple Mount.
Hallelujah!
Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. (Zechariah 14:3-4)
And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory. It was like the appearance of the vision which I saw — like the vision which I saw when I came to destroy the city. The visions were like the vision which I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell on my face. And the glory of the LORD came into the temple by way of the gate which faces toward the east. The Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the temple.
Then I heard Him speaking to me from the temple, while a man stood beside me. And He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever…” (Ezekiel 43:2-7)
Original Source