Mount Zion

But at the same time, in the background of that, there is also a sense that maybe the whole creation which has been groaning in travail, as Paul says in Romans 8, maybe there will be a new birth for the whole world, the whole creation.

So you've got the promise of the restoration of the people and the community, and you've got a promise of the return of Israel's God to Zion and you've got them crucially in the opening chapter 40 verses 1 to 11 and as the whole long poem is getting to its climax in 52 7 to 12 a very powerful passage about the people on the mountains who are shouting out that it's time for God to become king The Lord Almighty reigns and the watchmen lift up their voices and shout for joy because in plain sight they see Yahweh returning to Zion.

This isn't a sort of airy-fairy idea in somebody's mind.

This is going to be a reality.

The dream of a distant, disembodied heaven is basically what you get from Plato, not from the Bible.

That's a whole other story.

So how does the book then work? You've got the theme of the return of Yahweh to Zion, which in the New Testament is picked up in what we call Christology, in the picture of Jesus, in the Gospels, and in Paul, that the way they tell the story of Jesus is so as to say, This is what it looked like when Yahweh returned to Zion.

There's that extraordinary parable in passage in Luke 19 where Jesus is riding on a donkey into Jerusalem and Luke says he told them this parable because they were getting near Jerusalem and they supposed the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.

And his Zabor is in Shalem in Yerushalayim.

And his dwelling place is in Zion.

Also a Pasuk that says the same thing twice.

But what's the beauty of that Pasuk as it relates to the first Pasuk? Is that Yerushalayim is strategically located on the border between Yehudah and Yisrael.

It was in between.

So it represents the perfect unity of Am Yisrael.

So God's dwelling place was in Yerushalayim and his abode was in Zion.

And there, now we talk about the war that's going to take place in Yerushalayim.

Desperation.

He said, what's the happy element of all of the suffering and the destruction here? Because it says that God destroyed Zion.

He destroyed Yerushalayim.

And he didn't destroy his people.

escape

from Mount Zion.

The seal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

So notice, what do we find about the remnant here? There are promises that the remnant is going to flourish again.

But it is in his heart to destroy and to cut off nations, not a few.

For he says, Are not my commanders all kings? Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus? As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria, shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her images? When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the speech of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the boastful look in his eyes.

For he says, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom, for I have understanding.

I remove the boundaries of peoples, and plunder their treasures.

Her enemies chased her to a place with no escape.

The roads to Zion are very sad because no one comes to Zion for the festivals anymore.

All of Zion's gates have been destroyed, all her priests groan in sorrow.

zion's young women are upset and all this made zion sad jerusalem's enemies have won her enemies have been successful this happened because the lord punished her he punished jerusalem for her many sins her children have gone away their enemies captured them and took them away daughter zion has lost her beauty Her princes are like starving deer looking for grass.

They are too weak to run away from those who chase them.

Lamentations 2, verses 1 through 6.

The Lord destroyed Jerusalem.

Poor Jerusalem, look how the Lord has covered daughter Zion with the cloud of his anger.

On that day, the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and glory of the survivors of Israel.

Whoever is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy.

Everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, once the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.

Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over its places of assembly a cloud by day and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night.

Indeed, over all the glory there will be a canopy.

It will serve as a pavilion, a shade by day from the heat, and a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.

On that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and glory of the survivors of Israel.

Whoever is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy.

Everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem.

Once the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning, then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over its places of assembly a cloud by day and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night.

Indeed, over all the glory there will be a canopy.

It will serve as a pavilion, a shade by day from the heat, and a refuge and a shelter from the storm and the rain.

And everyone who calls in the name of the Lord will be saved.

For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.

Joel gave the promise of the Holy Spirit poured out on sons and daughters, old and young.

Now Psalm 16 gives the resurrection hope Peter proclaims.