RPG Adults
PILGRIMAGE TO JERUSALEM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 29
Psalm 122:1-9
Jude 2
“But glory, honour, and peace,
to every man that worketh good,
to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile.”
PILGRIMAGE TO JERUSALEM
We have conducted ten pilgrimages to the Holy Land from 1983 to 2001 and we go in the spirit of Psalm 122: “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.” Why must we go to Jerusalem? “Because it is the City founded by the Lord Himself. Jerusalem is Zion, the City of David and Jerusalem is the place God has appointed His temple to be built.”
In spite of the sins of God’s people that had led to the destruction of both Solomon’s Temple and the Second Temple and the dispersion of God’s people to the ends of the earth, God has promised to regather them and build up the City again. God began to bring back the wandering Jews after the end of World War I (1914-18). God gave them their land (partly) again when Israel became an Independent Nation on May 14, 1948. (Editor’s note: In 2018, Israel has become a super power. Her population has risen from 650,000 to almost 8.5 million and Jerusalem has almost 860,000.)
This restoration that is recorded in thirty-four passages in the Old Testament is in preparation for the return of Christ (the Greater Son of David) to earth, to usher in the rule of a thousand years of peace.
In contrast to Jerusalem, Samaria (the capital city of the Ten Northern Tribes) was destroyed and according to Micah, it will never be restored (Micah 1:6). Today, if you visit Samaria you will see it in heaps.
Prior to the Lord’s Return there are more and more nations from all over the world making pilgrimages to the City God has chosen. And you who go and pray for the peace of Jerusalem are blessed.
THOUGHT: What is my attitude toward the Jews? The whole world’s attitude is overwhelmingly against them.
PRAYER: Father, have mercy upon both Jews and Arabs that they may cease from fighting.