Jerusalem sits in the mountains of Judea, on a plateau surrounded by deep valleys. Before becoming the capital of Israel, it was a Canaanite fortress inhabited by the Jebusites.
King David conquered the city and made it his capital, calling it the City of David. His son Solomon built the temple of the Lord there, making Jerusalem the center of Israelite worship.
The city lived through centuries of glory and also tragedy. It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC and rebuilt after the exile, under the leadership of Nehemiah, among other leaders.
In the New Testament, Jerusalem is the setting for Jesus’s final week: the triumphal entry, the trial, the crucifixion, and the resurrection. It was also there that the Holy Spirit descended on the newborn church, on the day of Pentecost.
Jerusalem reveals God’s heart for a people and, through them, for all nations. Ancient promises were fulfilled in its streets, and the church was born there to reach the whole world. It is no accident that the Bible ends with the vision of a new Jerusalem coming down from heaven.
