God promises us a heavenly Jerusalem.

Wednesday, 3/14/18

I am sure you are aware of this, but let me recount the odd thing about our Bible's Book of the Prophet Isaiah. Chapters One through 39 cover the years from 743 B.C. to 705 B.C.  Then, Chapters 40 through Chapters through Chapter 66 cover the years 533 B.C. to 520 B.C.

In the final chapter of the first thirty-nine chapters Babylon, a new power in the Middle East, sent a friendly ambassador to Jerusalem. The next chapter, Chapter 40, picks up the history one hundred and seventy years later. That friendly power of Babylon had become viscous. enslaving Jerusalem for seventy years, only to be conquered by Persia.

The Persian emperor, Cyrus II, has declared the right of the descendant of Jerusalem's former citizens to go, build up a new Jerusalem. We can take this reading as God's promising us a heavenly Jerusalem .