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became a leading city in the world
of that day. Solomon built the
Temple of God on Mou n t
Moriah- probably the finest and
most expensive building for its size
and character in human history.
Walls of the building were over laid
with gold and jewels. The finest
workmanship and materials avail–
able were put into this building.
I n addition to the temple, Solo–
mon built his own magnificent pal–
ace. With this and many other con–
struction projects of homes, stables
and landscaping, Jerusalem became
a showplace. T he fame of Solomon
and Jerusalem spread throughout
the Middle East and the world that
then was. When the Queen of Sbe–
ba carne to Jerusalem to see for
herself she said, "It was a true
report that
l
heard in mine own
land of thy acts and of thy wisdom.
Howbeit
1
believed not the words,
until
1
carne, and mine eyes had
seen it: and, behold the half was not
told me: thy wisdom and prosperity
exceedeth the fame which
l
heard"
(1
Kings l 0:6-7).
However, J erusalem's prosperity
and peace did not last. They were
conditional-based on Israel 's obe–
dience. By the end of the reign of
Solomon , Israel had wandered far
from God's ways.
After the death of Solomon, the
kingdom split in two. The north–
ern 1O tribes revolted against Sol–
omon's son Rehoboam and estab–
lished their own nation- the
House of lsrael- with the capital
later at Samaria. The House of
J udah kept J erusalem as its capi–
tal.
The northern lO tribes of I srael
were defeated by the Assyr ians
and carried into captivity- they
have not returned to this very
day.
The House of J udah, with sorne
remnants of the northern tribes
who had fted earlier into Judea,
was taken captive by the Chal–
deans. Jerusalem's inhabitants were
slain by the thousands- the city
burned to rubble and the magnifi–
cent temple torn down. T he gold
and precious jewels and accoutre–
ments of the temple were carried to
Babylon by. the conquering Babylo–
nians. The glorious city of J erusa–
lem was totally destroyed.
The Restoration
After the Medes and Persians con–
quered the Babylonians, the Per–
sian kings permitted the Jews to
return to J erusalem. A temple was
rebuilt by Zerubbabel. Under the
direction of Ezra and Nehemiah
the city walls eventually were
reconstructed. The second temple
had little of the glory of Solomon's
temple. But the Jews had reestab–
lished themselves in their homeland
and had a temple.
Within another 250 years Jeru–
salem was once again torn to pieces
by war.
In 167 B.C. Antiochus Epiph–
anes destroyed large segments of
the city and polluted the sanctuary
by sacrificing swine's blood on the
holy altar. T housands of Jews were
killed in the onslaught. But in the
end they prevailed.
During the first century B.C.,
the war machines of Rome began to
absorb the world. Jerusalem fell to
the Roman general Pompey in 63
B.C. Thus, Judea became aRoman
protectorate.
The Romans appointed Herod
the Great as king of the region.
Under his ru le J erusalem was
rebuilt into a showplace for the
Roman world. H erod restored the
second temple, which, by this time,
had existed longer than Solomon's
temple. It was in this temple that
Jesus Christ of Nazareth would
appear and teach during a brief 3
Y2-
year ministry.
J esus didn' t really spend a great
deal of time in Jerusalem. As his
custom was, be went up for the
annual festivals (Luke 2:42). But he
loved Jerusalem. Of course, he had
known its tumultuous history, and
he knew the glory that was prophe–
sied for the future. He knew it would
one day be his very headquarters and
that the resurrected David would be
there, too. He knew his 12 apostles
would each rule over one of the
12
tribes of Israel and that he would
become King over the entire earth.
But that was not to be accomplished
during Christ's first appearing- it
would be centuries later at his Sec–
ond Coming, when the government
of God would be reestablished over
the earth.
In the meantime, Jerusalem's
painful history would continue.
When Jesus looked upon Jerusa-