Jerusalem Our Mother by William Covert

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Sep 28, 1882

Jerusalem Our Mother.

By William Covert

BY ELD. WILLIAM COVERT.

FROM the time that it was revealed that Christ should bring salvation to man, a period of about four thousand years intervened before his introduction as the Messiah to the Jewish people. But during this period all the manifestations of God's glory and his grace were made in view of the great truth that the Son of God had become surety for man. And during this time a typical service was established in an earthly temple, in Old Jerusalem. Here, for a time, was the glory of God manifested. 1 Kings 8: 10, 11. This connection was forever severed in the midst of the covenant week. Dan. 9: 27; Matt. 23: 37, 38. The Lord's glory was removed from the temple in Old Jerusalem, and the word spoken by Christ was fulfilled: she was left desolate and forsaken. His own presence and power had been manifested in her, but it will no more comfort and bless this forsaken city.

But there is a Jerusalem above which must have been the theater of Christ's glory before it was manifested in the metropolis of Judea. See Gal. 4: 22-31. I will offer some thoughts which suggest themselves to my mind in reading John 14: 1-3; Jude 6; and Isa. 58: 1-8.

The heavenly city is the bride of the king's Son. Matt. 22: 1, 2. Yet he had been united to this bride at one time before the celebration of the nuptials mentioned in this parable. Doubtless Christ, the maker and husband of this city, had often assembled the heavenly host within her jasper walls even before Satan's revolt. There the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy. There were the habitations of angels, and there their "first estate." But on account of their sympathy and co-operation with the chief of sinners they were expelled from their heavenly abode, thus leaving their mansions unoccupied. Soon after this event Adam and Eve were overcome by the wicked one, and it then became necessary that the Son of God should enter upon the plan of redemption. In order to accomplish this, he must identify himself more closely with the children of men, and thus in time he transferred a measure of his glory to the earthly Jerusalem. In this manner the heavenly city is forsaken for a small moment. See Isa. 54: 6-8. As Sarah the wife of Abraham's youth, felt grieved in spirit at Hagar for a time, thinking she had gained the affections of her husband, so Jerusalem above is represented in the allegory as aggrieved, reproached, and put to shame. As Hagar and Ishmael were cast out of Abraham's family because of their skepticism and jealousy in regard to the child of promise, so Old Jerusalem and all her skeptical sons were rejected when Christ's glory is again manifested in the heavenly city.

As Hagar had for a time supposed that her son was heir to Abraham's property, so had Old Jerusalem concluded that her sons were entitled to all of God's blessings. Yet how vain her hopes! How transient her glory!

But glorious things are spoken of the city of God. Instead of having only household servants in which to glory, she is to have a mother's love. Every mansion is to be occupied by her own happy sons and daughters. Although she is longing for the time when her children can enjoy a mother's presence, she has the consolation of knowing that they are only away at school, and that they are being taught by her Lord. Isa. 54: 13. She is invited to sing while the place of her tent is being enlarged. Her husband possesses both skill and means to make the reception of her children an occasion of songs and thankful joy. Though she has stood for ages yet she is New Jerusalem. New to her Lord and new to her children. Well may we "rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad with her," and "be delighted with the abundance of her glory." For the Lord "will extend peace to her like a river." We "shall be borne upon her sides and dandled upon her knees." She is "created a rejoicing and her people a joy." Her children will eat the fruit of life and drink at the fountain of youth. Thus will the thought of "mother" be enshrined in our hearts forever, for we shall dwell long in the land which our "Father" shall give us.