BY DR. RICHARD BOOKER
This is the concluding article of our study of Jerusalem in prophecy. It covers the Mameluke period through the appearance of the New Jerusalem on the earth.
Mameluke Period (1291-1517 AD)
The Mamelukes were not a people or a nation. They were soldier slaves the Egyptians had imported from Asia. The Egyptians converted them to Islam and trained them from childhood to serve in their personal armies. Eventually they rose up against the Egyptians and overthrew them. They established their own rule in the Middle East with their capital in Cairo. We can liken their situation to that of the legendary Spartacus who led a slave army rebellion against Rome. While Spartacus lost, the Mamelukes were victorious.
Under their rule, Jews and Christians suffered greatly. The Mamelukes were extremely cruel and fanatical. They destroyed synagogues and forced Jews to wear a distinctive yellow turban and other degrading clothing and practices. Jews in Jerusalem were constantly harassed and most had to leave Jerusalem for fear of the lives. The land suffered greatly from neglect, and only a small minority of Jews and Christians survived the cruel conditions they were made to live under. Jerusalem was almost abandoned. While the land was laid to waste, the Mamelukes did build extensively in and around Jerusalem as a way of establishing a Muslim presence in the land.
The Mameluke Empire and rule over Jerusalem began to crumble in 1453 AD when the Turks invaded and conquered Constantinople thus ending a 1,000 year Byzantine capital and presence. The Turks renamed Constantinople Istanbul and established it as the capital of their empire. They then gained control of what had once been the Byzantine Empire. By 1517, they defeated the Mamelukes and ruled the entire Middle East including Palestine and Jerusalem.
Ottoman Turkish Period (1517-1917 AD)
The Ottoman Turks got their name from a Turkish warlord named Uthman or Othman who established a military dictatorship that grew into a great empire. He was the first Sultan and was succeeded by the Sultan Salim (1512-1520) who conquered the Holy Land and Jerusalem in 1517. His son, Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566), was a strong leader. Under his rule, the empire was greatly extended to encompass all of the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe. Twice they nearly conquered Vienna, which would have opened up all of Western Europe to Turkish Muslim rule. There were no independent nation-states in the Middle East during the Ottoman Empire as all the peoples were simply considered part of the territories of the Empire.
In Palestine and Jerusalem, Suleiman treated the Jews with benevolence and living condition in the land greatly improved which encouraged Jews to return. Suleiman rebuilt Jerusalem and the walls around the Old City which exist today. This was around 1545 AD.
Later rulers were not as wise as Suleiman and returned to the old attitudes and harassments against the Jews. They also neglected the land and taxed the people beyond what they could bear. When they taxed the trees, the people cut down the trees which led to a further desolation of the land making it almost uninhabitable.
The Ottoman Empire lasted 400 hundred years. When its power began to diminish it was known as the “sick man of Europe.” In World War I, Turkey sided with Germany and lost the war. The British and the French divided Turkey’s former Middle East territorial empire between them and artificially created five independent nation-states. These were Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Trans Jordan. Britain was given the mandate to govern Iraq, Palestine and Trans Jordan while France took Syria and Lebanon.
British Mandate (1917-1948)
The world changed forever on November 2, 1917 when British Foreign Secretary James Balfour issued the Balfour Declaration giving British support for the Jewish people to have their own state in Palestine. On December 9 of the same year, British Christian Zionist, General Edmund Allenby liberated Jerusalem from the Turks without firing a shot. On December 11, as a show of humility, he entered Jerusalem by foot. For the first time since the Crusades, Jerusalem was in the hands of a Christian power. At the San-Remo Conference held on April 25, 1920, the newly formed League of Nations assigned Britain the mandate to administer Palestine and create a national home for the Jews.
On November 29, 1947, the newly formed United Nations approved a resolution to partition the land between the Jews and the Arabs. On May 14, 1948, thirty years of British rule and the mandate of Palestine ended. The United Nations also declared that Jerusalem would be an international city.
Jordan (1948-1967 AD)
When Israel declared itself a state, five Arab neighbors attacked her. While Israel survived the attacks, Jordan took control of the Old City of Jerusalem. Jordan issued decrees severely limiting Christian worship and access to Christian holy sites. Jews were forbidden to enter the city. The Jordanian army destroyed all 58 synagogues in the Old City and desecrated the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives. It is interesting to note that during these 19 years when Jordan controlled the Old City, they did not think it important to proclaim an Arab state or Jerusalem as an Arab capital.
Israel (1967)
In May 1967, the Egyptian ruler, Abdul Nasser, provoked Israel to war by blocking the Israeli port of Eilat. He also ordered the United Nations peace-keeping force to leave the Sinai while massing his army to attack Israel. Left with no choice, the Israelis retaliated with a pre-emptive strike on June 5, 1967. The Israeli air force destroyed 450 Egyptian planes and took control of the Sinai. They also defeated the Syrians and took control of the Golan Heights. But most important, they defeated the Jordanian army and liberated the Old City of Jerusalem. This was all done in six days. Jews had control of the Temple Mount for the first time since the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 AD.
Israel will have to fight to hold Jerusalem as the Bible predicts a time when all the nations will attack Israel in the last great battle for God’s home town. Some obvious Scriptures that speak of this final unleashing of anti-Semitic-anti-Zionism are Isaiah 66:18; Micah 4:12; Zephaniah 3:8; Zechariah 14:2). The entire chapter of Zechariah 14 describes this battle and states that the Lord Himself will fight on behalf of Israel. While there will be much suffering and destruction, the God of Israel will defeat the enemies of Israel and establish Jerusalem as a praise in the earth (Isaiah 62:7).
The New Jerusalem
The Lord says He will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem at which time Jerusalem will be called “the Throne of the Lord” (Psalm 132:13-14; Zechariah 1:16-17; 8:3, Jeremiah 3:17). This is referring to the New Jerusalem which is the destiny and home of all of God’s people for eternity.
The New Jerusalem is presently in heaven. But Revelation 21-22 tells us that it will come down from heaven to earth as the home of the redeemed. Our eternal home town seems to be in the shape of a cube. It is 1,500 miles high, 1,500 miles wide and 1,500 miles long (Revelation 21:15-16). This is a Hebraic way of saying this city is perfect in every way.
While John did not mean us to understand the size of the city literally, the following information gives of an interesting perspective. An engineer has calculated that a city this size would be 2,250,000 square miles. To give you an idea of how big this is, the city would be 15,000 times as big as London, 40 times as big as England, 20 times as big as New Zealand, 10 times as big as Germany and France combined, and over one half the land size of the continental U. S. It would stretch from Main to Florida and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Midwest.
John tells us that the city is pure transparent jasper color gold, like clear glass (Revelation 21:18). The glory of God is the light of the city that permeates throughout the city (Revelation 21:23). The city is designed to transmit the light of God’s glory without hindrance so that all the inhabitants will see His glory wherever they are in the city. Even the street of the city is pure gold, like transparent glass to reflect the glory of God everywhere (Revelation 21:21).
The wall around the city is 216 feet high (Revelation 21:17). It is made of a transparent gold jasper (Revelation 21:18). The wall has 12 gates each attended by an angel, and the names of the 12 tribes of Israel are written on the gates (Revelation 21:12-13). Each gate is made of a single pearl (Revelation 21:21).
The wall of the city has 12 foundations made of precious stones. Each foundation is named after one of the 12 apostles of Jesus who brought the gospel of the kingdom to the nations. The foundations are designed to reflect the glory of God in a dazzling spectrum of brilliant colors (Revelation 21:19-20).
Because the glory of the Lord is the light of the city, there is no need for the sun and there is no night time (Revelation 21:23). There is no temple in the New Jerusalem because the Lord’s presence is the temple. Because all evil and sin is purged from the earth, the gates of the city will always remain open (Revelation 21:25). The nations shall walk in the light of God’s brightness and bring their glory and honor to Him in our home town on the earth (Revelation 21:24).
There is a pure river of life, clear as crystal flowing from the throne of God. Trees of life grow on both sides of the river bearing 12 kinds of fruit, yielding a new crop each month. The leaves of trees are for the health of the nations.
John concludes his description of our home town with these words, “And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need not lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:3-5).
John adds these words of hope and comfort for all residence of this indescribable city, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:3-4).
Dr. Richard Booker is a bestselling author and speaker and the Founder of Sounds of the Trumpet and the Institute for Hebraic-Christian Studies. He is a contributing editor for the Jerusalem Connection. To learn more of his work, see his web site at: www.rbooker.com.