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Fundamentals of Dispensational Truth.
(Second Series).
No.72. (30) GALATIANS.
"Jerusalem which is above" (4: 26).
Its dispensational place.
pp. 27, 28
In the covenants and promises to Abraham, a `land', the land of Canaan, the Holy
land, the land known as Palestine, occupies a large place. In the covenants and promises
made to David a `city' is very prominent, "the city of David": a city which the Lord did
`choose' of which `glorious things' are spoken, Jerusalem, the holy city, a city to be
called in the future by many wondrous names, such as `a city of truth', `the city of the
great king'. It was to Jerusalem that David took the first evidence of his great triumph
(I Sam. 17: 54); it was in Jerusalem that David reigned over all Israel and Judah
(II Sam. 5: 5). It is this city both in its desolations and in its glorious restoration that fills
such prophets as Isaiah with wondrous imagery. The date line of the great prophecy of
Dan. 9: is drawn at the time when the command was given to build Jerusalem and all the
sorrow that filled the Saviour's breast, as all the rejection that He endured, was focused at
Jerusalem. He must needs go unto Jerusalem, it could not be but that He must die at
Jerusalem.
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are
sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen
gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not" (Matt. 23: 37).
It was the same literal and earthly city that was marked out for the Pentecostal
manifestation and further extension of opportunity to Israel; the disciples were bidden to
`tarry' in the city of Jerusalem to await enduement from on high, and Jerusalem was the
centre from which was preached the gospel by the twelve until the call and commission
of Paul recorded in Acts 13:
While the earthly city Jerusalem dominates these Scriptures, we have the hope of
Israel, the hope that the kingdom should be restored again unto Israel, the goal unto
which the twelve tribes hoped to come, and its sphere of blessing is the earth. The fitting
prayer is "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven", and the hope
is focused upon that day when the Lord shall stand upon the Mount of Olives.
As the sad fact of Israel's non-repentance became evident to the illuminated mind,
another sphere of blessing comes into prominence. For the first time in Scripture a
`heavenly country', a `heavenly city', a `city which hath foundations', a `heavenly
Jerusalem', comes into the narrative of Scripture. For the first time we learn that
Abraham who received the unconditional promise of the land and of the seed, was
encouraged to sojourn in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tents,