The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Heavenly Jerusalem, #16

Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion: the same is the city of David. (II Samuel 5:7)

Zion, the city of David, was one of the areas of Jerusalem. Zion had been the fortress of the Jebusites at the time David captured Jerusalem.

David, being a man of war, was particularly fond of the Zion area of Jerusalem. He brought the Ark of the Covenant to Zion and placed it in a tent.

It appears the concept of "Zion" is of special importance. Zion has to do with the return of Christ to the earth as King of kings and Lord of lords.

Zion seems to be associated symbolically with the victorious believers, with the saints who today are fighting and gaining the victory over the world. "Jerusalem," so to speak, the main body of the Church, is not as militant.

Zion may correspond to David's "mighty men."

There are those believers who are "pillars in the temple of God." They are not stumbling around in lukewarmness. They are pressing the battle, or it may be more accurate to say the battle is being pressed in them. They are marching forward in Christ. They are "Zion," the government of God, the kings and priests of the Kingdom of God, of the worlds and ages to come.

"Zion" is associated with the return of Christ to the earth to set up His Kingdom with the rod of iron—the power of His righteous law enforced by mighty angels. Zion is associated also with the Ark of the Covenant, with David's Tabernacle.

"Jerusalem" is associated with the new heaven and earth reign of Christ, with the eternity of glory that will commence after the work of the thousand-year Kingdom Age has been concluded.

When the Lord Jesus returns to earth to set up His Kingdom He will be surrounded by His mighty men, His victorious saints, His kings and priests. The thousand-year Kingdom Age, which will begin at that time, is not the fullness of Christ's reign. The fullness will not come until the appearing of the new heaven and the new earth and the descending of the new Jerusalem to be established forever on a high mountain of the new earth.

King David was anointed three times: once by Samuel while Saul was king over Israel; a second time as king of Judah; and the third time as king over all Israel.

The three royal anointings are a type of the three stages in the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ to the throne of the creation.

After His first anointing as King, so to speak, Jesus returned to the Father. At present, He and His followers are being kept from the camp of acceptability by the Sauls of this world, including the "Sauls" of the churches (III John 9).

Christ's second anointing will take place as He descends from Heaven with His mighty men, His victorious saints, and seizes control of the governments of the nations of the earth. Christ in His saints will rule the nations with a rod of iron (Daniel 7:18).

Christ's third anointing will be revealed as God in Christ in the Church, the new Jerusalem, descends from Heaven to be located for eternity on the new earth.

It is the second anointing that especially is associated with Christ's law, with His authority and power of rulership, with God's kings and priests, with Zion, with the rod of iron.

To be continued.