JERUSALEM, Israel -- With Jerusalem increasingly the focus of much of the world, the words of the ancient Jewish prophet Zechariah come to mind, especially for those who believe the Bible is the Spirit-breathed, inerrant Word of God.
"Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it…It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." (Zechariah 12:2-3, 9)
A great deal has been written about Jerusalem over the years. The city's central role in Judaism is based on the Tenach, the Hebrew Bible, which records the history of the Israelites.
Throughout the nearly 2,000 years that Jewish people were scattered throughout the nations, synagogues were constructed so congregants faced toward Jerusalem when listening to the weekly Torah portion and praying.
Jerusalem is mentioned many hundreds of times in the Tenach, for example in Psalm 137, when Jews sat down by the "rivers of Babylon" and "wept" for their beloved city. Here the Babylonians destroyed the temple built by King Solomon (585 B.C.) and later the Romans razed the second temple built by Herod (70 A.D.)
"How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! If I do not remember you, let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth -- If I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy." (Psalm 137:4-6)
Today, the Palestinian Authority says it will establish the capital of its future state in the parts of the city that were under Jordanian occupation from 1948 to 1967. Israeli Jews, who refer to Jerusalem as "the eternal, undivided capital of Israel," say it will never happen.
The secular media often describes the reuniting of Jerusalem under Jewish sovereignty, which took place almost by "fluke" in the Six Day War, as if Israel did something wrong by "capturing" Jerusalem.
Much has been written about that too. When Jordan ignored Israel's plea not to enter the war, the battle for Jerusalem ensued. It seems God may have had a different plan.
Audio recordings and the well-known photograph by Israeli photojournalist David Rubinger capture the ecstasy that resounded throughout Jerusalem when Israeli troops made their way to the Kotel (Western Wall) on that infamous day in history.
From that point forward, Israel began to restore and rebuild what the Jordanians destroyed. Barbed wire barriers dividing the city's streets were removed. Jews cleaned up the garbage-strewn area in front of the Kotel, relocating the squatters who were living there.
They began rebuilding and restoring the synagogues in the Old City demolished by the Jordanians.
Jerusalem has come a long way since then, but there is still a lot of refurbishing and rebuilding going on, both in Jewish and Arab neighborhoods.
It's not an easy task, but the municipal government, headed by Mayor Nir Barkat, and the national government, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are both determined to make the city all it can be for all its residents and for the tens of thousands of visitors who come every year.
