Genesis 14:17-20 “And the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley), after his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him. (18) Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. (19) And he blessed him and said: "Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; (20) and blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand." And he gave him a tithe of all.”
The next key event that we will discuss is the establishment of the city of Jerusalem. It is interesting to note that when the Lord communicated Israel’s borders to both Abraham and Moses, He never mentioned the city of Jerusalem, even though that was to eventually become Israel’s capital city. Although the Lord never mentioned Jerusalem by name, however, He did allude to its prophetic importance in the above-quoted passage of scripture. The context of this passage is that Melchizedek, King of Salem, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of the spoils of war. This incident took place in approximately the year 2084 BC[1]. The apostle Paul explains the significance of this encounter, when he tells us in Hebrews chapter seven, that Melchizedek and the Lord Jesus were the same. Paul goes on in that passage of scripture to tell us the meaning of Melchizedek, i.e. "King of Righteousness," and the meaning of King of Salem, i.e. "King of Peace". The fact that Jesus is called King of Salem (King of Peace) indicates that Jesus is also the King of Jerusalem, for the name Jerusalem means the City of Peace. And so we see that even though the Lord never mentioned the city by name to either Abraham or Moses, Jerusalem had always been chosen by the Lord. We know that because in the year 939 BC, when the Lord anointed Jeroboam to become King of Israel, He confirmed that Jerusalem was the city that He chose for Himself, to put His name there (1 Kings 11:36).
2 Samuel 5:4-7 “David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. (5) In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem, he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah. (6) And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, "You shall not come in here; but the blind and the lame will repel you," thinking, "David cannot come in here." (7) Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion (that is, the City of David).”
We saw earlier, that the Jebusites were one of the nations that the Lord had delivered into the hands of the Jews; what is interesting about the Jebusites is that their capital was the city of Jerusalem. Nevertheless, even though the Lord had delivered the Jebusites into the hands of the Jews, they had never succeeded in defeating them. The above-quoted passage of scripture teaches us that it was only when David ascended to the throne as King over all of Israel and Judah, that the Jews finally defeated the Jebusites. And so we see that in approximately the year 1010 BC, the city of Jerusalem finally became a part of Israel, almost 1100 years after the Lord Jesus the King of Salem had met with Abraham [2]. Historical records show us that the city of Jerusalem remained under Jewish control for approximately the next 423 years.
Michael E.B. Maher
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