29:1 “Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt!
Add year to year;
Let feasts come around.
2 Yet I will distress Ariel;
There shall be heaviness and sorrow,
And it shall be to Me as Ariel.
3 I will encamp against you all around,
I will lay siege against you with a mound,
And I will raise siege works against you.
4 You shall be brought down,
You shall speak out of the ground;
Your speech shall be low, out of the dust;
Your voice shall be like a medium’s, out of the ground;
And your speech shall whisper out of the dust.
This is fascinating to me. It is
the only place in all of Scripture that Jerusalem is referred to as Ariel. We
know it is Jerusalem because it is the city of David. Also later in this
chapter this place Ariel is called Mount Zion, another name for Jerusalem.
Any Hebrew word that has 'el' in
it should jump out at you. El is God. Elijah means Yahweh is my God. Daniel
means God is my judge. Ariel means the lion of God. Does that ring any bells
for you? Who is the lion of God?
In Revelation 4 and 5, the disciple
John is taken in vision into the very throne room of God. While he is there he
sees a scroll in God's hand. It is sealed with seven seals. No one can be found
in the entire universe who is worthy to open the scroll. John seems to sense
how vital it is that this scroll be opened and when no one can be found he
falls down weeping in despair. I will let the Bible describe what happened
next:
4 So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the
scroll, or to look at it. 5 But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep.
Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to
open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”
6 And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four
living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had
been slain... 7 Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him
who sat on the throne."
The Lion of Judah is the Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the whole world.
Are you seeing it now? Are you
seeing why here and only here in the entire Bible Jerusalem is called Ariel?
Jerusalem means city of peace. It was God's intention for this city and her
citizens to bring peace to and be a blessing to the entire world. They were to
represent Him to the nations just as Jesus came and showed us the Father. They
were to be the Lion of God. They failed miserably. Not only did they not bring
peace to the nations, they had no peace within their own walls. Injustice
prevailed. Oppression of the poor and vulnerable was commonplace. Ariel was
about to go down.
Now I want you to especially note
verse 2. Ariel (Jerusalem) will be distressed. There will be heaviness and
sorrow. It will be to Me as to Ariel...
May I remind us again that Jesus
said the entire Book is about Him? The coming suffering of Ariel, of Jerusalem,
of God's lion is a foreshadowing of the coming suffering of God's true Lion of
the tribe of Judah, of the Lamb who takes away the sin of the whole world. What
is about to happen to Ariel is but a taste of the heaviness and sorrow that
came to Jesus, sorrow so deep that he had blood coming from His pores. He held
onto the ground for support. Every human support left Him. His own Father never
answered Him.
Behold Ariel. Look and live. Love
that will not let us go. He who for the joy that was set before Him (having us
back Home) endured the cross, despising it's shame and is sat down at the right
hand of the Father. The only One worthy to open the scroll.
Whatever is causing you heaviness
and sorrow, don't weep. The Lion is coming.
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