Joshua, I too found a lot to chew on in the prophetic texts. I have grown accustomed to reading references to Jerusalem in the Bible, but in my mind always treated such references as a synonym for “the community of believers” or “the church.” Thinking of it as an actual Kingdom, with a leader and in relation to other kingdoms, is fresh and quite interesting. Turns out I should have been thinking more literally. I also love the parallelism between the Old and New Testaments in their prophetic descriptions of Jerusalem. It shows the coherence and continuity of God’s plan, in contrast to the temptation of separating the Old and New Testaments in our minds.
