From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Part 16 of a series. Read part 15.

Earthly Jerusalem, often called Zion in Scripture, is typical of the heavenly Zion, the true Zion, the dwelling place of God from which Messiah came forth.

As we noted in our last article, the more literal translations of Isaiah 40:9 given in the Authorized and New King James versions name Zion or Jerusalem as the bringer, not the recipient, of the good tidings of Messiah's coming:

O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!

Messiah librettist Charles Jennens understood the prophetic significance of Zion, as evidenced by this quotation from Isaiah and his later quotation of Zechariah 9:9-10 ("Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!"). We find in the pages of Scripture that Zion has a crucial significance as both type and antitype in God's redemptive plan.

The Earthly Type of the Heavenly Zion

Earthly Jerusalem, often called Zion in Scripture, is a type - a prophetic representation - of the heavenly Zion, the dwelling place of God. In the same way, the earthly tabernacle is a type of the true tabernacle in the heavenly Zion (Hebrews 8:5). When Israel was about to enter the Promised Land, God through Moses gave them the following instructions concerning His proper worship. The focus of these words is that the God of the heavenly Zion was about to choose a dwelling place among them, which He would designate as the earthly Zion.

These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things.

But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

You shall not at all do as we are doing here today - every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes - for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, then there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord. (Deuteronomy 12:1-11)

And as Solomon was about to dedicate the temple, he repeated the words God had spoken to his father David:

Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt I chose no city among all the tribes of Israel to build an house in, that my name might be there; neither chose I any man to be a ruler over my people Israel: but I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there... (2 Chronicles 6:5-6)

Messiah, the Deliverer Out of Zion

The Holy Spirit through the psalmist confirms this relationship between God's heavenly and earthly dwelling places under the Old Covenant:

Blessed be the Lord out of Zion [i.e., the heavenly Zion], Who dwells in Jerusalem [i.e., the temple of the earthly Jerusalem]! (Psalm 135:21)

It is from heavenly Zion that God promised the Messiah would come, in this prophecy of the New Covenant:

The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins. (Romans 11:26)

Next: The Deliverer Out of Heavenly Zion Comes to Earthly Zion

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