"Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God"
(Joel 2: 23)
Not only are believers denominated as "children of God" but also as "children of Zion." Believers have God for their Father through being "born of God" or "born again of the Spirit." But, they have Zion, Jerusalem, and the company of believers (or the church) as their mother. Birth, as we have previously mentioned, requires both a father and a mother, a man and a woman. Wrote Paul:
"Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God." (I Cor. 11: 11-12)
Eve was "of Adam" in the sense that she was made from a rib in Adam's side. But, it is also true that every human being is "of the man" by virtue of male "seed" producing the fruit of a human being in the womb of woman. But, so too is every human being "by the woman." She is as much needed in producing offspring as is the male and his seed. The father is viewed as the source and the woman as the vehicle or instrument in producing offspring. In applying this to the realm of spiritual birth we also recognize the Father and Spirit as the source of the seed that generates a new life, or a new creature; And, we recognize the body of believers as the mother since she is the vehicle and instrument of spiritual birth, being the communicator of the word of God which Peter says is the medium of it.
Children Of Zion
"Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah. I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there. And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her. The LORD shall count, when he writes up the people, that this man was born there. Selah." (Psa. 87: 3-6)
Here "Zion" is equated with the "city of God," with Jerusalem. More particularly it is one of the mounts of Jerusalem and thus the term "mount Zion." What is meant by being "born in her"? Of being "born there" in Jerusalem?
Commented Dr. John Gill:
"but it designs many persons in each of those countries that should be born again, of water, and of the Spirit, of the incorruptible seed of grace, by the ministry of the word; who, because they should be regenerated by means of the Gospel preached in Zion, therefore are said to be born there; and besides, being born again, they are admitted members of Zion, and to all the privileges of Zion, as true born Israelites; and are brought up there, are nourished with the sincere milk of the word, and nursed with the breasts of Gospel ordinances there administered; and so Zion, or Jerusalem, the Gospel church, is truly the mother of them all, (Galatians 4:26)."
Commented Dr. Albert Barnes:
"Egypt, Babylon, Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia, are mentioned here as among the best known nations and cities of the world; as places where it would commonly be regarded as an honor to have been born. The meaning is, "I will refer to these as places well-known and distinguished; I will refer to the honor of having been born there; but great as is such an honor, the honor of having been born in Zion is far above that; it conveys the idea of a much higher distinction; it should be more sacredly cherished as among those things on which men value themselves." The word "I" here seems to have reference to the psalmist, and not to God. The psalmist is mentioning what to him would seem to have a claim to the highest honor."
Said Adam Clark:
"The meaning seems to be, Rahab, i.e., Egypt, Babylon, Tyre, Philistia, and Ethiopia are not so honourable as Jerusalem. To be born in any of them is no privilege when compared with being a native of Jerusalem."
Said another Commentator:
"This one was born there" (Psalms 87:4). This is not a reference to merely one, for it becomes, "This one and that one" in Psalms 87:5; and in Psalms 87:6, it is revealed that when God "writes up the peoples of the earth," when he calculates the number of the redeemed, he shall count only those who indeed were "born in her." (Coffman)
How do people, whether Jew or Gentile, become sons or daughters of Zion? How does one become a citizen of "Zion the city of God"? The reason is not biological as we have seen. Those who are physical descendants of the nation and its capital are not intended as being the true sons of Zion and Jerusalem. In the previous chapter we observed how Paul says "he is not a Jew who is one outwardly in the flesh" but is rather one who is a "Jew inwardly" in the heart and spirit. Jesus in his letter to the church of Smyrna spoke of "the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews but are a Synagogue of Satan." (Rev. 2: 9) These are "Jews by nature" or birth, Jews according to the flesh who reject Christ (Gal. 2: 15), natural Jews outwardly, but not Jews inwardly. Rather it is by receiving Zion's message, Zion's announcements and teachings, that one becomes a son or daughter of Zion, a true Israelite or Jew, and a member of her holy and elect community. Wrote the prophet Isaiah:
"O Zion, You who bring good tidings, Get up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, You who bring good tidings, Lift up your voice with strength, Lift it up, be not afraid; Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” (Isa. 40: 9)
Zion is the messenger of God through her prophets and evangelists. She is thus the intermediary source of the gospel message, and as we have seen, it is "through the message of the Lord by the gospel" that sinners are "born again." (I Peter 1: 23-25) Paul cites Isaiah in saying:
"How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!" (Rom. 10: 14-15)
In the Isaiah passage that Paul alludes to in the above words, Isaiah connects gospel preaching with Zion, saying that her heralds "proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” (Isa. 52: 7) Preachers not only say things "to" Zion, but they speak "for" Zion, being her ambassadors and heralds. Believers, by receiving her evangelical message, become her sons and daughters. Peter, quoting Isaiah 28:16, refers to Christ as the cornerstone of Zion, saying: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame” (1 Peter 2:6). Paul also speaks of Christ being the chief cornerstone of the church or body of believers. (Eph. 2: 20) Zion and the church equated. This is further seen in the words of Hebrews 12: 22-24.
Marching To Zion
"But you are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel."
Not only do sinners "come to" Zion in receiving and believing her glad tidings of salvation, through her Messiah and King, but Zion may be said to have "come to" the comers to Zion. She comes first through the preaching of the "glad tidings" via her messengers. Zion comes thus to sinners and sinners then come to Zion in response. In coming "to Jesus the mediator" they at the same time come to Zion, for Jesus is Zion's king. Thus, in whatever nation they are born, whether in Egypt, Philitia, Ethiopia, etc., sinners who receive "Jesus the mediator," the "Son of God" and "Savior of the world," are begotten of God their Father and born of Zion their mother.
Notice the several things unto which believers are said "to come" when they are converted to Christ: 1) to mount Zion, 2) to the city of the living God, 3) to the heavenly Jerusalem, 4) to an innumerable company of angels (in celestial gathering), 5) to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, 6) to God the judge of all 7) to the spirits of just men made perfect, 8) to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, 9) to the blood of sprinkling. Nine things that believers reach, approach, and obtain in conversion. Believers come "to" all this in their being "born of God." The first three prepositional phrases (things believers "come to") identify the place, while the remainder speak of its inhabitants.
"You have come" is preceded in the context by "you have not come to the mount which might be touched," that is, to Sinai with its terrors. Those who think to be saved by law keeping, by their own righteousness, by their good works outweighing their bad works, are they who have come to mount Sinai. But, there is only condemnation and death to those who seek to be justified by the keeping of the law, by their own goodness and merit. The contrasts between Mt. Zion (Jerusalem) and Mt. Sinai, and what they represent, are stark. The law came from the latter and the gospel has come from the former. The former condemns while the latter justifies.
Notice too how "mount Zion (Sion)" is identified with "the general assembly" or "church of the firstborn." The children of Zion are believers.
Zion The Mother of Believers
"But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which genders to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." (Gal. 4: 23-26)
Jerusalem which is "above" is set in contrast to Jerusalem which is below, the "heavenly Jerusalem" versus the earthly Jerusalem, and Zion and Jerusalem are equivalent terms as we have seen. The Apocalypse speaks of the "New Jerusalem," the "city" foursquare that descends from above and becomes the capital of the new heavens and new earth. A city may denote the physical area of land, with its streets and buildings, and in ancient times, its walls and gates. But "city" may also denote the inhabitants, the citizens.
Zion is an image and name of the city, including both the people who are its citizens and the physical city described in Revelation chapter 21, being "the New Jerusalem" with its streets of gold and gates of pearl. Abraham is a picture of God the Father, the Father and Creator of Zion and Jerusalem, and Sarah is a picture of Zion, of the church, the true sons of Zion. Thus said the Lord through the prophet:
"Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. For the LORD shall comfort Zion" (Isa. 51: 2-3)
In Romans Paul said that believers in Christ are "children of Abraham," that Abraham is "the father of all them who believe." (Rom. 4: 11) Abraham is the example for believers in faith and godliness. So too is Sarah. Wrote Peter:
"For in this manner, in former times, the holy women who trusted in God also adorned themselves, being submissive to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror." (I Peter 3: 5-6)
Daughters of Sarah! Zion's children! Sons and daughters of Abraham and Sarah! What a glorious heritage and family connection do believers have through their faith in Christ! Such a noble and high birth! "Well born" are believers in Jesus. They are an illustrious royal seed!
Isaiah further detailed the relationship of believers in Christ with their Jewish roots in Mount Zion and Jerusalem when he prophesied, saying:
"Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the LORD: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God. Rejoice you with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all you that mourn for her: That you may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that you may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall you suck, you shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem." (Isa. 66: 7-13)
Notice how God identifies himself as being the "mother" who comforts. What is said of Zion the mother is true of God himself for he is in Zion his dwelling place. Zion is the mother, but it is God who causes her to "bring forth children." Also, the children of Zion are "all you that love her" and this is a description of believers in Christ. The church or community of believers are mother to believers. It is through the church, the spiritual Zion and Jerusalem, that sinners are born again, for she proclaims the "glad tidings" or "good news" that become the means of new birth. By sucking Zion's breasts and being "dandled upon her knees" denotes how believers are not only born again through her communications but are made to grow and mature in the Christian life by her teachings. Paul wrote of this incorporation into Zion, Israel, and Jerusalem when he wrote:
"that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ...Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone" (Eph. 2: 12-13, 19-20)
By faith in Christ believers, of whatever ethnic nation they are, become children of God and citizens of "the commonwealth," or the polity of Israel and Zion, and of God's "household." Again, what a high status belongs to believers in Christ! Are they not the truly noble? Such thought led the Psalmist to say: "Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King." (Psa. 149: 2)
Of the earthly Zion, and her physical descendants, the prophet Jeremiah mourned, saying:
"How the gold has lost its luster, the fine gold become dull! How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in gold, are now considered as pots of clay, the work of a potter's hands!" (Lam. 4: 1-2
"The precious sons of Zion" is not a title belonging to the unbelieving physical descendants of Abraham, though it was once so given to them under the old covenant. Rather, it belongs to believers in Christ. They are as such "worth their weight in gold." Though they are generally called from among the lower classes of the present world, and esteemed of little worth and importance, yet they are in reality of great worth. They are "God's elect," as the prophet said - "For the Lord has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his habitation" (Psa. 132: 13) God dwells in the believer and this is why he is a temple of God. God also dwells in the collective, in the body of the church.
"Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge." (Psa. 48: 1-3)
This is true now in regard to the assembly of believers but it will be truly realized in a far greater manner when the New Jerusalem descends from God out of heaven. Of the earthly city of Jerusalem it is recorded in the Apocalypse: "And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." (Rev. 11: 8)
The earthly city of Jerusalem is spiritually Sodom and Egypt. But, the heavenly city is not so.
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