Why We Should ALL Celebrate Jerusalem Day!

This week, Jews in Israel celebrate Jerusalem Day — Yom Yerushalayim — commemorating the miraculous reunification of God’s Holy City in 1967. But as podcast host Yael Eckstein explains, we ALL — Christians and Jews — should celebrate Jerusalem Day! Not only is Jerusalem God’s designated place where His Temple once stood and will someday stand again, but as we read in Psalm 137:5, “If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill.” God does not want us to forget His eternal capital! In today’s special Jerusalem Day episode, Yael explores the spiritual significance of Jerusalem and why its historical reunification following the Six-Day War in 1967 is so important. We ALL need to recognize what God has done and is doing in Jerusalem in our times… and why both Christians and Jews should give Him thanks and praise for His miracles!

Episode Notes

Jerusalem Day, celebrated at sundown May 19 through sundown May 20 this year, is a day for thanksgiving and appreciating the significance of Jerusalem in our faith and its relevance to our lives today. In today’s episode, host Yael Eckstein, President and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, explains why this day marks one of the most important events in modern times — a turning point in history — and focuses specifically on Isaiah 66:10, which prophesied, “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her.”

In biblical times, it was King David who established Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel, and his son King Solomon who built the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. For nearly 1,000 years, Jerusalem was, as Psalm 48 calls it, “the joy of the whole earth.” But then, after the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, the Jewish people were banned from Jerusalem and exiled from their homeland for almost 2,000 years!

Yet, the Jewish people never forgot Jerusalem.

While Israel gained its independence in 1948, its capital and the heart of the nation, Jerusalem, was a divided city. It wasn’t until the Six-Day War in 1967 that the Jewish people would witness the many miracles which led to the reunification of Jerusalem… and it is this pivotal point in history that the Jewish people celebrate today on Jerusalem Day.

For the first time in 2,000 years, the eternal capital of the nation of Israel was returned to the people of Israel. All who had mourned the loss of Jerusalem were now celebrating the return to Jerusalem. And going back to our verse from Isaiah, “…all you who love her; rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her,” we can appreciate how events really did unfold just as the verses said they would.

We are so blessed to be alive at such a time as this. Yael explains how inspirational it is to see prophecy fulfilled with her own eyes in the Holy Land! And just as we have seen so many of God’s promises fulfilled, may we soon see them all fulfilled.

Learn more about Jerusalem Day, Yom Yerushalayim, at our Learning Center.