Jerusalem was the land of Jebusites, the descendants of Ham, the son of Noah (Genesis 10:16).  The term Jerusalem was mentioned as the land of Jebus in Judges 19:10. According to 1 Chronicles 11:4-5, King David captured Jerusalem and made it his capital city, known as the city of David (c.1000 BC), and since then, Jerusalem remained as the capital city of Israel.  After the partition of the kingdom into Israel and Judah, Jerusalem became the capital of Judah and Samaria became new the capital of Israel.  According to 2 Kings 17:21-24, the nation of Israel was defeated, captured and resettled by the Assyrians (722 BC). Despite God’s judgement upon Israel and the threat from the Assyrian king Sennacherib during the reign of king Hezekiah, God delivered Judah from the Assyrian threat by sending an angel who killed around 185,000 men of the Assyrian army in one night (2 Kings 18:17; 19:14-19; 35-36; Isaiah 37:36-38).  In spite of this, Judah continued to sin against God.  Finally, God raised the Babylonians against them.  They captured and broke into the city and destroyed the temple completely by setting it on fire (2 Kings 25:1-12). Thus, the capital city of Jerusalem and the magnificent temple were destroyed in 586 BC by the Babylonians. 

Ever since the founding of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the city became the center of God’s work.  Every time, the enemy tried to destroy the city, God defended the city and His people but conflicts still arise.  Although the United Nations came up with the plan of dividing Palestine into Jewish and Arab states in 1947, the Arabs did not support this plan.  Despite the age-old oppositions and struggles for freedom, with the approval of the United Nations, David Ben-Gurion, the head of the World Zionist Organization and the chairman of the Jewish Agency, proclaimed Israel as an Independent country on 14 May, 1948. Thereafter, the Jews claimed the city, but the Muslim world is not ready to give-up on either the city or the Islamic shrine they constructed in the seventh century AD.  The Islamic world and many others around the world put forth their recommendation of overcoming this crisis by keeping Jerusalem just as the way it is now – a multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-political, and multi-linguistic city that belongs to both groups equally.  In the midst of all these struggles, God has His own plan to resolve crises related to the Jews, the city of Jerusalem, and the temple. Ultimately, God will bring down the New Jerusalem from heaven and establish His everlasting throne at the center of the city.  Psalm 122:6 says, Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.