“Following is the account of the forced labor levied by King Shlomo for building the house of Adonai, his own palace, the Millo, the wall of Yerushalayim, and the cities of Hatzor, Megiddo and Gezer.”-1 Kings 9:15
We are continuing our discussion of the place names Solomon mentioned in verse 15 (copied and pasted above).
Let’s talk about the wall of Jerusalem for a sec.
So the first thing you gotta know is that this ain’t talking about the old City of David defenses.
Those were already standing when David took the city.
This is a completely new construction.
Ya feel me?
Here’s the layout.
The City of David sat on a narrow ridge at the south end.
North of it, on higher ground, was the Temple Mount.
And between the two lay an open stretch of land called the Ophel.
As Solomon pushed Jerusalem uphill toward the Temple, the Ophel was the first zone to be built up.
So the most likely picture is that Solomon ran a new wall that tied the old city to the Temple Mount, pulling the Ophel inside the city’s defenses for the first time.
Now I know this is probably some of the most exciting stuff you’ve read this whole week.
So let’s see if I can make it even more exciting.
Chew on this thought.
The Jerusalem of David wasn’t the Jerusalem of Solomon.
And the Jerusalem of Solomon wasn’t the Jerusalem of the prophets.
Jerusalem has never been a static city.
It has been expanded, rebuilt, destroyed, conquered, restored, and transformed throughout its history.
And here’s where this gets really interesting.
Jerusalem still isn’t finished.
Because Scripture tells us that when Messiah Yeshua returns, Jerusalem will once again become the center of his kingdom.
So when we’re reading about Solomon extending Jerusalem northward and building new walls, we’re watching one chapter in a much bigger story.
And that’s your takeaway for today.
We ain’t just talking about a wall.
It’s another piece of history Scripture says will ultimately become the throne-city of the Messiah.
Now doesn’t this make this a little more interesting?
P.S. Just in case there are some confused homies out there who might think the Wall of Jerusalem is the same thing as the Wailing Wall, it ain’t.
The famous Western Wall, or Kotel, that people pray at today is actually a retaining wall supporting the expanded Temple Mount platform.
That expansion happened much later, under Herod the Great.
So we’re talking about a completely different construction project from the wall Solomon was building here in 1 Kings 9.
I hope you feel me here.
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