City of David

Welcome! Today is our fourth week of exploring the findings of archaeology that confirm the truths of the Bible. As we have done for several weeks, we will start with a passage involving Abraham, Genesis 14. Let me summarize the context: This chapter describes a series of battles in a war between groups of kings. There is a whole rabbit hole we could go down to talk about the historical evidence for these kings and who they were, but we don’t have time today. Recall that Abraham had taken up residence in Mamre (which we looked at in depth in an earlier message from this series) and his nephew Lot was not too far away, in Sodom. Well, the king of Sodom was one of the kings involved in this war, and when his side was overrun, the other side captured Lot and his family and possessions. Abraham (then Abram) dispatched a rescue party and turned the tide (well, God did, to be more accurate) so that the other side was defeated, and Lot and his family and possessions were recovered. This brings us to the passage:

 

After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything. – Genesis 14:17-20

 

Notice his full title: Melchizedek king of Salem. Now some people point out that Salem is based closely on the Hebrew root word “Shalom”, which means peace, so “king of Salem” is very close to one of the titles of Jesus, Prince of Peace, which appears in Isaiah 9. This is absolutely true, but I want to point out that Salem is also a place. In this chapter, eight of the kings are given as name, king of place: Amraphar king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Kedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of Goyim, Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboyim, And so it follows that Salem is not only wordplay but actually the place over which Melchizedek is king.

 

Salem is mentioned also in Psalm 76:

 

God is renowned in Judah; in Israel His name is great. His tent is in Salem, His dwelling place in Zion. There He broke the flashing arrows, the shields and the swords, the weapons of war. – Psalm 76:1-3

 

And so here we see Salem again, and it is made a synonym with Zion. This tells us without a doubt that Salem is Jerusalem. And this makes sense from the Hebrew: Ur (modern Eer) is Hebrew for city. So Jerusalem (Y’rushalaim in modern Hebrew) is “city of Salem.” And the meaning is “city of peace.” And so the third verse in the passage we have just read is very fitting for the name of the city. And so this city from the time of Abraham, with mysterious king Melchizedek, is Jerusalem.

 

Let us jump forward from the time of Abraham to the time of Joshua. As he was conquering the land, we read this:

 

Now Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had taken Ai and totally destroyed it, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and that the people of Gibeon had made a treaty of peace with Israel and had become their allies. He and his people were very much alarmed at this, because Gibeon was an important city, like one of the royal cities; it was larger than Ai, and all its men were good fighters. So Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem appealed to Hoham king of Hebron, Piram king of Jarmuth, Japhia king of Lachish and Debir king of Eglon. “Come up and help me attack Gibeon,” he said, “because it has made peace with Joshua and the Israelites.” – Joshua 10:1-4

 

These Amorite kings did so, and Gibeon called for help. Joshua came to their aid, and because God was with them, defeated their armies and kings. But apparently the victory was not complete. We know this because of what is said of the allotment of the land for Judah. After spending 63 verses detailing the boundaries and the cities within Judah, the chapter ends with this:

 

Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the people of Judah. – Joshua 15:63

 

Now to be precise, the city of Jerusalem is actually on the boundary between Judah and Benjamin; that is, Joshua 15 describes Jerusalem as part of the boundary. This backed up by Joshua 18:

 

The tribe of Benjamin, according to its clans, had the following towns: Jericho, Beth Hoglah, Emek Keziz, Beth Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel, Avvim, Parah, Ophrah, Kephar Ammoni, Ophni and Geba—twelve towns and their villages. Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth, Mizpah, Kephirah, Mozah, Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah, Zelah, Haeleph, the Jebusite city (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah and Kiriath—fourteen towns and their villages. – Joshua 18:21-28

 

And so most of the town of Jerusalem was considered as part of Benjamin. But neither tribe really had the town; it sits out like a sore thumb due to the fact that it was still held by others. I find this prophetic, for if you look at the history of Jerusalem, it has mostly been held by others. It is highly ironic that this city named as the city of peace has been one of the most captured and recaptured pieces of land, if not the most so, in the entire world. The opening sentence on Wikipedia about Jerusalem says this: “During its long history, Jerusalem has been attacked 52 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, besieged 23 times, and destroyed twice.”

 

Returning to our Joshua passages, at this time it seems like Judah and Benjamin were unable to defeat the Jebusites in Jerusalem despite their wanting to do so. But it also seems like they also became used to the Jebusites and let them live there, despite the commands from God given through Moses in Deuteronomy 20:17-18 that warns the Israelites to completely destroy/remove several groups from their territory, including, specifically, the Jebusites, with the warning that if they did not do so, they would influence the Israelites to worship their false gods (which is exactly what happened.)

 

Now, in Judges 1:8, after the death of Joshua, we read:

 

The men of Judah attacked Jerusalem also and took it. They put the city to the sword and set it on fire. – Judges 1:8

 

But despite this, we also read:

 

The Benjamites, however, did not drive out the Jebusites, who were living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the Benjamites. – Judges 1:21

 

How do we understand this? I would say that there were always some troublemaking Jebusites, and others who were better and cozying up to the Israelites. And so even when the Israelites were successful in conquering the troublemaking Jebusites and eliminating them, they would allow the “nice” Jebusites to stay, but later they wouldn’t all remain so nice and the cycle would continue. I also have another theory, which we will come to later.

 

We then come to the time of David. Almost immediately after he is accepted as king, he goes to Jerusalem. We have this account from 2 Samuel:

 

The king and his men marched to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites, who lived there. The Jebusites said to David, “You will not get in here; even the blind and the lame can ward you off.” They thought, “David cannot get in here.” Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion—which is the City of David. On that day David had said, “Anyone who conquers the Jebusites will have to use the water shaft to reach those ‘lame and blind’ who are David’s enemies.”– 2 Samuel 5:6-8a

 

We learn several important details about the ancient city of Jerusalem. It is described, a least a portion of the city, as a fortress. And David used a water shaft of some kind to take the city, bypassing in some way what one would assume were imposing fortress-like walls. We will have more to say about this.

 

David then took up residence in the fortress and called it the City of David. He built up the area around it, from the terraces inward. And he became more and more powerful, because the Lord God Almighty was with him. Now Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, along with cedar logs and carpenters and stonemasons, and they built a palace for David. Then David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel. – 2 Samuel 5:9-12

 

And so this became David’s home, and the power center of Israel. And we learn that David had built a fine palace, a palace made of cedar and stone. We will have more to say about this as well. There are so many events that happened during David’s life that took place in Jerusalem that we could talk about. In 2 Samuel 6, David brought the ark of the Lord to Jerusalem. Picture David dancing before the Lord with all his might, and Michal watching from a window, likely a window of David’s palace, despising him in her heart. Picture the banqueting meals in the palace at the king’s table, with Mephibosheth, lame in both feet, graciously being treated like a member of the king’s household. Picture the night that David couldn’t sleep, having sent his men off to war while staying behind in the palace, and going up on the roof, seeing a woman bathing across from the palace, and giving in to temptation and having her brought to him. Picture David lying on the floor in his palace in sackcloth, begging the Lord not to take the life of the son he had with that woman he saw on the rooftop. Picture the moment when estranged son Absalom is brought back to Jerusalem, but the king did not have him come before him for two years. And picture Absalom working quietly behind the scenes to organize a complete rebellion, an overthrowing of David’s rule. Picture David and his entourage leaving the city, and Absalom entering the palace and taking advantage of the king’s concubines that had been left behind to take care of things. Picture David and a large contingent of men returning to Jerusalem and his palace, David greatly saddened by the death of Absalom, whom he loved despite his terrible deeds.

 

We could say so much more, but I see this as the golden age of the City of David. But did David even exist? For years, many so-called experts argued that there was no David, no united kingdom. Well, I want to show you an important artifact that was only discovered in 1993, in a tel (a raised hill) called Tel-Dan, a location identified as the ancient city known as Dan. The artifact is a stele (pronounced steelee), which is a tall stone slab erected as a monument, often with writing. This particular stele has writing in ancient Aramaic (the language of the Arameans), using the Phoenician alphabet, and was smashed in antiquity, likely by the Israelites when they retook the city. Because the stele is broken, some words are missing, but here is the translation:

 

1'. [ ]...[ ] and cut [ ]
2'. [ ] my father went up [ ] he fought at [...]
3'. And my father lay down; he went to his [fathers]. Now the king of I[s]/rael had penetrated
4'. into my father's land before. [But then] Hadad made me king,
5'. And Hadad marched before me. So I went forth from [the] seven[...]/s
6'. of my rule, and I killed [seve]nty kin[gs] who had harnessed thou[sands of cha]/riots
7'. and thousands of cavalry. [And I wounded ...]ram son of [...]
8'. the king of Israel, and I killed [...]yahu son of [... the ki]/ng of
9'. the House of David. And I made [their towns into ruins and turned]
10'. their land into [a desolation ...]
11'. others and [...Then...became ki]/ng
12'. over Is[rael...And I laid]
13'. siege against [...]

 

The people mentioned are king Joram, son of Ahab, king of Israel, and a son of Ahaziah, son of Jehoram, king of Judah. These kings were contemporaries according to the Bible. Does this account have any correspondence with Scripture? Well, in 2 Kings 9, we have the following:

 

Now Joram and all Israel had been defending Ramoth Gilead against Hazael king of Aram, but King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him in the battle with Hazael king of Aram. – 2 Kings 9:14b-15

 

And so a Scriptural detail is backed up by the enemies of Israel! But the most important detail of this stele are the words “the house of David” (beyt David). That phrase put an end to all the talk that David never existed. What the phrase means is a synonym for being king of Judah. It is in the Bible as well, in Samuel, Kings and Chronicles (which are accounts written of the same time period), and also Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Zechariah. So yes, David certainly existed – but you already knew that. The argument that David never existed quickly vanished, and of course it was replaced with new charges about something else. There is no acknowledgment of error, of being proven wrong, as there never is.

 

Let’s pick up our history, following after David. Recall that Solomon became king and did not follow the Lord as well as David did. Yes, he had the Temple of the Lord built on a nearby hill, as we talked about last week. But he also worshipped false gods, and the people followed their leader and did the same. I find it telling that he spent seven years building the Temple, but 13 years to build a palace for himself. This palace was adjoining the Temple, on the same mountain (Moriah), but a bit lower. David had already built a fine palace, on a different hill, but that was not enough for Solomon. Like we have discussed about Herod, Solomon also made building projects in many other locations. Just one example from archaeology – a palatial building has been discovered in Gezer in just the past few years with large stones and pottery dating to the time of Solomon. The stone shapes and sizes and other details make it almost certainly one of Solomon’s projects. We are told of Solomon’s building style in the Bible:

 

All these structures, from the outside to the great courtyard and from foundation to eaves, were made of blocks of high-grade stone cut to size and smoothed on their inner and outer faces. The foundations were laid with large stones of good quality, some measuring ten cubits and some eight. Above were high-grade stones, cut to size, and cedar beams. – I Kings 7:9-11  

 

Those stones were 12 and 15 feet wide! Herodian size.

 

We have previously spoken of the centuries after Solomon. From then the kingdom became divided, and mostly the following years involved bad king after bad king, forgetting the commands of the Lord, and worshiping false gods, with the people doing the same. Prophets warned of coming destruction if the kings and people did not repent, but with few exceptions they continued in their sins.

 

One such exception was King Hezekiah. We have this account:

 

After all that Hezekiah had so faithfully done, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities, thinking to conquer them for himself. When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he intended to wage war against Jerusalem, he consulted with his officials and military staff about blocking off the water from the springs outside the city, and they helped him. They gathered a large group of people who blocked all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land. “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?” they said. Then he worked hard repairing all the broken sections of the wall and building towers on it. He built another wall outside that one and reinforced the terraces of the City of David. He also made large numbers of weapons and shields. – 2 Chronicles 32:1-5

 

There are interesting details here, and note how water comes up again. Stay tuned! How did it all turn out?

 

King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz cried out in prayer to heaven about this. And the Lord sent an angel, who annihilated all the fighting men and the commanders and officers in the camp of the Assyrian king. So he withdrew to his own land in disgrace. And when he went into the temple of his god, some of his sons, his own flesh and blood, cut him down with the sword. – 2 Chronicles 32:20-21

 

Jerusalem is the only city that the Assyrians at that time did not capture. And a tablet has been found written by Israel’s enemies that records the failure of the Assyrians to conquer Jerusalem. (But it does not mention the part about the angel.)

 

We mentioned King Josiah at the start of the series, how he too was a good king, and when he found the Book of the Law in the Temple, which at this time was practically falling apart due to neglect and misuse, he completely rededicated the people and the Temple to following God. 

 

But these good moments were overshadowed by the long periods of evil. As 2 Chronicles summarizes things:

 

The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because He had pity on his people and on His dwelling place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against His people and there was no remedy. – 2 Chronicles 36:15-16

 

Finally, under King Zedekiah, the Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem. The siege lasted two-and-a-half years, and then, as we read last week in 2 Kings 25,

 

On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, an official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He set fire to the temple of the Lord, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down. The whole Babylonian army under the commander of the imperial guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem. – 2 Kings 25:8-12

 

There were 70 years of exile, and then Zerubbabel rebuilt the temple, and Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem. These walls were smaller, as Jerusalem would have fewer inhabitants, and there was little time for Nehemiah to build the walls as he was constantly threatened by the enemies of Israel during the build.

 

In the succeeding several centuries, Jerusalem regrew, but the location spread out beyond the walls of Nehemiah. This was the nature of the city at the time of Jesus. As we have discussed, the city was largely destroyed (and the Temple completely so) in AD 70. Last week, we mentioned how Hadrian wanted to build a large temple on the Temple Mount, but a revolt by the Jews there led to a change in plans. But Hadrian did rebuild on the ruins of the city, and the layout of what we call the Old City, which is walled, is largely in the layout of Hadrian’s city, which he called Aelia Capitolina; Aelia was a family name, and Capitolina was short for the god Jupiter Capitolinas. Jews were forbidden from entering the city except for one day a year, on the 9^th day of the month of Av (Tisha b’av), where they could mourn the destructions of both the first and second Temples, which both occurred on this date, the first by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC, and the second by the Romans in AD 70. In the fourth century, when Constantine took power, he now allowed Christians into the city, and he removed much of the structures dedicated to the Roman gods and helped rebuild sites revered by Christians. I will not discuss the dizzying changes of power from that time on. Instead, let’s talk about archaeology!

 

Our focus is on the City of David, the “old” Jerusalem before the Old City. The location has been found, and surprisingly, it is not within the Old City walls at all. The first two images show a topological map, and next to it is an aerial photograph. The location is south of the Old City, south of the Temple Mount.

 

The next image is a model reconstruction by archaeologists based on what has been excavated. It also includes a lot of conjecture as to the details, of course, but it does model things based on actual discoveries, and it also takes into account the topology of the area.

 

What I want to show you next are some clips from a video from the YouTube channel City of David. This location was found under the floor of a hundred-year-old house. The home was within the region of the old City of David, and under the floor was found an ancient shaft. This shaft goes down to the source of water, which was outside the city walls. This is the only water source in the region of Jerusalem. As you can see, they go down the stairs, then into a reinforced passageway, and they mention that they have found bronze era chisels that go back to the time of Abraham. So these tunnels existed, at least in part, all the way back to the time of Melchizedek, king of Salem.

 

From here you can see they go down a long, steep stairway. While descending, they explain that the reason the passageway was cut so steep is because it was designed for defense – a retractable ladder, probably rope, was used, and it could be pulled up if an opposing army tried to enter. There is even a large chasm under that stairway! They explained that, using bronze era chisels, it may have taken multiple generations to dig out these passages. It’s hard to see, but she is pointing out in the third picture that chisel marks are actually still visible.

 

It is a long way down! I am not showing you every shot, and yet they keep descending. Can you imagine how easy it would be to hide here in an attack? I wonder if maybe this is why the Jebusites could not be separated from Jerusalem, despite the multiple attempts to do so. He mentions that at the bottom, the chisel marks switch directions, towards them, meaning that somehow there were two teams of chiselers that somehow met in the middle. We have no idea how they accomplished that. Likewise, recall how David finally took over the city: through the water system! And so David, with God’s help, found an entrance to the water system from outside the walls of the city. I wonder if he and his men had to go underwater to find it? In the fourth picture in this set, he points out that the floor has been warn extremely smooth by the countless trips people in ancient times made to the water source to carry up water (thousands of years of use). The people had to be physically fit, as it is a long way back up!

 

The camera is pointing down on the second shot of the next set. This is Warren’s shaft, named after the archaeologist who discovered it in 1867. The deep shaft can be climbed upward by reasonably skilled climbers, but could not have been used for regular water delivery. One theory regarding David’s capture of the city is that David and his men used the shaft to gain the element of surprise in the tunnel, which one might expect would be guarded. The cave behind the woman in the third picture in this set might have been used by the very earliest people in Salem. Pottery was found in a hole excavated within this cave that is even more ancient than Abraham.

 

The first picture in the next set shows a current archaeological dig. The dig began because of a hollowed out hole with the shape used for grinding grain. They found walls, and then realized there was an entrance to a 4000 year old underground home, complete with even a hollowed out shelf.

 

The next set, in the same home, shows a water trough, and he is standing in a hole used as an oven. I wasn’t able to get a good picture, but there is soot on the ceiling over the hole. This “home” dates to the time of King Hezekiah. People were probably living for some time underground in this system, hiding out from Sennacherib. Indeed, 2 Kings 18 tells us that the army came to Jerusalem and stopped at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, and the field commander shouted to them in Hebrew (surprisingly) telling them to surrender, and they would be treated well. The Jewish under-leaders (but not the king, who wasn’t there) told the field commander to speak in Aramaic rather than Hebrew, as they understood it. But the field commander continued to shout in Hebrew, because he wanted all the Israelites in earshot to hear it and pass it on to one another. He told them that the Lord would not deliver them. But if they made peace with him, he would take them to a land like their own, where they could settle and have a good life. He said don’t trust in the Lord, as no other god had protected their people from him. But all the people remained silent. Nobody took him up on his offer. And Hezekiah, hearing of this, prayed to the Lord, and Isaiah proclaimed that the Lord would indeed deliver them. And as I mentioned, an angel struck many in the Assyrian army, and they left. Not long after, Sennacherib died at the hands of his sons.

 

The picture in blue shows an area that used to be filled completely with water. This region is a carved-out area of mountain that used to be open to the sky. There was a fish market nearby. At a later time, the water was diverted from this area to another area. This is most likely the Gihon Spring at the time of David and Solomon. It was here that a young Solomon was anointed as king, ruining the plans of Adonijah who wanted to be king himself. David was very old at this time, near death. The account is in I Kings 1. The diverting of the water was done by Hezekiah, and the new location of the water is in the next set of pictures.

 

Next, we have two pictures of a remaining portion of Hezekiah’s wall around Jerusalem, built to protect Jerusalem from Sennacherib. The wall was 25 feet high, up to 22 feet wide, and 2½ miles in length.

Next is a picture of what has been uncovered of what may be David’s palace! Pottery and other items date the site to the right time era. The site is huge, and the location is the high point of the City of David. It is logical that the site is David’s palace. Remember all the events we pictured going on at David’s palace. They likely took place at this very spot. 

 

I want to finish today with an account of David from I Chronicles 17.

 

After David was settled in his palace, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.” Nathan replied to David, “Whatever you have in mind, do it, for God is with you.” But that night the word of God came to Nathan, saying: “Go and tell My servant David, ‘This is what the Lord says: You are not the one to build Me a house to dwell in. I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought Israel up out of Egypt to this day. I have moved from one tent site to another, from one dwelling place to another. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their leaders whom I commanded to shepherd My people, “Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?”’ – I Chronicles 17:1-6

 

“Now then, tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over My people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name like the names of the greatest men on earth. And I will provide a place for My people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also subdue all your enemies. – I Chronicles 17:7-10a

 

“‘I declare to you that the Lord will build a house for you: When your days are over and you go to be with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I will establish His kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for Me, and I will establish His throne forever. I will be His father, and He will be My son. I will never take My love away from Him, as I took it away from your predecessor. I will set Him over My house and My kingdom forever; His throne will be established forever.’”- I Chronicles 17:10b-14

 

God is not talking about Solomon, and the house for the Lord is not the Temple. Solomon, Solomon’s kingdom, and Solomon’s Temple: None of these were eternal. Solomon may have built a Temple for God, but he did not build a house. Likewise, the house that God is talking about is not the land of Israel, nor is it Jerusalem. Israel as a whole, and Jerusalem in particular, have not been places where the people are no longer disturbed, never again oppressed.

 

Who is the one who will build a house for God? Who has done it? Jesus, son of David. It is an interesting title for Jesus. Blind Bartimaeus called Him that. So did the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15 whose daughter was possessed by a demon. So did two additional blind men in Matthew 20. So did Matthew himself, in the very first verse of his gospel. Only the Messiah is the son of David that builds a house for God. Only the Messiah can build a house that lasts forever.

 

And that house was built by Jesus going to the cross to die for our sins. Let us remember Him now. I think of archaeological evidence as we have been seeing in this series as a kind of house-building for our faith. None of it is necessary for faith. But it helps buttress, support our faith. We can lean on it when we are weak in faith. Hopefully this series is encouraging you. But nothing substitutes for Christ Himself. He is all we need. And it is only through Him that our faith is truly protected. Let us press on to know the Lord, as Hosea says.

 

We will remember him now, with the bread and the cup, as He instructed His disciples to do 2000 years ago. I like to imagine that 24-hours a day someone somewhere is remembering Him, worshiping Him, with the bread and the cup. He is worthy of such continual praise!

 

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. – I Corinthians 11:23-26

 

And so, let us proclaim the Lord’s death, until He comes. And when He comes, He will lead us into the eternal house He has built for us, the house of eternal fellowship, eternal protection, and eternal joy in Him.