If Jerusalem has anything it should be peace, even if that peace (שלם) is idle talk, incoherent rambling, unhinged priestly slogans, or hypocritical teaching,  A pilgrim in the centuries between the 10th. and the 7th would likely have had his prayer for Jerusalem to be peaceful at least on the three days when males were required to attend the annual feasts.  Once the kings and priests began to violate the covenant with thefts, homicides and idolatrous worship Jerusalem’s peace was gone.  What good would peace be when the land was empty because of the exile?  Praying for Jerusalem’s peace is a veritable scam that Christians should avoid. Next would be sending money and resources to support a criminal government and a people committed to racist and xenophobic policies. Fear and self-defence are poor excuses for criminal behaviour. Jerusalem’s experience of peace and what can she teach the world about her inhabitants in general, is severely limited by the facts by the privileges of a few, and by the absence of peace reports.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you.

Psalms 122:6, NASB

Peace without inhabitants

If peace is to be associated with idleness or a pause from the usual activity then the seventy years of Judah’s exile are her most certain brush with peace.

Peace for a privileged few

Those who could pay a prophet could have assurances of peace.  Empty words.

Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray; When they have something to bite with their teeth, They cry, “Peace,” But against him who puts nothing in their mouths They declare holy war.

Micah 3:5, NASB

Peace no one can report

If you were alive and using your eyes and ears during the late monarchy period you would not be able to report in peace in the cities of Judah, and especially not in Jerusalem.  The prophets were on the wrong side of truthful breaking news.

Jeremiah captures the lying headlines.

“They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace. (Jeremiah 6:14, NASB)

A false prophet challenges Jeremiah’s version of Judah’s fate.  The peace of which Jeremiah prophesied was seven decades in the future. The false prophet asserted that peace would be immediate.

“The prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet comes to pass, then that prophet will be known as one whom the Lord has truly sent.” (Jeremiah 28:9, NASB)

The peace prefacing the modern era

The peace of the restoration period may extend only to the environs of the temple.  Even Christ’s presence in the temple courts was not a harbinger of peace. Haggai predicted peace in the temple, and many who saw that restofred temple thought it was a dismal comparison to Solomon’s. Even so, the evaluation of the second temple as having greater glory than the first has to be due to an unprecedented presence.

‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? Hag 2:3

‘The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘and in this place I will give peace,’ declares the Lord of hosts.” (Haggai 2:9, NASB)

Even when the indisputable Lord of glory was in town Jerusalem, its leaders and the people persisted in a shocking rejection of common decency, honesty, and righteousness.

How can my prayer, or the prayers of all the Jews and informed Gentiles bring peace to Jerusalem, when Jerusalem turned her back on peace, and have never looked back.

Unprecedented presence in the Jerusalem temple then desolation

How can my prayer, or the prayers of all the Jews and informed Gentiles bring peace to Jerusalem, when Jerusalem turned her back on peace, and have never looked back.

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. Mal 3:1

And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, Luke 19:41 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Luke 19:42 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side Luke 19:43 ​and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Luke 19:44

​O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! Luke 13:34

Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” Luke 13:35

Jerusalem’s career in the hands of men is over. From the first days of the Zionist incursion the Holy Land set a course of violence and criminal enterprises. Prayers for Jerusalem’s peace rise no higher than the ceiling of you room. Asking the God of justice and compassion to give peace to wicked men is an outrage. Even when the Knesset orders the end of the Zionist apartheid program peace will be a distant rumble. As for me, I will not pray for the peace of Jerusalem because God will not force peace down the throats of people who thumb their noses at international standards and the precise decrees of peace in the law and the prophets. Jerusalem does not have peace; “salem” is just a talking point. Jerusalem has rejected peace and God is not answering prayer requests for things people want no paert of. There will be no enforced peace until the Rider on the white horse campaign. Only one authority can do what the United Nations has taken a pass on.

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. Rev 19:11 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. Rev 19:12 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. Rev 19:13 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. Rev 19:14 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. Rev 19:15 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. Rev 19:16