A Prayer to the East

I’ve been reading through 1 Kings the last couple days, and I had to hold my breath while I read chapters 8-10. The pomp and circumstance surrounding Solomon’s dedication of the temple makes one tremble. God’s presence descends in a dark cloud just like on Mt. Sinai, when the ark is placed in the inner chamber. There are so many incredible prayers and prophetic statements in these couple chapters… I’m going to take the next couple blog posts to highlight them and how they relate to the Middle East today.

One of the first things that jumps out to the reader is the ‘what if’ prayers of Solomon. If someone sins, if Israel is defeated, if there’s no rain, if there’s famine, etc. and your people turn to you and pray ‘towards this house (v.38) or ’towards this city’ (v.44); Solomon pleads with God to hear the entreaties of his people. There was a significant ‘theology of place;’ Jews knew that communion with God was relative to location. God’s presence descended and dwelt on the temple mount in Jerusalem… in fact God said to Solomon after the dedication ‘My eyes and my heart will be there for all time ‘ (9:3). Jews consistently prayed towards Jerusalem, for this very reason, and many continue to this day. This is well established in the OT. Daniel when in captivity for example, ‘went into his house where he had windows open to Jerusalem’ and prayed towards his beloved city three times a day. It is also evidenced by the Jews’ continual vigil at the ‘wailing wall’ or Western wall of the temple, the closest that Jews can get to the temple mount as Palestinians control the mount itself.

Many Christians are surprised to learn the reason for Jerusalem's importance to Muslims.  Sura 17, verse 1 of the Koran says, "Glory be to Him, who carried His servant by night from the Sacred Mosque (Mecca) to the Farthest Mosque (Jerusalem), the precincts of which We have blessed, that We might show him some of Our signs ..." The feast of 'Isra wa Muraj' celebrates this night journey of Mohammad.  A well known periodical states “for a short time early in their history Muslims prayed toward Jerusalem, and it is called in Arabic Ula al-Qiblatain, "First of the two Qiblas," —"directions"—the second being Mecca. It is also called al-Quds ash-Sharif, "the Holy and Noble City," or simply, al-Quds, "the Holy." In addition to the Koranic blessing, there is a Hadith, or saying attributed to the Prophet, that Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem are equally deserving of pilgrimage." (“To Pray in Jerusalem” Saudi Aramco World Jul 1974). I’d encourage you to read the entirety of this very well written article. Though from 1974 and obviously from an Islamic perspective, the historical data surrounding Jerusalem are accurate.

Mohammad is said to have changed the direction of prayer after disputes with the Jews and Christians of the time who did not agree to follow his leadership in the public or religious spheres. It was only then that Muslims broke from prayer towards Jerusalem and faced Mecca. Directional prayer is not a ‘Muslim’ idea, in fact it began with Solomon, and God’s appearance there, becoming vital in Jewish practice. There are many Islamic ideals that we as Christians like to dismiss altogether, but their genesis are found in Biblical practices.

Jerusalem is a uniting and dividing force for the world's three monotheistic religions.  All three hold that Abraham is our father, that the rock of Mt. Moriah is holy because of the near sacrifice of Abraham's son there, all three believe this is the spot where Jesus taught the elders when just a boy, and cleared the Outer Court.  Significant events mark this place, and the city continues to be an object and a subject of prayer.  For Christians, prayer has been released from it's attachment to place, but Jerusalem still demands our attention. Today, when you pray, face Jerusalem, and plead with the God of Abraham, Issac, and Ishmael to bring peace to Jerusalem.