Welcome and thank you for taking a bible break to test your knowledge of God's word.
This week's question:

With the mention of the word "Zion" a song or two may spring to mind as "Zion's call is ringing" and we are to heed the call of perfect love. Or it may be, "We're marching to Zion, beautiful Zion" for those that love the lord will let their joys be known while those who never knew the Lord will refuse to sing. For those that sing the songs for joy, and praise and edification, the understanding of the word's is important to fulfill these things along this pathway of life.

And so, our question of the day, "What is Zion?", and should we be interested in finding out what it is all about? We begin our search by turning first to the Old Testament to read, "Now the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, and they said to David, 'You shall not come in here, but the blind and lame will turn you away.'; thinking, 'David cannot enter here.' Nevertheless, David captured the stronghold of Zion, that is the city of David." (2 Samuel 5:6-7). Therefore we have found the first part of our answer as Zion is the physical city of David, or Jerusalem. But there is more to our answer than just the city of Jerusalem itself as we turn to,

Isaiah 2:1-3 The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths." For the Law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

A similar passage is in Micah 4:1-3 but verse seven says, "I will make the lame a remnant and the outcasts a strong nation, and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from now on and forever." Jesus tells His disciples, "And you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." (Acts 1:8).

And of course, Peter recounts the prophecy of the prophet Joel, "And it shall be in the last days, God says, 'That I shall pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;" (Acts 2:17). So, indeed, the word and the last days did start in Jerusalem and then it spread to Judea, Samaria, and then to all the earth just as Jesus had foretold with the establishment of the church (Acts 2:37-47). The spiritual side of Zion begins there also and continues as all nations steam to it, as the wild olive branches, the Gentiles, are grafted onto the Holy olive tree (Romans 11:13-21), for "The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob." (Romans 1:26), as we are to come to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem,

Hebrews 12:22-24 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous, made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.

And there we have the fulfillment of our question as it was both the physical as well as the spiritual Jerusalem as those of the New Testament church are streaming into Mount Zion, that city upon a hill, that heavenly Jerusalem where names are enrolled there of those who stand for the Lords truth as recorded for us eternally in the good book for life!

Let us come to Zion that love the Lord and sing His praises as He gathers us together on that day of eternal rest.