“Ascent of the Mount of Olives” (2 Sam. 15:30)
To bring about that the man who was driven from the garden of Eden and banned from it was able to find his way home, Jesus as frontrunner (Heb. 6:20) had to move through two prototypical gardens.
First Jesus had to go through the garden of Gethsemane – read this dramatic history again: “Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, ‘Sit here while I go and pray over there.’ And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, ‘My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.’ He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.’ Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.’ And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then He came to His disciples and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.’” (Matt. 36-46).
It is very important to understand that although this section is strictly speaking classified as New Testament, and is presented in our Bibles as part of the new covenant, it is actually the fulfilment of the Old Testament. Thus the history of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane is also a typology for us of the path that we must walk (Rom. 15:4; Rom. 4:23-24; 1 Cor. 9:9-10; 1 Cor. 10:11; 2 Tim. 3:16-17). From the garden in Genesis to the garden in Revelation there are two other gardens through which you and I must walk on our unfolding path of faith, and the first of this is the garden of Gethsemane.
In John 18:1 we read, “When Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples over the Brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which He and His disciples entered.” On this road, on the way to Gethsemane, Jesus present the very important teaching of John 14 to his disciples (about the fact that He is leaving and what they should expect for the time lying ahead); spoke to them about the mystery of the Christ, presented as a vineyard with vines (John 15); explained the mystery of his appearance/the coming of the Holy Spirit in great detail (John 16); and prayed his high priestly prayer – the fulfilling capstone of his calling – in John 17. What a journey this must have been!
This journey to Gethsemane, which was located just outside of Jerusalem, took place through the narrow roads and ravines of the valley of Jehoshaphat. A spring “that ran through the land” (2 Chr. 32:4) is very prominent here. Jesus probably chose this garden for rest and gaining perspective (Luke 22:39). At this specific time of the year the Kidron was quite a strong river. Easton’s Bible Dictionary provides the following information: “Turbid, the winter torrent which flows through the Valley of Jehoshaphat, on the eastern side of Jerusalem, between the city and the Mount of Olives. This valley is known in Scripture only by the name ‘the brook Kidron’”. The word turbid is interesting in this case. According to Webster it means: “TUR’BID, a. [L. turbidus, from turbo, to disturb, that is, to stir, to turn.] Properly, having the lees disturbed; but in a more general sense, muddy; foul with extraneous matter; thick; not clear …” The turbulence of the waters is clearly a natural pointer to the spiritual nature of Jesus’s mood – prophetically He had to pour “out His soul unto death” (Isa. 53:12).
In this light it is also important to know that the river Kidron was also used to cast away the waste from the sacrifices of the temple. All the blood from the sacrificial animals was for instance dumped in the Kidron. This night, when Jesus and his disciples ventured there, the river was certainly full of blood. Over time the blood caused the river to become black, and it is probably from this that it gained its name, which means dark, along with the possible symbolic associations of death and dying that adheres to it. This points out that the believer will somewhere along the way be confronted with the proverbial dark night of the soul (the phrase coined by St John of the Cross) a time of trouble in which you lay down your own will and seek God’s will above all else. [Read for instance Ps. 120, where in verse 5 they refer to “the tents of Kedar,” which has the same root word as Kidron, and clearly see the terrifying agony.]
The history of this area is also important for this reference. It is the area where David, barefoot and crying, fled from Absalom (2 Sam. 15:23 & 30). Here Asa burnt the obscene idols of his mother (1 Kings 15:13), and here Athalia, who aborts royal seed, was overcome and killed (2 Kings 11:16). It later became the place where all unclean waste was dumped (2 Chr. 29:16; 30:14), and since then the valley is the common graveyard of the city (2 Kings 23:6; compare Jer. 26:23). All this information provides important prototypical context for the emotional space in which Jesus (and you and I) find ourselves in the garden of Gethsemane.
Jehoshaphat means Jehovah has judged and is symbolically the place of final judgment (Rom. 8:1). It is ONLY in Christ where there is no judgment (Rom. 8:1). Joel 3:1-2 prophetically positions it as follows: “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land.” Joel 3:14 thus refers to it as “the valley of decision.”
In 2 Sam. 15:23-25 & 30 we read of that space, the place where king David and the whole country’s people along with him, moved through in a prophetic precursor that reminds us of the crusade of Jesus: “And all the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people crossed over. The king himself also crossed over the Brook Kidron, and all the people crossed over toward the way of the wilderness. There was Zadok also, and all the Levites with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of God, and Abiathar went up until all the people had finished crossing over from the city.” Verse 25 makes clear what the king symbolically presents to Zadok, the prototype of the royal priesthood (1 Pet. 1:23): “Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring me back and show me both it and His dwelling place.”
Jesus had to be prepared as tabernacle of God and eternal home (Deut. 33:27), as He explained in John 14. To be able to become this, the Anointed had to ascend to “the Mount of Olives” (2 Sam. 15:30), Gethsemane, which means Olive Press. Here He would be wrought as the Messiah, and it is here where you and I receive the salvation of/in the Christ.
- Selah: What do you understand by the anointing of Christ?
- Read: 136 – 144.
- Memorise: 139.
- For a more in-depth understanding: Read St John of the Cross’s Dark Night of the Soul.
