THE MOUNT OF OLIVES
Matt. 24:1-3
Morning Meditation 9/25/16
These verses say, “And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”
One of the major places Christian visitors are taken when visiting the Holy Land is the Mount of Olives. Many things have taken place on the Mount of Olives. It also has a major connection with the visible return of Christ (not the rapture).
When we arrived on the Mount of Olives we dismounted from our bus and arab vendors with pictures, camel rides and all sorts of trinkets for sale were all over the place and all over us. These were human venders, not the ones you stick quarter in but the kind that sticks his product in your face and walks backwards in front of you or closely by your side and won’t take no for an answer. He keeps saying, “One American dollar!” I just about had to unload one to keep his hand away from my bill fold. I did not feel uneasy as we traveled along the Syrian and Lebanese border. But my bill fold did feel threatened when I was around arab venders. “If you can getta (present active indicative verb!) the man’s bill fold or the woman’s purse, you gotta (Aorist active indicative in a once for all act) the money and the products too!” (An arab just said that). Jerusalem is beautiful from this place on the Mount of Olives, and most of the pictures that you see of Jerusalem with the Mosque of Omar, along with the bricked up Eastern Gate, are taken from the Mount of Olives.
We assembled with our guide as lecturer, and, he explained the significance of the scene. He began by pointing out that the cemetery on our left was a Jewish grave yard. This grave yard has been desecrated by the arabs and Palestinians who occupied the land. They took the head stones and used them for side walks. They did this because of their hatred of the Jews. Our guide told us it took him and his family several years to find the grave stones of his grandparents but when he found them he restored them and left holes for arabs to patch. Then our guide pointed to an arab cemetery that runs along the eastern wall.. A priest cannot defile himself by going in the area of a grave yard. So, the arabs again defile the temple mount that lies outside the wall of Jerusalem. The prophets also prophesied that Jesus, the Messiah, would come through the Eastern Gate. So, since Jesus is a High Priest as well as Messiah, they fixed Him. They bricked up the gate so he couldn’t get through and placed a cemetery where He would be defiled and therefore hindered Him from literally fulfilling that prophecy.
Well, when Jesus comes and puts His foot on the Mount of Olives it will split right down the middle as a result of an earthquake and a river will be opened that will wash away the arab graveyard and cleanse the area and will at the same turn the Dead Sea into a Live Sea instead of a dead one. Ezekiel put it this way: “Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh”(Ezek. 47:8-9).. Zechariah said, “And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south” (Zech. 14:4).
There is an earthquake fault that runs through the Mount of Olives. It is like the note pad I am using. The manufacturer perforated the top of the page where it is easy for me to tare the page off when I want to separate it from the pad. God perforated the earth when He made it because He knew what He was going to do. All He has to say to His servants, the angels is, “tear it at the perforation!” Amen! Selah!
Somewhere not far from where we stood, Jesus, near the time when the hour of His crucifixion, overlooked Jerusalem and saw the unconcerned unsaved multitudes and cried, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! (Matt. 23:37). We see both His willingness to save in this statement and the reason He didn’t, i.e., “and ye would not..” It was from the Mount of Olives that this took place.
As we stood and viewed the side of the Mount of Olives that goes down and helps form the Kidron valley and the valley of Jehoshaphat (it is called both), our guide pointed out the church that is built on the traditional sight of our Lord’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. The top of the church is built in the form of a tear drop. We journeyed down the path (at the same time buying postcard pictures or removing an arab’s hand from your pocket!) until we got to the Garden of Gethsemane. There, someone read the passage of Scripture where Jesus spent his last hours with his disciples and prayed, and from which He was arrested and taken before Caiaphas the high priest and the scribes and elders (Matt. 26:36-57).
When we think of a garden we think of a garden of vegetables or a flower garden. The Jews also call it a garden if it is olive trees. The garden has olive trees that have survived the centuries. If the trees could talk they could tell us some interesting stories. There was a testimonial service in the garden and it was a blessing to hear those in our group testify of the grace of God in their lives and the blessing it was to stand in this place. It was also a privilege for me to state in my testimony that Jesus is as real to me in the local Church as in that garden. I quoted Ephesians 3:21: “Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.” I’m not taking anything away from the thrill of walking where Jesus walked. But, our worship is not tied to a spot in this world. Jesus said to the woman at Jacob’s well, “ .. . . Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:21-24). I am not taking a thing away from the privilege of experiencing being in Gethsemane. Was I trying to straighten anyone out in our group? No. I was trying to keep my own thinking straight on the subject. I have been closer to the Lord in my local Church than I ever have been while standing in a so-called sacred place. Would I go back? Sure. Would I enjoy it? Absolutely. Would it get me closer to the Lord? Absolutely not! God is omnipresent. You can go no place on earth to get closer to Him and no place on earth to get further from Him. I am not talking about how one feels. I’m talking about the fact. Tozer said, “The presence and the manifestation of the Presence are not the same. There can be the one without the other. God is here when we are wholly unaware of it. He is manifest only when and as we are aware of His presence.” Would it make the Bible come alive to see and understand some of the places the Bible talks about? Absolutely. Amen. More on this tomorrow. Tomorrow I will talk about the Miracle in the Garden.
May God bless these impressions to our hearts.
In Christ
Bro. White
