Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you." Genesis 22:2
Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" "To buy your threshing floor," David answered, "so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped." 2 Samuel 24:21
Then Solomon began to build the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David. 2 Chronicles 3:1
Mount Moriah is where God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and where he promised him that the burnt offering, the sin offering, would be provided. Mount Moriah is also where the threshing floor of Araunah was located, where the plague against Israel was stopped by a burnt offering, and where, later, the temple of Solomon was built. Even later, the second temple was built on Mount Moriah. Today it is known as the Temple Mount.
On one side of this mount is a smaller hill called Golgotha, or the "hill of execution," where our sacrifice for sin, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God was offered up. Most think that Golgotha was only about 300 yards from the Temple. On the other side of Mount Moriah, and over the Kidron Valley is the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane. It is here, to the Mount of Olives, that the Bible says Jesus will return someday.
On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. Zechariah 14:4 (also Acts 1:10-12)
So, all of this to ask a question that has been puzzling me. Why will Jesus return to the Mount of Olives and not to Mount Moriah or Golgotha? Golgotha, and the tomb nearby, is where Jesus' atoning death and resurrection took place. Wouldn't a return there emphasize that saving grace?
The Temple Mount is a hotbed of politics and religious controversy. It is where the third temple is prophesied to be built, the one in which the antichrist will install the "abomination of desolation" (Matthew 24:15). Wouldn't Jesus' return there, destroying this horrible idol and seating himself on a kingly throne, best express his power and glory?
It didn't make sense to me. But then the Lord reminded me of something: God is always looking at the heart.
I am not minimizing the history-rending, world-saving consummation of God's passionate love for us in Jesus' death on the cross, or the wonder that someday the Temple Mount and all man-made temples will disappear and there will be a new Jerusalem where God will dwell with us forever, drying every tear, and where "the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple." But none of this could have happened, or will happen, without that night in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives.
Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will." Mark 14:35-36
And that's why I think that Jesus will return there – the place where his great heart was surrendered to the Father's will. The place where he laid down his own will, all his desires, hopes, dreams, even the temptation to fear. I think Jesus had these feelings because it says he was tempted as we are.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Hebrews 4:15
Yet! Without sin, he yielded everything to his loving Father in complete love and trust. And so, in the same way, everything I do or say, or even think, must come first from a surrendered heart. Without that, every "good" thing that comes from me is tainted, is ineffective, is useless.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (ESV)
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5 (ESV)
Yes Lord, help me to do that! I have plenty of fears and trust issues. I like my comfort. I am afraid of suffering and ridicule. Give me the strength and grace to surrender to your good will so that I can be a tiny conduit of your love and healing grace to the world.
"… not what I will, but what you will."
Mount of Olives: "The traditional site of the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed just before he was betrayed by Judas Iscariot (Matthew 26; Mark 14), is on the western slopes." -- Britannica https://www.britannica.com/place/Mount-of-Olives
Golgotha: "The hill of execution was outside the city walls of Jerusalem, apparently near a road and not far from the sepulchre where Jesus was buried. Its exact location is uncertain, but most scholars prefer either the spot now covered by the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or a hillock called Gordon's Calvary just north of the Damascus Gate." -- Britannica https://www.britannica.com/place/Golgotha
Map of the Old City and surroundings of Jerusalem by Opendorf from Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_the_Old_City_and_surroundings_of_Jerusalem.svg
Image of Mount of Olives, free download from Wallpaper Flare
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