By Dr. Wayne Brouwer
April 14, 2025When David became king of Israel, he needed a capital city that was both prominent and defensible.
The Jebusite city of “Peace” (“Salem”/”Shalom”/”Salaam”), once ruled by mysterious Melchizedek (Genesis 14), was perfect. Jerusalem became David’s palace city and, a generation later, the home of Solomon’s Temple, the place where Yahweh stepped out of heaven and ruled from “Zion”.
The broad ridge on Jerusalem’s east side was a wonderful spot to farm, and beckoned many to sit in the shade of olive trees, contemplating the beauty of God’s city.
For generations the ridge became known as the “Mount of Olives.”
King Solomon liked these heights so much that he built a whole city there, forming a harem of homes and palaces and shrines for his 1000 wives and concubines (1 Kings 11)!
Later, the mighty Assyrian army established its menacing headquarters up there, raining scorn down on Hezekiah’s Jerusalem, yelling that Israel’s missing God (no images of Yahweh in the Temple!) could not save the city (2 Kings 18).
But mighty Yahweh was not an absentee landlord, and miraculously delivered Israel from the overwhelming Assyrian threat (an event even reported by the “Father of History,” Herodotus of Greece!).
The Mount of Olives always beckoned and threatened, even in Jesus’ day.
He retreated to those heights to pray. He taught about the true kingdom from that lofty perch. And he spoke of his own impending demise from the sheltered groves of ancient trees that seemed to have been around since time began.
Those who listened never imagined that the crisis Jesus warned about would climax so soon.
Isn’t that always the case…?
