Wednesday 23 December 2009

THE MOUNT OF OLIVES

Where did He spend the hours of that last night?
The Mount of Olives where He had valued life
And with His Father had joy that was divine;
Gethsemane: there His will must collide
With Satan's will to swerve Him from the right.
Yet if there lay before Him hours of strife
And grief more fierce that any can indite
His soul recoiled but Christ would not resile.
The enemy might try each thwart device:
He could not touch the dignity of Christ.
Before fire touched the offering in the types
The water proved the sacrifice refined.

6 comments:

  1. David, that is very beautiful. I am enjoying tracing the Lord's final days with you in verse.

    We are looking at the offerings just now in Leviticus. What you have said regarding the water proving is most instructive; my grandfather used to say the water was not for cleansing but to bring out the excellence of the offering. But I find the final two lines in this verse (fire&water) a helpful way to understand the solemnity of what Jesus endured in the garden.

    Praise be to God for sending His Son! in whom Satan could never have found a single point of attack; a perfect man, yet a dependent man.

    I like the use of 'recoil' and 'resile'; subtle nuances of meaning. I always feel in thanksgiving at the Supper that I'm on holy ground speaking of these things. One of the great blessings of heaven is that our praise will be perfect, there will be no searching for words. As there will be no time, will even /speak/ as we do now, a linear activity in time?

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  2. Thanks for the comments. I'm not sure if the water has otherwise been related to Gethsemane - but I think it bears the application.

    In eternity we will be in eternal conditions ourselves; I used to try to get my head round it but soon found it is impossible!

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  3. I'm certain the water can be applied in this way - it rings true. The man Jesus exposed in all His perfection.

    I have just read your note on the form of this verse and found that interesting. What does TTK represent? Because the earlier TTK postings are long before I started following your posts, I wasn't sure whether these were all part of a complete work (inc PETER, JOHN, etc).

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  4. "Touching the King" - It would have taken a while to guess that. The first of the sequence is called "Beginning" and I have just tagged it TTK. I'm afraid at that stage I hadn't worked out the system, and I haven't had time to go back since.

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  5. Thank you for your insight. Finding Christ as our High Priest through the old covenant is so revealing. May our eyes continue to be opened!

    Merry CHRISTmas!

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  6. oh david..this is another passage that i loved so much..i tried but failed to imagine the deep agony that the lord was suffering as he looked into the cup that he would be drinking...full of my sin.
    such deep agony that he sweat great drops of blood.
    the disciples were sleeping and i just wonder if the reason they WERE sleeping is because you have probably experienced yourself david that when you have had great sorrow and cried so much sometimes you just fall asleep crying.
    i know i have.
    and yet the lord understood!
    i have enjoyed your post and the comments of your friends david...from terry

    you know david, i wish that people would really realize at christmas that this is just the reason king jesus came into the world and that was to die for us and to save us and take us to heaven!

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I'm glad to hear how this strikes you!