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Find the answers to all those questions you were too embarrassed to ask in Sunday School. Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. Hosted by Luke Taylor.
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The Mountain Jesus will Destroy
II Samuel 15, I Kings 11
Introduction
Everyone’s heard of the Mount of Olives from the Scriptures.
This is where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.
It’s where He gave the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24.
It’s where He went to pray on the night He was crucified.
It’s where He ascended to the heavens after His resurrection.
And—it’s where prophecy says He will return at the Second Coming of Christ.
Obviously a pretty significant mountain. It must be pretty sacred and special to Jesus if He does all these important things there. This must be one of the holiest locations in the Bible, right?
Well actually, this was one of the most unholy mountains of the Old Testament. This was actually a demonic place of human sacrifice in ancient Israel, and a location known as the Mount of Corruption during the later kings; a spiritual abomination where pagans tried to access the Underworld.
We might even call it a cosmic mountain.
So just as two weeks ago I had you rethinking Eden, and last week I had you rethinking gardens, this week will have you rethinking the Mount of Olives.
Because I’m wondering: what were Jesus’ purposes for spending so much time there?
I find it to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.
Turn to Matthew 21, and let’s get weird.
[theme music]
Olives in the Time of Jesus
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be talking about the history—and future—of the Mount of Olives.
Our familiarity around the Mount of Olives is mostly tied to the time when Jesus walked this earth, and that’s where I want to start today. But we’ll also look at the times that the Mount of Olives shows up in the Old Testament, and then we’ll wrap things up by looking to what prophecy says about the Mount of Olives in the future.
To begin, let’s talk about the Mount of Olives in the life of Jesus. Especially in the week before Jesus died, He spent a lot of time here.
In John 11, Jesus raises Lazarus at a town called Bethany, which was a village on Olives. This was an inciting incident in the Gospel accounts of the crucifixion, because this is what leads the chief priests to begin plotting Jesus’ death.
In John 12, Jesus is also anointed by Mary, Lazarus’ sister, at Bethany on Olives.
Right after this is the Triumphal Entry, when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. His donkey was obtained from Olives.
Matthew 21:1-2
Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.
Jesus enters the city from the east, which is from the direction of Olives. If you look at a map, Olives is a three-peaked mountain that makes up the eastern border of Jerusalem. Then Jesus spends a few days interacting with people in Jerusalem. He keeps going back and forth between Olives and Jerusalem during this week. A few days later in Matthew 24, it says this:
Matthew 24:3
3 As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
And from there, Jesus gives an overview of the future, a discussion referred to by many Bible students as the Olivet Discourse. It was called the Olivet discourse because it was on the Mount of Olives. Of course, I love the old cheesy joke that it was called that because His disciples asked Him about the future and He told them all-of-it.
So the Olivet Discourse takes up Matthew 24 and 25. Right after that is the story of the Last Supper back in Jerusalem, and then after that, Jesus goes back to the Mount of Olives to pray in Gethsemane.
Matthew 26:30 says
And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
And verse 36 continues
Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.”
And, of course, Gethsamene was a garden. That should make your ears perk up just a little bit after the last couple of episodes, as we discussed how gardens were often used as access points to the Underworld in pagan rituals in the Old Testament. I cannot prove that gardens actually have anything to do with the Underworld; I’m just telling you what that culture believed. The Bible seems to imply a link, including the fact that Jesus was buried in a garden tomb, and of course, He Himself went to the Underworld for three days.
And then Olives comes up again at the end of the Gospels and in the first chapter of the Book of Acts as the place of Jesus’ ascension.
So that was just a recap of this location from the life of Jesus. If this was all you had to go off of, you’d probably conclude that the Mount of Olives was a special place to our Lord, a holy site where He liked to frequently go and pray. But when you look at this mountain from an Old Testament perspective, it will paint a very different picture of this spot.
Olives in the Old Testament
The first place it comes up is in II Samuel 15 and 16; this is during the story of Absalom’s rebellion. David flees Jerusalem, and during this time, he ascends the Mount of Olives.
II Samuel 15:30-32
30 But David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, barefoot and with his head covered. And all the people who were with him covered their heads, and they went up, weeping as they went. 31 And it was told David, “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.” And David said, “O Lord, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.”
32 While David was coming to the summit, where God was worshiped, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat torn and dirt on his head.
A few things about this. One, there are only two places in the Old Testament where Olives comes up by name, and this is one of them. It’ll come up in other places by another name, but it only arrives twice by name in the whole Old Testament. I find that surprising, considering how significant it is in the New Testament.
Two, it said that David came to the summit of Olives, “where God was worshiped.” In Hebrew, it would say where elohim was worshiped. However, there’s something really interesting about this word elohim. It’s a plural word. It can be applied to God, and it often is; but this same word is used to refer to multiple gods, such as the Watchers.
Psalm 82:1 says
God [elohim] has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods [again, elohim] he holds judgment:
The same word is used for the (singular) Creator God in the first half of the verse, and then for the (plural) Watchers on the Divine Council in the second half of that verse. So it’s a somewhat tricky word sometimes when translating it into English. I mean, most of the time it’s pretty obvious from the context which elohim we’re talking about, but not always. For example, this past weekend I filled in at a church and preached on Exodus 32, the golden calf incident. I noticed as I was preparing my notes that chapter,
The ESV renders Exodus 32:4 as
“These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
But the NKJV renders it
“This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!”
Why is one translation singular and one plural? Because the translators aren’t totally sure which one it should be, since the word elohim can go either way. For the record, I think the ESV had it right, but I can understand why it’s tricky.
So back to II Samuel. It said that the Mount of Olives is where elohim was worshiped. We’re not given context for this location anywhere else. Is this worship to the Creator God, or is it worship of pagan gods or the rebellious Watchers? I’ll leave that an open question. The Old Testament mentions a few holy sites where a tabernacle or altar was erected in honor of Yahweh, such as Shiloh or Bethel or Jerusalem; but we aren’t told where one was ever built on Olives. And when these things were built to God, they weren’t generally on a mountain top. But going up on high places to build altars to false gods was a pretty common pagan practice at this time. So it’s ambiguous to me. However, keep this ambiguity in mind as we read what Solomon, David’s son, used this location for:
I Kings 11:4-5
4 For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
Note: Milcom was another name for Molech. This was a frequent Old Testament deity associated with human sacrifice, especially child sacrifice.
Leviticus 20:4-6 say
4 And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, 5 then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech.
6 “If a person turns to mediums and necromancers, whoring after them, I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.
Notice how worship of Molech is mentioned in conjunction with necromancy, which means to try and summon the dead from the Underworld. It comes up again here- note this connection with human sacrifice and the Underworld:
Deuteronomy 18:9-12
9 “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.
It used the word abomination a lot. Keep that in mind. One more thing I’ll mention: remember last week we talked about Manasseh, a king who engaged in a lot of idolatry and wanted to be buried in a garden?
I Kings 21:6 said
And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers.
As I said, gardens were thought of as access points to the Underworld; literally creating portals to hell when these rituals took place there. I will tell you, it’s my belief that Molech is an Underworld spirit.
By the way, Molech is spoken of in the Old Testament as a real spiritual being who actually exists. I detail this in an article on my website called “Every Named Spirit in the Bible,” and you can read it at WeirdStuffInTheBible.com. Molech is a real entity. He, along with Chemosh, are often associated with human sacrifice. Molech and Chemosh are the gods of Ammon and Moab, which are the two nations that came from the sons of Lot, and they receive frequent and strong condemnation in the Old Testament. I believe both of them are Underworld spirits because they’re associated with practices that relate to access to the Underworld. So it should be very shocking and concerning that Solomon was following this god.
Back to I Kings 11, verses 6-8
6 So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and did not wholly follow the Lord, as David his father had done. 7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. 8 And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.
He built high places for Chemosh and Molech on the mountain east of Jerusalem. As I said before, this was the Mount of Olives. Derek Gilbert—who I owe a lot of thanks for the research in this episode—said in his book The Gates of Hell: “The mountain east of Jerusalem can only be the Mount of Olives…” (page ?? Chapter on Mount of Olives). So this mountain was used as a place of sacrifice to Molech and Chemosh. That paints a much darker picture of this place.
And 300 years later, it apparently hasn’t gotten much better. This mountain comes up again in the life of King Josiah. Josiah brought some religious reform to Israel.
II Kings 23:12-14
12 And the altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, he pulled down and broke in pieces and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron. 13 And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the mount of corruption [note that: the mount of corruption], which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 14 And he broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men.
And Verse 24
24 Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums and the necromancers and the household gods and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem…
So Olives was the Mount of Corruption. A place where past kings—Manasseh, Ahaz, even going back to Solomon—had engaged in these practices where they worshipped Molech and Chemosh and tried to make contact with the Underworld.
So the Old Testament doesn’t paint such a rosy picture of the Mount of Olives, does it? We see it as a location of rebellion and defilement and abomination back then.
Here’s why I’m talking about this today: Olives was a cosmic mountain. A cosmic mountain is a point of connection between three realms: the Heaven, the Earth, and the Underworld. Now, I’m not saying it was a mystical place like Eden. We might say this was a dark attempt to create a cosmic mountain. But it was a place of ritual to access the Underworld. The New Testament mentions a garden being there. (I’m not saying every single garden in the Bible is necessarily something demonic, but a garden seems to be one of the defining aspects of a cosmic mountain). And Jesus uses it to access heaven in the New Testament, as it’s the place from which He ascends 40 days after the resurrection.
Olives in the Future
There’s one more place where Olives is mentioned by name in the Old Testament, and that’s a prophecy in the last chapter of Zechariah. This is describing the Second Coming of Christ, which occurs (I believe) at the end of the Great Tribulation, when the Antichrist is gathering his forces for an attack on Jerusalem. We often refer to this as the battle of Armageddon, even though technically Armageddon is the place where the Antichrist assembles his forces; the battle itself takes place at Jerusalem.
Zechariah 14:3-4
3 Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. 4 On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east,
When Jesus returns, He touches down on planet earth right here on the Mount of Olives. This event is also spoken of in Revelation 19. But this was prophesied back before Jesus even came the first time! This is so mind-blowing to me. Before the first coming of the Messiah, we were being given some explicit details about His second coming right here.
But why this mountain? Why is Jesus singling out this mountain for His return? Is it because it’s a place He spent so much time during His ministry and just loves it so much? Let me read all of verse 4 now; I didn’t finish it the first time:
(Zechariah 14:4)
4 On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward.
Woah. He splits it in half. Jesus lands on this mountain and divides it. Pulverizes it. This is why I often say, if you ever get the opportunity to visit Israel, make sure you visit the Mount of Olives while you still can. Because once Jesus comes back, you won’t get another chance. It’s gonna be gone. Why does He do that?
I used to think, you know, maybe Jesus was just so excited to get back here that He forgot to pump the brakes on His way down, and lands a little too hard. OK, not really, but I thought before that it was just a demonstration of His power.
But now, after the dark history of this location, the abominations that took place here in the Old Testament, I see this as a targeted strike. Jesus was wiping out the Mount of Corruption. In the future, the Mount of Olives will be history.
[musical interlude]
Next Time
So this will be a wrap on my cosmic mountain mini-series that we’ve done the past few weeks, although I’m sure cosmic mountains will come up again in future episodes. Next time on this podcast, I plan to circle back to a subject I referenced several weeks back as we were studying creation. Genesis 1 talks about this thing called the Firmament, and I had said back then that I’d revisit it later. It’s later! I plan to talk about the Firmament next week.
Make sure you’re subscribed so you can get it!
A few shoutouts I’d like to share real quick, and then I have one closing thought on Olives—one more insight I’d like to share.
The first shoutout is to Brittany, who wrote in this week. On this podcast, I share a lot of INFORMATION, and I try not to get preachy on this show and keep it more information-focused, but to be honest, I am most passionate about TRANSFORMATION. If you just read the Bible for information, you can be a very well-educated pharisee. But whenever possible, we want to look for God’s Word to transform us as we study it.
So I was very grateful to receive a message from Brittany this past week. She found the podcast a while back and has been catching up on all the episodes, she’s about halfway through. And she wrote in to say, “I rededicated my life to Jesus in September and was baptized both in water and the Holy Spirit. I’m loving my new life and closeness with Him. Your podcast could not have come at a better time. I have been under spiritual attack, this was before I was baptized, and was praying my little heart out to counter. Since my baptisms, I have had a much easier time and combined with your show know how to defend and attack…I have grown spiritually so much since I started listening to your show and feel so empowered. I’m naturally a weirdo, so this is perfectly placed in my life."
So I think we all congratulate Brittany on rededicating herself to the Lord and making great strides in her relationship with Him. She also shared how she’s gotten so serious about her Bible study, and messages like that just light a fire under me. I hope we will all study the Bible for transformation, not just information. And Brittany, if you have listened to half the episodes, you are definitely an official weirdo, so welcome to our weird club.
And real quick shoutouts to some others who wrote in: Amy, as well as David. Amy didn’t say she was a weirdo, but I think she’s been following the podcast for a while so she must be by this point. David said he went back and listened from episode one all the way to the present day, and so he is an official, super duper, bonafide, qualified, certified, Kentucky fried, all caps WEIRDO. Thanks for hanging with me this long, David.
Also heard from Simon this week who identified himself as an “ultra weirdo” for listening to every episode. I’d say you’re a Kentucky Fried Weirdo, too, Simon.
THIS MOUNTAIN (AGAIN)
Closing thought today. Remember how Jesus spoke about mountain-moving faith? He did that a few times. Let’s look at
Matthew 21:18-21
18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.
By the way, I keep getting asked about the fig tree, so I’ve got it on my schedule to do an episode about that later on. It’ll be at least a few months though. Let’s keep reading.
20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” 21 And Jesus answered them [which was His disciples], “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
Now, I know that Jesus probably wasn't speaking literally when He said we'd move mountains. I think that's more metaphorical, and that’s good because frankly, it would probably jack around with the real estate market in Colorado if we started rearranging the Rockies
But I want you to notice that He didn’t just say “a mountain.” He said “this mountain.” What mountain is He referring to? This is during the passion week. This is the same chapter as the Triumphal Entry. Jesus was standing by the Mount of Olives. And this is the mountain that Jesus said you could toss in the sea.
Now, here’s what’s interesting about this: Jesus used this same terminology back in Matthew 17, right after He descended from the Mount of Transfiguration. We talked about this just a few months ago on the podcast, in a episode called Taking Hermon Back. Because Hermon—the location of the Watchers’ rebellion in the Days of Jared—was the exact spot where Jesus transfigured. Then He got to the bottom and said “You guys can’t handle one little demon? You could toss this mountain into the sea if you wanted to.” He said that about Mount Hermon, a place of infamous supernatural rebellion in the Old Testament.
And the other mountain Jesus says that about is right here—the Mount of Olives—another mountain of infamous supernatural rebellion.
So Jesus was never afraid of anything. The Jews avoided Mount Hermon; Jesus marched right up on it. The Jews avoided Caesarea Philippi; Jesus said He’d build His church there. The Jews avoided Samaria; Jesus walked right through it and got water from a woman at a well. The Jews avoided the Gadarenes; Jesus walked in and set a man free from a legion of demons.
And the Mount of Corruption—the place where Old Testament pagans used to go and contact the Underworld—a place that any modern church would probably avoid like the plague—was the precise location where Jesus liked to hold a prayer meeting.
John 18:2
Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples.
Where? Gethsemane. A garden on the Mount of Olives. And Jesus often hung out there with His disciples.
Why? I think because (1) Jesus wasn’t afraid of anything. And (2) to show us that we don’t have to be either.
And if that sounds weird, I hope you’ll be a little more weird today, too. Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time on Weird Stuff in the Bible.