the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Mount Olivet
Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary
or Sweet and sacred spot from whence the Lord Jesus ascended, when having finished redemption-work, he returned to glory! and where, according to the voice both of prophets and angels, his feet shall again stand, when the mountains shall cleave in the midst, and Jesus shall come to reign before his ancients gloriously. (See in confirmation Isaiah 24:23; Zechariah 14:4-21; Acts 1:9-12.) This hallowed mount is situated at the east of Jerusalem, being separated only by the brook Kedron, and the valley of Jehoshaphat. Here it was that David (typically of Christ) went up barefoot and weeping, when he fled from Absalom, as the Lord Jesus went by it when he entered Gethsemane, and passed over the same brook of Kedron. (See 2 Samuel 15:22-30; John 18:1; Matthew 26:30-46.) The reader, if not much acquainted with the sacred history will be surprized to find that the spot rendered so memorable to David by sorrow should be prophaned by Solomon his son. But so it was, when king Solomon loved many strange wives, those illicit connexions led him into idolatry; hence we read that Solomon built an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Moloch, the abomination of the children of Ammon. (1 Kings 11:1-7.) Hence, in the after-reign of the good king Josiah, when the king, removed those idols, so much prophaned had been this mount, that it had acquired the name of the mount of corruption. (See 2 Kings 23:13.) Blessed be the Lord for taking away the corruption, and making the spot infinitely more hallowed than it had ever been before, by the presence and ascension of the Lord Jesus from it, when he had finished the sacred purposes of his redemption.
Here would my soul, methinks, frequently wander in sacred meditation, that glory which shall be revealed. Here, I would say, from hence Jesus ascended when he went up on high, and led captivity captive, and received gifts for men; yea, when he received gifts for men in the manhood of Christ Jesus. And here my contemplating soul would listen to the angel's words who graced the Lord Jesus's triumph, and still hear, in the ear of faith, their blessed tidings vibrating in the sweetest sound on my ravished senses--"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." (Acts 1:11)
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Hawker, Robert D.D. Entry for 'Mount Olivet'. Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance and Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/pmd/m/mount-olivet.html. London. 1828.
