Category Archives: Sermons on the Mounts

The Sermons on Two Mounts- Stone, Rock, or Cornerstone 

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When Jesus was doing His “sermons” from the two mounts, He talked about stones twice. He referenced one prophecy that was being fulfilled and made a prophecy that happened forty years later. Jesus built His first lesson, starting with John the Baptist, laid a platform of parables about the kingdom, and finishes His fortress with a combination of Psalm 118:22 and Isaiah 28:16. These two lessons started His time (Matthew 21:42) on the Temple Mount and finished His day there (Matthew 24:2). He references a mistake the builders of the first Temple made with the cornerstone and how they corrected the mistake to finish the building, and foretold that the stones of the Temple would be torn down.

We love to throw the imagery of Jesus being our rock, fortress, refuge, foundation, and stronghold around (Psalm 18:2) but places that inspired David and others to use those thoughts would add reality to their words. The rocks or mountains in the Negev and the desert west and south of the Dead Sea hold the key. Masada is one such place that clearly shows what David was envisioning when he penned his praises to God. These tall rugged mountains often stand proud, surrounded by plains that afford good views of the land.

Stone or Rock—We moderns have broken the meaning of rock and stone and cemented them into a slurry of inappropriate use. In doing this, we lose some of the meaning of rock and handle the term stone with less importance. Because of my science background, I will admit the materials I am talking about have the same origin. The difference rests in where they are and if a man has done anything to them. What I see in Scripture is rocks are anchored in the ground and not moved by man, while stones, by human efforts, are dug free, cut out, or picked up and handled. Before you think I have fallen and hit my head on a rock, or someone threw a stone at me, let me give some examples.

  • Matthew 27:60-Jesus was laid in a new tomb cut into rock (petra) and they rolled a large stone (lithos) into the entrance.
  • Matthew 7:24-the wise builder dug down and built his house on rock.
  • Psalm 118:22- the stone that the builders rejected became the cornerstone.  

Rocks—David was around rocks. He sat on them as a shepherd and hid among them as a fugitive. He also picked up stones to throw in his sling. So, for him to take the poetic leap and see the qualities of God is not a huge jump. His heart and his creative nature as a songwriter/musician saw their qualities as a reflection of God’s love, care, and protection for him and Israel. There are many times the terms rock, refuge, and fortress appear in the same verse. I will list some but use a concordance or search tool to help you study.

David and the Psalmist use rocks, but so do the prophets. These are from the NIV. Your favorite version may use other terms.

Psalm 31:2

Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.

Psalm 62:2

Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

Psalm 71:3

Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go; give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.

Psalm 91:2

I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

Isaiah 17:10

You have forgotten God your Savior; you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress.

            I will highlight Psalm 18:2– The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I like to think that David wrote that around the time of 1 Samuel 20:42 and then use part of it again in his opus work of 2 Samuel 22:2. David was running for his life, his world just collapsed and he pens a song to help remind himself who his God is. Psalm 18 pretty well covers David’s need for protection.

Stone—Rocks that are being useful to man are stone. There were gemstones in the breastplate that was made for the priest. David picked up stones to throw at Goliath. Rock was cut into stone water pots, blocks for buildings, thrown at people, and as memorials or markers. Depending on the translation you like Genesis 49:29 is the blessing to Joseph, and it says that I will be blessed because of the Hand of Shepherd and Stone/Rock of Israel. (I could not find a good Hebrew text that would clear that word up for me. Both terms are used in various translations).

Another type of stone that gets a lot of attention is the ones that become cornerstones. I have heard that the builders of Solomon’s Temple got a stone that they could not figure out where it belonged. In their frustration, they threw it away. They then complained that the cornerstone (the one that determined the angles and lines of the building) had not been sent. Psalm 118 tells the story that the one they rejected was that stone. They had to retrieve the stone. Jesus quotes that verse and Paul and Peter refer to Jesus as that stone. In Greek, the phrase is kephale gonia. I pieced together a loose translation of chief angle. Jesus is the chief stone that determined how His Church would be laid out and built.

Recap—Jesus is the Rock, who is our fortress and refuge, who became the Stone of Israel when He was born, and He became the Cornerstone of His Church. 

The Sermons on Two Mounts-Sadducees and Pharisees

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As Jesus was teaching, on the two mounts, on Tuesday of Holy Week, He had the Sadducees and Pharisees as antagonists and part of the audience. These adversaries challenged Him about doing miracles and His ride into Jerusalem and tried to trick Him so that the Herodians would have a reason to arrest Him. I introduced these groups in the post about Jesus’ audiences. But with all studies, my questions directed me to a deeper study of these two groups. Links to the Jewish Encyclopedia are below.

It seems lately that my studies move and challenge things I thought I knew. These two groups fit into that trend very well. The Sadducees and Pharisees were not the only sects of Judaism at the time of Jesus; I am aware of the Essences and the Zealots. I have gotten the idea that not only were these “denominations” but also “political parties” and together they determined lifestyles. Even though the common people may have been more aligned with the Pharisees and their practices, you just get the feeling that there were cast or definite lines drawn in the populations of Israel. So, it is no surprise that Jesus went to the people and not to the parties.

Specks vs Logs—To compare and contrast Judaism at the time of Jesus and Christian thought would lead to a lot of finger-pointing and other unproductive wastes of time. Jesus went to people because everyone in any party was not lost in the depths of the doctrine. The parables and teaching on Tuesday, on the mount, can be alarming when you realize that most of them focused on the religious of the day (Sadducees and Pharisees) and the end times.

As I read the articles in the Jewish Encyclopedia, it was easy to see the differences between the two groups. That is what I was looking for. The shared beliefs are no less important. Both groups honored the Temple, the Feasts, and the Torah. In reading the Gospels, it is also apparent they could work together when a threat presented itself. John the Baptist and Jesus may have drawn red flags from both sects.

John the Baptist—John wore the traditional garb of a prophet of Israel, skins of sheep, not fine flowing robes with blue trim. He called out the sins of the son of Herod. Those transgressions would have made his father proud. John’s pulpit and platform were the banks of the Jordan and the rocks of the desert, not the stones of the Temple that man had carved. The washing of people in the River was not the cleansings dictated by man, but celebrated the passing through of the Red Sea with Moses, the crossing into the promise with Joshua, and transferring the blessing with Elijah and Elisha. The words he spoke resonated through the land and his message prepared hearts for the kingdom to come. Crowds of common people flocked to John, they believed, repented, and were washed. The Pharisees, wanting approval, listened and did not believe, and John would not baptize them. That is why the Master Teacher answered the first challenge by the Sadducees and Pharisees on the Temple Mount with a question about John the Baptist.      

Sadducees—The core of this sect were the children of Levi through his son Aaron, Moses’ brother. They were wealthy. I have heard that the moneychangers and the inspected sacrifice business belonged to them. You could not use common money in the Temple. It had to be Temple money. “Flawless lambs” came from Bethlehem (the Christmas story) and they held sway over all of that. I found little about the Temple tax. There was a provision for taking care of the tent and walls of the sanctuary in the desert. My guess is that was the basis of that tax. The Jewish Encyclopedia says the Sadducees were the stricter of the two sects, being able to use Torah to dictate and interpret laws for their advantage while protecting their income and appearing holy was a win-win situation.

In Matthew 16:11+12 Jesus tells the disciples to beware of the yeast/teachings of the Sadducees and Pharisees. There are, in my opinion, two different yeast that wants to spread into our thinking. To me, the Sadducees used their position to fleece the sheep and become wealthy while downplaying the supernatural world. The Pharisees used their learning to box in their importance and then opposed anybody that was not part of THE sect.  

Acts 23:8 explains that the Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection or angels or spirits. Torah and the rest of the Hebrew Bible do not have the terms Sadducee, Pharisee, or resurrection in their pages, but there are angels in the Torah. Elisha (Jesus), who came after John the Baptist (Elijah) raised people from the dead. So, Jesus raising Lazarus in front of witnesses, just before Passover challenged both sects. 

When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, the priest, the sons of Aaron, no longer had a platform to wield power from, so they disappeared as a sect of Judaism. Herod the Great used Rome’s power to expand the Second Temple, so it is poetic that they tore it down. As part of his power, grab Herod installed Boethus, a brother-in-law, as Chief Priest. This move shifted power/control to him and revived the Sadducees. This was because of the power of the Pharisees over some things in the Temple.

Pharisees—I learned a lot from doing this study. Like the Sadducees, the Pharisees started after the Babylonian exile. Of the two sects, they were not as stern as the Sadducees and they were the progressives. The article below has several verses that may give a “priesthood” responsibility to every man in Israel, especially to teach his sons how to read. They did side with the people and became favored by them. The Pharisees introduced many of the customs we see Jesus taking part in. 

Once the Temple was destroyed, the synagogue took over as the focus of the spiritual life of the Jewish people. The Pharisees had started these community-centered places of worship.   

https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12989-sadducees

https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12087-pharisees

https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7605-herodians

https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3467-boethusians

https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13831-sofer     a scribe

The 1905 Jewish Encyclopedia, on the Pharisees, the article has a section about hypocrisy. They assert that the first text of many New Testament books had the word Sadducee replaced with the word Pharisee and that pro-Paul people did it. No, I have not checked that statement, but a few lines on these sects from the New Testament are in order. 

  • Paul seemed to be proud of his Pharisee up bring-Philippians 3:5 and Acts 26.
  • Matthew, Mark, and John also were influenced by Pharisees.
  • Jesus, as the Christ, had problems with how their great learning had clouded their thoughts and attitudes.
  • The Pharisees and Sadducees had a problem with Jesus because He was not one of them.
  • Not all Pharisees opposed Jesus-John 3:1 Nicodemus, Acts 5 Gamaliel, Luke 7:36-one had invited Jesus to dinner, but did not offer water to wash with.
  •  The Pharisees and Sadducees both had their own teachers of the law. (Mark 2:16, Luke 5:30) On some things they held to different views of the law. I had thought that the “teachers” would have been all Sadducees.
  • Matthew has eight times that he used Sadducee and Pharisee together in the same verse. Matthew and Luke talk the most about these two sects.
  • John the Baptist and his washings are referred to several times in the New Testament regarding these two sects. John 1:24 and Matthew 3:7 talk about them coming to John to be washed and John denied them. I have a feeling this was due to what John preached-repent, for the kingdom is near. In Luke 7:29-30, the common people received Jesus’ words because John had baptized them. The Pharisees and the experts (or lawyers, or scribes) who were not baptized did not accept Jesus.
  • The combinations of names and titles are interesting. Besides Pharisees and Sadducees, there are Herodians, chief priest, teachers of the law, and lawyers or scribes. These may vary because of your favorite translation. There are several times the combinations make little sense to me. The Herodians doing anything with the Pharisees (Mark 3:6 and 12:13) seem out of place. The chief priest agreeing with the Pharisees (John 11:47, 18:3) is also a question mark. Both sects had their own scribes or experts of the Law, and both had their own teachers of the Law. I will bet the meetings of the Sanhedrin were noisy affairs. 
  • The seven woes in Matthew 23, now, are not so cut and dry who Jesus was talking about. At first, I thought the teachers of the law were a code for Sadducee. Really, I still lean in that direction, but given the combinations that are in the Gospels that is now hazed over some.    

Signs and Common Sense—The interaction of Jesus with religious leaders outside of Jerusalem frequently involved the law and why Jesus was not keeping it the way they thought it should be done. The signs and healings probably got delegations from both sects into the countryside to check on this traveling rabbi. So, in Matthew 16, when the Pharisees and Sadducees asked Jesus to perform a sign from heaven, that was overkill. Do you think they came with their own cartload of sick people? Casting out demons, feeding thousands, and healing people for years should have been enough. No, they wanted on-demand miracles. I am glad Jesus came to give life; if it was me, I may have thought of something else to do to them. This episode led to the teaching about the yeast they want to spread in the Church. 

Post Jesus Interactions—The Pharisees who became believers by the time of Acts 15:5 just knew that Gentiles had to be circumcised and obey the law of Moses. Why? Because that is what they had always done, and their fathers, and their fathers. How could anybody be blessed if you don’t do it with formula and my way?

            Paul—He is the penultimate picture of grace and a symbol of two men acting as one body. A Pharisee asked and got permission from a Sadducee (chief priest) to kill Jews and then preaches Jesus to Gentiles and helps turn the Roman world on its ear. Philippians 3:5, Acts 9; 23:6-9; and 26:5. 

The sermons on both mounts could be looked at as Jesus cleaning out the yeast before Passover.

The Sermons on Two Mounts-Kingdom of God/Heaven

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In the two sermons from the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives Matthew records Jesus using the phrases kingdom of God and the kingdom of Heaven. Most of the time Matthew uses the phrase kingdom of Heaven. Only four times does the kingdom of God show up in Matthew. Contrast that to Mark, Luke, and John that use the phrase kingdom of God. PLEASE this does not signal two different kingdoms but two different audiences. Matthew is directing his Gospel to a Hebrew audience; the others are for a more Greek/Gentile reader.

So, why did Matthew use the kingdom of God at all? A careful look at who Jesus was talking to when Matthew changes terms is very important. Matthew 12:28 (Pharisees), 21: 31, and 43 (Sadducees) or the “rulers” of the people. 19:24 is after the rich young man (ruler) left and Jesus uses both “God and heaven” to address His disciples. (For you to get the most out of this please review the reference websites-they are Jewish.) Heaven is the term of the Pharisees and the people, while God is more of the Sadducees and priests. I believe that Jesus used the different terms to needle the rulers, to cause a reaction. Those two groups held very different opinions on angels, resurrections, and what heaven and hell were like. The Sadducees and the resurrection are mentioned in Acts 23:8, Matthew 22:23, Mark 12:18, Luke 20:27.   

References: Messianic thought – https://engediresourcecenter.com/2019/09/04/what-is-the-kingdom-of-heaven/         Traditional Jewish thought- https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/heaven-and-hell-in-jewish-tradition/

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/4848230/jewish/Heaven-and-the-Afterlife.htm

The Sermons – Jesus’ response to the demands from the Sadducees were the parables of the two sons and the rebellious tenants. He used the kingdom of God in both of the explanations. These prophetic rebukes came to pass in 70 A.D. (CE) with the Romans destroying Jerusalem and the Temple. Basically, when the Temple was gone, so were the Sadducees (priest). Note-there is a group of Kohen’s (Levitical priests) still living in North Africa. 

For the Seven Woes and the parables on the Mount of Olives Jesus used the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom prepared by the Father, these were to the Pharisees or His disciples. Jesus also talks about earthly kingdoms (24:7) and the message of the gospel of the kingdom going to the whole world. Matthew uses the word kingdom more than any other writer. Luke is second.

Heaven – Matthew’s target audience was Jews. I believe that the Holy Spirit gave him the wisdom to reproduce Jesus’ words the way he did. The Jewish believers would have related more to the Pharisee’s teaching about heaven. The thought of the day was that heaven was divided into three different levels. Looking at what is going on in heaven gives you a clue as to the level they were talking about. Birds fly in the heavens, clouds float in one, and the Father lives in the third. No, this is not how Christians view the idea of heaven. Remember, Paul a Pharisee, talks about a man who went up to the third heaven and got a superior revelation.    

Olam Ha-ba (“World to Come”) and Gan Eden (“Garden of Eden”) are and were views of the Jews about the afterlife. So, Jesus talking about heaven carries more of the “Garden of Eden” and the world before Satan stole the rule of the earth from Adam. Come, Lord Jesus!

Chapters 24 and 25 – These contain the sermon/parables about the timing of Jesus’ return, how to be prepared, and what we are to do while He tarries. Chapter 25: 31- 46 carries a definite message that not everyone will make it into Heaven. Like the parable of the Ten Virgins, it is directed at people who sit in churches and do not produce the fruit that the Father wants. 

Politicians, Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny

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If Politicians, Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny seem like funny topics to be looking at on Epiphany, it is because this is not really a study but a commentary. These three evoke a wide range of emotions, both positive and negative. We have carried them into the Church of Jesus and their good and evil effects are one tare that the angels will get to burn when Jesus comes again.  

Easter Bunny

This springtime version of Santa Claus came to America with our German ancestors. The link below does a good job of looking at the topic. 

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/holidays/easter-ideas/a31226078/easter-bunny-origins-history/

Unlike Santa Claus, the egg-laying mammal only brings good things for children, no threat of coal. Naughty or nice is not part of the narrative, just treats after the long harsh period of Lent.

Santa Claus

Our jolly giver of presents is a mix of traditions. The club of his accounting system never seems to be used. Presents are always waiting to be opened if there is a tree present in your house. Inappropriate behavior still brings a wonderful gift, unless you do not get what you want and then Saint Nick is a rogue. Next year is the redeeming factor in this narrative of “you were good but not good enough”.  

Politicians

Putting politicians together with our magical elf and rabbit may not be fair to them. Knowledge, like politicians, has a good and evil side. Granted, that depends on your preference towards their political identity and the job they are doing. I hope that they have sought that position in order to help people and not themselves. Time will always reveal their usefulness and their motivation. 

Comparing and Contrasting These Three

  • No matter the present, all three depend on your pocketbook to fulfill the promise.
  • Santa Claus and politicians have a fear factor built into their jobs, while the Easter Bunny just deposits blessings that you have to hunt for and not step on.
  • Santa and the Bunny are mythical beings with magical powers. Politicians just think and act like they possess those qualities.
  • Santa and the Bunny were carried into the Church and used by it to promote some societal connections. It gave them religious imagery to justify their presence in the building, but they are not doctrine. 
  • Jesus and the Father are not types and shadows of Santa and the Bunny. Politicians are not God, no matter how they act.
  • Politicians frequently stay outside of the Church but want to use it and direct it to promote societal connections. 

Lessons from the Bible

Very early in Israel’s history, Moses organized governmental offices to help the people (they needed it and so do we). Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, suggested a sensible structure to relieve a lot of stress in governing the people. Exodus 18 covers that story. Jethro was quick to point out that Moses should seek the Lord’s approval on the plan; the Bible does not mention that Moses did that section of the proposal. So, there was a system of governing that centered on the Law and priest, and one that came with the Tribes and community structure. Jump to the Book of Judges and 1 Samuel and we see these roles blurring with God losing out as their leader.

Samuel is a prophet and a judge that was raised by Eli the priest. I think Samuel knew his boundaries, but the people kept blurring them, until they wanted a king, not a judge. By the leading of God, Samuel anoints two kings-Saul who used Law to promote his agenda, and David, who had a heart for God and the people. 

Fast forward through good kings and awful kings with several conquering nations thrown in and you arrive at the Roman occupation, High Priest, and the Sanhedrin, complete with Pharisees. Have we learned anything from all of that history? 

Jesus in His sermons from the two mounts addresses our relationships to civil and religious (corrupt) authorities-give to Caesar what belongs to him (Matthew 22:21) and they sit in Moses’ position so obey them just don’t to as they do (Matthew 23:2+3). Paul carries these thoughts into 1 Timothy 2:2, where he says to pray for those in authority.     

Concerns 

  • Who do we look to for our supply and justice? Lately, government has taken on its shoulders the burden of supplying our needs. They are bending society to redefine justice and what it looks like.
  • Woke IS NOT a Christian virtue! Bring that into the Church and confusing it with the teaching of Jesus is a HUGE mistake. Woke takes some of the verbiage of Christianity and bends it to suit an agenda that is not the Father’s plan for His children.
  • Paul admonishes Christians to be very careful about what you become involved with.
  • God’s love is built on righteousness. I have listened to politicians criticize Christians about God and His love and how we love our neighbors. They use a distorted view of love to make these judgments and we, as His Church, have not studied His love enough to voice His views correctly.
  • Blaming God and Jesus for bad happenings is not right, they gave. The god of this world is Satan, who causes troubles, sinful man, and crazy nature are not the acts of God. Satan can only steal, kill, and destroy; he is also an accomplished liar.
  • The early church in the Book of Acts is not socialism or communism. Unfortunately, I have heard a very popular pastor make that declaration. It did not sit well. The people brought things to help the poor because they wanted too. The Apostles, as leaders, did not want to manage it. Socialism and or Communism are leader mandates that will involve guns and tanks, either in starting it or maintaining their rule. Those two societal systems have taken something from the Bible and twisted it to exalt knowledge and man by creating a ruling class and a follower herd.  

How Then Should We…

This saying has been attributed to Saint Patrick-If an institution is in the way of spreading the Gospel of Jesus, that institution needs to change. I can imagine that he was talking about organized religion that has lost its way or a government that wants to stop the Good News.

The government will be on HIS shoulders; that is Jesus the Messiah. (Isaiah 9) Politicians, Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny are useful. Maybe they are even needed in society, but the Church better wake up to the confusion they can create in children who grow up thinking politicians, Santa Claus, and the Easter Bunny are part of the Kingdom of God.

The Sermons on Two Mounts-This Mountain

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It is time in this series of sermons on the mounts to look at the mountains Jesus was teaching on. Jesus in Matthew 21:21 repeated a phrase He used in Matthew 17:20-this mountain. The Greek phrase is houtos oros. In Strong’s, (this) houtos is 3778 and (mountain) oros is 3735. This surprised me because I did not expect “this” to have its own specific word. I expected it to be an added word so we could understand the translation. 

My simple conclusion about the phrase is that Jesus stood on the mountain and was specifically talking about that mountain. (In my early days of being a Christian, I thought it said “a or any” mountain.) John 16:25 has Jesus commenting about how He has spoken figuratively to His disciples. This was on Thursday of Holy Week. So, we can conclude that there is a second level of meanings to the fig tree and the mountain. More on this thought later.

To set the narrative for this, I will use Mark 11:12-14 and 20-26. My belief is Mark not only used his uncle Peter as a reference source, but he was an eyewitness observer to these days from the Jordan to Pentecost. Mark gives the details that Jesus cursed the fig tree on Monday morning going into the city, so He could clear the Temple, and then Tuesday morning, Peter noticed the tree dead. This ushered in the first half of the sermon about the actual mountains of this story-the Mount of Olives and the Temple Mount/Jerusalem. The path from Bethany to Jerusalem would have taken the disciples through Bethphage (the house of unripe or new figs) down into the Kidron Valley and then into the city. In other words, the path Jesus took during His foretold ride on the donkey. To add to the history lesson, I need to include that David also followed this path from the Jordan to Jerusalem. He fled Absalom in 2 Samuel 15:30 to the east bank of the Jordan, but in 2 Samuel 20:2, it is the same path that the returning king took back to the city. David also had a parade that would have looked a lot like what Jesus had during his trip. 

So, it is possible that the first teaching of the day occurs in Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, the place of unripe figs. From my studies on the Tree of Knowledge in Genesis, I still believe that tree was a fig tree and that the Tree of Life was some type of “grape tree/wood”. Okay, back to the mounts.

The end part of this sermon occurs when Jesus is leaving the Temple and announces that Jerusalem, The Temple Mount, will be destroyed. He then teaches more about the end times once He is back on the Mount of Olives.

The Mount of Olives

I gave the fact that David would have fled and returned across this mount; it not named in that story in 2 Samuel. The Mount is clearly identified seven times in our Christian Bible. (The website is a travel company for Israel.)

https://www.seetheholyland.net/mount-of-olives/

1 Kings 11:7-8    Solomon built pagan altars for his wives on the mount.

Ezekiel 11:23      Part of a vision, God’s glory leaves Jerusalem and settles over/on its ridge.

Zechariah 14:3-4 The Messiah returns, stands on the mount and it splits; the valley carries water (dirt/mountain) to two different seas. The Messiah returning here is why many Jews want to be buried on its slopes. So, it is/was covered in whitewashed tombs.

Luke 19:29-44             Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The Gospels allude to the fact that Jesus left Jerusalem every day and went to Bethany for the night (Martha and Mary’s house, possibly).

Matthew 24:27-31 Jesus gave a sermon about His return (part of this series).

Matthew 26: 30-57    After the last meal, they came here to pray.

Acts 1: 1-12                 Jesus ascended from here to return to the Father.

The Temple Mount/Jerusalem

Okay, to separate the Temple Mount and Jerusalem maybe splitting hairs but they were not always one thing. From Melchizedek to David, the city did not include the Temple Mount. David bought the Mount in order to sacrifice on it to stop a plague that he chose as punishment. Abraham took Isaac to Moriah, which we think is the Temple Mount. Joshua defeats a king and takes him to Jerusalem to die, and David defeated the city by using the city’s underground water system.

There are two Jerusalems, the earthly one and the heavenly one. Which one does God love the most? I will go with the heavenly city. The earthly one has been a problem for Him. Please read through the prophets before you condemn me. May I reserve comment on the fact that twice the city and the Temple have been leveled by foreign armies. There are also a couple of times when the place was looted but not destroyed. To be fair, on His ride into the city, Jesus cried for/over the city. His end-time teaching on the Mount of Olives may have come from the same spot He had cried at several days earlier.

Solomon built the Temple Mount up to have a level spot to build David’s dream. (The Wailing Wall is a retaining wall for the Second Temple; Herod’s building that Jesus taught in.) Zerubbabel (an ancestor of Jesus) actually built the Second Temple and Herod added to that building. 

Well, one thing is certain; Jerusalem and the mountains still have a role to play in the future of God’s plan.

A Second Meaning

To keep with the idea of sermons on the mounts, we must start with the fig tree. Normally, I say that figs represent the works of man trying to please God. If we follow that idea through Tuesday and Jesus teaching we see the fig cursed, the Temple cleared, corrupt leaders called out, a prediction that the Temple of Herod (an earthly work) will be destroyed, and a set of parables on what the Kingdom looks like.

Mountains and the sea have grown to more than I expected. To call a mountain just a problem or trial in your life just does not seem to fit. Mountains and their metaphors are so much more than obstacles and something to walk around or climb over. Seas and water are also deep in double meaning. These two topics will just have to be explored this year.