The Significance of the Mount of Olives

When studying the Scriptures, you must look at the places where certain things occur and look up the meaning of the name.  You will gain extra insight into what is going on and the Lord is always communicating something, even in place names.  Yeshua didn’t teach anywhere without it meaning something. Teaching in the Temple or at the Sea Galilee had major significance.

The Mount of Olives is one of those places. It is called “Har Mashiach” in Hebrew thought because of its significance to the coming of Messiah.  King David fled from Absalom over the Mount of Olives (2 Sam 15.30).  Ezekiel had a vision of the Kivod (glory) departing the city  and stopping on the Mount of Olives (Eze 11.23) before it finally departed.  This an allusion to Yeshua departing the city and ascending to Heaven from the Mount of Olives (Acts 1.1-12).

We also know of the prophecy that said Yeshua will stand on the Mount of Olives and defeat his enemies when he returns (Zech 14.3-4).  Yeshua gave major prophecies about the Birth-pains from there ( Matt 24; Mark 13; Luke 21).  The Olive Tree is symbolic of Israel (Zech 4.2-3; Hos 14.6; Rev 11.4) and the olive was very valuable. The first press is the best and it is called “extra virgin” olive oil . The priests were anointed with it (Psa 133.2; Exo 27.20).

It was used in the Temple (Exo 30.25-30) and the title “Messiah” is “Mashiach” in Hebrew and it means “anointed one.” Messiah is an olive branch out of an older root (Isa 11.1-5) leading men out of darkness (Isa 11.6-10). In Jer 23.5-8 and Jer 16.14-16, he gathers Israel from among the nations a second time after a “shaking” called the Birth-pains or Tribulation.

Now, to get the olives, the branches have to be shaken (Birth-pains) and in the process some branches break. Those branches are grafted back into the tree again and they become stronger than before and they produce better.  In Rom 11.17-24 Paul teaches that scattered Israel will be grafted back into their own tree again (redeemed) and in Rom 11.25 he quotes Isa 59.20 concerning this redemption. There is a word picture here that needs to be explained.

When a branch is grafted back into the tree it is called a “scion” which means “an heir or descendant.” So it is significant that Yeshua taught about a “shaking” and eventual “grafting in” of the olive branches on the Mount of Olives. He went to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives on the night he was arrested. Gethsemane means “oil (olive) press (gat)” and it was there he (the Messiah/anointed one) was “pressed.” He was the first one “pressed” (extra virgin/without sin) and many can now be grafted into the one Olive Tree that is Israel and become “heirs” (scion) to salvation.

There is much more on this concept, but this is just an example of why the Mount of Olives is significant and why we should always check out the names of cities, mountains and every place mentioned in the Scriptures to see what significance they have to the teaching being presented there.

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Prophecy/Eschatology, Tying into the New Testament

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