In the Bible we are told how Naaman, the commander of
the Syrian army, came to Elisha the prophet to be healed of leprosy (2 Kings 5).
Elisha did not even come out of his house to meet Naaman but sent a servant with a set of simple directions. Naaman was to go to the Jordan River and there wash himself seven times.
By the time candidates for public office have thrown their names into the ring, they have already thought things through long and hard. They know from previous election cycles just what to expect on the campaign trail, especially when running for the presidency. Knowing what is ahead, they have to decide if they want to go forward in spite of all.
“Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”
2 Timothy 2:15
Our text is one of the verses of the 53rd chapter of Isaiah which we often associate with the Lenten season.
One can hardly envision entering the season of Lent without contemplating again the events that occurred on the Mount of Olives, for that is where the Lord began the suffering of His final hours.
That is where His passive obedience took root–in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The first biblical reference to Olivet1 is in connection with our Lord’s lesser father–King David. A thousand years earlier, Israel’s second king–a forepicture of Christ–was forced to flee Jerusalem for his life (2 Samuel 15:30). David’s son Absalom had conspired and rebelled against his father, and the king was forced to make the journey down into the Kidron Valley, up the mount on the other side and, with much weeping and sorrow, on toward the desert.
