John 18:1 — David's Road to Gethsemane

Gethsemane means “oil press.” It lay on the Mount of Olives, across the brook Kidron from Jerusalem, and Yahushua went there on the night He was betrayed (John 18:1). The road He walked that night had been walked once before.

David, driven out of Jerusalem by his own son, “passed over the brook Kidron” (2 Samuel 15:23). He “went up by the ascent of mount Olivet, and wept as he went up” (2 Samuel 15:30). On that slope he was told the worst news of all: “Ahithophel is among the conspirators” (2 Samuel 15:31). The betrayer was his own trusted counselor.

Yahushua named the pattern Himself. Speaking of Judas at the supper, He quoted David: “He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me” (John 13:18; Psalm 41:9).

The two betrayers ended the same way. Ahithophel “put his household in order, and hanged himself” (2 Samuel 17:23). Judas “went and hanged himself” (Matthew 27:5).

Gethsemane was not a new scene. The King was rejected, crossed the Kidron, climbed the Mount of Olives in sorrow, and was betrayed by a man who ate at his table. David walked it as the shadow, and the Son of David walked it as the substance.