Kidron

Good morning!

We'll return to Genesis in the next post.  For the moment, I want to share with you what I have learned about the "brook of Kidron".

Looking out over Kidron Valley toward Old City

The Kidron Valley is a small valley which runs between the Mount of Olives and the Old City (as we call it now) of Jerusalem.  At the bottom of the valley is essential a sewage ditch, or used to be, that is.  All the sewage and offall run-off from the entire city flowed through that ditch and on down to its final destination in the Dead Sea.  We find this called "the brook of Kidron" in 2 Samuel 15:23, a seemingly innocuous detail in a sad, sordid tale.

And all the land wept aloud as all the people passed by, and the king crossed the brook Kidron, and all the people passed on toward the wilderness.

(ESV)

At this juncture, King David was going through some really tough stuff.  His beloved, young adult son, Absolom, had been discovered a treasonous traitor, who was threatening to wrestle the throne from his father by force.  As the story unfolds, King David is handling the situation, seeking counsel from God as he went along.

I think we often pass over (if you'll pardon the pun, which shall be obvious in a moment) certain geographical features in the Scriptures, not realizing their significance.  This is one.

David was moving a great number of people from Jerusalem up to the Mount of Olives, and to get there, everyone had to pass over this sewage ditch, not a pleasant experience. Furthermore, if I have my Levitical rules straight, passing through this valley would have made him (and the people who crossed with him) ceremonially "unclean".  The verse above emphasizes that even the KING had to do this.

In his commentary on this verse, Charles Haddon Spurgeon uses the brook of Kidron as a type for sorrow, pain, suffering, tragedy, loss.  The entire story of 2 Samuel 15 shows that King David was not immune to these.  Spurgeon goes on to point out that Jesus Christ was not immune to them either.
What do their examples teach us?

David was called, The Man After God's Own Heart.  Yet, his life had periods of intense affliction.  He was both God's Anointed (a type, forecasting Jesus Christ) AND God's Afflicted (again, prefiguring Christ).  As David was both, so Christ was both in His earthly ministry.

I began this post yesterday morning, but due to a very full schedule did not have time to finish it. On the way to my first engagement my mother called with the news that there had been a death in our extended family.  Several of my loved ones were yesterday propelled to the very banks of Kidron Creek.  I never cease to be amazed at how His Word ministers to us, seemingly coincidentally.  True believers know that there are no coincidences with God.  He holds us all in His hands.

Both King David and the King of Kings passed through their valleys and went on to triumph, through the power of God's Holy Spirit.  David returned eventually to his city as the rightful king, and Jesus triumphed over the bonds of Hell and Death.  (There is not much more awful or final than physical death, unless it is eternal spiritual death.  For those who know and trust Jesus Christ as Savior, we need never fear either of these enemies.  Hallelujah!)

What a precious promise and gift to those who are Jesus Christ's own beloved!

...let us then be of good courage, for we also shall win the day. We shall yet with joy draw water out of the wells of salvation, though now for a season we have to pass by the noxious streams of sin and sorrow. Courage, soldiers of the Cross, the King himself triumphed after going over Kidron, and so shall you.- - - 
Spurgeon

https://youtu.be/qD8cR1wseko

Source:

http://biblehub.com/devotions/Morning_May_31.htm