Matthew 17:18: "And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour."
Mark 9:20: "Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth."
Mark 9:25–27: "When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, 'Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!' Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, 'He is dead.' But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose."
Luke 9:42: "And as he was still coming, the demon threw him down and convulsed him. Then Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the child, and gave him back to his father."
The supporting reference mentioned in the original text regarding the rebuking of the enemy is Zechariah 3:2 ("And the Lord said to Satan, 'The Lord rebuke you, Satan!...'").
Friends, imagine for a moment the sheer heartbreak and exhaustion of the father in this Gospel account. Day after agonizing day, he has watched his beloved child endure an unimaginable nightmare. The scriptures paint a vivid, terrifying picture of the boy's suffering: severe convulsions, foaming at the mouth, grinding of teeth, and a horrifying rigidity of the body. This malicious spirit would violently throw the child into the open fire and into deep water, constantly seeking to destroy him. Furthermore, it robbed the boy of his speech and hearing, trapping him in a tormenting prison where he could only utter inarticulate sounds. The boy was left so emaciated that his very life force seemed to be draining away. This is the brutal objective of the enemy—to reduce a life made in God’s image into a mere shell of misery.
When the boy is finally brought to the Savior, we witness a dramatic, immediate reaction. Mark tells us that the very moment the demon saw Jesus, it threw the boy into a massive convulsion. The child fell to the ground, wallowing and foaming at the mouth. Why this sudden, violent outburst? Because darkness always panics in the absolute presence of the Light. The demonic force instantly recognized the supreme authority of the Son of God. It knew its cruel reign of terror over this young life was about to abruptly end.
Notice exactly how Jesus handles this terrifying display of chaotic power. He does not panic, retreat, or negotiate with the darkness. With unyielding, sovereign authority, Jesus speaks directly to the root of the spiritual affliction: "Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!" Christ does not merely command the darkness to leave for a season; He completely revokes its access, ensuring a permanent, lasting deliverance. The demon dares not disobey, for it cannot withstand His divine command.
The spirit's forced exit is brutal. It cries out, convulsing the boy one final time, leaving him so utterly still that the murmuring crowd concludes, "He is dead." How often in our own lives does a situation look entirely hopeless, completely lifeless, right before God brings forth His greatest victory? The onlookers saw a tragic corpse, but Jesus saw a rescued child.
In one of the most beautiful moments of compassion in Scripture, Jesus steps forward, reaches down, and gently takes the boy by the hand. He lifts him up, and the boy arises—completely cured, entirely whole, and fully restored from that very hour. Jesus gives the boy back to his grateful father. In a single instant, the agonizing disruption and violent chaos are entirely replaced by the profound calmness, peace, and order of God's kingdom.
Friends, the message for us today is undeniably clear: absolutely nothing is too hard for Jesus Christ to conquer. It does not matter how deep the darkness runs, how long the painful affliction has lasted, or how powerful the grip of the enemy appears to be. Christ’s divine power to heal and deliver far surpasses any force the enemy can muster. Whatever chaotic, painful situation you find yourself battling today, bring it confidently to the feet of Jesus. Trust in the One who silences our darkest tormentors and gently takes us by the hand to lift us into His glorious, restorative peace.
Have you ever moved into a new house or flat and found that the previous owners left a load of absolute rubbish behind? You cannot just leave it sitting there in the living room; you have to clear it all out before you can properly make it your home.
When the children of Israel were about to enter the Promised Land, God gave them a very clear instruction about clearing out the rubbish. We read in Numbers chapter 33:
"Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall dispossess all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and you shall destroy all their figured objects, and you shall destroy all their molten images, and lay waste all their high places." (Numbers 33:51-52, JND, updated to modern English).
God did not tell them to just put up with the idols or put them in a cupboard. He told them to completely demolish them.
If we look up the roots of idolatry using tools like W.E. Vine’s dictionary or Wilson’s Old Testament studies, we learn that we must understand idolatry in a deeply religious sense. Any physical representation of God completely changes Him from what He really is. It brings the Creator down to the level of the created.
Think about the Egyptians. They worshipped absolutely everything! They bowed down to oxen, heifers, sheep, goats, lions, dogs, cats, monkeys, ibis, cranes, hawks, crocodiles, serpents, frogs, flies, and scarab beetles. They even worshipped the sun, the moon, the planets, the stars, fire, light, air, and darkness. And you can guarantee they came up with what they thought were "good" and logical reasons for doing it. But the Morrish Bible Dictionary reminds us that anything that misrepresents God is an idol.
You might be thinking, "Well, I don't worship crocodiles or frogs, so I am fine." But idolatry is much sneakier than that, my friends.
A young man once said to a preacher that he could see absolutely nothing wrong with having a Christmas tree in his house, because he did not bow down and worship it.
He completely misunderstood the issue. Do we misunderstand it too?
The first commandment covers the most obvious aspect of idolatry. If a person was physically bowing down to the tree, that would be what he was worshipping. But the issue goes much deeper.
The second commandment has to do with the way we worship. The Lord Jesus makes it incredibly clear in John 4:24 (JND, modernised): "God is a spirit; and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth."
Early brethren teachers like J.B. Stoney, C.A. Coates, and F.E. Raven taught extensively that Christianity is a heavenly calling. We have been brought out of the world’s systems. Therefore, our worship must be spiritual.
Christmas—and all its worldly trappings like the Christmas tree—is simply not part of the way God commanded us to worship. It is nowhere to be found in the truth of God’s word. Therefore, introducing a Christmas tree, or any human tradition, into our faith is actually a component of an idolatry created when man desires to worship God in a way he devises himself, rather than exactly as God instructs.
Even though that young man never bowed down to the tree, by embracing a human invention in the place of God's truth, he was breaking the principle of the second commandment.
Men of action like William Booth, D.L. Moody, and Leonard Ravenhill used to preach with absolute fire against mixing the holy things of God with the cheap traditions of the world. George Muller lived his entire life proving that you do not need the world's gimmicks when you have the living God.
My friends, we need to take a hard look at our own lives. Have we dragged the world's "figured objects" into our homes and hearts? God is looking for young men and women who will clear out the high places, leave human traditions behind, and worship the Lord Jesus Christ in absolute spirit and truth.
If you’ve been around church for any length of time, you probably know the story of Moses lifting up the bronze serpent in the wilderness. The basic picture is foundational: Christ became sin for us on the cross, taking our judgement, so that anyone who looks upon Him in simple faith will be saved.
But have you ever paused to ask, why bronze?
God had vast resources. Why not gold? Why not silver, or iron? There is a massive linguistic and prophetic reason bronze was chosen in that exact moment—a detail that often gets missed, but one that changes everything about how we view our daily struggles.
Before we look closely at the metal, answer this question honestly in your own heart: What problem or struggle have you been begging God to take away from your life?
You might be wondering what your current struggle has to do with Old Testament metalwork. Stick with me, my friends.
Many of us grew up with a very basic, almost transactional understanding of prayer: A problem bites you, you pray, God removes the problem, and the pain stops instantly. That is the only version of answered prayer a lot of young believers are ever taught. So, when life falls outside that neat little box, it feels like God has abandoned us.
The children of Israel prayed that exact kind of prayer in Numbers 21:7. The people came to Moses and said: "Pray to Jehovah, that he may take away the serpents from us" (JND, modernised for today).
Underline those words in your mind: take away. They asked God to remove the threat entirely.
Moses prayed. God answered. But God did not take the serpents away.
Read Numbers 21:8 carefully. God did not kill the snakes. Instead, He told Moses: "Make a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, and looks upon it, shall live" (JND).
It’s ironic, isn't it? Moses prayed, and God answered. Yet the snakes were still slithering through the camp. People were still getting bitten. Everything in their immediate environment was screaming, "God isn't doing anything!"
But here is a vital truth for your spiritual life: Sometimes, God gives a solution that looks exactly like the problem you are asking Him to remove. He provided a complete remedy while the problem was still actively biting.
This brings us to the bronze.
If we look at the original Hebrew text, using tools like Wigram’s and Wilson’s word studies, we find something astonishing. The Hebrew word for serpent is nachash. The word for bronze is nechoshet. They share the exact same root letters: N-CH-SH.
Gold is zahav. Silver is keseph. Iron is barzel. None of those metals carry the sound of the serpent. God chose the only metal in the Hebrew language whose name echoed the exact thing that was killing His people. He told Moses to fashion the remedy out of a metal that sounded just like the threat. The linguistic connection is explicit in the Hebrew, even if we miss it in our English Bibles.
Furthermore, bronze does something in Scripture that gold can never do.
If you read through the writings of C.A. Coates or J.N. Darby on the Tabernacle, you will see a clear picture: Bronze is the metal that endures the fire of judgement without melting. In the courtyard, the bronze altar held the holy fire that consumed the sacrifice, and yet the altar stood firm. In biblical imagery, gold represents divine glory. Silver represents redemption. But bronze represents judgement endured and completely overcome.
God took the image of the judgement, cast it in the metal that survives the flame, and raised it over the camp. He didn't hide the threat; He openly displayed the defeat of the threat. Judgement was passed on the serpents—on the very thing destroying them.
Now, notice the structure Moses lifted it on.
The Hebrew word for pole in verse 8 is nes. It doesn't just mean a wooden stick. It translates to a banner or a military standard. It is the exact same root used for Jehovah-nissi, which means "Jehovah is my banner" (Exodus 17:15, JND).
Moses raised this banner high in the centre of the camp for one specific reason. A person who was already on the ground, already bitten, broken, and dying, could just turn their head and see it without even having to stand up. It was a remedy built for people who had already fallen.
Catch this revelation right now: In verse 9, whenever a serpent bit anyone, they looked at the bronze serpent and lived. There was no complex religious ritual. No intense theological debate. Just a look.
A person could get bitten on Monday, look up, and live. They could get bitten again on Thursday, turn their eyes back to the pole, and live. The remedy worked every single time. It simply required them to keep looking.
That is what true prayer and faith look like when stripped of dead religious performance. Prayer is turning your eyes to the banner. You don't have to figure out exactly how the healing, deliverance, or breakthrough will happen. Grace is working whether you feel it in the moment or not.
Perhaps you have been waiting for one massive, final prayer that permanently ends every trial in your life. That prayer doesn't exist on this side of eternity. Instead, God keeps the remedy standing in your camp as long as the struggle continues, and He simply asks you to look again today.
In John 3:14 (JND), Jesus confirmed this exact pattern: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man be lifted up."
If we look at the Greek word for "lifted up" here (as found in Vine’s and Wuest's dictionaries), it is hypsoō, which means to elevate, but it also means to exalt. Jesus took the most disturbing image of judgement—our sin—and carried it on the cross. He was lifted up in ultimate exaltation so that dying, broken people could see Him right from the dirt where they fell.
Right now, your mind might be fixated on a situation that looks like an unanswered prayer. You expected healing, so you asked God to remove the illness completely. You expected peace, so you asked God to remove the pressure. Because you still see the very thing you asked Him to take away, you've mistaken His response for silence.
God hasn't ignored you. He answered. His answer just wasn't the immediate removal you demanded. You may still have to walk through a season where spiritual resistance and pressure exist. But remember this: not one person who turned their eyes to the banner died. Not one.
The pressure in your life might still be very real. I won't pretend otherwise, and neither did God. But something is standing in the centre of your life, lifted high enough that you can see it from the exact place where you fell. It works every single time you turn your head toward Christ. He took the judgement for sin once and for all.
Look again. You are not praying into empty air. You are praying under a banner.
Israel asked God to remove the serpents. God left the serpents and gave them a banner to look at instead. Stop staring at the snake. Look at the banner God has put in its place. Look steadfastly on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2, JND). Judgement has already been passed.
Just look. Believe God. If the answer already arrived in a form you weren't expecting, how long have you been calling an answered prayer silence?
Don't give up. Peace be upon you.
If you read Genesis 29:15-30, it reads a bit like a massive soap opera. It’s got romance, betrayal, family drama, and a massive plot twist. But because we believe the Bible is the living Word of God, we know there are deep, spiritual truths buried in this story that can absolutely change how we live today.
Let’s set the scene. Jacob is on the run. He’s left his family behind because he tricked his father and his brother. Now, he’s staying with his uncle Laban. Jacob falls head over heels for Laban’s younger daughter, Rachel. He agrees to work for Laban for seven years to marry her. The Bible says those seven years "seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her" (Genesis 29:20, NKJV). Brilliant, right?
But then comes the wedding night. In the dark, dodgy Uncle Laban pulls off a massive scam. He swaps Rachel out for her older sister, Leah. When the sun comes up, Jacob is absolutely gutted. He realises he’s been properly tricked.
Jacob confronts Laban, and this is where we get to our main question. Laban replies:
"Fulfil her week, and we will give you this one also for the service which you will serve with me still another seven years." (Genesis 29:27, NKJV).
A lot of people get confused here. Did Jacob have to wait another whole seven years before he could marry Rachel?
The short answer is: No.
When we look at the original language using tools like Wilson’s Old Testament Word Studies, the Hebrew word for "week" here is shabuwa. It literally means a period of seven—in this case, seven days.
In the ancient Middle East, a wedding wasn't just a quick afternoon ceremony; it was a massive, week-long festival. You can see this same tradition later in the Bible with Samson, who threw a feast that lasted seven days (Judges 14:12).
So, what Laban was saying to Jacob was this: "Don't ruin Leah’s wedding party. Finish the seven days of celebrating Leah. Once this one-week festival is over, I will give you Rachel as your wife straight away. But to pay for her, you owe me another seven years of hard graft."
Jacob agreed. Genesis 29:28 (NKJV) says, "Then Jacob did so and fulfilled her week. So he gave him his daughter Rachel to wife also."
For Leah, "the week" was her seven days of a wedding festival, overshadowed by a husband who didn't truly want her. For Rachel, it was a seven-day waiting period while her sister married the man she loved. For Jacob, it was seven days of sitting in the mess of his own life, realising that his trickery had come back to bite him.
If we look at this through the lens of great Bible teachers like J.N. Darby and C.A. Coates, we see something deeply profound here. Brethren writers often talk about "the government of God." That simply means: God is completely sovereign, and whatever a person sows, they will also reap.
Think about Jacob’s track record:
He used the darkness of his father Isaac's blindness to steal a blessing.
Laban used the darkness of the wedding tent to steal Jacob’s seven years of wages.
Jacob pretended to be the older sibling (Esau) to get what he wanted.
Laban used the older sibling (Leah) to give Jacob what he didn't want!
God loved Jacob too much to let him stay a deceiver. The Lord will often allow us to taste the bitter results of our own dodgy behaviour so that our flesh is broken, and we learn to rely entirely on the Spirit of God. If you are living a life of compromise, sneaking around, or being dishonest with your friends and family, know this: God sees it. He loves you, but His discipline will catch up with you to shape your character into the image of Christ.
Men like A.W. Tozer, Leonard Ravenhill, and Smith Wigglesworth would look at a story like this and challenge us right to the core of our hearts.
We live in a world that tells young people to hustle, to fake it until they make it, and to use other people to get ahead. That is the spirit of Jacob in the flesh! But God is calling you to something higher. We need a generation of young believers who are totally sold out for Jesus Christ, who refuse to live in the shadows of deception!
Are you trying to scheme your way into a blessing? Are you trying to secure your future, your relationships, or your success by cutting corners? Stop it! Drop to your knees, as E.M. Bounds would urge us, and find your victory in prayer, not in fleshly plotting.
Jacob thought he had his life completely sorted. But God had to take him through the painful, messy "week" of Laban’s deception to start breaking his pride.
The timeline: Jacob worked 7 years -> Married Leah -> Celebrated for 7 days ("the week") -> Married Rachel -> Worked another 7 years.
The lesson: You can't outsmart God. The discipline of the Lord is real, and it is designed to strip away our fleshly habits.
The call: Surround yourself with solid Christian friends who will call you out when you are acting in the flesh. Walk in absolute integrity. Seek the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart, and trust Him to provide for your future without you having to force it.
Have you seen that viral YouTube Short featuring YoungHoon Kim, the man with the world's highest IQ? You might expect him to speak about complex quantum physics, but instead, he uses basic primary school maths to prove God exists.
He makes three brilliant points: a line must have a starting point (geometry); you cannot count down from negative infinity to reach today (time); and multiplying 1 by 1 always equals 1 without an outside force (power). It is brilliant logic. But as sharp as it is, intellectual maths only scratches the surface. To really understand the Creator, we need to look at the Bible.
Kim rightly notes that everything needs a starting point. If you dig into Greek word studies by W.E. Vine or Kenneth Wuest, or explore the Old Testament roots using Wilson's Word Studies and Wigram's Hebrew Names, you constantly see God revealed as the ultimate, active source of life.
In the New Testament, we discover a massive word for Jesus Christ: Archē. It means the absolute beginning and active origin of everything. The J.N. Darby Bible, putting the older language into up-to-date English, says in Colossians 1:16-17: "Because by Him were created all things... all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all, and all things hold together by Him."
Brethren teachers like C.A. Coates and J.B. Stoney spent their lives reminding people that Jesus is not just a cosmic dot on a graph. He is a living Person who loved us enough to step into our world.
Kim’s second point proves time had a beginning. But reading the fiery letters of William Booth or the complete works of Leonard Ravenhill reminds us that time is also ticking towards an end. Time is a limited gift given to us to get right with God.
Hebrews 11:3 (JND) says, "By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that what is seen did not originate from things which appear."
My friends, knowing time started is not enough; it is about what you do with your time now. D.L. Moody used to plead with massive crowds not to delay. The devil believes God exists, but it will not save him. You must trust the Lord Jesus personally today.
Kim’s final point is that one multiplied by itself stays one; you need a greater number for growth. In the Greek New Testament, the word for explosive, life-changing power is Dunamis. Romans 1:16 (JND) says, "For I am not ashamed of the glad tidings; for it is God's power to salvation to everyone who believes."
Smith Wigglesworth and George Muller proved this in their daily lives. Muller did not use maths to feed thousands of orphans in Bristol; he relied entirely on God’s Dunamis power through prayer. Human effort—trying to fix your bad habits on your own—leaves you exactly where you started. You need Christ’s resurrection power to multiply your absolute zero with His infinite grace.
YoungHoon Kim’s video proves that believing in God is highly intelligent. But nobody is saved just for passing a maths test. E.M. Bounds and ministers like J. Taylor and F.E. Raven taught that head-knowledge must drop into your heart. You can read the Concise or Morrish Bible dictionaries inside out, but without repentance, it means nothing.
God sent His Son to take the punishment for your sins on the cross. The ultimate proof of God's reality is written in the precious blood of Christ. So, friends, do not just scroll past. Stop, turn to the Lord Jesus, and ask Him to save you today.
Have you ever moved into a new house or flat and found that the previous owners left a load of absolute rubbish behind? You cannot just leave it sitting there in the living room; you have to clear it all out before you can properly make it your home.
When the children of Israel were about to enter the Promised Land, God gave them a very clear instruction about clearing out the rubbish. We read in Numbers chapter 33:
"Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall dispossess all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and you shall destroy all their figured objects, and you shall destroy all their molten images, and lay waste all their high places." (Numbers 33:51-52, JND, updated to modern English).
God did not tell them to just put up with the idols or put them in a cupboard. He told them to completely demolish them.
If we look up the roots of idolatry using tools like W.E. Vine’s dictionary or Wilson’s Old Testament studies, we learn that we must understand idolatry in a deeply religious sense. Any physical representation of God completely changes Him from what He really is. It brings the Creator down to the level of the created.
Think about the Egyptians. They worshipped absolutely everything! They bowed down to oxen, heifers, sheep, goats, lions, dogs, cats, monkeys, ibis, cranes, hawks, crocodiles, serpents, frogs, flies, and scarab beetles. They even worshipped the sun, the moon, the planets, the stars, fire, light, air, and darkness. And you can guarantee they came up with what they thought were "good" and logical reasons for doing it. But the Morrish Bible Dictionary reminds us that anything that misrepresents God is an idol.
You might be thinking, "Well, I don't worship crocodiles or frogs, so I am fine." But idolatry is much sneakier than that, my friends.
A young man once said to a preacher that he could see absolutely nothing wrong with having a Christmas tree in his house, because he did not bow down and worship it.
He completely misunderstood the issue. Do we misunderstand it too?
The first commandment covers the most obvious aspect of idolatry. If a person was physically bowing down to the tree, that would be what he was worshipping. But the issue goes much deeper.
The second commandment has to do with the way we worship. The Lord Jesus makes it incredibly clear in John 4:24 (JND, modernised): "God is a spirit; and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth."
Early brethren teachers like J.B. Stoney, C.A. Coates, and F.E. Raven taught extensively that Christianity is a heavenly calling. We have been brought out of the world’s systems. Therefore, our worship must be spiritual.
Christmas—and all its worldly trappings like the Christmas tree—is simply not part of the way God commanded us to worship. It is nowhere to be found in the truth of God’s word. Therefore, introducing a Christmas tree, or any human tradition, into our faith is actually a component of an idolatry created when man desires to worship God in a way he devises himself, rather than exactly as God instructs.
Even though that young man never bowed down to the tree, by embracing a human invention in the place of God's truth, he was breaking the principle of the second commandment.
Men of action like William Booth, D.L. Moody, and Leonard Ravenhill used to preach with absolute fire against mixing the holy things of God with the cheap traditions of the world. George Muller lived his entire life proving that you do not need the world's gimmicks when you have the living God.
My friends, we need to take a hard look at our own lives. Have we dragged the world's "figured objects" into our homes and hearts? God is looking for young men and women who will clear out the high places, leave human traditions behind, and worship the Lord Jesus Christ in absolute spirit and truth.
Have you ever stopped to look closely at the details in the Bible? Sometimes, we can read a passage of Scripture a hundred times, and then suddenly, a single word opens up a whole new world of meaning. It is absolutely mind-blowing when you realise that God does not do anything by accident. Every detail points directly to the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we look at the last night before the Lord Jesus went to the cross, we find Him praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. According to W. E. Vine’s Expository Dictionary, the very word Gethsemane literally means "an oil press" or "the olive crushing place." This garden was located on the Mount of Olives, a hillside covered in olive trees. In biblical times, an olive press was a massive, heavy circular stone. You would place the harvested olives underneath and press down with immense weight to crush them and extract the precious oil.
The Lord Jesus did not go to a random garden that night. He went to the place of the crushing. He went to the press. As we look at the Old Testament types and shadows—something writers like John Nelson Darby and C. A. Coates loved to highlight—we see that olive oil had four distinct purposes in the Bible. When we look at these four uses, we can see exactly why the Saviour had to be pressed in Gethsemane.
In the Old Testament, oil was poured out to anoint people for special service to God. King David was anointed with oil before he took the throne. Aaron and his sons were anointed to become priests. Elijah anointed Elisha to be a prophet.
The Lord Jesus is the ultimate King, the great High Priest, and the final Prophet. In Gethsemane, the immense pressure of the world's sin began to fall upon Him. He was being pressed so that He could step fully into His role as the Anointed One (which is what the word "Christ" means). He was preparing to offer Himself as the perfect Priest and the ultimate sacrifice.
Olive oil was also used as a base for making soap to cleanse the body. Even the Lord Jesus mentioned this in Matthew 6:17 (NKJV), saying, "But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face."
We were dirty with sin, and no amount of human effort could wash us clean. The Lord Jesus was pressed in the garden and crushed on the cross to provide a cleansing flood for our sins. As the great evangelists like D. L. Moody and William Booth used to preach, it is only the work of Christ that can wash a guilty sinner completely clean.
In Luke’s Gospel, we read the story of the Good Samaritan. When he found the wounded man on the side of the road, he bandaged his wounds, "pouring on oil and wine" (Luke 10:34, NKJV). James 5:14 (NKJV) also speaks of praying for the sick and "anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." Oil is a brilliant picture of God’s healing and blessing.
The Lord Jesus went through the crushing pressure of Gethsemane because He is the one who came to heal our brokenness. He was pressed and wounded so that our deep, spiritual wounds could be healed once and for all.
Before electricity, how did people light their homes? They used small lamps filled with olive oil. You would pour the oil in, add a wick, and light it. Without the crushed olives, there was no oil, and without the oil, there was only darkness.
The Lord Jesus said in John 8:12 (NKJV), "I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life." In Gethsemane, He was pressed in the darkest hour of human history so that He could bring the light of salvation to a lost world.
Now, here is a physical fact that makes this entire picture staggering. When you put ripe olives under a heavy stone and first apply pressure, the liquid that comes out is not the golden-yellow oil we buy in the shops today. The very first liquid squeezed from the olive is a dark, reddish-purple colour. It looks exactly like blood.
In Luke 22:44 (NKJV), we read about the Lord’s intense pressure in the olive press of Gethsemane: "And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground."
Greek scholars like Kenneth Wuest remind us that the word for "agony" here means a severe, terrifying struggle. The pressure on the Son of God was so unimaginably heavy that His capillaries burst, and His sweat fell like drops of blood upon the soil of the olive press.
Men of prayer like E. M. Bounds and Leonard Ravenhill often wept over this truth. They challenged young people never to treat the cross as something common. When you put pressure on an olive, what comes out is oil. When the weight of our sin and the shadow of the cross put pressure on the Lord Jesus in Gethsemane, what came out was His blood.
A. W. Tozer rightly pointed out that we have grown far too used to a cheap, easy Christianity. But as we look at the Mount of Olives, the message is clear: Salvation costs you nothing, as it is a free gift of grace, but it cost Him absolutely everything. It is in that blood, poured out at the press of Gethsemane and fully shed at the cross of Calvary, that we find our forgiveness, our healing, our light, and our life.
Let this mind-blowing truth challenge you today. Because He was willing to be crushed for you, you can walk in the freedom and light of His glorious salvation.