The Brook Kidron

 

“The whole countryside wept aloud as all the people passed by. The king [David] also crossed the Kidron Valley.”

—2 Samuel 15:23

“When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley.”

—John 18:1

Even today, as the photo above shows, the Brook Kidron carries the foul waste from the city of Jerusalem. King David—in fleeing from his son, Absalom, who had usurped King David’s power and proclaimed himself king—sorrowfully crossed this brook into the desert in order to mourn. David prayed that God would allow him favor to let him again see his beloved city of Jerusalem and the tabernacle of Jewish worship.

The King of Kings Himself took the same path on His way to the cross. He left, with Peter, James, and John, to spend the night in prayer on the Mount of Olives. Mark 14:33-34 describes Jesus’ spirit:

He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them.

Jesus gives all of His followers a Brook Kidron to cross. Sometimes, He give us many. Just as our Savior had to suffer, He gives us the path of suffering. Philippians 3:10 offers us this testimony of St. Paul:

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing His suffering.

As God did with King David, and also with our Lord Jesus, He uses our Brook Kidrons to achieve His good will in us. I like the way that Charles Hadden Spurgeon puts it:¹

The King of Kings himself was not favored with a more cheerful or royal road. He passed over the filthy ditch of Kidron, through which the filth of Jerusalem flowed. God had one Son without sin, but not a single child without the rod. It is a great joy to believe that Jesus has been tempted in all points like as we are. What is our Kidron? Is it a faithless friend, a sad bereavement, a slanderous reproach, a dark foreboding? The King has passed over these. Is it bodily pain, poverty persecution, or contempt? Over each of these Kidrons the King has gone before us.

What results did God plan of all these sorrows? David returned in triumph to his city. Christ arose triumphant from the grave. Thus, we have Spurgeon’s encouragement to us:²

Courage, soldiers of the Cross, the King himself triumphed after going over Kidron, and so shall you.

______________________

1 Spurgeon, Charles Haddon. Morning and Evening. McLean Virginia: MacDonald Publishing Company, Public Domain. p. 304.

2 Ibid.