Throughout the entire Bible, we are told of many stories that involve significant bodies of water. For example, when the Israelites were redeemed out of their slavery to Egypt, they crossed the Sea of Reeds. Years later, when these same people entered God's promised land, they crossed the Jordan River. And of course, We can't forget about the Sea of Galilee, which is the body of water that Christ himself walked on. The Nile River.
The Mediterranean Sea. The Pool of Siloam. All of these bodies of water mentioned in the Bible have at least one or many significant stories attached to them. But there is one specific body of water in the Bible that is almost completely forgotten. Today, we will learn about the Brook Kidron and why this body of water is linked with the most important story in the entire history of mankind, the death of Jesus Christ.
In order to appreciate why the Brook Kidron is so important to us, We first have to understand a neat little pattern that God establishes in the Old Testament for destroying idols. In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the Israelites of their sin at Mount Sinai when they molded and worshipped the golden calf. He says to them, Then I took your sin, the calf which you had made, and burned it with fire. and crushed it and ground it very small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw its dust into the brook that descended from the mountain.
So Moses takes the sin of Israel, burns it, and then throws it into a brook once it's destroyed. This actually becomes a tradition or pattern that God sets up with all of the righteous kings of Israel. Take a look at these passages with me.
King Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did his father David. And he banished the perverted persons from the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. He also removed Maka, his grandmother, from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. And Asa cut down her obscene image and burned it by the brook Kidron.
Just like Moses, King Asa removed the idols from Israel and burned them by a brook, the brook Kidron. King Josiah, who was another righteous king of Israel, followed this same pattern. The king commanded Hilkiah, the high priest, the priests of the second order, and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the articles that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the hosts of heaven. And he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. And he brought out the wooden image from the house of the Lord to the brook Kidron outside Jerusalem, burned it at the brook Kidron, and ground it to ashes.
The altars that were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, the king broke down and pulverized there, and threw their dust into the brook Kidron. Finally, let's take a look at what King Hezekiah, yet another righteous king of Israel, did when he ruled the throne. Then the priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and brought out all of the debris that they found in the temple of the Lord to the court of the house of the Lord. And the Levites took it out and carried it to the brook Kidron. They arose and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem, and they took away all the incense altars and cast them into the brook Kidron.
So, how do all of these stories about idols being destroyed and thrown into the Broke Kidron point us to Christ? And why the Broke Kidron specifically? Why couldn't it have been any other body of water?
In the book of Jeremiah, the brook Kidron is mentioned as part of a prophecy about a new covenant that God was going to make with his people. Jeremiah 31 Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord.
I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. In this exact same prophecy, God also says that he will rebuild the city of Jerusalem, and that the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, will be holy to the Lord. So, despite the fact that the brook Kidron was associated with the graves of dead bodies and the ashes of destroyed idols, God still considered it to be holy to him.
Why? The life of Jesus gives us the answer. In John chapter 18, We are told that Jesus and his disciples had just finished the Last Supper. When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples over the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. This garden is the Garden of Gethsemane, located in the Valley of the Dead Bodies, which the brook Kidron runs right next to.
Keep in mind, this is also the valley that sinful idols would be thrown into and destroyed. Before Christ could establish the new covenant which God spoke of in the book of Jeremiah, he first had to enter the valley of the dead by crossing the brook Kidron. In the same way that these righteous kings of Israel would throw sinful idols into the brook Kidron in the valley of the dead, God put his son Jesus, our own righteous king, in that same valley and brook, so that our own sinful idols would be destroyed once and for all. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. This is why God considers the Brook Kidron a place of death and sin to be holy to him.
And this is why the Brook Kidron is one of the most important bodies of water that we read about in the entire Bible. Thanks for watching. I'll see you again soon. Until then, Salaam.