The Olive Press, Day One Israel

After 10 1/2 hours on the plane, I arrived in Tel Aviv Israel. I changed some dollars to shekels and headed out to catch a sherut, a taxi-shuttle to Yad Hashmonah. I tried to take in the scenery as we drove. I noticed lots of rocks and hills, and towns and cities on the tops of those hills. Tall cedars towered above all the other vegetation. But mainly, there were lots of rocky hills.

I checked into Yad Hashmonah at 9 am and took an hour nap. I decided to take a walk in the Biblical Garden. Bemoaning my loneliness...okay, I just got there and hadn't met anyone as yet, but I was asking myself, "Why was I here?" Then I came across a beautiful red poppy, blooming all alone, surrounded by rocks. God's assurance, I was where I needed to be.

They had some interesting things, a spring flowing into a well, a grape stomping and wine storage area, a watchtower, and an olive press. I stopped by the olive press since a man was giving a tour and listened in.

He explained the workings of the press. The farmer placed fresh olives into a large vat called a sea and then pushed a rolling millstone over the olives, going round and round crushing the olives with its weight. The olive oil flowed out a hole in the side into a storage vat. Then he used a ladle to draw the oil out and put it into storage jars. The oil from this first crushing was the best oil, the oil of the finest quality. The guide asked a question, "What happened to this first oil?" Guesses included selling it, keeping it...the answer, said with some disdain, "It went to the temple. The first and best oil went to the temple." He didn't consider that it was to be given to God, it went to the temple. And it is written in the law that the first went to God, an act of faith that God would supply all that was needed.

After the first crushing, all the olives were placed into woven bags about 18 inches in diameter. They were piled up and placed under a heavy stone, a weight called a gethsemane. The weight settled down over the bags and squeezed more oil out of the olives. Not as high grade of oil, but still quite good for selling and use. Then the process was repeated, the olives placed in the sea and crushed again, then replaced under the gethsemane and squeezed. Each repetition produced oil, not as high quality as the first, but usable.

I thought of the significance of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane on his final night. He was in the garden of the olive press, very symbolic as we consider the weight that fell on him there, so intense that he sweated drops of blood. I don't think we realize the immensity of the pressure on Jesus that day. Sure it says that for the joy before him, he endured the cross, but the night before it all happened, he was looking for a way out. "If it is possible, remove this cup from me."

He was facing something he had never faced before, death...but even more, he was facing total separation from God as he took on the sins of the world. He had never been separated from God, God was always there, his Father was always with him. And we see the desperation in his cry on the cross, "My God. My God, why have you forsaken me?"

Jesus knew the reality and recognition of God's presence all his life, except for that time on the cross when he experienced hell...absolute separation from God. He suffered the agony of separation so that we could be reconciled to God and never have to experience total separation from God. We may feel isolated and alone, but because of Jesus' sacrifice, it is just a feeling, not a reality.