Two valleys surround Jerusalem, just as Jesus surrounds us.
The Kidron Valley runs between Jerusalem’s eastern edge and the Mount of Olives. In Bible times, a dry streambed called a wadi flowed through it.
During King Hezekiah’s reign, priests removed pagan objects from the temple and carried them off to be dumped into the valley.
In the other valley, a worse dumping ground took place. Before Jesus’ time and before the Israelites lived in Jerusalem, pagan religions sacrificed babies to their idol god, Molech. Sadly, some of the Israelite leaders copied this practice. The place they committed this sin was in the Hinnom Valley (2 Chronicles 28:1-3; 33:6). During Jesus’ time, the Hinnom Valley became a stinky garbage dump full of dead animal carcasses and household waste.
When Jesus came, he walked in both of these valleys. “Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it” (John 18:1).
That night, Jesus was arrested and began his ultimate suffering and death as the promised sacrifice for the sins of the world. He experienced “being condemned to hell” (Matthew 23:33), hell described with a Greek word for “Hinnom.”
Valleys always serve the loving purposes of our God (see Psalm 23:4). They are never too low for him and never too dark for him. They are never too foul and never too foreboding. Jesus can cross them. Still today.
