Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”
Mathew 26:36-46
Gethsemane was a olive tree garden situated at at the foot of the Mount of Olives. Gethsemane means ‘place of crushing’ because here the olives grew and were crushed so that their valuable oil could be extracted.
Throughout history, oil production has been in three stages; the first is the ‘crushing stage’ which is the first press in which the whole olive, pip and all, gets crushed with massive mechanical force. It corresponds to the ‘first fruit’ oil offerings given the priests for temple use. This is the purest oil. The second stage is the ‘pressing stage’ where the pulp of the first pressing gets pressed to further separate the oil from the solid mush. This purer oil was suitable for culinary and cosmetic purposes. The “final press’ is where the last dregs of the solid components and water are separated from the oil – it is lowest grade oil and powered the oil lamps of the first century people.
Do you see the metaphor explains Romans 12 beautifully?
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:2
Three grades of olive oil in three stages of crushing. Three gradations of God’s will, good, acceptable and perfect will which matches the three grades of olive oil – lamp grade, food grade, temple grade. This also speaks to the three places of service in the tabernacle: the Holy of Holies (first crushing), the Holy Place (the pressing stage) and the Outer Court (final press). Note, under the time the Mosaic Law ruled the Israelites life, the sequence of progress in the temple was reversed, the first pressing corresponded to the outer court. But in the New Covenant, we begin in the Holy of Holies because of the sacrifice of Jesus – we are made perfect in Him! We enter the area of our spiritual service in the Holy Place from the curtain of the Holy of Holies, we meet the table of incense and intercession first … Jesus turned the sequence on its head! Praise the Lord! We start from perfection and enter service from there. Our first and chief work is that of prayer, this is why we meet the table of incense first. Jesus went before us to present a perfect sacrifice.
So we see our High Priest Jesus, modelling how you obtain the anointing oil.
Now we need our wills’ to be crushed under God’s will. When we submit our will under God’s will, its like being crushed. But this is the only way we can know God’s good and acceptable and perfect wiill, when we let go of our will! This also produces the anointing oil. God backs His will, not our will. God backs our obedience. Doing the will of the Father is what proves our identity as sons of God. Obedience is God’s love language. Only through the crushing of our will, will we have sufficient oil in our lamps. Our ability to shine for Christ, is directly linked to our willingness to have our will crush in the olive press of God’s will.
Let us surrender our will to the crushing of God today and release the precious oil trapped within us! A will bound up in itself cannot benefit God or man. We need to free our will’s by submitting to God’s will. Jesus modelled it. He is the Way. His path leads to Our Gethsemane. Our Garden of Gethsemane is where we learn to know the will of the Father. Its the source of the oil that powers our light, by the workings of the Holy Spirit. Let us run to Gethsemane, let us not sleep there because only in that that garden is the Garden East of Eden restored. No Eden, without Gethsemane.
Need light? Need direction? Need oil? Let your will be crushed and pressed and pressed again.