If Jesus Christ had favorite places during His earthly life, the Mount of Olives was certainly one of them. He spent much time there.
The 2 mile (3½ kilometers) long Mount of Olives is a flattened ridge series located just a few hundred yards (meters) east of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. It rises over 200 feet (60 meters) above the Kidron Valley which separates those two very significant places.
The Mount of Olives was the place where numerous events of Bible history occurred. Many of the most important people of the Bible walked upon it sooner or later.
The Old Testament
King David fled over the Mount of Olives to escape from Absalom's rebellion (2 Samuel 15:30). After King Solomon became corrupt, he built pagan "high places" there (1 Kings 11:7). Later, King Josiah destroyed Solomon's idolatrous altars, by which time it had become known as the Hill of Corruption (2 Kings 23:13-14). Ezekiel had his vision of The Lord and the flying cherubim above it (Ezekiel 11:22-23). The people gathered olive branches there for the first Feast of Tabernacles after their return from the Babylonian exile (Nehemiah 8:15).
The New Testament
Jesus regularly went up onto the Mount of Olives (Luke 22:39). He often traveled over it on His way to Bethany to visit His friend Lazarus. His famous Olivet prophecy is named after it (Matthew 24:1-51). The Triumphal Entry of Jesus riding on a Donkey and her colt into Jerusalem took place over and down the Mount of Olives (Luke 19:28-44). Jesus prayed with His disciples there just before His arrest that fateful night (Luke 22:39-46). Jesus was arrested there, during which Peter struck the servant of the high priest with a sword and cut off his ear (Luke 22:49-51). Jesus appeared to the disciples on the Mount of Olives after His Resurrection, and He ascended into heaven from there (Acts 1:1-12).
The Mount of Olives In The Future
"And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld. he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
And while they looked steadfastly toward Heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel.
Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into Heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven." (Acts 1:9-11)
"And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory."
And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the fourt winds, from one end of Heaven to the other." (Matthew 24:30-31)
"Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
"And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Lives which is before Jerusalem on the east and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west (see: Earthquake", and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountain; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah; and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. (Zechariah 14:3-5)
