Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself (John 6:15 NIV).
After the miracle of feeding thousands of people with only five loaves of bread and two fish, Jesus went to another mountainside. Was walking all alone to a remote mountainside, and then spending time there, dangerous?
2,000 years ago in the wilderness outside of Bethsaida, the risk of danger from wildlife was probably high. Poisonous snakes could have been a serious threat. Worshiping at a church this past Labor Day weekend, a woman told of her recent work in Israel for several months. She said it was around one hundred degrees every day. Snakes, being cold blooded, thrive in that kind of climate. Sometimes they come out at twilight to lay on a warm rock.
Poisonous snakes are mentioned in the Bible, including in Numbers 21:4-9, where many Israelites were bit by venomous snakes. There are other references to venomous snakes, such as in Isaiah 11:8 and 14:29. Isaiah 30:6 states: “An oracle concerning the animals of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lions and lionesses, of adders and darting snakes, the envoys carry their riches on donkey’s backs, their treasures on the humps of camels…” (NIV).
This verse leads to the subject of lions. In Nelson’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Bible Facts, there is a picture of a stone “relief,” a carving, of a lion and a dog. The caption underneath: “Lion and dog fighting. This relief was found in the fourteenth-century B.C. stratum at the tell of Beth-shean in Palestine. Above, a dog and a lion rise up on their hind legs to fight….” (1)
In that same book, the author of the chapter entitled “The Animals and Insects of Palestine” states: “Lions, found in almost half the books of the Bible, were a very real danger. The biblical lion was smaller than the African lion and had a short curly mane, but was no less feared.” (2)
Lions, tigers, and wolves were a threat. A dear friend of mine did some teaching in northern Iraq once, and she said all three of those animals roam the mountain areas outside of some villages she visited.
Going back to that relief, I speculate the dog attacking the lion was a wild dog. Yet I wonder if some Israelites had domesticated dogs for a safety measure, including a walk in a remote area. Did they? In Job 30:1, Job speaks of domesticated dogs, translated “sheep dogs” in the NIV, and translated “the dogs of my flock” in the NRSV.
With or without dogs, I speculate that when Israelites traveled into such remote areas, they normally traveled in pairs or small groups. When thousands of Israelites followed Jesus up the mountainside outside of Bethsaida, there was no safety concern because it was such a large group of people.
Yet when Jesus was alone, at night, on another remote mountainside, there was a risk. Jesus was fully human, thus he may have needed to watch His step. Jesus was also fully divine, thus wild animals would have been subordinate to Him. Though Jesus slipped away from his fellow Israelites so they would not make Him king of Israel at that time, alone on that mountainside, Jesus was still King of creation.
And Jesus was still King of heaven, as He revealed to Pilate: “Jesus said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place’” (John 18:36).
And upon His return, Jesus will be the king of the world: “The LORD will be king over the whole earth…” (Zechariah 14:9).
Jesus is the King who created the Garden of Eden where creation lived in harmony. When Jesus returns perfect harmony will spring forth once again. “The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox" (Isaiah 11:7).
Jesus is a loving King, whose desire is goodness for everyone.
Hunter Irvine
(1) J.I. Packer, Merrill C. Tenney, and William White, Jr., eds.,
Nelson’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Bible Facts,
(rev. ed. of The Bible Almanac; Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), 217.
(2) Ibid., 220.
