PAPER 144: Section 1.
The Gilboa Encampment
P1617:4, 144:1.1
As time passed, the twelve became more devoted to Jesus and increasingly committed
to the work of the kingdom. Their devotion was in large part a matter of personal
loyalty. They did not grasp his many-sided teaching; they did not fully comprehend
the nature of Jesus or the significance of his bestowal on earth.
P1617:5, 144:1.2
Jesus made it plain to his apostles that they were in retirement for three
reasons:
- To confirm their understanding of, and faith in, the gospel of the kingdom.
- To allow opposition to their work in both Judea and Galilee to quiet down.
- To await the fate of John the Baptist.
P1617:9, 144:1.3 While tarrying on Gilboa, Jesus told the twelve much about his early life and his experiences on Mount Hermon; he also revealed something of what happened in the hills during the forty days immediately after his baptism. And he directly charged them that they should tell no man about these experiences until after he had returned to the Father.
P1618:1, 144:1.4 During these September weeks they rested, visited, recounted their experiences since Jesus first called them to service, and engaged in an earnest effort to co-ordinate what the Master had so far taught them. In a measure they all sensed that this would be their last opportunity for prolonged rest. They realized that their next public effort in either Judea or Galilee would mark the beginning of the final proclamation of the coming kingdom, but they had little or no settled idea as to what the kingdom would be when it came. John and Andrew thought the kingdom had already come; Peter and James believed that it was yet to come; Nathaniel and Thomas frankly confessed they were puzzled; Matthew, Philip, and Simon Zelotes were uncertain and confused; the twins were blissfully ignorant of the controversy; and Judas Iscariot was silent, noncommittal.
P1618:2, 144:1.5
Much of this time Jesus was alone on the mountain near the camp. Occasionally
he took with him Peter, James, or John, but more often he went off to pray
or commune alone. Subsequent to the baptism of Jesus and the forty days in
the Perean hills, it is hardly proper to speak of these seasons of communion
with his Father as prayer, nor is it consistent to speak of Jesus as worshiping,
but it is altogether correct to allude to these seasons as personal communion
with his Father.
P1618:3, 144:1.6
The central theme of the discussions throughout the entire month of September
was prayer and worship. After they had discussed worship for some days, Jesus
finally delivered his memorable discourse on prayer in answer to Thomas's
request: "Master, teach us how to pray."
P1618:4, 144:1.7
John had taught his disciples a prayer, a prayer for salvation in the coming
kingdom. Although Jesus never forbade his followers to use John's form of
prayer, the apostles very early perceived that their Master did not fully
approve of the practice of
uttering set and formal prayers. Nevertheless,
believers constantly requested to be taught how to pray. The twelve longed
to know what form of petition Jesus would approve. And it was chiefly because
of this need for some simple petition for the common people that Jesus at
this time consented, in answer to Thomas's request, to teach them a suggestive
form of prayer. Jesus gave this lesson one afternoon in the third week of
their sojourn on Mount Gilboa.