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Through the Mountains
On our trip to a wedding last month, my family and I touched ground in four states we had not visited before: Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. We were impressed with the beautiful scenery, the wildlife, and the weather. But for me, it doesn’t get any better than being in the mountains.
Since I have lived near the Gulf Coast my whole life, I am well acquainted with the “plains of Texas.” For that reason, the mountains have always fascinated and mesmerized me. It just seems odd to look out on the horizon and not see the blue sky go all the way to the ground. But it is a scene I think I could get used to seeing.
Have you ever noticed how much is said in the Scriptures about mountains? Or how many events in the Bible occurred on a mountain? From Mount Ararat to Mount Carmel to the Mount of Olives, they are frequently mentioned. And as we made our way through the mountains, I kept thinking about these three words:
MAJESTY. There is a majestic and regal quality to the mountains as even some of our songs testify: “for purple mountain majesties;” “when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur.” We ought to be thankful for the beauty of the natural world, for the variations in landscapes and colors. But these things are not put here just for decoration or for breath-taking views. They provide us with a perspective that should cause our soul to sing, “My God, how great Thou art!”
The mountains point up to their majestic Creator. “Before the mountains were born, or Thou didst give birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God” (Psa. 90:2). As impressive as the mountains are, God existed before them. He created them. He has the power to touch “the mountains, and they smoke” (Psa. 104:33). They remind us of a simple truth that all of God’s children ought to sing: “The mountains are His, the valleys are His, the stars are His handiwork, too. My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do!”
AUTHORITY. Some of God’s most memorable messages in the Bible were spoken from a mountain. When He gave the Israelites the Law that would govern them until the time of the Messiah, He did so from Mount Sinai (Ex. 24:12-18). Later when the Christ did come and call for a higher righteousness for the kingdom He would establish, He did so in the Sermon on the Mount. And when the Father declared, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, listen to Him” at the transfiguration of Jesus, He did so from “a high mountain” (Matt. 17:1). When the Lord needed a pulpit from which to speak these important words, He chose the very mountains He created from nothing.
The word of God is itself authoritative. It is what the multitudes recognized about Jesus after preaching on the mountain, that He “was teaching them as one having authority” (Matt. 7:29). Like the mountains, which are fixed and rock-solid, we can put that same confidence in the things God has said. His word is “forever settled in heaven” (Psa. 119:89). It stands forever (Isa. 40:8). Just the hearing of it produces faith (Rom. 10:17), a faith that can move mountains.
SERENITY. One of the reasons people vacation in the mountains is the solitude they provide. They are synonymous with things like peace, quietness, aloneness, and rejuvenation. Again, consider a song: “O Lord, I need a mountain to climb on. Just a quite place to go and know You’re there... And the greatest friend you’ll ever find is on a lonely mountain.” When you are atop a mountain, you’re just a little bit closer to where God is.
Jesus would often escape to the mountains. Before choosing the 12 apostles, He spent all night on a mountain in prayer (Luke 6:12). When the crowd tried to make Him a king after He fed them with five loaves and two fish, He retreated to the mountain to pray (John 6:15). Even the Son of God saw the importance of escaping the pressures of the world to find peace and serenity with His Father. And through His sacrifice on Mount Calvary, He provides forgiveness of sins that all men might be in close fellowship with the Father.
I hope this journey through the mountains will help us as we march upward to Mount Zion, the beautiful city of God.
