MOUNTAINTOPS

MOUNTAINTOPS

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, because You are with me . . .

Psalm 23:4

I am a daughter of the mountains of West Virginia. Recently, John and I had the chance to drive through West Virginia to see places I haven’t visited since childhood. This is beautiful country. The scenes are expansive and breathtaking from the mountaintops. I could see distant blue hills many miles away rolling toward the sunset. When we stopped to enjoy the view, I could feel a fool grin spreading across my face; this is the place where my lungs expand and my heart opens to the glories of God’s creation.

Earlier in the day, though, we had spent much of our drive in the valleys and hollows, winding our way back and forth, hoping we were on the right road because we didn’t have a signal to keep an updated map on our GPS. It is different in the valleys of West Virginia. They are dim and bramble-choked. They are crossed with streams and rivers. In a storm, floods can happen quickly in the valleys because there’s no other place for the water to go. I’ve often heard it said that you only get daylight from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm in the valley because the mountains above block the sun. 

When we were in the valleys, we didn’t have a wide-open view. All we could see was the road in front of us and the mountains rising on either side of a valley that was sometimes narrow enough to throw a baseball from one side to the other. We couldn’t see the mountaintops. 

We had to infer the existence of the mountaintops because of the valleys.

It’s an exercise in contrasts.

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Joshua 14:12

Now, therefore, give me this mountain of which the LORD spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fortified. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall be able to drive them out as the LORD said.

Caleb asked for this hill country.

This was the land Caleb had scouted 40 years before when spies were sent into the Promised Land to see what it would be like there. (Numbers 13:25-33)

Consider why no one else asked for the hills. You’d think it would be beautiful, maybe cooler than the lower elevations that, in places, leaned toward desert. Maybe it would be more defensible, militarily. But Yahweh had told the people of Israel that they would have to do battle to take the land. That means that Caleb was choosing a place where he would naturally not have the advantage. Why, then, would Caleb intentionally pick a place where he could be defeated by the inhabitants? (Inhabitants who, by the way, were actual giants–Numbers 13:32-33,Deuteronomy 9:2.) 

But Caleb had a plan. He wanted to own the land that was the ancestral burial place: Abraham and Sarah; Isaac and Rebekah; Jacob and Leah. This was important ancestral land and Caleb wanted to secure it for the Israelites. Caleb wanted to show that, even at 85 years old, he could face formidable enemies when he was on God’s side. 

This was a fulfillment of a promise Moses made to Caleb in Numbers 14:1-10. Moses spoke over Caleb that one day he would live in this land. Caleb was ready to see that promise realized.

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1 Kings 18

Elijah went to a mountaintop in the name of Yahweh to do battle. He issued an ultimatum to these false prophets and priests who served in the name of other gods (gods) ; an ultimatum to prove yet again that Yahweh was different; ultimately powerful; sovereign over all people, spirits and the elements. 

In a brilliant battle of fire and water, God defeats all these evil priests and prophets on Mount Carmel. Elijah killed every one of the prophets of these false gods with the help of the Israelites. 

Elijah served as the mouthpiece for Yahweh and it looked like the battle was one against many. 

Pro Tip: If you’re on God’s side, you’re never alone!

But then, as can often happen following a great emotional or spiritual time of victory, Elijah fell into fear and ran from persecution by Jezebel, the queen whose prophets he had slaughtered (1 Kings 19). Fear led him straight into a personal valley of isolation in the desert. He was then called to the mountain of God in Horeb. God met with Elijah there personally to minister to his drained spirit. 

When Elijah’s strength and outlook had been renewed through time with Yahweh, he was ready to go right back to do battle. 

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Genesis 22

Abraham is tested by God on a mountaintop. 

Abraham rose early one morning, just after a conversation he had with Yahweh. He went on a journey with his precious son, Isaac, to a mountain in the land of Moriah that God had called him to. He walked up that mountain beside Isaac, knowing the whole way that God had told him he would have to sacrifice his son there. Isaac was the son of THE PROMISE (Genesis 17:19, 21:12). Yahweh had promised Abraham & Sarah a son–this son–many, many years before. Abraham & Sarah had tried to engineer the answer to this promise and the ripples from that choice are still being seen & felt in our world today. But when Isaac arrived, he was affirmed as the child God had chosen to carry this family into the future. 

So why was God now telling Abraham he would sacrifice him on the mountaintop?

There are no answers coming from God, so Abraham continues his journey. When they arrive, Abraham asks Isaac to lay the wood he had carried on the ground as an altar. Isaac has asked several times where the sacrifice was, not knowing he was the intended sacrifice, perhaps echoing the very questions that circled in Abraham’s mind. While we aren’t given insight into the exact way everything played out beforehand, we do see Isaac on the altar. Just as Abraham draws back the knife to deliver the killing blow, the Angel of the LORD stays his hand by calling his name: Abraham! 

God provides a ram caught in a thicket to take Isaac’s place on the altar. 

Abraham named that place The-LORD-Will-Provide. 

There is significance not only in the provision of the ram, but also in the actual place. 

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2 Chron 3:1  Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 

Mount Moriah. 

The place where The-LORD-Will-Provide.

Now Yahweh, the LORD, has brought the Israelites into the Promised Land many hundreds of years later. We arrive at Mount Moriah once again as Solomon is building the temple where the people of the land will worship Yahweh. Solomon’s father, King David, purchased this land to be a place where Yahweh could be worshipped. This new temple is where they will bring their sacrifices, have feasts (FEAST), and celebrate a relationship with the God of the Universe, Yahweh, who provides all things; who reaches down from His place to be with this broken, messy people called the Israelites; whom He chose as a people when He met Abraham and preserved Isaac from sacrifice on the very same mountain. 

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Matthew 27:33  And when they had come to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, Place of a Skull . . .

Mark 15:22  And they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull . . . 

Luke 23: 33  When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified Him there . . .

John 19:17  And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him . . .

Golgotha. 

The Place of the Skull because it had the appearance of a skull from a distance.

This is the mountain that matters more than all the others. 

It matters because this is the place where Jesus–the Son of God–hung on a cross and died a terrible death on our behalf. Without this death, all the other mountaintops carry no significance, just some kind of connection to each other and to a God who is always just out of our reach. 

Let this sink through your mind and into the depths of your soul: this perfect, all-encompassing God sent a part of Himself to live on earth with people then die on a cross as a perfect sacrifice for all of humanity. 

BUT!

The story doesn’t end at the cross!

When you begin to grasp this supernatural event, you can begin to see that, three days later, an event occurred that literally changes everything. 

This Man-Who-Was-Also-God came back to life.

. . . 

The mind boggles.

My mind, even now, races with questions! What? Why? HOW??

But perhaps the most important question in response to this is: What does this mean for me?

If you’re asking any of these questions, you’re in a good place, right where you can meet with God. 

If you’ve never had a moment on this mountain with Jesus who was crucified for you, this is a good time to think about it. 

Jesus lived as a real man, a part of God who came for the express purpose to die on that cross for you. For me. For every person who ever has existed or ever will exist. When recognition of this fact settles into your heart, the next step is to realize that without the death of Jesus Christ on a cross, on a hill that looked like a skull, you and I could never be good enough to spend eternity with God in a place that embodied perfection. We are too imperfect to reach that place on our own, without the sacrifice of Jesus. 

At this moment, you have only to admit this truth to yourself and accept the gift of the sacrifice.

When you can cross that bridge, you come into the place of eternal life with Jesus and a whole host of others who have believed.

Welcome, friend.

I’m glad you’re here.

If you’ve made this heart-journey for the first time today, will you reach out to let us know? 

This road is best walked in the company of other believers. We’d love to give you some guidance and next steps. 

This is a road that will take us all through valleys, to the mountaintops, and everything in between. We are called to celebrate the mountaintops together and lift those who are in the valley. That’s what we should do for each other as we chase after and lean on Jesus.