Good morning.
Some of you know, some of you don't know.
But I was born in Michigan, but I don't claim Michigan as home.
If you ask me where am I from, you ask me where home is, the answer is going to be Eastern Kentucky, up in the mountains.
You ask me where would you like to be, on a mountain or on a beach?
The answer is on a mountain.
I love the mountains.
You're more likely to die on the mountains than on the beach, but you know, give and take in life.
Mountains are just something that have been a part of my life since I was four years old.
And yet when you open the book of Scripture, you'll find mountains have an interesting place in Scripture.
There are a number of mountains of great significance in the Bible.
And not only do they carry significance because of the events that occurred on those mountains and the historical literal event, but also metaphorical usage of the terminology
of those mountains that was derived from those events.
notice this idea in a couple of lessons, but we're going to begin first with some mountains in the Old Testament where events occurred and actions took place that will
result in a great deal of understanding about teachings that come later on in Scripture.
We're going look at four mountains this morning.
We're going to begin in the book of Genesis.
Genesis chapter 22.
There is a mountain in this occasion, in this text, where God will call Abraham to this mountain.
In Genesis 22, Isaac was born in the prior chapter.
God had told Abraham, his name was Abram at the time, God had told Abram back in Genesis chapter 12, you leave your home, you leave your kindred, you leave your country, and you
go to a land that I will show you.
And that land will become the inheritance of your family, but he also promises to Abram that you will become the father of many nations.
and that in your seed all nations of the earth will be blessed.
Yet Abram at the time was childless.
He and his wife Sarai had no children and that would continue to be true for another 25 years.
They followed and did what God said.
They traveled where God told them to go.
They sojourned in this land.
They were pilgrims and sojourners.
They dwelled in tents, and yet no child, no child, no child, no child for 25 years.
Then in Genesis chapter 21, Isaac is born when Abraham is the age of 100 years old and Sarah is the age of 90.
And then in chapter 22, now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, here I am.
Then he said, take now your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall
tell you.
So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son and he split the wood for the burnt offering and arose and he
went to the place of which God had told him.
Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off and Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey.
The lad and I will go yonder and worship and we will come back to you.
God tells Abraham, Abraham you take your son, your only son.
who probably at this time was still just a boy.
He says, take your son, your only son, the son you've been waiting on your entire life, the son that I promised you 25 plus years ago, the son that you have finally received, you
take your only son and you go to a mountain that I will show you and there you offer him as a burnt sacrifice to me.
And Abraham does not refuse.
Abraham does not argue with the Lord.
Abraham does not even delay.
Abraham prepares what is necessary and he leaves.
And when he sees the mountain that God had said, you go there, he leaves the men who were with him behind, the servants, and he and Isaac continue.
Notice that it was a three-day journey to get to this mountain.
The third day they finally see the mountain.
where God said, this wasn't they get up in the morning and they're there by afternoon.
But then notice...
Verse 5, So Abraham said to his young men, Stay here with the donkey and the lad, and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.
So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and the two of them went together.
But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, My father?
And he said, Here I am, my son.
Then he said, Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?
And Abraham said, My son, God will provide for Himself the Lamb for a burnt offering.
So the two of them went together.
Then they came to the place of which God had told him.
And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order.
And he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham.
So he said, here I am.
And he said, the angel, Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him.
For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught
in a thicket by its horns.
So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.
And Abraham called the name of the place, the Lord will provide.
As it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be provided." Here in this first text in Genesis 22, we find what we term Mount Moriah.
This mountain that's inside the mountain range of Moriah.
We don't know exactly which mountain it was, but we know this.
It was known as the mountain where God provided.
As a matter of fact, when you go down in the text, we read that Abraham called the name of the place Jehovah-Jireh.
That is
the place, or sorry, the Lord will provide.
And that's the way it was known from that point forward.
In this text, we find a mountain which represented something from that day forward, and it was the provision of God.
Abraham had left his home, his land, his family, his country, and all throughout his sojourning God had provided.
And Abraham had trusted in God to provide.
But then Abraham received that promise that Abraham had been desiring more than all the other things, a son.
And he knew that God had provided that son.
So why was God testing him?
Abraham had been faithful for 25 years.
What changed?
One of the things that you can see here is sometimes when we receive the thing that we have most desired...
we can forget why we received it.
Think about that.
Think about all of the effort that is gone to achieve something great.
And when that great thing is achieved, how it is quite easy to forget everything you went through to achieve it and only focus on the achievement.
God is going to test Abraham to see if Abraham still trusts and fears him as much as he did when he desired a son.
If Abraham's longing and desire and actions would be to God still the way they had been when Abraham was waiting for this thing that he desired so much.
In actuality, what you're seeing is a test to see whether or not Abraham had gone through all of these things to receive a son or had done all of these things to obey a God.
And God has validated through His command and through His action that Abraham was faithful to Him out of fear of Him, out of love for Him, but not out of a desire to have a son.
Now, as you go through this text, you may ask some of the similar questions as others.
You can say, well, wait a minute, I thought human sacrifice was wrong.
It is.
I thought it was against God's commands to offer a human sacrifice.
It is.
So how could Abraham have willingly done what God told him to do all the way to the point of picking up the knife?
It's right there in the text because God told him to do it.
But further in the text, you see the other aspect of it.
And it's when Isaac asks Abraham, where's the lamb?
Abraham doesn't tell Isaac there is no lamb.
Abraham doesn't tell Isaac you're the lamb.
Abraham doesn't do anything of the sort.
Abraham says with great divinity, God will provide the lamb.
over in the book of Hebrews.
we're told by the Hebrew writer that Abraham, who had fathered a son when his body was dead in the sense of he was no longer capable of naturally fathering a son, and Sarah, who
had carried a child and given birth to a child when she was beyond the point of doing that, that he determined that if God was able to do that, he was able to raise Isaac back
to life.
Abraham knew this was the child of promise, but Abraham knew he only had this provision because God had provided it.
Now for us, as we strive to internalize this lesson, we have to ask ourselves, do we provide?
There's a whole bunch of men in the audience this morning.
Are you the provider for your family?
In a sense, the answer better be yes, because Paul will tell Timothy, as he writes concerning those widows who are in and among the congregation and in need of support of
the congregation, that if they have a male family member that is part of their family, a nephew, a grandson, anything of the sort, that he
better provide for that woman because if he doesn't he is worse than an infidel.
God says, better provide if you're a man.
And there is a woman in your family who is in need.
You better provide.
But behind that question is, how do you provide?
And the answer is, you only provide if God provides.
Jesus would teach His disciples when His disciples came to Him and said, Lord teach us to pray as John taught His disciples to pray.
One of the things that Jesus taught in that example model prayer was, Lord give us this day our daily bread.
Jesus taught His disciples to understand that every day that they had food was a day God had provided.
So in Genesis 22, we are taught.
to learn the lesson from this mountain, the mountain of God's provision that God provides and not us.
But when God provides, we better not withhold anything that God provided from God.
Abraham did not withhold the son that God provided from God.
You see another example of this elsewhere in Scripture when Hannah desires a son and God blesses Hannah with a son and then Hannah gives Samuel back to the Lord to serve the Lord.
But consider another mountain.
Exodus chapter 3.
In Exodus chapter 3, there's a man named Moses who is tending his father's sheep.
is taking them into the pasture to tend the sheep.
Verse 1 of chapter 3, now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb, the
mountain of God.
It wasn't known as the mountain of God then.
It would be known as the mountain of God later.
But he brings them to Horeb, the mountain of God, and the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush, and he looked, and behold, the bush was
burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.
Then Moses said, I will go now, turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.
So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, and he said, Here I am.
Then he said, Do not draw near this place, take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.
Moreover, he said, I am the Lord your God, the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
Here in Exodus chapter three, Moses comes to the place, Horeb, to a mountain there in Horeb.
And this mountain as he's guiding the sheep by the mountain, as he's serving as a shepherd for this physical flock that belongs to his father-in-law, he looks up on the mountain and
there is a bush on the mountain and it is burning.
but it is uniquely burning because it is burning and not being consumed.
It is burning and not being destroyed.
So Moses leaves the sheep with the servants and says, I'm going to go see what's going on.
And he comes to the mountain, he comes up on the mountain, he comes to the bush and he's told don't come any further.
When you study a bit further into chapter 3 and 4 and the command that God's going to give Moses to go to Egypt, to go to Pharaoh, to bring his people out, God is going to give a
very specific command.
Moses, when you bring the people out of Egypt, you bring them back to this mountain.
Moses is going to do that.
Turn to Exodus chapter 19.
In Exodus chapter 19...
Verse 1, the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, the same day they came to the wilderness of Sinai, for they had departed from Rephidim and
had come to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness.
So Israel camped there before the mountain.
And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, Thus you shall stay to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, You have seen what I did
to the Egyptians and how I
bore you on eagles wings and brought you to Myself.
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people, for all the earth is Mine."
And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel." So Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before them all the words which the Lord
commanded him.
Then all the people answered together and said, all that the Lord has spoken we will do.
So Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord.
And the Lord said to Moses, behold, I come to you in the thick cloud.
that the people may hear when I speak with you and believe you forever.
So Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.
Then the Lord said to Moses, Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes, and let them be ready the third day.
For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people."
Mount Horeb is Mount Sinai.
They're the same place.
The place where Moses saw the burning bush is the same place God commanded him, you bring the people back here.
And of this place, God says to Moses, when Moses arrives with the people, I brought you or I brought them to me.
Horeb, Sinai, the same place.
Now, when you look at Mount Sinai, you see here the mountain of God's presence.
In this place, Moses stood before the presence of God.
God tells Moses, take the sandals off your feet for the place where you stand is holy ground.
What made it holy?
God's presence was there.
When Israel returned back, God told Moses, you make sure and consecrate the people.
You take these two days because on the third day my presence will be here and they better be holy.
Notice what we read.
So Moses went down, verse 14, from the mountain and people sanctified and sanctified the people and they washed their clothes.
And he said to the people, Be ready for the third day.
Do not come near your wives.
Then it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunderings and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain.
And the sound of the trumpet was very loud so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.
And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God.
And they stood at the foot of the mountain.
Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke.
because the Lord descended upon it in fire.
Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
Then the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder.
Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice.
Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai and upon the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
And the Lord said to Moses, Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to gaze at the Lord, and many of them perish.
So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them and God...
spoke all these words.
In chapter 19 you have God telling Moses, bring the people up, you consecrate the people, they're going to see the glory of my presence, they're going to observe all these things,
and I'm going to speak to them.
And when you read the Ten Commandments as given in Genesis chapter 20, you're not reading what Moses says to the people.
You're reading what God spoke from the mountain.
So much so that you'll get to the end of chapter 20 and the people will come to Moses and they'll say, it is not good for us to hear the voice of the Lord.
You go up on the mountain and you receive his word and you bring it back to us because if we continue to hear him, we're going to die.
Mount Sinai is the mountain of God's presence, the mountain of God's law.
It is the place where the law is given and where the voice of God was heard.
but it was not a place that the people who heard the voice of God enjoyed.
Over in the book of Hebrews, the Hebrew writer will make a point of this.
In Hebrews chapter 12, he will point out that we do not come to the mountain burning with fire.
He points out that in Christ we come before the throne of God, not with quaking and fear and trembling, but rather as the assembly of God's people.
having boldness to come into his presence.
Moses trembled and fell at the presence of God at the burning bush.
The people were so afraid of the presence of God, they asked for Moses to go up so they wouldn't hear God's voice anymore.
And yet, through Christ, we're told that we can boldly approach the throne of God to find grace and help in time of need.
Sinai teaches us of God's presence.
It teaches us of God's glory.
It teaches us that we should fear the Lord, but it also teaches us of the blessings of being in Christ.
Then there's another mountain, 1 Kings chapter 18.
1 Kings chapter 18 you find Mount Carmel.
Mount Carmel is there toward the edge of the Mediterranean Sea.
There's a little jut out of land as you follow the coast and on that jut out of land is Mount Carmel.
And in the days of Elijah, Elijah had declared that it would not reign in the northern kingdom of Israel until he said so.
Now that wasn't Elijah being pompous or beyond his authority.
He was speaking as a prophet.
He was speaking on behalf of God, and Elijah said, it is not going to rain until I say so and I'm not going to say so until God puts the words in my mouth to say so.
And so for three and a half years it doesn't rain.
During that time Elijah will be taken care of by God.
He will be provided for by God.
And then coming towards the end of that time Elijah comes back to King Ahab.
and says we're going to find out who God really is.
We're going to find out if Baal is God.
We're going to find out if Ashtaroth is God, because Ashtaroth was the God that Ahab's wife Jezebel worshiped.
And so Elijah is going to tell Ahab, you bring your prophets to Mount Carmel.
And this is what we're going to do.
They can build an altar, and I'll build an altar.
They can put the sacrifice on it.
They can put the wood on it.
They can't light it.
And they have to pray to Baal to see if Baal will light the altar.
Now this was a fair fight because Baal was the god of storms.
So you ought to be able to light the altar.
The prophets of Baal start off first thing in the morning praying and crying out to their God to light the altar.
And all through the morning they're praying, they're crying out, they're doing everything they can.
They just can't touch the altar and light the altar for him.
And Elijah provokes them, maybe your God's going on a long journey.
Maybe he's relieving himself.
Maybe you should cry louder.
And they cry, and they begin cutting themselves in order to get their God to light the altar.
Around midday, altars still not lit.
So Elijah points out, my turn.
So Elijah prepares the sacrifice, puts it on the altar.
Then he does something that you should see the significance of it, not just in what he does.
but in the three and a half years of no rain.
Because Elijah calls for water.
That thing that was so precious that you'll find in the context earlier Ahab and his servants were going throughout all the land finding anywhere where they could take their
cattle, their horses to find water.
And Elijah is going to have water.
poured out on the altar.
So much water that it will fill the altar with water, it will drench the altar with water, he digs a moat around it and it fills the moat around the altar with water.
And then Elijah praised to God.
to demonstrate that He is God.
And fire comes down from heaven and consumes the sacrifice, consumes the wood, consumes the water, and consumes the altar.
Elijah then calls upon the people who are present to deal with the false prophets.
and the people will kill the 450 false prophets of Baal.
Now all of that is significant as we address Mount Carmel because Mount Carmel is the mountain of God's prophets.
It's the mountain where God establishes quite clearly, this is who speaks on behalf of me, and this is who doesn't.
But God's not done yet in 1 Kings chapter 18.
because God will then tell Elijah to tell Ahab, you better get down off this mountain.
You better get on your chariot and you better head home because the rain's coming.
and Ahab will get on his chariot and proceed back to Samaria to his home, to his castle, to his dwelling place and Elijah will pray for rain.
And then Elijah will take off on foot and Elijah will beat Ahab back home.
as the rain begins.
During that time, Elijah is praying while he's on Mount Carmelite, he sends a servant to go look.
And the servant goes and looks, no clouds.
Elijah continues praying, sends the servant to go look, the servant goes and looks, no clouds.
Third time Elijah continues praying, sends the servant to go look, the servant says, I see the clouds.
What's this mean?
God demonstrates on Mount Carmel, this is who speaks for me.
This is my prophet.
The thing you should know about a prophet is when God establishes through actions, especially miraculous ones, that that man is a prophet, you better do what he says.
You better hear and obey his voice.
So God establishes on Mount Carmel, this is the one who speaks with my voice.
This is the one you ought to listen to and obey.
How do we learn from this?
Jesus will point out in Matthew chapter 11 the lesson that should have been understood in all Israel.
Because in Matthew chapter 11, Jesus points out to the cities of Capernaum and others that if the miraculous deeds that had been done in their city had been done in Sodom and
Gomorrah, those cities would have repented in sackcloth and ashes and would have...
Still been alive today.
Those cities would have remained to this day, Jesus says, if they had seen the works that you've seen and yet Capernaum had not repented.
You see, we're taught by Mount Carmel that when we identify who speaks on behalf of the Lord, that is who we obey.
And Jesus Christ speaks on behalf of God.
Jesus said, I did not come to speak my own words, but the words of Him who sent me.
So when Jesus tells us, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.
He that believeth not shall be damned.
The same way that Ahab knew that when Elijah told him, get on that chariot and you head home because the rain's coming, he needed to get on that chariot and head home.
And when Elijah told the people that not one of those prophets of Baal should remain alive, the people should know and obeyed not one prophet was left alive.
Mount Carmel is the mountain of God's prophets.
One last mountain, 2 Samuel chapter 5.
in second Samuel chapter five.
were introduced to Mount Zion.
2 Samuel 5, we read in verse 6, and the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land who spoke to David, saying, You shall not come in
here, but the blind and the lame will repel you, thinking David cannot come in here.
Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion.
That is the city of David.
also known as Jerusalem.
from Milo and inward.
So David went on and became great and the Lord God of hosts was with him.
Turn over to 1 Kings chapter 8.
There in that chapter we find David taking the city through the work of Joab.
And yet it will become known as the city of David.
It was the city of Jerusalem, yet it will also become known as Mount Zion.
And in 1 Kings chapter 8, as David's son Solomon is now on the throne.
Solomon is going to consecrate the temple there on Mount Zion and there during that consecration event we read in verse 22 then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in
the presence of all the assembly of Israel and Spread out his hands toward heaven and he said Lord God of Israel There is no God in heaven above or on earth below like you who
keep your covenant and mercy with your Servants who walk before you with all their heart
You have kept what you promised your servant David, my father.
You have both spoken with your mouth and fulfilled it with your hand as it is this day.
Therefore, Lord God of Israel, now keep what you promised your servant David, my father, saying, You shall not fail to have a man sit before me on the throne of Israel, only if
your sons take heed to their way and they walk before me as you have walked before me.
And now I pray, O God of Israel, let your word come true.
Let which you have spoken to your servant David my father, but will God indeed dwell on the earth?
Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you.
How much less this temple which I have built."
Yet regard the prayer of your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which your servant is praying before you today, that your eyes may
be opened toward this temple night and day, toward the people of which you have said, My name shall be there, that you may hear the prayer which your servant makes toward this
place."
And you may hear the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place.
Hear in heaven your dwelling place and when you hear, forgive.
Solomon knew of the promise of God.
Solomon reiterates over and over and over, you said this, you promised this, and we're praying that you keep your promises.
And so, Mt.
Zion you see the mountain of God's promises.
God promised to put His name with Israel.
God promised to put His name there in Jerusalem.
And as this temple is being consecrated, Solomon realizes this temple can't hold God.
The heaven of heavens can't hold God.
but make this the place where God, when He promises, and when Israel obeys, make this the place that signifies God keeping His promises.
And so, Mount Zion will stand all the way through until the end of Scripture.
as the place of God's promises.
So what do we learn?
Do we learn that God just hates low land?
No.
It's not about the mountains.
It's about the events that take place on the mountains.
It's about the relationship of God to His people.
And when we look at those mountains, we see God's provision.
We see God's presence.
We see
God's prophets and His message.
And we see God's promises.
And we are to see and we are to remember that the God who created the mountains...
is not a God who's passive.
but a God who's present, a God who keeps His promises, who provides for His people, whose presence is with them.
and who speaks to them so they might know how to live.
It is at Mount Zion.
where Christ will be offered as the sacrifice for our sins.
and God provided and God's presence was there and God's prophet died for our sins and God's promises were kept that there would be one who would bring salvation.
The mountains of Scripture are
intricately and interwoven into the story of Scripture.
And we ought to learn their lessons.
If you're here this morning and you're outside the body of Christ, if you're outside of the place where salvation is, maybe spend a little time thinking about the mountains of
Scripture and what it means to come to a God and be obedient to a God.
of such great power, such great majesty, such great provision that He cared enough to speak, to reveal Himself to mankind that He might keep His promise.
And His promise is eternal life.
If you have need of the invitation of God this morning, why not come forward now as we stand?
and as we sing.