On a half dozen days during our 180-day study of the Westminster Standards, we have encountered a reference to "Thy Holy Mountain." When a "Berean" student of the Bible encounters this phrase, the whole history of God's Kingdom comes to mind, from the Garden of Eden to the greatest expansion and consummation of the Kingdom.

"The Mountain of the House of the LORD
Will be established as the chief of the mountains,
And each of them shall sit under his
Vine and under his fig tree
With no one to make them afraid."
Micah 4:1,4

What is this mountain? It seems to be a reference to the Garden of Eden. Let's look at the geography of Garden and see if this isn't the case.

• Four great rivers which watered the earth derived from the one river in the original Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:10-14). A little reflection puts Eden on a "Mountain."[1] After all, if water flows downhill and Eden watered the whole earth, it must have been on an elevated plateau.
• When God speaks to Satan (the evil angel who was behind the political head of the Empire-City of Tyre [see Daniel 10:13, 20]), He says: "Thou hast been in Eden, the Garden of God . . . the Holy Mountain of God" (Ezekiel 28:13-14).

The fact that Eden was the original "Holy Mountain," from which flowed rivers of water, which we recognize as symbolic of the Holy Spirit, explains the significance of God's continuing choice of mountains as sites for His redemptive acts and revelations. Perhaps the most notable is the Gracious Revelation of His Presence, His Covenant, and His Law on Mt. Sinai. One work of the Spirit is the Law of God (Romans 7:14) which has all the attributes of the Spirit Himself (Romans 7:12). We are not surprised to find that coming from the Presence of God is the Law of God, and that this Presence was made known on a mountain (Exodus 24:16). The people were forbidden to approach the holy mountain on pain of death (Exodus 19:12; cf. Genesis 3:24). But Moses, the mediator of the Old Covenant (Galatians 3:19), the priests, and the seventy elders of the people were allowed to meet God on the mountain (after making an atoning sacrifice), and there they ate and drank communion before the Lord (Exodus 24:1-11).
Consider this abbreviated list of other ways God's Grace originated from a mountain:

• The substitutionary atonement in place of Abraham's son took place on Mount Moriah (Genesis 22:2).
• It was also on Mount Moriah that David saw the Angel of the LORD ready to destroy Jerusalem. David built an altar there and made atonement through sacrifice (I Chronicles 21:15-17).
• Solomon built the temple on Mount Moriah (2 Chronicles 3:1).
• It was on the Mount of Carmel that God brought His straying people back to Himself through sacrifice in the days of Elijah; from the Mount the ungodly Garden-intruders were taken and destroyed (I Kings 18; interestingly, "Carmel" is a Hebrew term for Garden-land, Plantation, and/or Orchard).
• Again, on Mt. Sinai, (also called Horeb) God revealed His saving Presence to Elijah, and recommissioned him as His messenger to the nations (I Kings 19)
• In His first major sermon, the Mediator of the New Covenant delivered His Law, again, from a mountain (Matthew 5:1).
• His official appointment of His apostles was made on a mountain (Mark 3:13-19).
• He was transfigured before His disciples in a blinding revelation of His Glory on a mountain (Matthew 17:1-2; called "the holy mountain" in 2 Peter 1:16-18[2]).
• On a mountain He gave His final announcement of judgment upon the faithless Covenant people (Matthew 24:3).
• After the Last Supper, the Lord ascended a mountain with His disciples, and proceeded from there to a Garden, where as the Last Adam He prevailed over temptation (Matthew 26:30,36; cf. Luke 4:5-8).
• Finally, He commanded His disciples to meet Him on a mountain, where He commissioned them to disciple the nations with the Gospel, and promised to send the Holy Spirit; and from there He ascended into the Cloud (Matthew 28:16-20; Acts 1:1-19).

You can expand this list by simply looking up "mountain" in your concordance. You will begin to suspect that in redemption God is calling us to return to Eden: We have access to the Holy Mountain of the LORD through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. We have come to the Mount (Hebrews 12:22), and as we boldly approach the Holy Place (Hebrews 10:19), we are granted by God's grace to partake again of the Tree of Life (Revelation 2:7). Christ has built His People as a City on a Mountain, to give Light to the world (Matthew 5:14), and the Scripture promises that the nations will come to the Light on that Mountain (Isaiah 51:4-8; 60:3).

Our text from Micah emphasizes the movement of the nations toward the Mountain of God:

And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the Mountain of the LORD's House shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it (Isaiah 2:2; cf. Isaiah 11:9; 25:6-9; 56:3-8; 65:25; Micah 4:1-4).

And the day will come when God's Kingdom, His Holy Mountain, will fill the whole earth (Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45), as God's original mandate is fulfilled by the seed of the woman, the Last Adam.

NOTES

(1) Not Mt. Everest; when the King James Version uses the word "mountain" we need not picture those upon it as wearing oxygen masks and spiked shoes (compare Luke 9:28 and 37).

(2) Is Peter nuts? Has he been reading too much Vine & Fig Tree propaganda? Why is he bringing the concept of the Holy Mountain into the New Testament? Doesn't he know what the "Holy Mountain" is? [see Psalm 48:1-2; 87:1; Isaiah 11:9; 27:;13; 30:29; 56:7; 57:13; 65:11,25; 66:20; Jeremiah 31:23; Ezekiel 20:40; 28:14; 43:12; Daniel 9:16,20; 11:45; Joel 2:1; 3:17; Obadiah 16-17; Zephaniah 3:11; Zechariah 8:3; Revelation 21:10; John 4:20-21; Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 14:1).