The Cosmic Mountain of God
I’ve been reading a book explaining how the original, ancient readers of the Bible would have understood their world, and thus the messages written to them. The realm that they lived in was the land (of course), which was set on foundations or pillars that were set in waters. (They understood the dry ground to be set upon waters.). The land represented a place of order, a place where they could manage things, tame things, and make things work for them. Think of a farmer who works a field to make it grow food for him. Conversely, the waters were wild and untamed - a place of chaos. Imagine our same farmer trying to plow the sea so he could grow food there - it’s not going to happen. A third region is the mountain. To the people of that day, the mountain top was the realm of the deity. They considered their gods to live there. This was their view of their cosmos - their cosmic view. In their cosmic view, the mountain tops were the dwelling of gods. Thus, in the title of this piece, when I talk of the “Cosmic Mountain of God”, I’m talking of God’s dwelling place.
In Exodus 15, after having come through the Red Sea, and seeing God destroy their Egyptian pursuers, Israel sings a song of praise to their God. The first three verses start off with praise for God. He has just destroyed the enemies of Israel, those who had formerly held Israel in bondage or slavery. “The Lord has become my salvation.” “I will praise him.”
Verses 4-10 show God as tossing the Egyptians into the sea. The sea - the place of disorder and chaos, is now the home of the Egyptian army that tried to re-capture Israel. This is the same sea that God has just furnished a path through, allowing his chosen people - Israel - to come out of the sea.
Having passed through the sea, and seeing the sea swallow their former captors, the song now turns to God’s purpose for Israel - to bring them to his dwelling place. Where do the gods dwell? On the mountains. Verse 13 speaks of bringing Israel to God’s holy abode - the place where God lives. And where God lives, now his redeemed people will live too. God is bringing Israel to himself. In verse 17 the song says God will plant Israel on his own mountain. With him. In the presence of God. That is where Israel will be planted. In a place which God made, which he established. And he will reign forever.
So in a kind of a neat little picture of the world as how the ancients saw it, Israel was lifted up out of the waters of chaos and disorder, and brought to the mountain top to dwell with God. Israel has gone from the bottom of the world to the top. That’s a nice story, but it’s made nicer still when we learn we are also invited to do the exact same thing! When we become a Christian, the first thing that happens to us is we are lifted up out of the water. And then we are set on a mountain top. Now for this idea, I need to elaborate just a bit.
The dwelling places on the tops of mountains were the temples. Think of the temple Solomon made - it was on top of Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Temples, broken down to their basics, are simply a place where God and man are together. Ezekiel chapters 40-48 describe a futuristic temple that is on top of a mountain. Revelation 22:10 speaks of the holy Jerusalem being on a great high mountain, and that is where the city four square is. And earlier in verse 3 of Revelation 22, the voice says “the dwelling place of God is with man.” The temple is where God and man come together. In the book of John, Jesus compares the temple to his body, and other metaphors refer to the church as the body of Christ. Stringing it all together - in the church, we have the new temple today. It is in the church, as the body of Christ, that we are in the temple. Or to work the analogy - we are in the dwelling of God on the mountain.
Our salvation then, like Israel’s, is pictured as a journey up a mountain. We leave the waters of confusion and chaos, and are led by God to the mountain top where he has established his temple. Thus, the redemption song of Exodus 15 not only applies to the Israelites who escaped the Egyptians at the Red Sea, it applies to all of us who have been baptized and now reside with God in his church. The redemption song of Exodus 15 is also OUR redemption song.
-Mike Hendricks