In order to meet with God, we must trek up his holy mountain. As with many other ancient religions, mountains have a special significance in the Bible. Holy mountains are where the three realms meet: heaven, earth, and underworld.  They also are the center of the world, a “world navel” from which blessings of life and fertility flow. It provides meaning for our lives and everything else derives its meaning in relation to it.

God’s first mountain was none other than Eden, which Ezekiel describes as the “mountain of God” (28:13–14). It was here that Adam and Eve served as typological priests to Yahweh and cultivated the ground in order to expand his presence throughout the whole earth. However, after Adam and Eve defiled this holy space, the next mountain where we see God dwelling is Sinai. It was here that Yahweh met with Moses in order to gift his people with the law. God also revealed himself on Sinai to Moses and to the 70 elders (Exod. 24). From this mountain, the Lord chose to dwell with his people inside of the tabernacle, a portable temple that the Israelites carried around in the wilderness for forty years. Eventually, though, Solomon built the temple of the Lord upon a mountain top in Jerusalem, which later was called Mount Zion.

So where is God’s holy mountain today? Where is our world center? It is none other than the “new” Zion, the church of God (Heb 12:22). It is here where God dwells. It is from here that life and blessings flow out into the earth. It is the church that is at the center of the world! Therefore, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord in order to learn his ways and walk in his paths (Isa. 2:3)!