A tale of two mountains
Two mountains dominate Israel’s spiritual journey and theological. landscape – Sinai and Zion. Sinai lay at the beginning of the nation’s journey and Zion at the end. Sinai was never the destination; the destination was Zion. It was Zion that God planned to make his home long before it entered David’s head to bring the ark to Jerusalem (Ex 15:17). Zion was the ultimate ‘mountain of the Lord’ (Isa 2:2).
The two mountains have a quite different character. Sinai lay in the desert: Zion lay at the heart of Jerusalem. Sinai was unapproachable. As the Hebrew writer says,
You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, 20 because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” 21 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.” Cf. Ex 19
Sinai of course was the place of law and the old covenant. It spoke words that the people could not bear (Acts 15:10). It was imperious and unyielding – darkness gloom and a storm (Ex 19). So frightening was this theophany that Israel wanted Moses to be their mediator rather than dealing directly with God, (Deut 5) . The boundary of approach around the mountain expressed the nature of the covenant – in law, God is always hidden and unapproachable by the people.
Sinai and law addressed humanity ‘in the flesh’ that is as fallen nature opposed to God. Contrary to what many claim it did not assume regeneration. Typically, Israel was a redeemed people now receiving divine instruction but this was only typically. Israel was politically redeemed but not spiritually. Many in the nation were unregenerate. The law did not assume spiritual life but promised life upon obedience. Sinai however, like law, was only transitory, Zion was the destination.
Zion as journey’s end was eschatological. It was not foreboding or forbidding but the place to which happy pilgrimages were made as with joy people travelled up to the house of the Lord (Ps 122). At Sinai, God came down from the mountain and travelled with his people in a tent until he reached Zion his intended home (Ex 15:17,18). At Zion God reigns through his anointed king. He lives in the city that he has chosen to put his name forever. Life, in Zion, is not a reward to be gained but a gift that is given; it was there the Lord commanded the blessing of eternal life (Ps 133). Sinai, due to human hearts, was the mountain of judgement – the law killed (Gals 3; Roms 7). Zion, by contrast,is where the temple at Jerusalem was built (2 Chron 3:1-17) where Abraham was sent to offer Isaac (Gen 22) and it is near where God offered his son outside Jerusalem as a sacrifice for sins; at the mountain of the Lord it shall be provided (Gen 22:14). Moriah was the mountain of blessing. It typified grace. Again the Hebrew writer captures its essence,
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
Zion is a festal gathering and the place of a new covenant. It was typified in the ark being brought to Jerusalem by David with great celebration (2 Sam 6). However, Zion is ultimately a heavenly mountain where heavenly means the life of heaven that descends into the world to come. The OT prophets describe this heavenly locale in vivid imagery. Isaiah speaks of a day when the mountain of the Lord will be the highest of the mountains (Isa 2:2 and Daniel speaks of a stone (a kingdom) that becomes a great mountain that fills the whole earth. Neither is thinking in topographical terms but political and spiritual terms. Gods were thought to live in mountains and the higher the mountain the greater the god. The mountain imagery of Isaiah and Daniel is to convey that God has no rivals and there is no place outside of his rule and authority. John describes the heavenly Mount Zion in his vision of the new Jerusalem (Rev 21,22).
Mount Zion and the heavenly Jerusalem are the same.. Earthly Mount Zion and earthly Jerusalem sadly rejected their destiny.; Israel clung to the law and rejected the mediator of a new covenant. Thy sought righteousness by works rather than the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. Neglecting such great salvation had catastrophic results. Just before his crucifixion, God, in Jesus, abandoned Herod’s temple just as he had abandoned Solomon’s temple centuries before, Soon not one stone would lie on another. Earthly Jerusalem, Paul says, the Jerusalem below was in slavery with her children; Israel rejected grace and embraced self-salvation. The true Jerusalem is the Jerusalem above, the mother of all God’s people, Jew and gentile (Gals 4).
Sinai is unwelcoming and threatening. Zion is welcoming and festive.. We have come to Mount Zion. We presently enjoy by faith the fruits of grace that are found there. Zion fulfils all that Sinai aspired to; it supplies all that Sinai demanded. Zion is the cosmic mountain that provides everlasting joy for the people of God. But, as it was for Israel, Mount Zion is also a destination. It is the mountain to which as the people of God we also travel travel, to which as God’s army, we march.
Come, we that love the Lord,and let our joys be known. Join in a song with sweet accord, join in a song with sweet accord, and thus surround the throne, and thus surround the throne.
Refrain:
We’re marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion. We’re marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God.
2 The hill of Zion yields. a thousand sacred sweets, before we reach the heav’nly fields, before we reach the heav’nly fields, or walk the golden streets, or walk the golden streets.
3 Then let our songs abound, and ev’ry tear be dry. We’re marching thro’ Immanuel’s ground, we’re marching thro’ Immanuel’s ground, to fairer worlds on high,to fairer worlds on high.
We’re marching to Zion,…
Yet we must not end without the warning – we need to keep travelling and we need to keep marching. Only those who do so climb Zion’s slopes and enter Jerusalem’s gates. Many left Sinai and did not arrive at Zion. We need to press on strengthened by grace and focussed on Christ – the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
Cave Adullam 