By Pastor Don Schatz

Leaping God

“The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills.”
Song of Songs 2:8  the New Revised Standard Version

Two mountains dominate the Old Testament narrative.  Sinai, where Moses encountered the Lord in a blazing fire that did not consume the bush, and where the Lord entered into his covenant with Israel.  Second, Mount Zion, site of the Temple of the one-and-only God.  In that Temple the light of God’s presence burned in the candlesticks in the Holy Place.  And the tablets of the Sinai Covenant rested in the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies.

In the New Testament narrative, on a bump called Golgotha on the side of Mount Zion, Jesus fulfilled the promise of both Sinai and Zion.  Indeed, he fulfilled every promise God made beginning with Genesis 3:15.  Jesus, promised seed of Eve, crushed Satan through his suffering and death, and rose again to life in an eternal exclamation point to his glorious victory.  Christ’s victory is ours through faith.

I live near tall mountains.  they are daily reminders of the presence of God Almighty (El Shaddai, God of the mountains).   They are daily reminders of God’s promises fulfilled.  They are constant reminders of God, who would not stay hidden atop Sinai, but came down in the person of his Son, Jesus, and lived among us.  The mountains, which appear as though they are eternal themselves, proclaim that the Lord God is with us still.  He will be with us always, to the end of the age.

If you live with mountains, do not ignore them today.  If you do not live with mountains, find a hill, even if it is a picture.  Look.  Behold.  If these mountains are with us, how much more certain is the promise that God our God is with us always?  Always.  In time.  Beyond time.  Even the valleys of life cannot overcome the mountain of God’s promised presence.  I look to the hills.  From where does my help come?

Find a mountain, perhaps in the form of your rocking chair, and behold the Lord God.  He is coming to you today, leaping upon the mountains, bounding over the hills.

Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado