What made the ground holy when Moses approached the burning bush? He had come to the mountain while tending sheep, but God called to him from the bush and told him to remove his sandals. The holiness of that place came from God’s presence. Moses could approach only as the LORD directed him.
I think that gives us a useful place to begin looking at the mountains where God met people in Scripture. They are not all the same mountain, and the encounters do not all serve the same purpose. Yet as we look at what God said and did in those places, we can see how He made Himself known and provided a way for people to come before Him. Visiting the ground where an encounter took place could never give us what only God can provide.
Holy Ground at Horeb
Before Moses came to Horeb, he had fled from Egypt. His own people, the Israelites, were suffering under forced labor there. When he saw an Egyptian beating an Israelite, he killed the Egyptian. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, heard about it and sought to kill Moses, so Moses escaped to Midian. He settled there, married, and began tending the sheep of his father-in-law, Jethro.
That is what Moses was doing when Exodus 3 brings him to the mountain of God. Horeb is the mountain region Scripture also associates with Sinai, where Israel would later receive the Law. At this point, however, Moses was there with a flock of sheep. The people he would eventually lead were still in Egypt.
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
Exodus 3:1, NKJV
Moses saw a bush burning, but the fire was not consuming it. He turned aside to look, and God called him by name from the bush. Before moving on to what God said, look at how Exodus identifies the One who appeared. Verse 2 calls Him the Angel of the LORD, and verse 4 says that God called from the bush. The Speaker then identified Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the fathers from whom Israel descended.
I understand this to be an appearance of the eternal Son before He took on human flesh. We call that a Christophany. I came to that conclusion because this Messenger speaks as God and identifies Himself as the God of Israel’s fathers. He is not simply relaying someone else’s words. The Son is personally distinct from the Father, but He is fully God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the one God, and the distinction between them does not make the Son a created messenger.
God’s call did not mean that Moses could approach without regard for the One speaking to him. The LORD told him what to do before the conversation continued.
Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”
Exodus 3:5, NKJV
The command to remove his sandals gave Moses a specific way to acknowledge that he stood on ground God had set apart. He had not made it holy by bringing his flock there, and the rock and soil did not possess power of their own. God was present, and Moses had to respond to Him with reverence.
That corrects something in the way I can think about worship. Being interested in God does not mean I get to decide for myself what He should accept. If He has forbidden a practice, my insistence that I have good intentions cannot make it acceptable. Moses had to listen to what God actually said about approaching Him. Our worship needs to be governed by His word too.
The same God who required reverence also spoke about the suffering of His people. He told Moses that He had seen their oppression, heard their cries, and knew their sorrows. He remembered the covenant He had made with their fathers, His promises concerning their descendants, and He was going to bring Israel out of Egypt. Moses was to return to Pharaoh as the man God sent to lead them out.
Moses questioned whether he could do that. He had left Egypt because a king wanted him dead, and now God was sending him back to confront Egypt’s ruler and bring out an enslaved people. When he asked who he was to undertake such a task, the LORD answered by telling him who would be with him.
So He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
Exodus 3:12, NKJV
Pay attention to when that sign would be fulfilled. Moses would see Israel serving God on the mountain after he had gone to Egypt and brought the people out. He would have to act on God’s promise before he could stand there with the delivered nation. The assurance did not depend on Moses becoming impressive enough for Pharaoh to listen. The God who sent him promised to be with him.
The Hebrew verb translated “serve” is avad, meaning to work or serve. Here the service is directed to God. Israel would be released from Egypt so that the people could worship and obey the LORD who claimed them as His own. Freedom from Pharaoh did not mean freedom to disregard God’s word.
Moses also asked what he should say when the Israelites asked for the name of the God who had sent him. He was bringing them a promise of deliverance, and they would need to know whose promise it was.
And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
Exodus 3:14, NKJV
The Hebrew expression ehyeh asher ehyeh is translated “I AM WHO I AM.” God was identifying Himself to Moses, and in the following verse He again identified Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The LORD who was sending Moses was the One who had made the promises in the first place.
I understand His declaration in keeping with who Scripture reveals Him to be: the living God who exists in Himself and depends on nothing He has created. People fashion images of false gods and then have to preserve what they have made. The LORD does not need His worshipers to keep Him in existence. Egypt’s power could not make Him unable to fulfill His word, and Moses’ uncertainty did not change who had sent him.
Redemption, Law, and Mediation at Sinai
When Israel eventually arrived at Sinai, Moses was no longer standing at the mountain with only a flock of sheep. In the third month after leaving Egypt, the delivered people camped there. God had brought about what He had promised at the burning bush.
Before we read what He required of them at Sinai, we need to remember how they had come out of Egypt. At the Passover, God instructed Israel’s households to kill an unblemished lamb and put its blood on the doorway of the house where they ate it. He promised to pass over the homes marked with that blood when He struck Egypt’s firstborn. After Israel left, He opened a path through the sea so the people could cross on dry ground. The pursuing Egyptian army was destroyed when the waters returned.
Those acts of deliverance came before the proclamation of the Ten Commandments at Sinai. Israel had already received commands, including the instructions for Passover, so this was not their first experience of obeying God’s word. But they had not purchased their release by keeping a covenant that had yet to be established at the mountain. God now addressed the people He had rescued.
“You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”
Exodus 19:4-6, NKJV
God began by reminding them what He had done and how He had brought them to Himself. Then He explained the responsibility that came with their covenant relationship. The Hebrew word translated “special treasure,” segullah, means a treasured possession. The whole earth belonged to Him, yet He was setting Israel apart in a particular way. Their calling as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation required them to listen to His voice.
I cannot read that calling as permission for Israel to take pride in its position while ignoring the God who gave it. The privilege and the obligation belonged together. If they claimed to be His people, their national life was supposed to reflect the commands He had given them.
At the same time, these were the terms of God’s covenant with Israel. They included instructions for a nation’s courts, worship, and daily life. We should not lift every one of those commands out of that setting and impose it directly on the church. To understand how a command applies to us, we have to consider the people to whom it was given and how the rest of Scripture explains its fulfillment in Christ.
The Law reveals God’s holiness and exposes our sin, but it cannot become a means of buying salvation. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ. Obedience follows the new life God gives; it is not the price we pay to receive it. Israel’s arrival at the mountain helps us see that God was instructing people whom He had already delivered from Egypt.
God also told Israel how to prepare for His coming down on Sinai. The people were to consecrate themselves, setting themselves apart as He directed, and wash their clothes. A boundary was placed around the mountain. They were not free to decide how close they wanted to come or to break through simply because they wanted to see more.
On the third day, thunder and lightning accompanied a thick cloud, and the sound of a trumpet was so loud that the people trembled. Moses brought them out of the camp to meet God at the foot of the mountain.
Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
Exodus 19:18, NKJV
The LORD was making His holiness known in a way the people could not dismiss. His commands about the boundary also protected them from approaching in a way that would bring death. After hearing Him, they asked Moses to speak with them instead. They feared that if God continued speaking to them, they would die.
So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.
Exodus 20:21, NKJV
Moses stood between God and the people as a mediator. That means he received God’s word and conveyed it to them, and he represented the people before God. His ability to draw near did not mean that his own goodness could remove their sins. God would appoint sacrifices and a priesthood through which Israel could approach Him under that covenant, while making their need for cleansing plain.
Exodus 24 describes how the covenant was formally established. Moses built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve pillars for Israel’s twelve tribes. Sacrifices were offered, and he sprinkled part of the blood on the altar. Then he read the Book of the Covenant aloud so that the people heard the terms they were agreeing to keep. They promised to obey, and Moses sprinkled covenant blood on them. They were receiving God’s word and entering the relationship He had appointed.
Afterward Moses went up with his brother Aaron, Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of Israel’s elders, the men who helped lead the people. Exodus says that they saw the God of Israel, and that they ate and drank in His presence. God did not strike them down. He granted them fellowship after the covenant had been established with blood.
I understand this to mean that God made Himself visible to them in an appearance they could see. They did not see or comprehend the fullness of His invisible being. The account nevertheless describes a real encounter. The men who could never have demanded access to God were allowed to eat and drink before Him because He had invited them.
God also gave Moses instructions on the mountain for a tabernacle, a portable sanctuary in which He would dwell among Israel. The people would not have to stay at Sinai for His presence to remain with them. He gave the pattern for the tent and its furnishings, and He appointed the altar and priesthood through which their worship was to be conducted.
Inside the sanctuary, a veil separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. Behind that veil stood the ark, a sacred chest that would hold the stone tablets on which God wrote His commandments. Its gold cover was called the mercy seat, and God told Moses that He would speak to him from above it. These details explained both His intention to dwell with His people and the care required in approaching Him. Israel was to follow the arrangement He gave, rather than invent its own way into His presence.
The LORD had already guided the people by the pillar of fire and cloud, a visible manifestation of His presence during their journey. The instructions for the tabernacle provided for His continuing presence among them. I examine that revealed presence further in the study on the Shekinah glory. Here we can see why the mountain and the sanctuary belong in the same discussion: the God who spoke at Sinai was giving His people a place to worship Him as they traveled.
The repeated sacrifices also kept their need for atonement before them. By atonement, I mean God’s provision for dealing with sin so that guilty people can be reconciled to Him. An animal died as a substitute, but its blood could not finally take away human sin. Hebrews 9 and 10 explain that limitation and show how those offerings anticipated Christ’s sacrifice once for all. God provided a way for Israel to approach Him while directing attention toward what His Son alone would accomplish.
Provision at Moriah and the King on Zion
The need for a substitute also takes us back to an earlier mountain account. Before Moses led Israel out of Egypt, God tested Abraham, the forefather to whom He had promised descendants. In Genesis 22, He commanded Abraham to take his son Isaac to the land of Moriah and offer him on a mountain He would identify.
Isaac was the son through whom God had said the promised descendants would come. That is why this command involved more than Abraham’s love for his child. Abraham had to trust God with the very son through whom the promise was supposed to be fulfilled. Hebrews 11:17–19 explains that he believed God could raise Isaac even from the dead. Genesis identifies this as a test of Abraham’s faith, not an attempt by God to entice him into evil.
As father and son went toward the place, Isaac carried the wood for the offering. He noticed that they had fire and wood but no lamb, and he asked his father about it. Abraham answered that God would provide. The account does not tell us Isaac’s exact age. Because he carried the wood and took part in that conversation, we should not automatically picture the very small child often shown in artwork.
Abraham built the altar, arranged the wood, and bound Isaac on it. When he took the knife to kill his son, the Angel of the LORD called to him and stopped him. I understand this Messenger to be the Son appearing before He took on human flesh, just as at the burning bush. Abraham then saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket and offered it in place of Isaac.
And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”
Genesis 22:14, NKJV
Isaac lived because God supplied the ram. Abraham had obeyed in faith, but he had not created that provision or earned salvation by what he did. He received what the LORD provided, and the name he gave the place acknowledged where the provision came from.
Moriah appears again when Scripture describes the building of the temple. In 2 Chronicles 3:1, Solomon, the son who succeeded King David, began building the LORD’s house in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah. The site had been prepared by David on the threshing floor of Ornan, a place where harvested grain had been separated from its stalks. The land now became the site of the temple and its sacrifices.
That passage connects Moriah with the later worship of Israel, but it does not locate Abraham’s altar precisely within the area. Nor does it say that Abraham stood on the exact spot of the temple altar or of Calvary, where Jesus was crucified. I want to keep the connection Scripture gives us without supplying a more exact location than the text supplies.
The ram offered in Isaac’s place and the later temple sacrifices help us understand why Christ is called the Lamb of God. Those animals could serve as appointed substitutes, but they could not finally remove human sin. Jesus provided the sacrifice that actually takes sin away. The provision at Moriah points forward to Him without requiring every detail of the earlier event to be identical to His crucifixion.
Another name associated with Jerusalem is Zion. In 2 Samuel 5, David captured the stronghold of Zion from the Jebusites, the people who held it at that time. He made it his residence, and it became known as the City of David. As Jerusalem became the center of Israel’s royal rule and worship, the name Zion came to be used more broadly for the holy hill, the city, and sometimes the people associated with it.
We therefore need to hear how a passage is using the name, rather than assume that every mention is describing the same geographical detail. Psalm 2 describes nations and rulers rebelling against the LORD and His Anointed. In answer to that rebellion, God declares that He has established His King.
“Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion.”
Psalm 2:6, NKJV
The nations’ hostility does not give them authority to undo God’s appointment. Zion is the place of His chosen King’s rule. Psalm 48 likewise calls it the city of the great King and speaks of God as its refuge. Psalm 87 speaks of the LORD’s love for Zion, while Psalm 125 compares His protection of His people to the mountains surrounding Jerusalem. These passages associate the city with the God who rules and cares for His people.
Isaiah 2:1–4 looks ahead to the mountain of the LORD’s house being established, with nations coming to learn God’s ways. The people come because they want Him to teach them how to live in obedience to Him, and His word goes out from Jerusalem. He judges between the nations, and they turn weapons into farming tools. They no longer train for war under His righteous rule.
I understand this promise in connection with the Messiah’s bodily return and the literal thousand-year reign described in Revelation 20. The peace Isaiah describes involves actual nations that had been at war. They come under the authority and instruction of God’s King. I do not read that as merely a description of inward peace, or as a promise that human negotiations can establish lasting peace independently of Him.
Elijah, the Greater Prophet, and the Beloved Son
The same mountain where Moses heard God also appears in the life of Elijah, a prophet who lived centuries later. To understand why Elijah traveled to Horeb, we have to begin with the confrontation that preceded his journey. On Mount Carmel, he had challenged Israel’s worship of Baal, a false god supported by King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. The LORD answered Elijah’s prayer by sending fire on the sacrifice, and the people acknowledged Him as God.
That public answer did not cause Jezebel to abandon her opposition. She threatened to kill Elijah, and he fled. After leaving his servant behind, he went alone into the wilderness and asked God to take his life. He had been courageous before the people, but now he was worn down and wanted his service to end.
God cared for him before correcting his conclusion that no one else remained faithful. Elijah slept, received food and water, and slept again. The messenger who returned to feed him is called the Angel of the LORD in 1 Kings 19:7. As in the earlier accounts, I understand Him to be the Son appearing before His incarnation, before He became man. He gave Elijah strength for the journey ahead.
So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.
1 Kings 19:8, NKJV
At Horeb, God asked Elijah what he was doing there. Elijah described Israel’s rejection of the covenant, the destruction of God’s altars, and the killing of His prophets. He said that he alone was left and that his own life was now threatened. His description of the opposition was not invented, but his conclusion about being alone needed correction.
A powerful wind broke the rocks, and an earthquake and fire followed. The LORD was not in those manifestations. Afterward came a still small voice, and Elijah wrapped his face in his mantle, his outer garment. The God who had answered with fire before the crowd on Carmel now addressed His servant in quietness. Elijah still needed to hear what He said.
God told him that seven thousand people in Israel had not bowed to Baal, and He sent Elijah back with further work to do. Elijah had not accounted for those faithful people when he described himself as the only one left. I need to remember that when discouragement makes me speak as though no one else cares about the truth. I do not know everyone God knows, and what I can see does not tell me the full extent of His work.
I also cannot use the still small voice as a reason to place my private impressions above Scripture. God actually spoke to Elijah, corrected him, and gave him instructions. A thought that feels compelling to me does not carry that authority simply because I feel strongly about it. The study on Elijah’s life follows the encounter in its wider setting.
When we reach the Gospels, mountains also become settings in which Jesus teaches and makes His glory known. Matthew 5 describes Him going up a mountain and sitting down to teach His disciples, with the crowds hearing Him. Matthew does not name that mountain. He does, however, record the teaching that is commonly called the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus addressed more than conduct that other people could observe. A man could avoid the physical act of adultery and still look at a woman with lust in his heart. He could refrain from murder while harboring anger that treated his brother with contempt. Jesus’ words exposed what could remain hidden behind an outwardly respectable life.
He also spoke about giving, prayer, and fasting, and why someone might do those things. If I perform them so other people will admire me, the Father knows that motive. I have not honored Him simply because my behavior looks religious to an audience. Jesus called His hearers to speak truthfully and forgive, and He required love that extended even to enemies. His teaching reached the desires and purposes from which our actions come.
Moses had already told Israel in Deuteronomy 18 that God would raise up a Prophet like him, and that the people must hear that Prophet. The promise referred back to their fear of hearing God at Horeb. Jesus fulfills that promise, but He is also greater than Moses. Moses was a servant who received God’s words. Jesus is the eternal Word made flesh, and He speaks with divine authority. He also provides the reconciliation between God and sinners that Moses could never accomplish by his own virtue.
That distinction becomes visible on another mountain in Matthew 17. Just before the event, Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples, had confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah and Son of the living God. Jesus then told the disciples that He would suffer, be killed, and rise again. Peter objected to what Jesus said about His coming death, and Jesus corrected him. He also called the disciples to take up their crosses and follow Him. They needed to receive His teaching about suffering as well as recognize who He was.
Jesus then took Peter and two other disciples, James and John, up a high mountain. His face shone like the sun, and His clothing became white as light. This is the event we call the transfiguration. Moses and Elijah appeared and spoke with Him. Both men had encountered God at Horeb, and both now stood with the Son whose glory the disciples were seeing.
Luke 9:31 tells us what they discussed. They spoke about Jesus’ departure, which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Luke uses the Greek word exodos, which can refer to departure from this life. Here the conversation concerns the death Jesus was about to accomplish. His suffering was not an interruption of His purpose. It was the work He had already begun explaining to His disciples.
I see a connection here with the deliverance Moses had led. Moses brought Israel out of bondage in Egypt, but that national rescue could not remove the sin of the people he led. Jesus would provide the redemption that neither release from Egypt nor repeated animal sacrifices could accomplish. His coming death would fulfill what those earlier provisions anticipated, and He had already promised that He would rise again.
Peter proposed making three tabernacles, or shelters, one for Jesus and one for each of the prophets. While he was still speaking, the Father directed the disciples to the One they were to hear.
While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!”
Matthew 17:5, NKJV
The disciples fell on their faces in fear. Jesus came to them, touched them, and told them to get up and not be afraid. When they lifted their eyes, they saw Jesus alone. His kindness toward them did not make Him any less the glorious Son they had just seen.
I understand Moses and Elijah to represent the Law and the Prophets, bearing witness to Christ. The Father did not give them an equal place with His beloved Son. He commanded the disciples to hear Jesus. Knowing the Law and the Prophets should have prepared them to receive Him, because those Scriptures directed them toward the work He would accomplish.
The suffering Jesus had announced did not contradict His identity. The One whose face shone before the disciples was the same One who would willingly give His life. As the Son who is fully God and fully man, He could provide the reconciliation that no merely human mediator could bring about.
From Sinai to the Holy City
Hebrews 12 returns to the contrast between approaching Sinai and approaching God through Christ. I understand Paul to be the author of Hebrews, and here he is urging believers under pressure to remain faithful to the Lord. He reminds them of the fire, darkness, and trumpet at the mountain Israel had been forbidden to touch. Then he tells them where they have come under the New Covenant, the relationship God has established through Jesus.
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,
Hebrews 12:22, NKJV
This is the heavenly Jerusalem, not a claim that the believers had physically traveled to an earthly mountain. The following verses describe the heavenly assembly and name Jesus as the Mediator of the new covenant. The God they approach is the same holy God who spoke at Sinai. What has changed is the access Christ has provided through His saving work.
That is why the passage can speak of this privilege and still warn its readers not to refuse the One who speaks. God has not become indifferent to sin. Paul calls them to serve Him with reverence and godly fear because they are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Coming to the Father through Christ is a reason to listen, rather than an excuse to disregard what He says.
Jesus lived without sin and voluntarily gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Wicked people tortured and crucified Him, and He willingly shed His blood and died to redeem us. The Father did not punish or abandon the Son. They remained united in the saving work Jesus accomplished.
His sacrifice through His blood and death was complete before His burial and bodily resurrection. He provided once for all what the repeated sacrifices could not accomplish. I can approach the Father because of Him. My success at keeping commandments or performing religious ceremonies could never give me that access.
At Sinai, Israel had faced a boundary it could not cross. Through Christ, I can come to the Father, but I cannot use that freedom to excuse refusing His word. If I claim to honor Jesus while deliberately disregarding what He says, I am treating His saving work as permission to remain disobedient. Grace gives me reason to trust Him and respond to Him with gratitude.
Heavenly Zion also does not cancel what God has promised concerning Jerusalem and Israel under the Messiah’s reign. Hebrews is explaining the access believers have through Christ. Isaiah describes nations coming to Jerusalem to learn God’s ways. I can receive both promises without merging Israel and the church or turning the future rule of Christ over the nations into something that will never take place on earth.
The apostle John records what comes after that reign in Revelation 20. He describes Christ’s thousand years of rule and then a final rebellion, when Satan gathers nations against God’s people. God ends that rebellion, and John then sees the Great White Throne judgment. The unbelieving dead are raised bodily and stand before God to be judged. This judgment takes its name from the great white throne he sees.
This judgment explains why entrance into the holy city cannot be assumed by everyone who hears about it. In Matthew 10:28, Jesus warned that God can destroy both body and soul in Gehenna, the place of final judgment translated “hell” in that verse. Then Revelation 20:14 identifies the Lake of Fire as the second death. I understand these passages to describe the irreversible destruction of body and soul for people who finally reject Christ.
I do not understand that final loss of life to mean that every person will eventually be saved. That view, called universalism, would undo the finality of the judgment. Nor do I understand the second death as unredeemed people continuing forever in conscious torment. Revelation 20:10 specifically names the devil, the beast, and the false prophet as those who face endless torment. The beast and false prophet are the enemies of God whose rebellion Revelation has described. I would not extend what that verse says about those named subjects to everyone who receives the second death.
After the judgment, Revelation 21 describes a new heaven and a new earth. John sees New Jerusalem coming down from God. An angel tells him that he will show him the bride, the Lamb’s wife, and takes him in the Spirit to a great and high mountain. From there John sees the holy city.
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
Revelation 21:10, NKJV
The Lamb is Jesus Christ, the One who gave Himself for His people. The city is presented as His bride, and its description brings us to the redeemed people dwelling with God. John sees it coming down from God. Humanity has not built a way into heaven or made itself fit for His presence by its own effort.
Nothing that defiles can enter the city. God and the Lamb dwell with a purified people, and there is no temple building there because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. Earlier in this study, we saw God give Israel a tabernacle with a veil marking the boundary of the Most Holy Place. Here the fellowship that sanctuary anticipated no longer depends on a veil or on priests continually bringing another sacrifice.
The names on the city also recall God’s work among His people. Its gates bear the names of Israel’s twelve tribes, and its foundations bear the names of the Lamb’s twelve apostles. God’s glory lights the city, with the Lamb as its light. The nations of those who are saved walk in that light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory into it.
Revelation 22 then describes a river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, with the tree of life beside it. Life continues to come from God. His servants see His face and serve Him. The LORD who instructed Moses to make a sanctuary so that He could dwell among Israel will dwell openly with His redeemed people.
That promised future also gives urgency to the invitation God is extending now. Christ died for the whole world, and the salvation offered through Him is genuine for every person. People can resist His grace and finally reject Him, but no one is excluded from the call to repent and believe. Those who trust in Jesus receive eternal life and are born again. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in them and seals them as God’s own, and God keeps His children secure in Christ.
Regeneration means that a person has genuinely been born again. It is not merely the adoption of a Christian name, and there should be evidence of the new life in the way that person lives. That does not mean our obedience buys entrance into the city or keeps us saved. Salvation rests on Christ’s finished work. Being forgiven and made God’s child gives us every reason to take His word seriously.
I can study the places where God appeared, and I can appreciate what happened there, but that knowledge cannot replace my response to the Savior. The access described in Hebrews and the life promised in Revelation come through Him. A journey to a biblical mountain cannot accomplish what Christ has already provided.
My Final Thoughts
The mountains in these passages were places where God chose to make Himself known. Their height did not bring people within reach of Him. At Horeb He called Moses, at Sinai He received the people He had delivered, and at Moriah He provided the substitute that spared Isaac. Each account has shown people depending on what God said and on the provision He gave.
The Father directed the disciples to hear His beloved Son, and Hebrews has explained why we can now approach God through Him. Jesus accomplished the reconciliation that Moses could not provide and that animal sacrifices could not complete. I want to receive that access with gratitude and with the reverence due to the God who gave it. I have no reason to boast as though I earned my place before Him, and I have no excuse to treat His word casually.
The holy city gives that hope a future beyond the present struggle with sin and death. God will dwell with His redeemed people, and His servants will see His face. My confidence in being with Him rests on Christ’s saving work. He has made the way for me to come to the Father, and that is why I can trust His promise while seeking to obey Him now.