The Four Mountains of Scripture’s Story
“Moses wanted more than anything else to see the face of God, but on Mount Sinai, God wouldn’t let him. But God granted Moses’ wish on Tabor when he saw Jesus face to face. If you believe in Jesus as Lord and God, you too will see the face of God just as Moses did on Mount Tabor.”
As I shared this incredible fact with an agnostic college student, I could see a sense of awe and wonder coming over him. Not only was he able to begin to grasp the Good News of Jesus Christ in this moment, but he was also able to grasp the Gospel message before he had ever read a page of the New Testament.
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Understanding the story of the Bible is crucial for anyone new to Christianity. In his catechetical lectures, Augustine stressed the importance of teaching the narratio to those new to the faith. One of the most popular contemporary ways that we learn about the Biblical story is by conceiving of it as a drama, like a novel or movie. Here, the story of the Bible progresses from creation and the fall in the Old Testament to redemption and consummation in the New Testament. While this has been (and continues to be) a great way to learn about the story of the Bible, it can sometimes make the Old Testament feel less important, since it seems to include all of the things that happened before Jesus arrived. It is like the prequel of a movie: fascinating for die-hard fans, but not essential reading.
The Four Mountains of the Bible
However, there is another way of telling the Biblical story that enables readers to see Jesus on every page of the Bible. Many early Christians often focused on the appearances of God on mountains to tell the story of the Bible. As it turns out, nearly every major event in the Bible happens on a mountain, and all of these mountaintop encounters find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ:
Eden
Mount Eden (Genesis) is the place where Adam and Eve were created to worship and have fellowship with God. As they matured, they would one day receive God’s permission to eat of the tree of life, which was located at the top of this mountain. However, because of their sin, Adam and Eve experienced a fall—a literal fall off the mountain—and God prevented them from ever returning to this mountain by a flaming sword. The rest of the Biblical story is in many ways a story about God providing a way for Adam and Eve’s descendants to get back to the mountain and His presence.
Sinai
Mount Sinai (Exodus, Leviticus, the Prophets) chronicles how God forms a people to enable a return to His presence. However, due to the ever-present problem of sin, God prevented Israel from fully returning to this mountain. Even the one person who could fully scale Mount Sinai, Moses, never received full access. Moses asks to see God face to face, but is refused his request, having to settle for a glimpse of a passing by God while shielded by stones.
Tabor
Mount Tabor (the Gospels) shows how Jesus has come to deal once and for all with the problem of sin and enable human beings to ascend the mountain to see God. At Golgotha, Jesus falls on the sword that blocks access to Eden. The blood and water that pour out of his side reveal to Christians that through faith, cemented in baptism and nourished by the Eucharist, they will be able to return to God’s presence fully. A preview of this final end is given on Mount Tabor, when the glory of Jesus is revealed to Peter, James, and John. In an incredible moment, Moses appears on Tabor to speak with the transfigured Jesus: Here is the moment that Moses finally gets his wish to see the face of God.
Zion
Mount Zion (Isaiah, Ezekiel, Acts, and Revelation) shows how our eternal life is a return to God’s presence and the mountain of God. At the top of Zion is the tree of life, and standing next to this tree is Jesus Christ. On Zion, Christians will receive the greatest gift of all, that which Adam and Eve missed and Moses gained after his death: to see the face of God and to be in the radiant presence of Jesus forever.
Mountaintop Encounters
Once the story of Scripture is understood through these mountains, Christians can go and see themselves in these mountaintop encounters. We are all like Adam, mournful of our sin and desperate for God’s mercy. We are like Abraham, trusting God to provide the final sacrifice for sin. Finally, we are like Moses, longing desperately to see the face of God amidst the sin of the world.
In addition, the various symbols that emerge in these mountain stories, like water, trees, blood, and bread, enable us to return to the Old Testament to discover how Jesus Christ fulfills them. For example, we can see our baptism as a kind of crossing of the Red Sea and our confession as a kind of Levitical sacrifice.
Moreover, the tabernacle, temple, and church worship find their pattern on the mountain of God. This enables us to see our Sunday time in church as a kind of ascent up the mountain. We get a glimpse of our heavenly home each time we go to church, and this culminates with our ascent to the top (back) of the church to the altar, where we get a taste of the heavenly feast that awaits us through the body and blood of Christ.
Reading Scripture Like the Early Christians
I wrote Four Mountains: Encountering God in the Bible from Eden to Zion to help Christians read Scripture like the early Christians, with an attention to its story and symbols. Anglican Christians in particular will discover how the various aspects of the liturgy integrally relate to scripture. The book takes readers through key chapters of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It can be read by individuals, in Church Bible studies, or Christian ed classes. For those interested in using the book in their church, I provide available guides and can even schedule a Zoom call with your church to discuss.
The great Anglican poet George Herbert eloquently compared the search of scriptures with the combination of stars to make constellations. As the stars in the sky enable endless combinations, so does the bringing together of the various passages of the Bible:
Oh that I knew how all thy lights combine,
And the configurations of their glory!
Seeing not only how each verse doth shine,
But all the constellations of the story.
I hope that, through the constellations of its mountains and the lights of its symbols, Christians can more fully discover the never-ending riches of Scripture.
Find Michael Niebauer’s new book, Four Mountains: Encountering God in the Bible from Eden to Zion, in print and ebook on Amazon.
Image: Blue Ridge Mountains, photographed by katerinasergeevna from Getty Images Signature, courtesy of Canva, digitally edited by Jacob Davis.
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