Climb Every Mountain of the Lord!


It would be helpful for the reader to be familiar with typology before continuing with this file. Typology is indispensable when a person seeks the connections between the Old and the New Testaments of Holy Scripture. Without this knowledge the connections are not readily apparent, and much understanding is lost.
In this writing you will come to the knowledge that the "Mountain of the Lord" prefigures the Church which Jesus Christ founded.


Old Testament Types:

Gen 19:17 And they brought him forth, and set him without the city: and there they spoke to him, saying: Save thy life: look not back, neither stay thou in all the country about: but save thy self in the mountain, lest thou be also consumed.

Elucidation
:
It is through this "mountain" that thy self shall be saved. Clearly in this verse, the word 'mountain' must point to something other than a mound of earth and rock. It must have another more symbolic meaning.

Gen 22:1After these things, God tempted Abraham, and said to him: Abraham, Abraham. And he answered: Here I am.
Gen 22:2 He said to him: Take thy only begotten son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and go into the land of vision; and there thou shalt offer him for an holocaust upon one of the mountains which I will shew thee. (Mount Moriah, 2Chron 3:1)

Elucidation
:
Interestingly, this rendering of Gen 22:2, taken from the Douay Rheims Bible as well as the Latin Vulgate, says, "and go into the land of vision". Some other Bibles say to go to Mount Moriah, or just to Moriah. The Septuagint says, "go into the high land".

Gen 22:3 So Abraham rising up in the night, saddled his ass, and took with him two young men, and Isaac his son: and when he had cut wood for the holocaust, he went his way to the place which God had commanded him.
Gen 22:4 And on the third day, lifting up his eyes, he saw the place afar off.
Gen 22:5 And he said to his young men: Stay you here with the ass; I and the boy will go with speed as far as yonder, and after we have worshipped, will return to you.
Gen 22:6 And he took the wood for the holocaust, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he himself carried in his hands fire and a sword. And as they two went on together,

Elucidation:
Can you see the typology here? Isaac is to be sacrificed and he carried the wood on his back to his place of sacrifice. In the New Testament, upon His back Jesus carried the wood upon which He would be sacrificed, the cross.

Gen 22:7 Isaac said to his father: My father. And he answered: What wilt thou, son? Behold, saith he, fire and wood: where is the victim for the holocaust?
Gen 22:8 And Abraham said: God will provide himself a victim for an holocaust, my son. So they went on together.
Gen 22:9 And they came to the place which God had shewn him, where he built an altar, and laid the wood in order upon it; and when he had bound Isaac his son, he laid him on the altar upon the pile of wood.
Gen 22:10 And he put forth his hand, and took the sword, to
sacrifice his son.
Gen 22:11 And behold, an angel of the Lord from heaven called to him, saying: Abraham, Abraham. And he answered: Here I am.
Gen 22:12 And he said to him: Lay not thy hand upon the boy, neither do thou any thing to him: now I know that thou fearest God, and hast not spared thy only begotten son for my sake.
Gen 22:13 Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw behind his back a ram, amongst the briers, sticking fast by the horns, which he took and offered for a holocaust instead of his son.

Elucidation:
A ram was caught fast by his horns in the briers. Jesus wore the crown of thorns (briers). GOD saved Isaac, the son of Abraham, but He did not save His own Son.

Gen 22:14 And he called the name of that place, The Lord seeth. Whereupon, even to this day, it is said: In the mountain the Lord will see. Gen 22:15 And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, saying:
Gen 22:16 By my own self have I sworn, saith the Lord: because thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thy only begotten son for my sake:
Gen 22:17 I will bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is by the sea shore; thy seed shall possess the gates of their enemies.
Gen 22:18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice.

Gen 31:54 And after he had offered sacrifices in the mountain, he called his brethren to eat bread. And when they had eaten, they lodged there:

Elucidation:
In the Church which Jesus Christ founded, we come to Mass to offer sacrifice and to consume not bread but what appears to be bread since it has been transubstantiated into the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. What has been shown as a type in Gen 31:54, has become the reality or antitype of today.

Exo 3:1 Now Moses fed the sheep of Jethro, his father in law, the priest of Madian: and he drove the flock to the inner parts of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, Horeb.
Exo 3:2 And the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he saw that the bush was on fire, and was not burnt.
Exo 3:3 And Moses said: I will go, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
Exo 3:4 And when the Lord saw that he went forward to see, he called to him out of the midst of the bush. and said: Moses, Moses. And he answered: Here I am.
Exo 3:5 And he said: Come not nigh hither, put off the shoes from thy feet; for the place, whereon thou standest, is holy ground.

Exo 4:27 And the Lord said to Aaron: Go into the desert to meet Moses. And he went forth to meet him in the mountain of God, and kissed him.

Exo 15:17 Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thy inheritance, in thy most firm habitation, which thou hast made, O Lord; thy sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.
Exo 15:18 The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.

Exo 18:5 And Jethro, the kinsman of Moses, came with his sons, and his wife to Moses into the desert, where he was camped by the mountain of God.

Exo 19:3 And Moses went up to God; and the Lord called unto him from the mountain, and said: Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:

Exo 24:18 And Moses entering into the midst of the cloud, went up into the mountain: And he was there forty days and forty nights.

2Chron 3:1 And Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, in mount Moria, which had been shewn to David his father, in the place which David had prepared in the thrashing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

Elucidation:
Solomon built a magnificent temple to the Lord atop Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. It must have been an awe inspiring sight with its gleaming white walls over 30 feet high making it
visible for great distances. Atop Mount Moriah today, all that remains of the temple are what are called the Temple Mount and the Wailing Wall, since the temple was completely destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D.. (Matt 24:2)

Psa 99:9 Exalt ye the Lord our God, and adore at his holy mountain: for the Lord our God is holy.

Isa 2:2 And in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.
Isa 2:3 And many people shall go, and say: Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall come forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

Elucidation:
1. 'On the top of mountains' means 'the House of the Lord' will be highly visible.
'All nations shall flow to it' simply means that the 'House of the Lord' will be world wide. (Matt 28:19, Acts 1:8)
2. Who is "The Word of the Lord".  See John 1:1, and 14.

Isa 14:13 And thou saidst in thy heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north.

Eze 43:12 This is the law of the house upon the top of the mountain: All its border round about; most holy: this then is the law of the house.

Dan 2:45 According as thou sawest, that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and broke in pieces the clay and the iron, and the brass, and the silver, and the gold, the great God hath shewn the king what shall come to pass hereafter, and the dream is true, and the interpretation thereof is faithful.

Mic 4:1 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared in the top of the mountains, and high above the hills: and people shall flow to it.
Mic 4:2 And many nations shall come in haste, and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob: and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth out of Sion, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem.

Elucidation:
"In the last days" are the days in which we live today. These verses prefigure the Church which Jesus Christ will found, and it will be spread throughout "many nations". See Acts 1:8.

Zep 3:11 In that day thou shalt not be ashamed for all thy doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against me for then I will take away out of the midst of thee thy proud boasters, and thou shalt no more be lifted up because of my holy mountain.

Hag 1:8 Go up to the mountain, bring timber, and build the house: and it shall be acceptable to me, and I shall be glorified, saith the Lord.

Zec 8:3 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: I am returned to Sion, and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called The city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, The sanctified mountain.

Elucidation
:
The City of Truth? What is truth (John 18:38)? Truth is a person, the person of Jesus Christ. He will dwell in His sanctified 'mountain'.


New Testament Antitypes:

Mat 5:1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set down, his disciples came unto him.

Mat 5:14 You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid.

Elucidation:
The Temple as described above can certainly be equated to 'a city that cannot be hid'.
Just as the temple is a type of the Church which Jesus Christ founded, so is His Church the temple's antitype.
Therefore His Church cannot be hidden either.

Mat 14:23 And having dismissed the multitude, he went into a mountain alone to pray. And when it was evening, he was there alone.

Elucidation:
Just as Jesus went to the mountain to pray, we go to the Church which He founded to pray.
Again, it is clear that when GOD has spoken, it is from His mountain in the Old Testament and from His Church after He founded it in the New Testament.

Mat 17:1 And after six days Jesus taketh unto him Peter and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart:
Mat 17:2 And he was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow.

Elucidation:
The only time in the Gospels in which Jesus showed His Divinity was from a high mountain. Since we have already equated the mountain to His Church, we can safely say that His Divinity is present in His Church as well.

Mat 17:3 And behold there appeared to them Moses and Elias talking with him.
Mat 17:4 And Peter answering, said to Jesus: Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.
Mat 17:5 And as he was yet speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them. And lo a voice out of the cloud, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him.
Mat 17:6 And the disciples hearing fell upon their face, and were very much afraid.
Mat 17:7 And Jesus came and touched them: and said to them: Arise, and fear not.
Mat 17:8 And they lifting up their eyes, saw no one, but only Jesus.

Elucidation:
In attempting to endure the trials and tribulations of life, we should find comfort in Mat 17:8, and when we are down and out, remember to lift up our eyes and see 'no one but only Jesus'.

Mat 28:16 And the eleven disciples went into Galilee, unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
Mat 28:17 And seeing him they adored: but some doubted.
Mat 28:18 And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth.
Mat 28:19 Going therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
Mat 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.

Elucidation:
In Mat 28:20 is the promise of Jesus Christ that He will be with the one Church which He founded, every day in every century until the end of time. There will be no gaps, not even one single day. It is His promise that His Church will last from the day on which He founded it until this very day and for all future days of time.

Mar 3:13 And going up into a mountain, he called unto him whom he would himself: and they came to him.
Mar 3:14 And he made that twelve should be with him, and that he might send them to preach.
Mar 3:15 And he gave them power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils.

Mar 6:46 And when he had dismissed them, he went up to the mountain to pray,

Luk 6:12 And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray: and he passed the whole night in the prayer of God.

Rev 3:12, He who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God; never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my GOD, the new Jerusalem which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.

Rev 21:10 And he took me up in spirit to a great and high mountain: and he shewed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
Rev 21:11 Having the glory of God, and the light thereof was like to a precious stone, as to the jasper stone even as crystal.

Elucidation
:
On a 'great and high mountain' we see the (New) holy city, Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from GOD. This is a vision of GOD's holy Church.



©
Written by Bob Stanley, January 17, 2007


"Have I then become your enemy, because I told you the
truth?"
Galatians 4:16




 
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