When asked why someone would expend the effort and take the risk to climb Mount Everest, climber George Mallory summed up his answer in three words: “Because it’s there.”
Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air, says, “In order to succeed, you must be…driven.”
Walt Unsworth, of Everest: A Mountaineering History, tells us men who climb the mountain are people who can push their doubts aside using determination and faith.
Thomas F. Hornhein, American mountaineer, gives us his insightful quote: “At times I wondered if I had not come a long way only to find what I really sought was something I had left behind.”
In Mark 9:2-3, Jesus used a mountaintop to show his true self to three of his disciples:
“… Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.”
Let’s look at five views from God’s mountain as seen in the Word of God.
God’s Mountaintop View No. 1:
Isaiah 40:22 reveals the true size and scope of the majesty of the Father:
“It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in.”
God’s Mountaintop View No. 2:
Job 26:7 names our God as the originator of all that was and is:
“He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing.”
God’s Mountaintop View No. 3:
Matthew 4:8 is our reminder that the things of this world are not the treasures of God’s heart:
“Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.”
God’s Mountaintop View No. 4:
Proverbs 8:27 tells us there is no beginning to God, for he always has been, always is, and always will be:
“When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep.”
God’s Mountaintop View No. 5:
Psalm 103:12 is our salvation assurance, for when we come to him, we are washed clean in his name:
“As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”
Why do we aspire to climb atop God’s spiritual mountain? As Mallory says, Because it’s there. Krakanuer: We’re driven to the top. Hornhein invites us not to leave our loved ones behind. Jesus says we’ll be changed forever to become like him.
Our time on the mountain with Jesus will leave us forever wishing for more of Christ.
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