HEBREW WORD STUDY – MOUNTAIN – HAR  הר  Hei Resh 

Deuteronomy 2:3: “Enough of your circling this mountain, turn yourself north.”

Years ago I saw a book in a Christian bookstore which was titled: “One More Lap Around The Mountain.”  That title sure can strike home to many of us.

The word “mountain” in the Hebrew is “har.”  The numerical value for the word “har” is 205.   The Talmud teaches that the numerical value for the word Medea, Greece, Babylon and Rome which are the four major exiles that the Jewish people went into also  have a numerical value of 205.    Rabbi Yisroel Tzvi, just before he died in a Nazi concentration camp, read this verse and said: “It has certainly been a long time that we have been going around and around in exile.”

In ancient time a mountain was the highest you could go into the sky. It was believed by many that you were closer to God on a mountain top. Hence a mountain  came to symbolize the presence of God and the climbing of a mountain is the journey to draw closer to the presence of God.

Thus, what Rabbi Tzvi was teaching was that their exile would end when they stopped circling the mountain in exile and started to climb the mountain to His holy Shechinah.  The word Shechinah denotes the divine presence.  It is in a feminine form to express the nurturing, tenderness, and loving nature of God. 

I believe many Christians have been circling the mountain for many years. They go to church, they sing the praises, they may even attend a weekly prayer meeting.  They do everything the pastor wants them to do, but they never climb that mountain to draw closer to God. 

Then practically overnight the world changed with a pandemic.  Christians could not attend church like they used to, they could not get their weekly spiritual booster shot. On top of that many lost their jobs and/or suffered a great loss of income.  Some could not make a mortgage payment or a pay their rent.  Many, for the first time had to go to a food pantry to feed their family. Last week as I was driving my disability bus I ran into a traffic jam as cars that were lined up for many blocks  waiting for hours to receive a food package.  

At a time when people needed the church the most they found they could not attend a service to find an escape in a rousing worship service and the comfort of the fellowship. As a result there is a change taking place among believers in this country.  Suddenly, they are turning to the God that dwells inside of them to find comfort and strength without having to depend upon a church service to raise their spirits. 

 

 

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Don’t get me wrong, I am not diminishing the value of the church and local fellowship but some Christians get the idea that without it you cannot really know and experience God.  Surprise, you can find the joy of the Lord outside your little congregation. When it is there you can enjoy it when it is not there you can still know the joy of the Lord. 

In Deuteronomy 3 Moses is recounting the travels of Israel for 38 years in the wilderness where they were just skirting around Mt. Seir where it was safe.  God finally said, “You have played it safe long enough, it is now time to start moving forward and trusting Me to protect you.

To the modern believer this is sending a powerful message. For too many years Christians have had it easy.  The economy has been good, Christians enjoyed powerful friends in high governmental places and felt a sense of security just circling the mountain but never moving forward in their relationship with God.  They have been content with the status quo, with their comfortable lifestyle, with their easy going faith. 

But now the tables have all turned around. The enemy is whispering in the ears of many Christians that God has let you down. In a couple days we celebrate Thanksgiving and many are not even allowed to visit with family to share their thanks to God. Many think, “So what, there is nothing to be thankful for.”  

Yet,, the Apostle Paul who was thrown into a state of poverty, rejected by his old friends, chased out of cities, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, imprisoned and when things were really bad God said; “Get ready Paul, it’s going to get worse.”  What did Paul say?  I Thessalonians 5:18: “In everything give thanks.” 

It was easy for Old Job to say; “The Lord gives and takes away blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job 1:21  That is easy when things are going great. When you rich are, powerful and have a full life.  But when his world was turned upside down Job still praised God and gave Him the Glory. 

Ok, 2020 is a bad memory for most of us, what is there to praise God about?  Maybe we have realized that we can finally stop circling around that mountain of drawing closer to God. Rather than take one more lap around that mountain we decided  to start climbing that mountain, moving forward to the Promised Land.

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