The Gospel and the Land Promise

Strange things happen to mountains

In Genesis, when Jacob blessed his son Joseph, he said that the blessings he had inherited extended to “the utmost bound of the everlasting hills.”  [Genesis 49:26]

In Joshua, the mountains melted in the presence of God, at Sinai.

Judges 5:5
The mountains melted from before the LORD, even that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel.

The mountains skipped like rams, when Israel went out of Egypt, David said. “The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.” [Psalm 114:4]

Isaiah said that “the mountain of the Lord’s house” would be raised up, and established in the top of the mountains. [Isaiah 2:1-3]

In the New Testament, Mt. Sion is raised up to heaven! [Hebrews 12:22]

Isaiah described mountains melting, but he meant melting with the blood of God’s adversaries.

Isaiah 34:3
Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.

Isaiah said that the mountains would all be made low, and valleys would be exulted. “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.” [Isaiah 40:4]

Mountains and hills, he said, will sing:

Isaiah 55:12
For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Jeremiah said the mountains trembled. “I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.” [Jeremiah 4:24]

Ezekiel said God’s sheep “wander through all the mountains.” “My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.” [Ezekiel 34:6]

Ezekiel said they will be brought back to the mountains of Israel. “I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.” [Ezekiel 34:14]

Blasphemies are spoken against the mountains of Israel; [Ezekiel 35:12] they are made desolate, swallowed up on every side, possessed by the heathen, taken up in the lips of talkers, and they become an infamy of the people. [Ezekiel 36:3] They bear the shame of the heathen. [Ezekiel 36:6]

The hordes of Gog and Magog come against the mountains of Israel. Addressing these invaders, Ezekiel wrote: “After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.” [Ezekiel 38:8]

In Daniel, there is a mountain that grows, from a single stone, which smites the image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream, and eventually fills the whole earth. “Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” [Daniel 2:35]

The mountains drop down new wine, in the prophecy of Joel. Hills flow with milk. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth out of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim.” [Joel 3:18]

Also in Joel, an army of locusts leaps upon the tops of mountains. [Joel 2:5]

The mountains in Amos drop sweet wine. “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.” [Amos 9:13]

Nahum said the mountains quake. “The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.” [Nahum 1:5]

Habakkuk said the mountains were scattered.

Habakkuk 3:6
He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting.

Zechariah said that the Lord’s feet will stand upon the mount of Olives, and it will cleave in the midst, and half of it will remove towards the north, and half of it remove towards the south.

Zechariah 14:4
And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

Jesus said, flee to the mountains. “But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:” [Mark 13:14]

As he made his way to the place where he would be crucified, Jesus said to the woman who followed him, weeping for him: “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.  Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.  For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” [Luke 23:28- 31]

In the sixth seal of Revelation, every mountain and island is moved out of its place. “And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.” [Revelation 6:14] Men say to the mountains, “fall on us!” [Revelation 6:15-17]

Again in Revelation, mountains are not found. “And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.” [Revelation 16:20]

The mountains of these prophecies are not literal ones; they represent blessings, and promises of God, as Jacob said when he blessed his son Joseph. The blessings of God are represented by mountains! That is why Jesus said, “Flee to the mountains!”