Mountains of God – Mt. Ararat

Mountains of God – Mt. Ararat.

“Your saving grace and your righteousness are like the mountains of God.” (Psalm 36:6).

Yes, God lives in heaven. But all through Scripture He appears to have a second home here on the earth, in the mountains. God’s personal involvement on mountains deepen the meaning and significance of what mountains have come to symbolize through the ages… stability; safety; permanence; majesty; beauty; spiritual inspiration. One of God’s names in Scripture is El-Shaddai (Genesis 17:1), and an ancient meaning of that name is “God of the Mountains.” It’s easy to see why. God’s attributes can clearly be seen in mountains, including the fixed foundation of His faithful love. “For even if the mountains move and the hills disappear, even then my mercy for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken, says Yahweh Lord, who has mercy on you.” Isaiah is saying that we all know how next to impossible it would be for a mountain to totter and fall. But it’s more likely for mountains to move away than for God to withdraw His unshakeable love for you.

God is like the mountains: He doesn’t change, He stays the same, He is consistently steadfast and stable. Mountains are referenced over 500 times in Scripture. Not only are mountains the go-to place for momentous events all through the Bible, but God Himself made it clear from the beginning that mountains are His first choice as a site to reveal Himself and His favorite place to meet with people. “I lift my eyes to the mountains; where is my help to come from? My help comes from Yahweh Lord who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1-2).

Down through history people have assumed that since God is in His heavens, the closer one can get to God on high, the more spiritual enlightenment one can receive. There have been pagan shrines and mountaintop gurus as long as we can remember. People have always climbed to the “high places” for heavenly insight and personal contact with the gods, or with God. Irish Christians consider mountains to be one of those sacred “thin places” where the layer between heaven and earth is so thin that a believer can easily step from one to the other. As one person excitedly told Barbara Brown Taylor, ‘You’re sinners going up, but you’ll be saints going down!” People still refer to a special time with God as a “mountaintop experience.” As we study the Mountains of God in Scripture, we come to appreciate how central mountains are in the Word, how important they are to God himself. Mountains will be seen as a sacred part of nature that consistently has seen powerful events and profound conversations between us mere mortals and the Almighty God. Let us rejoice and applaud the God who is the Rock, who has a glorious history of preferring His own mountaintop experiences with us.

“So the floodwaters gradually receded from the earth. After 150 days, exactly five months form the time the Flood began, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Two and a half months later, as the waters continued to go down, other mountain peaks became visible.” (Genesis 8:3-5).

The first mountain to be mentioned in Scripture is an unforgettable event in biblical history. The mountains of Ararat is much more accurate than the single mountain of Ararat, because that name refers to a region that contained a cluster of mountain peaks. Ararat was actually a distinct country of people populated by the ancient Armenians. Noah’s ark rested on its tallest peak, naturally, since that was the first one uncovered by the receding waters of the Flood. The tallest peak has been known as the mountain of Ararat ever since. The ark rested on the mountain peak for a total of eight months before they could step out on dry land. Ararat has been recognized as a sacred mountain and national symbol by the Armenians, even though that region has been controlled by Turkey for a long while now. Ararat is only ten miles from the Turkey-Iran border, and has been visited by many explorers and archeologist for centuries. They all, of course, have had it as their ambition to be the one to discover the remains of the ark, but no avail. Clearly, it is highly doubtful that the ancient ark will ever be found. And now for the back-story…

God remembered Noah, every living thing and all the livestock with him in the ark; so God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to go down. Also the fountains of the deep and the windows of the sky were stopped, the rain from the sky was restrained.” (Genesis 8:1-2).

By “remembering,” God decided to intervene, He was moved into action, it was the fullness of time according to His timetable, and sure enough the waters receded. When God “remembers,” He decides to focus on one thing, He participates in that thought by springing into action. God never forgot Noah. God didn’t have an earlier memory lapse. God doesn’t need to have a memory. He remains aware of everything that has ever happened in the history of the universe.

If there was an ancient newspaper back then, maybe this would be on the back page. WANT AD: World-wide release. Wanted, a person willing to appear foolish for 120 years. Carpentry skills and physical strength a plus. Must be able to accept specific instructions from Project Supervisor at all times. Long-term project will be construction of gigantic boat with no water in sight. Builder will not need to transport boat to water; water will come to boat. Builder must be blameless, righteous, and full of integrity. Must be able to deflect taunts, ridicule and criticism for an extended period of time. Would be helpful if family assisted in project. Must embrace living in houseboat for over a year with thousands of animals. Knowing how to take care of these animals a requirement. Applications being accepted. Divine reference mandatory. 

Noah seemed to be flourishing in his relationship with God while all around him humanity had descended to the worst of human behavior. The entire world was depraved, violent, cruel, and even the imaginations of the people were evil. We’re not sure how Noah managed to be blameless in a wicked generation, but he did. The Amplified Bible put it that Noah “walked in habitual fellowship with God.” (Genesis 6:9). He found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Peter stated that Noah was a “preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5), that he “warned the world of God’s righteous judgment.” (NLT). When literally everyone else was going in one direction, Noah was going in the opposite direction. He was going upstream in a downstream world. It wasn’t long before Noah found himself floating happily on that stream.

Noah’s main claim to fame was his unquestioning obedience to the Lord’s instructions to build a huge boat on dry land, distant from all water, with not a cloud in sight. Noah was miles away from any navigable water, and yet he complied with everything God asked of him. “During the whole sequence of events, Noah is not reported as saying a single word. Instead we read, four times, of his silent obedience.” (Rabbi Sacks, in his commentary on Genesis). There is no doubt Noah was ridiculed and laughed at. Certainly many if not most questioned his sanity while he worked at building this boat with his three sons. Why are you building this monstrosity, people would jeer? It sure is a funny-looking house! But Noah kept plugging away on this long-term project that was assigned by God. Scholars claim that it took Noah and his family 120 years to build the ark. That was the length of the grace period that God mentioned in Genesis 6:3. Peter confirmed that in 1 Peter 3:20, “God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat.” God wanted to give the people plenty of time to repent, to turn their lives around from their wicked ways. Noah preached righteousness, but we aren’t sure if it was in words or deeds. His life during those construction years would have been a powerful example for sure. Maybe he was letting his obedience do the talking. Maybe he didn’t need to say much. Noah’s life was prophetic, if not his words. But Noah was definitely a “letter of the law” type of believer. He obeyed the rules, didn’t question anything, and that was that.

After 120 years, Noah ended up with a giant boat constructed exactly to God’s specifications:

1. 450′ long, which is the length of one and a half football fields;
2. 75′ wide, which made the boat exactly six times longer than it was wide, the same ratio used for modern shipbuilding;
3. 45′ feet high, which is equal to a four-story building;
4. three interior decks, which is large enough to contain 45,000 animals according to experts;
5. the overall size of the ark was the same as an average battleship of World War I.

Noah and his family remained in the boat for over a year in all, taking care of the animals and offering sacrifices to the Lord. So on the one hand, is there any wonder Noah was included in the Hebrew Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11?

Interestingly, Peter called Noah a “preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5), which implies that he must have tried to warn the sinful population that they were doomed unless they turned their lives around. Maybe he did his preaching through his obvious obedience, we don’t know. Yes, Noah was a “righteous” man, but he never seemed to be effective beyond whatever simple instructions were given by God. He never had the courage to question God about the Flood, or challenge God’s actions in any way. Once he heard that the whole human race was going to be wiped out, why didn’t Noah do what Abraham did: bargain with God for just a few of those lives? Why didn’t Noah respond to God like Moses and advocate for those were going to lose their lives to God’s anger? Also, Noah’s blameless character didn’t seem to make his goodness attractive. He didn’t make his righteousness stick to those around him. Noah didn’t have any influence. Noah may have had personal character, but it didn’t affect anyone else. Noah simply wasn’t a very effective leader when the world desperately needed one. That’s why I think Noah is an odd person to be a hero of the faith. He didn’t let his little light shine. Noah was righteous and faithful to the letter, but he did not demonstrate the magnanimous heart of God. As Rabbi Sacks commented in his commentary, “Though Noah was a righteous man, he was not a hero. Noah does not save humanity. He saves only himself, his family, and the animals he takes with him in the ark. He does as he is commanded. But obedience is not enough. In Judaism, God does not demand blind obedience. If God sought no more than mindless submission to the divine will, He would have created robots and machines. God wants us to be mature, deliberative, to do His will because we understand or because we trust Him when we do not understand.”

Once everyone left the ark, right there on Mt. Ararat, Noah built an altar to Yahweh. On the altar Noah sacrificed burnt offerings to the Lord, sacrificing some of those clean animals rescued for that purpose as directed by God before the flood (Gen. 7:2-3). Yahweh loved the sweet aroma of the thanksgiving sacrifice (8:21), and made an astounding promise to Noah, and all his descendants, and thus to the world at large. God promised that He would never again curse the ground for man’s sake; that He would never again destroy every living thing; that nature would be predictable and thus facilitate man’s use of it for food. There will be seed time and harvest, cold and heat, the seasons of the year, and day and night. Nature would be cooperative so mankind could rightfully use it for the benefit of humanity.

God established His first covenant with mankind at this time (9:9), and said it was an everlasting covenant between God and mankind, and between God and every living creature, “for perpetual generations.” Through rabbinic tradition, this promise to Noah evolved into a universal set of moral laws known as the Noahide Covenant, or the Laws of Noah. These seven laws were produced later in the spirit of God’s intentions and God’s words in Genesis. The Noahide covenant is an official rabbinic follow-up to God’s promises to Noah, his descendants, and all living creatures. The seven Laws of Noah are:

(1.) No idolatry.

(2.) No cursing God’s name or taking it in vain.

(3.) No murder. “Whoever sheds human blood will his own blood be shed.” (9:6).

(4.) No adultery or fornication.

(5.) No stealing or theft.

(6.) No eating of flesh from a living animal or ingesting its blood.

(7.) Establish courts of justice.

These seven laws of the Noahide Covenant were to apply to all humanity. They were universal laws to all people. Jewish tradition claims that only those “righteous Gentiles” that follow this Noahide Covenant are allowed to a portion of the life to come.” Rabbinic tradition claims that these seven laws of Noah were first given to Adam in the Garden, but it went unrecorded. These laws were finally made official under the terms of the Noahide Covenant. The official blessing said by Yahweh over Noah also duplicated His words to Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.” (9:1).

God placed an important sign into nature that would remind everyone of this covenant between God and His creation. The sign was a beautiful rainbow. This explosion of seven colors was put into the sky by our loyal God to remind us of His promises made with Noah, to make us mindful of the possibility of new beginnings after catastrophe, that there is hope after devastation. The rainbow is a biblical sign of God’s presence and faithfulness. This rainbow reminds us that God began to heal the earth after He brought so much destruction. And finally, the rainbow sign is a manifestation of God’s glory and beauty. Rainbows were used in Scripture ever since that moment of Ararat to try to describe the indescribable Presence of the Lord, the unspeakable beauty of God. “Above the dome that was over their heads was something like a throne that looked like a sapphire. On it, above it, was what appeared to be a person. I saw what looked like gleaming, amber-colored fire radiating from what appeared to be his waist upward. Downward from what appeared to be his waist, I saw what looked like fire, giving a brilliant light all around him. This brilliance around him looked like a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day. This was how the appearance of the Glory of the Lord looked.” (Ezekiel 1:26-28). John’s vision was mind-boggling: “Instantly I was in the Spirit, and there before me in heaven stood a throne, and on the throne Someone was sitting. The One sitting there gleamed like diamonds and rubies, and a rainbow shining like emerald encircled the throne.”  (Revelation 4:2-3).  God created rainbows for a very sacred purpose there on Mt. Ararat. That rainbow is not to be desecrated by using it for anything other than what God intends… to be appreciated as a beautiful part of nature, to be a reminder of His faithful promises to creation, and to inspire us with its vision of the glory of the Lord.