Melt the Mountains

I am often floored by the descriptions and analogies showered throughout the pages of books such as Job, Ecclesiastes, and Isaiah. Such lovely, poetical passages and awe-inspiring accounts of our LORD. Some find the Old Testament tiring and dull. I, on the other hand, find it fascinating, overflowing with treasures.

Consider for example the vividness of these verses:

Psalms 104:1-5
Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.
Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:
Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind:
Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:
Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.

One picture that is painted throughout many books is the image of the LORD coming down, and his presence upon the tops of the mountains causing them to smoke, to run down or melt. I think it probably touches back to mount Sinai.

Exodus 19:16-18
And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.
And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.
And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.

After reading that, now look at these verses:

Psalms 144:5 ~ Bow thy heavens, O LORD, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke.

Micah 1:3-4 ~ For, behold, the LORD cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth.
And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.

Isaiah 64:1-3 ~ Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!
When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.

Pretty fantastic. There are other similar verses too. I just really love the picture it gives me of the majesty and power of the Almighty God. The God who can melt the mountains. May we never lose sight of that!

I hope you continue to be amazed as you think of these things today.

~LDC