Mount Bashan is God's towering mountain. Mount Bashan is a mountain of many peaks. Why gaze with envy, you mountain peaks, at the mountain God desired for His dwelling? The Lord will live there forever. God's chariots are tens of thousands, thousands and thousands. The Lord is among them in holiness as He was at Sinai. (Verses 15-17)
The Lord came from Sinai and appeared to them from Seir. He shone on them from Mount Paran and came with ten thousand holy ones, with fiery law from His right hand for them. Indeed He loves the people. (italics mine) All Your holy ones are in Your hand, and they assemble at Your feet. Each receives Your words. Deuteronomy 33
Towering over the smaller mountain, Zion, are the peaks of the great Bashan range. God made those mountains also, but chose to live at Zion. God Almighty can choose. We mortals can fight about that all we want, but it doesn't change the fact. The Sovereign God can do what He wants. And He also chose little Israel to be His people. Why? Because. God took the smaller and called it great. As the evening dusk paints the snowy peaks of Bashan pink and golden, the smaller mountain is in the shadow of its grandeur. But Zion doesn't need the sun because its light is God. Jealous, Bashan brags of its height and drinks in the morning sun to shine on the horizon in its grand hubris. But God didn't chose Bashan. Its glory, God-given, is fading and temporal. Mount Zion is forever.
Before his death, Moses blessed the Jewish people. He began by reminding them that God took them through the desert, passing by mountains of great height on the way. Accompanied by His host of thousands of holy angels, the Lord God took them through the wilderness. Driven by His choice to love this vagabond group of wayfarers, the Lord showed them a way to live. Different from the rest. Then gave them a land in which to dwell. Jealous, the greater nations even today are jealous of God's picking of the tiny nation of Israel. They will be so angry finally that Armageddon will bathe their lands in blood.
The problem for the other mountains is God's love for Zion. And His plans and purposes for all who are His children. It bothers them that in all their majesty they were not picked. It only makes sense to choose the most beautiful place in which to live and the mightiest army with which to fight. Why would God seem to pick the insignificant for His glory? Why, indeed.
Jesus. The child of a young virgin, born in a manger. His ancestors? Rahab, a harlot. Ruth, a Moabite woman. Bathsheba, the woman David took from Uriah in an adulterous affair. Common people. His lifestyle inglorious. His death ignominious. Then suddenly the common became glorious because Almighty God chose to save us with a resurrection so blinding it burst through a sealed tomb and blazed across time and space to bring salvation to anyone who would believe. If that is not enough, Jesus chose me. Insignificant and unworthy. Now His holy one, I am in His hand. My life narrowed down from many others more lovely and more righteous. For some reason, God said, "This one's Mine." I know it makes the other mountains scratch their heads. They would never pick me for their team. It's folly, really, that I should be called a child of God. His choice doesn't necessarily make sense. But, indeed, He loves me. And I will spend eternity in Zion sitting at His feet and listening to His words. And God's mountain is big enough for everyone.
Not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world -- what is viewed as nothing -- to bring to nothing what is viewed as something so that no one can boast in His Presence. I Corinthians 1
The Lord came from Sinai and appeared to them from Seir. He shone on them from Mount Paran and came with ten thousand holy ones, with fiery law from His right hand for them. Indeed He loves the people. (italics mine) All Your holy ones are in Your hand, and they assemble at Your feet. Each receives Your words. Deuteronomy 33
Towering over the smaller mountain, Zion, are the peaks of the great Bashan range. God made those mountains also, but chose to live at Zion. God Almighty can choose. We mortals can fight about that all we want, but it doesn't change the fact. The Sovereign God can do what He wants. And He also chose little Israel to be His people. Why? Because. God took the smaller and called it great. As the evening dusk paints the snowy peaks of Bashan pink and golden, the smaller mountain is in the shadow of its grandeur. But Zion doesn't need the sun because its light is God. Jealous, Bashan brags of its height and drinks in the morning sun to shine on the horizon in its grand hubris. But God didn't chose Bashan. Its glory, God-given, is fading and temporal. Mount Zion is forever.
Before his death, Moses blessed the Jewish people. He began by reminding them that God took them through the desert, passing by mountains of great height on the way. Accompanied by His host of thousands of holy angels, the Lord God took them through the wilderness. Driven by His choice to love this vagabond group of wayfarers, the Lord showed them a way to live. Different from the rest. Then gave them a land in which to dwell. Jealous, the greater nations even today are jealous of God's picking of the tiny nation of Israel. They will be so angry finally that Armageddon will bathe their lands in blood.
The problem for the other mountains is God's love for Zion. And His plans and purposes for all who are His children. It bothers them that in all their majesty they were not picked. It only makes sense to choose the most beautiful place in which to live and the mightiest army with which to fight. Why would God seem to pick the insignificant for His glory? Why, indeed.
Jesus. The child of a young virgin, born in a manger. His ancestors? Rahab, a harlot. Ruth, a Moabite woman. Bathsheba, the woman David took from Uriah in an adulterous affair. Common people. His lifestyle inglorious. His death ignominious. Then suddenly the common became glorious because Almighty God chose to save us with a resurrection so blinding it burst through a sealed tomb and blazed across time and space to bring salvation to anyone who would believe. If that is not enough, Jesus chose me. Insignificant and unworthy. Now His holy one, I am in His hand. My life narrowed down from many others more lovely and more righteous. For some reason, God said, "This one's Mine." I know it makes the other mountains scratch their heads. They would never pick me for their team. It's folly, really, that I should be called a child of God. His choice doesn't necessarily make sense. But, indeed, He loves me. And I will spend eternity in Zion sitting at His feet and listening to His words. And God's mountain is big enough for everyone.
Not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world -- what is viewed as nothing -- to bring to nothing what is viewed as something so that no one can boast in His Presence. I Corinthians 1
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