Who May Ascend the Hill of the Lord – My Christmas Reflection
This is probably my last post for 2018. It is not as long as it looks. Excluding the PS and the PPS at the end, it is only 1556 words. Relatively short for me.
2018 is coming to a close (!) and I am preparing my heart for Christmas. I find myself spending more time meditating on Scripture. One of the passages that the Lord directed me to is Psalm 24, especially verses 3 and 4. Here they are:
“Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His Holy Place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol (Psalm 24: 3, 4 NIV).
The hill in this psalm is Mount Zion, in present-day Israel called the Temple Mount. The Holy Place was the Holy of Holies in the temple on top of Mount Zion in the time of David. More generally, this psalm is asking the question, “Who can come into the presence of the Lord?”
To the Jews in the time of David the presence of God, His Shekinah (meaning dwelling) glory was present above the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. Here, heaven touched earth. None could enter except a priest, and only after extensive ritual cleansing. So, who could come into the presence of the Lord? Basically, no one.
Jesus changed all of that. What follows are verses of Scripture that connect the lives of born-again believers living in the presence of God today with the 2 questions David asked in Psalm 24.
During the three annual feasts – Passover, Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles (where Jesus said “streams of living water will flow from within you”, speaking of Holy Spirit-filled believers) every Jew in Israel was commanded to make a journey to the Temple on Mount Zion. For most of them this required a relatively arduous uphill climb, an ascent, from all over Israel. During this climb they sang psalms. Over time these psalms (15 of them– psalms 120 to 134) came to be called ‘songs of ascent’. This is part of one of these songs:
“I lift up my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth” (Psalm 121: 1, 2 NIV). Hallelujah!
During the time of Isaiah, the prophet described this ascent to Mount Zion as both a physical and a spiritual journey, in a sense prophesying the coming of the Messiah and the Kingdom of God. Here is what he wrote:
“Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert . . . and a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness . . . but only the redeemed of the Lord will walk there and the ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing and everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away” (Isaiah 35: 5, 6; 8, 10NIV).
Isaiah’s words paint an image of both a physical and a spiritual highway or way along which the ‘redeemed of the Lord’ are ascending to Zion and into the presence of the Lord. Who are these ‘redeemed of the Lord’? They are the ones the Lord has delivered from bondage, predicting both the release of the Jews from Babylonian exile in around 538 BC; and about 500 years later, those “rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the Kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1: 13, 14 NIV). I believe the ‘redeemed’ in Isaiah 35 are also the set-free followers of Jesus.
Two passages in the New Testament connect Jesus to the Highway of Holiness and ascent into the presence of God. The first is from Matthew 11. Early in Jesus’ ministry His cousin John the Baptist sent a message to Him via some of John’s disciples. They ask, on behalf of John, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else” (Matthew 11: 3 NIV). Apparently Jesus was not behaving the way the Jews at the time expected their Messiah to behave. Jesus responded:
“Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor” (Matthew 11: 4 – 6 NIV).
His reference to Isaiah 35 is clear, at least to me. Jesus is telling John, “I am the one Isaiah predicted would come”.
The other passage that relates to the prophecy of Isaiah is John 14. Jesus is speaking:
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him” (Matthew 14: 6, 7 NIV).
The highway, the Way of Holiness, that Isaiah writes about is Jesus! He is the way. Jesus tells us that no one can come into the presence of the Lord, except through Him. Who can ascend the hill of the Lord; who can stand in His Holy Place? Only Jesus. But . . . if we know Jesus, we will know the Father. When we come into the presence of Jesus, we have also come into the presence of the Father!
Here is the good news. We don’t have to ascend any hill to know Jesus and come into the presence of the Father. Why? Because Jesus descended the Hill to come to us!
Paul shares this good news with us in his ancient words written to the church in Ephesus:
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight” (Ephesians 1: 3, 4NIV).
Who can ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in His Holy Place? Only those who have clean hands, a pure heart, and do not lift their souls to idols. Which is no one – none of us are clean outwardly and pure inwardly, and all of us have idols in our lives. No one – except Jesus. And the greatest miracle of all time is that because Jesus descended to us, died for us on the cross, and then ascended into heaven, born-again believers have been made “holy and blameless” in the sight of God. Jesus has made us to be people with “clean hands and a pure heart” – the righteousness of God with the faith of Jesus (Romans 3: 22 KJV); worshiping King Jesus, not idols . In Christ, we have the right and privilege to come into the presence of God 24/7, not because of our own righteousness, but because of His. And in a truth too marvelous to comprehend, God, the Father; Jesus, the Son; and the Holy Spirit live in us –we, as individuals; and we, the Church, are now the temple.
For me, the meaning of Christmas is that God initiated all of this with the birth of a baby in a manger. Not a mighty warrior King on a white stallion with a sword in His hand, but an infant born in the lowliest place imaginable in first-century Palestine. For most of the world, a pin prick in the world’s time-space continuum; but in fact, the spark that ignited a consuming fire that burned around the world and still burns brightly today.
“Then the angel said to them, do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward all men” (Luke2: 11; 13, 14 NKJV).
Augustine wrote: “He made us for Himself, and our hearts are restless until we find our rest in Him”.
We find our rest in Him when we, by faith, accept Jesus as the Savior the angels spoke about over 2000 years ago. We find our rest in Him when we rest in His presence in the Kingdom of God. What is the Kingdom of God? It is the presence of the King. For as Paul reminds us, “The Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14: 17, 18 NIV), which comes from living in His presence! Do you want joy, peace, and hope in your life? No matter what you have been through or are facing today, Jesus can do a miracle in your life. Really! Give Him at try. Invite Him into your heart.
Peace and joy this Christmas season,
John
PS. As some of you know the Christian life is a life of ascent, a journey – we are called to walk on the Highway of Holiness – to be/become holy. The author of Hebrews writes, “because by one sacrifice He (Jesus) had made perfect forever those who are being made holy (Hebrews 10: 14 NIV). In other words, we are becoming who we already are. Yep, it is a mystery. When, by faith, we accept Jesus as Savior and are born again, we are saved, and we enter the Kingdom of God – literally, the presence of the King; all because God descended to us. From that point on, our journey begins. It is a journey to become more like Him, climbing ever upward toward a goal that we will never reach in this life.
On this journey the Holy Spirit refines us, but we need to listen for and hear the rhema (spoken) words of God, we need to repent and obey, we need to give up the right to ourselves, and more. Healing is also a part of this journey ( see my previous post). But it is a journey that, if we commit to it with passion and determination, will give us an amazing life of righteousness, peace, and joy; even in the face of suffering. It is a life we cannot find any other way, beginning now and lasting for eternity, which is a long time.
PPS. Wow!! I reread this post again for the 10th time. This time I tried to read it with the eyes of someone who doesn’t know much about Jesus and even less about the Holy Spirit (also called the Holy Ghost. Crazy). I was struck by how completely weird and insane the words sound. “Highway of Holiness”, “becoming what we already are”, “Holy of Holies”, the “Kingdom of God” – these are all ideas that are foolish to the unbelieving materialistic and scientific world. Too late to change the words now. I am done with this post.
All I can say is that my life is infinitely more peaceful, hopeful, powerful, and joyful with Jesus than it was without Him. In fact, without Him I was lost and would probably be dead and divorced today. So thank you Jesus for being born in a very dirty, crummy world; for putting up with a bunch of clueless men; and for dying on the cross so that I can be free from the grip of sin – a power that only wants to steal joy and peace from me, kill my life and liveliness, and destroy my relationships. I promise you, I have seen a lot of heartache and pain in this life (although not as much as some; and He is not the author of that pain), and the idea of going through all of that without Jesus is unthinkable. So, King Jesus I pray that in 2019 I can give you more – more love, more obedience, more passion, more trust, and more time. Happy birthday, Jesus. You are awesome – in the truest sense of the word.