The Mountain of the House of the Lord

 Recent discussions about the mountain of the house of the Lord in Isaiah chapter 2, along with discoveries within my daily Bible reading have left me in awe of the beauty and consistency of scripture. While this post will be brief, I hope that it will be encouraging to my brothers and sisters. Our Lord and sovereign Savior, Jesus Christ, has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Be uplifted, believer.

Isaiah 2:2-3 "Now it will be that in the last days the mountain of the house of Yahweh will be established as the head of the mountains, and will be lifted up above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may instruct us from His ways and that we may walk in His paths." For from Zion the law will go forth and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem."

There is much debate over what exactly this passage is talking about in regards to the millennial kingdom. Personally, I'm alright with this being the millennial kingdom, although I am not sold on a literal 1000 years here on earth. I'm also okay with the mountain of the house of the Lord being representative of the kingdom of God in general (the Church), but that is not necessarily what I want to deal with in this post. I want to discuss this idea of the mountain of the house of the Lord, so let's do a quick Bible study.

Daniel 2:34-35 "You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed all at the same time and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them was found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth."

To give a brief summary of what occurred before these verses, Daniel is interpreting a dream for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. It was a dream of a great statue, made of different types of material to represent different kingdoms (I take the kingdoms to be Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome). It is amazing in and of itself that the rise and fall of these kingdoms was predicted in this dream, but what is truly amazing is the mention of this stone which becomes a great mountain. When I read this passage, I was reminded of something Jesus said in the gospel of Luke at the end of the parable of the vine-growers, "But when Jesus looked at them, He said, "What then is this that is written: 'The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone'? Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust."(Luke 20:17-18). Jesus Christ was the stone in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, He is the stone that shatters all earthly kingdoms, and the kingdom of God is the mountain that fills all the earth. Further down in Daniel 2 we read, "And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will cause a kingdom to rise up which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself stand forever." (Daniel 2:44). 

Those three short passages show just how glorious and amazing Jesus really is, and the Bible as well! We could spend a thousand lifetimes studying God's word and we would not scratch the surface of it's glory. 

To cap off this post, I want to take a look at Daniel 7. In this chapter we have a different vision, but a very similar interpretation. This time it was Daniel himself having the vision, and he saw four great beasts coming up from the sea. Just like chapter 2, these four beasts would be representative of four different kingdoms, but what is interesting is the end of this vision. Daniel saw the Ancient of Days seated on His throne, and eventually these beasts were killed and given to the burning fire, similar to how the statue was shattered in chapter 2. 

Daniel 7:13-14 "I kept looking in the night visions, and behold with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and came near before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every tongue might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not be taken away; And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed."

Two dreams/visions experienced by two separate people are both gloriously consistent in proclaiming that Jesus Christ and His kingdom will grow through all the earth. The gospel will go forth and succeed! His kingdom will not be destroyed or thwarted. Every knee will bow and every tongue will profess that He is Lord. Oh, what a mighty God we serve.