FOUR MOUNTAINS: ENCOUNTERING GOD IN THE BIBLE FROM EDEN TO ZION, by Michael Niebauer

A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance

by Steve West

 

Table of Contents

1. Story and Symbol
Part 1: The Story of Mount Eden
2. God Creates
3. Mount Eden
4. The Fall from Mount Eden
5. The False Mountain of Babel
Part 2: The Story of Mount Sinai
6. Abraham
7. Out of Slavery and into the Wilderness
8. Life and Law on Mount Sinai
9. The Tabernacle
10. The Prophets Prepare
Part 3: The Story of Mount Tabor
11. Jesus Descends
12. Jesus Ascends
13. The Crucifixion
14. The Resurrection
Part 4: The Story of Mount Zion
15. The Ascension
16. Pentecost
17. Mount Zion
18. Climbing the Spiritual Mountain
19. Climbing the Physical Mountain
20. The Bible and Our Climb
21. Our Final Climb up Mount Nebo

 

Summary

 

Story and Symbol

The Bible is a story with a narrative arc; it has a beginning, middle, and end. Today, there is a renewed interest in reading the Bible in a linear fashion that pays careful attention to its development and progress. This is good, but we also need to see how certain symbols bind the individual books of the Bible together into a united whole. Scripture contains symbols that remind us of Jesus and how we relate to God through faith in him. One symbol that connects virtually the entire Bible from beginning to end is the symbol of mountains. In Scripture, mountains are key locations where God meets with individuals to display his glory. The relationship between Mount Eden, Mount Sinai, Mount Tabor, and Mount Zion is important and will anchor this study. One of the benefits of learning how to interpret biblical symbols is that it provides coherence and structure to our understanding of the whole Bible, but it also allows us to benefit from parts of Scripture we may struggle with when taken on their own. Tracing out the mountain symbolism in Scripture tells God’s story of redemption.

 

Part 1: The Story of Mount Eden

Like an artist, God created the world out of love, ordering it with abundance, so that he could delight in it. The triune God made the world ex nihilo, forming it with his word of command. In his great love God made the world, and with an artist’s care and attention to detail he crafted and shaped it into a beautiful, intelligible order. The world that resulted is one of abundant fruitfulness and fecundity. God created human beings in his image and likeness, so that we have the finite capacity to create and order in love. Humans uniquely reflect God’s glory and are given the ability to choose to freely enter relationships with God and others that are marked by love and intimacy. We are given the gift of being able to see and delight in the display of God’s glory. On the seventh day of the creation week, God rested and set the day apart as holy. This is a day sanctified for the Lord, and it is a Sabbath of rest and worship that represents the goal of creation. Sabbath reminds us that there is nothing in the world that is greater than God.

We were created to know God on his holy mountain, and the first holy mountain is introduced at the very beginning of the Bible. Genesis 2 provides the setting for the story, describing Adam and Eve’s home. The Garden of Eden is not a flat piece of land but is a mountain characterized by abundance. The river of life flowed down from the summit into the four rivers that provided the borders between Eden and the uncultivated wilderness. God met with Adam and Eve up on the mountain in the midst of trees and fruitful abundance. The tree of knowledge was midway up the mountain, and at the very top was the tree of life. Adam and Eve were to grow and mature, until they could go to the very top and eat from the tree of life.

Adam and Eve were to ascend higher up the mountain through obedience and worship, and Eden was the sanctuary that set the pattern of worship. They were to honor God by adoring him and performing good, fruitful work. God designed them for intimacy with himself, with each other, and with the rest of creation. Relationships are not optional; we were not created for isolation, but for community. The first couple was naked and unashamed, because they were without sin and God’s glory was their clothing. Mount Eden was their home, and it was a place characterized by harmony, work, and worship.

Genesis shows us a beautiful creation with everything in harmony, but then the world is thrown into chaos by the destructive effects of sin and disobedience. Because of sin, the world is broken and disordered. Satan tempted Adam and Eve to take something good in the wrong way, rejecting God’s order and disordering their desires and priorities. Today, we are all born with sinful hearts, and like Adam and Eve, we sin, feel guilt and shame, blame others, and make excuses to exonerate ourselves from culpability. God offered them opportunities to tell the truth, take responsibility, and repent, but instead they tried to justify themselves and shift the blame to others. Where there was harmony is now disharmony; where there was enjoyable, fruitful work, there is now futility and hard labor. Having lost their covering of glory, they became naked and ashamed. Adam and Eve sinned against God, separating themselves from him, so they were exiled from his presence in the Garden. Nothing we can do can ever restore this broken relationship or undo the effects of sin. Nevertheless, in his infinite mercy and love, God planned a way for reconciliation and redemption. . . .

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