March 8 - Mount Zion

March 8 – Mount Zion
Revelation 14:1-3a

“Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders.”

One of the commentaries says that we are coming to an intermezzo. For all you non-musicians and non-geek musicians, this is the entertainment between two acts of a play – or a movement separating two sections of a lengthy work. In other words, we’re going to read something that is to encourage us. It’s about the final triumph. It isn’t actually happening yet – there is more awful stuff to come, but it’s time to take a breath.

A sound comes from heaven with three components. It sounds like the roar of rushing waters a loud peal of thunder and harpists playing on their harps. Rushing waters show the power of God’s voice, the thunder describes God’s voice as unmistakable and the harpist reminds us that God’s voice is beautiful and filled with melody. These are the little things we learn about God.

God’s voice comes from heaven while the Lamb stands on Mt. Zion. We don’t know what it says, but it is there for us. This is the only time in the Revelation that we read about Mt. Zion. We might not recognize how profound this is, so take a moment with me. God never ceases in His revelation of truth to us.

Back in Revelation 13:1 the dragon stands on the shore of the sea.

Now, in Matthew 7:24-27, the wise man hears the words of Jesus and puts them into practice. He built his house on the rock. The foolish man built his house on sand. God reinforces His truth. The dragon will be washed away, while at the beginning of Revelation 14, we see the Lamb standing on a rock … a mountain.

In Psalm 2:6, we read, “I have installed my King (Jesus – this is a prophetic Psalm) on Zion, my holy hill.”

Turning to Isaiah 11, we find that the Root of Jesse (prophetic for Jesus … and the Lamb that we know in the Revelation) is standing on God’s holy mountain – Zion. The Lord in Isaiah 11:11 is reclaiming the remnant of Israelites. He is gathering the exiles and all the scattered people of Judah together.

Hebrews 12:22-24 says “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”

We are invited to rest awhile on Mt. Zion. This is where the Lamb of God stands. Further along in Hebrews 12 we read, “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb. 12:28)

In bringing us to this point, we are safe. God’s kingdom cannot be shaken. Not by the dragon, the antichrist or the false prophet. The Lamb stands on the rock and rules a kingdom that can not be shaken.