For the rest of the month, we will explore the mountains of the Bible. Some of the most important and momentous events of the Scriptures happen on a mountain. Each mountain provides us with a different lesson about our own climb up to the mountain of God.
Our first mountain is Mount Ararat. Mt. Ararat is a mountain found in modern-day Turkey. It is the highest mountain in the Armenia Highlands, Kurdistan, and Turkey. Its elevation is 5,137 m (16,854 ft). which makes it the 48th-highest mountain in the entire world. It is an impressive mountain.
For those who study the Bible, Mt. Ararat is not just an impressive mountain but also a key location of one of the first major events in the Scriptures.
In Genesis 6, we learn that the world had become an incredibly wicked place. So wicked that the Lord regretted creating man (Gen. 6:6). Yet there was one family that was still righteous – the family of Noah. Noah is described as a righteous and blameless man among of the people of the world. Noah was a man who walked faithfully with God. Due to his righteous nature and his relationship with God, Noah found favor in the Lord’s sight. Instead of immediately destroying the world, God told Noah of His plan to bring a great flood over the earth to destroy mankind and start anew with Noah’s family. In order to survive this future flood, Noah was given very specific instructions for how to build the ark – the large boat that would save him, his family, and the animals from the flood.
It took Noah decades – some say over 75 years – to construct the ark and then we are not sure how long it took for him to have all the animals come to him. And during that entire period, the Hebrew writer and Peter tell us that Noah was preaching to the people of the world while he built the ark. He condemned them for their unrighteousness and preached to them about righteousness and the coming flood. Yet, Jesus tells us (Matthew 24) they did not listen for when the flood came they were completely shocked and caught unaware. Simply put they ignored Noah and scoffed at him (2 Peter 3). Yet, Noah persisted. And one day the flood came and only Noah and his family were saved. After 40 days, God eventually stopped the rain and Noah and his family had to wait for the waters to recede.
But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
Eventually, the waters did recede and God remembered Noah. After 7 months, the ark came to rest on the mountain of Ararat.
The story of Noah teaches us many things but for today I’d like to focus on trust. Trust is defined as having faith or confidence. Noah had never seen flood waters like God told him was coming (Some scholars even believe He may never have even seen rain like we know it). He had never built a boat. He didn’t know when the flood was going to come. Yet, without knowing any of those things Noah trusted God enough to do everything He asked him to do. Noah did everything just as God commanded him (Genesis 6:22).
God often tells us to do things via the Scriptures that don’t always make sense to us. Our human minds don’t always understand His reasoning, we don’t always understand His time, and we definitely can’t see the future or end of all things. Like Noah, we there are many things we just don’t know. But like Noah, we must trust God enough to do all that He has commanded us. So, when our floodwaters come we are not swept away by them but instead like Noah we can stand atop Mt. Ararat because we trust in God and God always remembers those who trust in Him.
🏔️ Trust in God and summit Mt. Ararat with Noah. #TheMountainsofGod #MountaineeringForGod
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