Mountain Men

When Jesus climbed the mountain, He left the multitude behind. “And seeing the multitudes, He [Jesus] went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him” (Matthew 5:1). Mountain peaks are never crowded. Why? Because it’s hard work getting there. Not very many people desire to climb mountains.

There is more light on the mountain. Long after the valley is in darkness, you can still see the sun. The valley is almost always dark—full of people and things, but usually in darkness. The mountain is windy and cold, but thrilling.

If you’re going to climb a mountain, you have to have the feeling that it’s worth dying for. Any mountain—the mountain of this life, the mountain of accomplishment, the mountain of obstacles, of difficulty—has to be worth braving wind and cold and storm, symbolic of adversities.
Only pioneers climb mountains—people who want to do something that few have ever done before, ­people who want to get above the multitude and go beyond what has already been accomplished. Pioneers must have vision—vision to see what no one else can see; faith—faith to believe things no one else believes; initiative—initiative to be the first one to try it; courage—the guts to see it through!

On the mountain you feel like you’re living in eternity, whereas down below they’re living in time. You see the world in its proper perspective, with range after range to be conquered and a world beyond the vision and horizon of normal men. You see distant peaks yet to be climbed, distant valleys yet to be crossed. You see things that the men in the valleys can never see, or even comprehend.

In the valley, people get so caught up in the multitude and the little make-believe world of materialism that they can’t see anything but time and creatures of time and things of time, which are soon to pass away. But if you thrust your head above the multitude, you become like a mountain in their midst, and they will resent and resist and fight you because they can’t understand you and don’t want you.

They don’t even want to know that there are mountains! They don’t want others to hear there are mountains, nor to have a breath of fresh air from those crystal peaks. They want to keep everyone shut in down in the valley, in the mud and mire. They don’t want it to be known that there is any other place to go than the valley, and they will do everything they can to discourage you from climbing the mountain.

Man dominates the valley, but only God dominates the mountain, and the men living on the mountains know this. But men living in the valleys think they are God, because they dominate themselves. They have become so secure that they think they don’t need God. They have forgotten there is any God, for they can’t see the sky any longer.

Beaten paths are for beaten men, but mountain peaks are for mighty pioneers.

What do you hear on the mountain? Things that are going to echo around the world. What do you hear in the stillness? Whispers that are going to change the course of history!

The greatest laws ever given to man, whereby most of the world is still ruled, were given to one man alone on a mountain. Moses came down from a mountain with the Ten Commandments, and the Hebrew nation was never the same, nor was the world!

The greatest sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount, was given to a handful of mountain men by the greatest mountaineer of all, Jesus, who finally climbed His last mountain, Mount Calvary, Golgotha, and died alone for the sins of the world. That was a mountain that only He could climb for you and me, but He made it!

After Jesus’ disciples heard His Sermon on the Mount, they came down and changed the world. They were never the same. What changed them that changed the world? They heard the voice of God teaching them things that were completely contrary to what was being said in the valley!

In the valley they were saying, “Blessed are the Romans—the proud and the powerful. Look what they’ve done! They’ve conquered the whole world!” But on the Mount, Jesus was saying just the opposite:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit [the humble], for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:3). Simple little illiterate fishermen were listening to a carpenter tell them something that would make them greater rulers than the Caesars of Rome!

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). The people on the mountain hunger and thirst for the truth, and only God can satisfy them. The people down in the valley can’t see any further than the end of their nose and are satisfied with themselves and are full—and He sends them away empty (See Luke 1:53).

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). There’s no smog on the mountain. The air is pure. The water is pure. The people are pure in heart. They see God.

Life is on the mountain! Get out of the valley! “Flee as a bird to your mountain (Psalm 11:1).

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Matthew 5:3 (ESV) “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:6 (ESV) “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Luke 1:53 (ESV) he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.