I remember as a newcomer to the Gospel Music scene being exposed to some of the greatest singers and songs I could ever have imagined. I was a “newbie,” playing piano with the Trav’Lers Quartet from Greenville, SC. They were, and continue to this day, to be a phenomenally talented group. I was able to fulfill a life-long dream of being in a professional Gospel quartet. I was most richly blessed.
I was in awe when we would be scheduled to work with some of the front-line groups of that day: people like the Speers, the Downings, Oak Ridge Boys, Blue Ridge Quartet, Thrasher Brothers, Naomi and the Sego Brothers, the Statesmen, Stamps, Blackwood Brothers, Imperials, Happy Goodmans, Florida Boys, and many, many others too numerous to mention. Many of these personalities were larger than life to me and I was like the proverbial, “kid in the candy store.” I was truly living my dream while sharing the stage with my heroes in Gospel music.
As my indoctrination into the amazing world of Gospel music continued, I was never more impacted than the first time I heard a family trio from Kentucky. The Rambos were taking the industry by storm. It was not just their appearance, riveting voices, amazing family blend, or the haunting piano styling of Kenny Parker (who was later to become a good friend), but their lyrics that captured my attention. I have described Dottie Rambo’s song writing as “seeing what was always there, but in a way that no one had ever expressed it before.” A perfect example of her ability to paint a word-picture is the phenomenal line, “This house of clay is but a prison, Bars of bone hold my soul.”
Of all the tremendous songs she wrote, and they recorded, none have been more impacting to me than “Too Much to Gain to Lose,” “When I Lift Up My Head,” or “The Holy Hills.” Perhaps it was that these songs contained the message I needed at that time in my life. After all, the thing that endears a song or a sermon to us is the pertinence it has for us in our present moment of circumstance. While I enjoyed all of their music, and found great delight in their style, the one song that stands out above the others is “The Holy Hills.” I now realize it is partly because the lyrics remind me of the numerous Scriptures that refer to the mountains or hills and their significance in the life of the child of God.
In memory and honor of Dottie Rambo, one of the most prolific members of our Southern Gospel Music Family, I began a search for the significance of the Holy Hills in the life of Christ. These seven hills played an enormous part in His life and their impact is passed on to us, His followers. So often we tend to see hills or mountains as obstacles that impede our progress. However hills can be used as landmarks to document our progress. This is nowhere more evident than in the progression of the life and ministry of Jesus, the Messiah.
David, the great songsmith, musician and psalmist of Israel, penned these words in Psalms 121:1-2: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.” Hebrew scholars tell us that verse one is actually two questions being posed by the writer. It would therefore read, “Shall I lift up my head unto the hills? Whence shall my help come?” He answers his own rhetorical question by stating in verse two that his help is not the hills, but the God of the hills. His helper is the God who made the hills because David then asserts that God made both heaven and earth.
These hills David is viewing are a reminder to this psalmist that there is One who looms large behind the topography of his landscape. There is a Creator who is master of the creation. David realizes that it is God, not elevation, which holds the answer to his life’s crises. Therefore, he begins to worship the God of the mountain, not the mountain of God. God placed hills in our life to show us something about Him and His plan for our journey. Now, let’s take that journey as we explore the purpose of these holy hills. These Seven Holy Hills (mountains) are portrayed in Scripture as having significance to our Lord, and consequently, to us.
Here are the seven hills of Christ’s life:
(1) The Hill of Law: where God gave His rules for societal survival. Jesus did not come to destroy the law that Moses had received on the mountain. He came to become the embodiment of it and “flesh out” the lifestyle required by God for man’s survival. No one would dare place 22 men on a football field without the rules of the game to guide them. Referees are hired to make sure the rules are followed. God knew that one day billions of people would occupy planet earth and there must be an enforcement of His rules in order to avoid the annihilation of society. He did not want His creation to revert from cosmos (Greek, “order”) to chaos (“disorder”). Jesus came to show that He, as well as we, must play by God’s rules and obey His laws.
(2) The Hill of Temptation: where Jesus showed He could live by God’s rules in an evil world. Satan has always been around trying to sidetrack or bushwhack unsuspecting people. The world is not always an easy place to “do the right thing.” Society does not always support or commend honesty, integrity, morality, or holiness. All of us have experienced the attack of the tempter as he mercilessly tried to lead us astray. Far too often, we have become a pawn in Satan’s hands, as we felt compelled to do the wrong thing.
Jesus, while facing the most intense and unrelenting temptations ever known to man, would display a total trust in His father’s presence and say “No” to every offer the devil made.
When Satan’s pressure to do evil was at its ultimate, God’s presence was there on the mountain to strengthen and empower Christ to live by godly rules. Now, no matter what version of the “lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh or the pride of life” temptations Satan hurls at us, we can respond with our own emphatic, “No.”
(3) The Hill of Transfiguration: where God showed how He would change those who live by His rules. After the engagement with Satan during His great temptation, Christ was again seen on a mountain. This time it was for promotion. He had followed the rules, kept His composure, maintained His integrity, and now it was time for God to impart His Glory into the life of Jesus. The Greek wording here states that His external appearance took on the glory and magnificence of His internal quality of life. God made Him to look like what He already was! He will do the same for us. If we shine on the inside, God will change us so that we also shine on the outside revealing His glory and character. People will see you as God sees you. Because we do not keep God’s rules, many of us are polished on the outside but polluted on the inside. God wants us to shine both inside and out.
(4) The Hill of ReDEMPTION: where God gave salvation to a doomed world that had failed to live by His rules. Not everyone succeeds when engaged with enemy forces. Christ’s depiction of the “two ways” and the “two gates” implies that many more will fail than succeed in their war against sin. The words, “few there be that find it” resonate in our ears as stating that many have not allowed Christ to change them from a sinner to a saint. The offer is still good, and it is free to all, but the choice is ours. If you fail to live your life by God’s rules, you may spend eternity in the “penalty box” of damnation. Jesus offered salvation to the world as a way of escaping the death penalty of sin. Thank God for a hill called Mount Calvary!
(5) The Hill of Ascension: where God showed men how He will also transport us all to heaven if we live by His rules. Another hill in the life of Christ is seen at His departure from the earth. After His crucifixion, burial, and resurrection, we see Him going to a place where He would be caught up into the clouds. Two men (probably angels) described the event that had just transpired to the stunned crowd, and the impact it would have on Christ’s followers. Acts 1:11 says, “…Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” Paul tells us in one of his epistles that Christ will gather us together with Him in the clouds when He returns for His bride. Jesus went up, so we too are going up.
(6) The Hill of Judgment: where Christ will be seen as the destroyer of all the evil ones who did not live by God’s rules. The Old Testament prophet, speaking of Christ’s second coming, writes in Zechariah 14:4, “And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.”
After Christ comes for His bride, and to initiate the Tribulation Period, He will come again to the earth at the closing of the Great Tribulation. This time, Christ’s hilltop experience will be to reveal Himself as the Mighty Warrior sent by the Father to destroy Satan, his angels, the Antichrist, the False prophet, and ALL the unbelieving world who rejected His offer of redemption. No one will escape who broke God’s rules and resisted salvation. All the unsaved throughout the ages will be judged by Christ. It will be the ultimate “Blood-Blot” test: if there is not a blot of Christ’s blood on your heart, you will be damned. blot
(7) The Hill of Reward: where God reveals the eternal joy of victory for those who chose to live by His rules. Revelation 21:10, 27 state, “And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God…And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.”
The last of these seven holy hills offers an unobstructed view of King Jesus and our heavenly New Jerusalem he has prepared. It is everything God said it would be. It is the city where the Lamb (Christ) is the Light. Jesus, Himself, is the Source of our salvation and victory over evil. Not only are the righteous from all the ages there, but there are no unrighteous people there to contaminate the Holy City of God. Revelation 5:11 states, “And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands;”
Just think, because you allowed Christ to rule in your heart and life, you will be surrounded by what has been estimated at over 100 trillion holy angels, along with the multiple millions of blood-bought saints who will be your neighbors forever in God’s Household of Over-comers. “Won’t it be Wonderful There?”
This is just an introduction to the marvelous truths that are contained in the Gold Mine of God’s Word. I hope you will explore more.
You can contact me at my website: http://www.donfrazier.com
Author: Donald Frazier
| Author's Website: http://donfrazier.com
Written: 03/01/2009
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Category: Golden Nuggets
Comments: 1
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The lyrics for 'The Holy HIlls '. Pure art!
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