Deborah's Mountain

I found my mountain in Israel.  Actually, I found two mountains with messages for me, but you’ll have to wait until the end of the trip for the second one.  This first day of touring, we went to the top of Mt. Carmel.  I’ve already told you about the summary our guide made that transformed the our panoramic view into a different way to read the Bible.  When he pointed across the valley to a mountain, he identified it as Mt. Tabor.  It was where Deborah led the army because Barak would not proceed unless Deborah went with him.

If I could go back to Mt. Carmel with this picture in my mind, I would have been able to see the rounded mound bulging on the other side of the Jezreel Valley.

I look at the mountain he points to in the distance.  This was Deborah’s mountain.  This is my mountain.

“If you will go with me, I will go,” Barak says. Then Deborah brought the troops down the valley to Jael.  Here Deborah found her voice and sang her song.

I wish I could fly to that mountain, compose a song and sing it with all my heart.  It would be a song about the unexpected journey of being called for special combat.  It would be about an undying and undefeatable belief that God will give ultimate victory.  It would be a soul-deep song of gratitude for wisdom at just the right time, for  strength I never could have gathered for myself, for  help that often seemed to come from nowhere.  I would sing at the top of my voice and it would not matter the key or harmony or musical strength because it would be my mountain song, my Deborah song, the song of my life.

Portland has a Mt. Tabor in the SE part of the city.  Our Mt. Tabor is an extinct volcano, one of 4 in a city in the United States.   And yes, it was originally named after Mt. Tabor in Israel.  A gathering of pioneer Methodists in 1857 wanted to name their church and surrounding area after a mountain in Israel.  They settled on Mt. Tabor because of its historical and biblical importance.

So maybe I’ll have to visit Mt. Tabor in Portland sometime soon.  But I promise not to sing very loud.