Ash Wednesday 2026— From Whence Cometh My Help: Mount Sinai

“I lift up mine eyes to the hills. From whence cometh my help?”

Lift up your eyes, with me, to Mount Sinai.

Not to a gentle hill.

Not to a place of quiet reflection.

But to the mountain where the Lord descended in fire and cloud,

where the earth shook,

where a trumpet sounded louder and louder,

and where God warned His people again and again:

Do not come any closer.

That matters tonight.

Because Ash Wednesday tempts you to think of repentance as movement—

movement upward,

movement forward,

movement toward improvement.

Sinai will not allow that illusion.

At Sinai, God truly comes near.

He does not remain hidden.

He does not keep His distance.

This is the living God descending to dwell with His people.

And because He is holy, boundaries are set.

Because He is faithful, warnings are spoken.

Because He keeps His word, death is promised to the one who crosses the boundary.

That warning is not rejection.

It is proof of presence.

If God were indifferent, no warning would be repeated.

The command not to come closer is mercy, because sinners cannot draw near to holiness and live.

Ash Wednesday serves as a reminder that, if Sinai feels distant to you, that is not because God has changed. It is because you have forgotten what holiness means.

The Law given at Sinai did not fail.

The covenant established there is good and wise.

It does exactly what God says it will do.

The people are gathered into the presence of God.

They hear His voice.

And the covenant is sealed with the blood of bulls.

This is not symbolism.

This is not metaphor.

This is a real covenant with the living God.

And that covenant tells the truth.

It tells the truth about who God is—

holy, faithful, and not to be approached on human terms.

And it tells the truth about who you are.

“You are dust.”

That sentence does not originate with Ash Wednesday.

It is the Law speaking as it has ever since Adam and Eve first drew back in fear from the presence of the Lord.

The covenant at Sinai promises life for obedience and death for disobedience.

And because God keeps His promises, that covenant delivers exactly what it says—

not because it is cruel,

not because it is flawed,

but because it is true.

The Law is good and wise.

And it does exactly what it promises to do.

That is why the people remain at a distance.

That is why someone must go up the mountain on their behalf.

God appoints a mediator because He is truly present and truly holy.

Moses goes up where the people cannot.

And even Moses trembles.

When Moses comes down from the mountain, his face shines with reflected glory.

Not his own glory.

The glory of the God who was truly there.

That reflected glory is not decoration.

It is testimony.

God was present.

The covenant encounter left a mark.

And if reflected glory was more than the people could bear, then unmediated glory would have destroyed them.

Sinai tells the truth all the way through.

But you have not come to Mount Sinai.

“You have not come to what may be touched,

a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest,

and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg

that no further messages be spoken to them.

For they could not endure the order that was given:

‘If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.’

Indeed, so terrifying was the sight

that Moses said,

‘I tremble with fear.’”

You have not come to Mount Sinai—

the mountain where the curse was spoken,

the mountain where judgment was promised,

the mountain where death was named.

The curse threatened there has fallen.

The judgment promised there has been carried out.

The covenant has been fulfilled.

The blood of bulls sealed the first covenant.

The blood of Christ fulfills it.

The blood of Christ transforms Mount Sinai.

You have not come to Mount Sinai—

“You have come to Mount Zion

and to the city of the living God,

the heavenly Jerusalem,

and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,

and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven,

and to God, the judge of all,

and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,

and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant,

and to the sprinkled blood

that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”

God’s holiness has been satisfied.

Not ignored.

Not reduced.

Satisfied.

And because it has been satisfied, the same God who descended on Mount Sinai is present here—not to drive you back, but to draw you near.

The boundary you were warned away from has been removed.

Christ went through Sinai to bring you to Zion.

And the way to the holy places is opened by the blood that has already gone before you.

“Draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,

with your heart sprinkled clean from an evil conscience

and your body washed with pure water.

Hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering,

for He who promised is faithful.”

You are not standing at a distance anymore.

You are not kept outside the cloud.

You are brought near.

And this nearness is not temporary.

You have not been given a moment of access.

You have been given a kingdom.

A kingdom that cannot be shaken.

Everything else trembles.

Mountains shake.

Empires fall.

Bodies return to dust.

But what Christ has given you does not move.

You are a chosen race.

You are a royal priesthood.

You are a holy nation.

You are a people belonging to God.

Those are not aspirations.

They are not rewards.

They are facts established by Christ’s blood.

You stand where priests stand.

You live before God’s face.

You bear His name.

And the glory that once caused fear—

the glory that made Adam and Eve draw back,

the glory that made Israel tremble,

the glory that left Moses shining—

that glory is no longer a threat to you.

It is your inheritance.

Not because you can endure it.

But because Christ has endured it for you.

And now, ashes are placed on your forehead.

They are a confession that Sinai told the truth.

“You are dust.”

And they are a promise that Christ has done something with that truth.

From whence cometh your help?

Lift up your eyes to the hills.

Lift up your eyes to the Lord who came down,

who bore the curse,

and who now brings you near—

who brought you through Sinai to set you on Mount Zion.

Lift up your eyes with me to Mount Sinai—

and behold Mount Zion,

from whence cometh your help.