Why Mount Sinai?

Sinai is a natural altar, a 7,500ft high mountain that rises abruptly from the Egyptian desert, higher than all other mountains in that range.

Also known as Horeb, one of the meanings of the word is ‘waste’. It remains to this day mostly as wilderness, a desert area, with very few people living there such as Bedouins and shepherds.

It was at the foot of Sinai where the Hebrew slaves, ‘the waste of Egypt’, came to encamp after they left the land of slavery over 3,000 years ago.

When they arrived there, they were nothing but real human waste: men and women, young and old, and children, with their backs scarred from the whips of their slave masters, their feet callous from standing knee-deep in mud all day making bricks to build cities for pharaoh, their clothes but old rags, eyes that had seen nothing but the horrible images of slavery from the day they were born.

But right there, at the foot of that mountain, that people became a great nation! The disorderly slaves departed from Sinai with the Book of the Law, given to them by God Himself, with clear direction to the Promised Land. They were assured of God’s help and protection as they marched on to become, at one point, one the most prosperous and feared nations on earth.

So, Mount Sinai is a symbol of victory, of rising from the ashes, of the impossible becoming possible, the weak becoming strong. It is where waste becomes wealth, and the forgotten are remembered. It is also a sign that God sees and remembers His people, and does not leave them at the mercy of their oppressors.

Sinai is the only mountain of earth where God set foot and decidedly changed the destiny of His people.

And that’s why we go there! When we are standing on top of that mountain, our faith is at its highest. All these facts come to life to us because we’re not just reading about that place – we’re seeing it before our very eyes!

That’s why we promote challenges of faith on Mount Sinai once a year at our church. Since we started doing this in 1980, thousands of people have achieved great victories and given wonderful testimonies through the prayers made on that mountain.

We go to Mount Sinai only for great things. We go there to radically change lives. We go to decide difficult situations.

We go to show through sacrifice that our faith is real, in return for the realization of God’s promises in our lives!

It is a privilege to be part of it. It is a blessing to take part in the Challenge of Mt Sinai.

Bp Renato Cardoso