I thought it was Charlie Daniels.
The first time I heard the phrase, it was part of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” It was right there in the chorus: ”Fire on the mountain, run boys run!” Charlie Daniels and band belt it out each time they play the winning side of the fiddle war between Johnny and the Devil. *
It was a while before I learned that each line of that chorus was an homage to a well known Bluegrass tune; the tunes hardest to play; the tunes fiddlers are supposed to play as fast as possible. It was a while longer, still, before I heard Bill Monroe and The Bluegrass Boys play what I thought was the original “Fire on the Mountain.” It’s just what you would expect after hearing Charlie Daniels fire off a snippet: rollicking, hand-clapping, boot-stomping fast. You can just see the dancers whirling about the floor. **
But it didn’t start with Bill Monroe, either. Turns out, “Fire on the Mountain” has its roots in traditional folk tunes reaching well back into the early 1900s. A little more research led me to Boston, Massachusetts in 1825 and the person who likely was the first to actually write those words on paper: Mother Goose.
“Hogs in the garden, catch ‘em Towser;
Cows in the corn-field, run boys run;
Cats in the cream-pot, run girls, run girls;
Fire on the mountains, run boys run.”
I was beginning to think I might never stop finding people running from firey mountains. Who knows where a search like that might end? Maybe we’ve had that image with us for millennia.
There are certainly real people experiencing a real fire on a real mountain in this week’s Deuteronomy passage.
Try to imagine what it was like to stand at the foot of Mount Horeb, hearing the thundering voice of God and experiencing the overwhelming intensity of His fire. How big was it? How bright was it? How hot was it? I'm guessing it was way, way up on the scale, well above volcano level. Who knows, maybe there is no scale. If mere angels are beings of light and are so bright they have to open with "Fear not!" ... Well, no wonder God's people wanted no more exposure to "this great fire."
And that's how we got prophets.
Here's the thing about fire: we like it. But we like ... a certain distance. Same, it turns out, with God. We humans can only take just so much direct exposure to God. God's solution to this was to send Prophets who would speak in His name.
We must never make the mistake of believing we worship a teddy bear god. God is not snuggly. Our God is loud, and hot, and very, very bright. He is the "stuff" of the universe, the fuel that fires the stars; volcanoes are but a tiny part of Him. He is not just "powerful." He is where power comes from.
The descendants of Jacob got that, and wisely chose to put some distance between themselves and God.
Today, it’s different. "This great fire" chose to loose His claim on heaven and, instead, inhabit the body of a human. He once again speaks with humans directly; up close and personal, like in the days of the first Adam. Knowing this, we appreciate, anew, the sacrifice Jesus made for us and the intermediary He continues to be for us. “Fire on the mountain, run boy run” takes on a whole new meaning.
Now, unlike God's people who drew back from that fire on that mountain, we can draw near. We can run toward it.
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PHOTO (and a fascinating little article explaining how Pentecost connected to that “fire on the mountain” when God came down to speak the law to the Israelites):
https://ffoz.org/discover/shavuot/fire-on-the-mountain.html
* The Charlie Daniels Band performing “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBjPAqmnvGA
** Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys performing “Fire on the Mountain” -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOlJs3gObkg
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