Following the extraordinary events in Syria, Israel decided not to take any chances and swiftly moved up to the top of Mount Hermon, making sure they could protect the border from whatever might happen next.
The mountain ridge runs along the border between Lebanon and Syria with the southern slope of the mountain descending into the most northerly part of Israel, in the Golan Heights. However, the very top of the mountain is in Syrian territory. Overlooking not only Syria, but also Lebanon and Israel, the peak of the mountain makes it a perfect look out. Mount Hermon is so strategic it has been called “the eyes of the Middle East”.
Mount Hermon is a deeply significant place, both from a geo-political point of view, but also historically, and most important of all, spiritually.
Israeli troops are now at the mountain peak
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went up there for the first time in decades to take a look. “The place makes me feel nostalgic,” he said. “I was here 53 years ago with my soldiers on an IDF patrol. It is the same place, it has not changed, but its importance to Israel’s security has only gained strength in recent years.”1
Mount Hermon is the highest mountain in Israel, reaching 2040 meters (almost 6,700 feet) within Israeli territory, just short of the peak which rises to 2,814 meters (9,232 feet). There’s snow up there for much of the year, making it a great ski resort. When I visited I saw someone had written in the crunchy, icy snow “LOVE JESUS”! Great advice, I thought.
The IDF already had stations up on the mountain on Israeli side, and it turned out to be surprisingly easy to set up new posts right at the top. Israel’s troops found it completely deserted.
So now, without a shot fired, the peak of Mount Hermon is in Israeli hands. How long for, we don’t know, but the IDF are unlikely to leave while things are still so volatile.
“We will stay in this important place until another arrangement is found that ensures Israel’s security,” Netanyahu declared. Breached borders is something Israel is keen to prevent ever happening again, after the horrors of October 7.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has told troops that they need to be ready to stay on Mount Hermon throughout the winter. “Due to what is happening in Syria – there is enormous security importance to our holding on to the peak of Mount Hermon,” he said, calling the mountain “the eyes of the State of Israel, to identify threats near and far.”2
Druze communities in Syria ask to be joined to Israel
The world, predictably, has raged against Israel’s move up the mountain, but the communities just on the Syrian side of Hermon feel quite the opposite. In a video that quickly went viral, hundreds from Druze villages near the border of Israel have declared they want Israel to rule over them instead of the Syrian insurgents. They quite rightly perceive that their freedom and wellbeing will be better guarded by Israel. Here’s what they said in that meeting:
“We are with those who preserve our dignity… I don’t mind if anyone is taking pictures or recording – we ask to be annexed to the Golan… The fate of Hader is the fate of the surrounding villages, we want to ask to join our kin in the Golan, to be free from injustice and oppression,” the Druze leader declared. The crowd responded by chanting “We agree, we agree!”
“What’s our fate, our brothers?” the speaker asked.
“Israel!” the crowd replied.
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Israel has since promised the Syrian Druze protection but not annexation3. The IDF may be ready to spend the winter up there, but Israel has no plans to take Syrian land. Meanwhile Turkish troops are invading the Kurdish area in the north of Syria with the specific goal of appropriating land for their own purposes. The goal is to take land throughout the Middle East (including Israel), recreate the caliphate, and take Jerusalem for the capital.4 You won’t hear much rage about that, ironically. But now that you know, you might want to pray about it.
The spiritual significance of Mount Hermon
So not only does having the peak of Mount Hermon provide strategic “eyes” to whoever holds it, but that peak also holds deep mysteries. It is thought that this was the place that the “sons of God”, the angels who fell, descended to have relations with women. The story is told in Genesis 6 and also the ancient Jewish apocryphal Book of Enoch (quoted in Titus 1:12 and Jude 1:14–15). The angel/human offspring were known as Nephilim from the Hebrew word to fall, but sometimes this word is translated as “giants”, as they were abnormally mighty and tall. When the twelve spies went into the Promised Land to take a look, they were amazed at the size of them:
“And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” (Numbers 3:33)
Anak means massive and the Anakin were giants. The whole saga seems very bizarre in many ways—not to mention distinctly bad news spiritually—and Mount Hermon is where it all happened. It shouldn’t then surprise us that the area became something of a spiritual hotbed for all things on the dark side of the force. According to Enoch 6:6, “They were in all two hundred; who descended [in the days] of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon, and they called it Mount Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual imprecations upon it.”
The word “Hermon” (from the Hebrew root חרמ) means devoted to God, but this can be in a positive or negative sense.
Strong’s concordance defines the meaning like this: “to seclude; specifically (by a ban) to devote to religious uses (especially destruction)… to make accursed, consecrate, (utterly) destroy, devote, forfeit, utterly (slay, make away).” Essentially then, to prohibit or ban, to consecrate or devote, to dedicate for complete destruction or extermination. So something of a mixed bag. This mixed meaning plays out in the events that take place on and around the mountain.
Mount Hermon has been considered a sacred for millennia, and by all the peoples around it. It is mentioned in the Bible fifteen times, describing Joshua’s conquests which took the northern border up to the Hermon, and a few times in poetic literature representing unity, peace, and joy.
Psalm 133 is probably the most famous Biblical reference to the mountain, and is altogether positive, speaking of blessing flowing down from God like dew from Hermon as a result of brotherly love and harmony.
Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down on the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down on the collar of his robes!
It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion!
For there the Lord has commanded the blessing,
life forevermore.
God of the high places
Another place that we may see Mount Hermon is in the New Testament, although it’s not named. Many believe that it was the place of the Transfiguration, when the full glory of Jesus was displayed. Here’s what happened, right after Peter correctly identified that Jesus was the Messiah in the northern town of Israel at the foot of the Hermon, Caesaria Philippi:
“And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.” (Matthew 17:1-3)
Dr Sheila Gyllenberg, lecturer at our Bible college in Archaeology and Land of Israel studies says that there are two contenders for this “high mountain”: Mount Hermon and Mount Tavor. She favors Hermon, saying, “Hermon is higher and closer to Caesaria Philippi. Tavor was probably populated at the time, so not such a good choice for a solitary event.” Mount Tavor (or Tabor) is south of the Sea of Galilee, quite far from Caesaria Philippi. “However,” she adds, “There is not enough evidence in the text to prove it.”
It’s particularly interesting when we look at what happened right before that event, and the conversation with Peter in Matthew 16. Jesus announces that it was God who revealed His identity to Peter, charging him:
“On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)
Caesaria Philippi is right in the middle of some interesting places: at the foot of Hermon (and we know what happened there) and we also see a place named Nimrod close by, after the rebellious fellow mentioned in Genesis 10 (his name literally is from the Hebrew from rebel). It’s next to a place called Banias, or Panias, named after the Greek god Pan, and the whole place was awash with Greek idolatry at the time. It was like some sort of portal to the underworld: the gates of hell. But, Jesus assures his disciples, the gates of hell shall not prevail.
If it was indeed Mount Hermon that they then ascended and saw Jesus resplendent in glory, what a message that would have been! He is high above all every principality and power. His feet stand on every high place. No amount of evil can stop Him. The fact of the matter is that this message is true whether or not the Transfiguration took place on Mount Hermon or not. Even where the enemy thinks he has control, Jesus reigns supreme.
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- https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/dec/18/israel-gaza-ceasefire-talks-middle-east-netanyahu-hamas-syria-lebanon?page=with:block-6762a3898f08d5e4b912e091
- “We will be here for whatever length of time is required. Our presence here at the peak of Mount Hermon strengthens security and adds both a dimension of observation and deterrence of Hezbollah strongholds in the Bekaa in Lebanon and deterrence against the rebels in Damascus, who claim to present a moderate face but are among the most extreme Islamist movements,” Katz continued. “Even in the era of long-range weapons, high ground and observation are of great significance – we will not allow a return to a situation of October 7-style threats to the borders of the State of Israel.”https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-833336
- https://allisrael.com/idf-promises-druze-villages-protection-if-not-annexation
- https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/12/11/why-is-israel-attacking-syria-golan-heighhadists/ts-ji
