It is indeed that very same mountain that the the best cherries in the world are named after. Can you tell I'm still hungry? And way down at the bottom right of the Avatar (if you blow it up to normal size photograph) you can see the momma duck and her little babies swimming by. I didn't want to have to frame them later so I waited until the picture purfect moment to clicky it. The pic was taken from a friends back yard porch (right on the lake).
Distance from Bonney Lake, Washington to Paradise, Mt. Rainier. 71 miles or about 2 hours as the biker might ride... unsure about distance for 'as the crow might fly' because I'm no crow but that would be shorter, of course.
http://www.distancebetweencities.net/bonney-lake_washington_and_paradise-inn_paradise_wa/route
It won't be long before we can use pictures for internet google searches. I have mixed feelings about technology.
_________________________________________
Be my fact checker, if you don't mind, I'll keep it light
(and by that I mean, feel free to correct me as it occurs to you, I don't mind) -- Moses met the burning-bush in the area generally called Mt. Sinai. Later, God called Moshe (Moses) back to that same area. That invitation was given after leaving Egypt
(while they were fresh from delivery from sin as typified by their slavery to Egypt) and before they crossed the Jordan, while they wandered and followed God (and His holiness) in the wilderness. They did that expeditiously for three months before they were directed by God there to that specific area for the tablets of stone. We don't know how our Father would have presented things if there was no stubborn fear and/or interference demonstrated. But there was, so there we are.
Then they saw the mountain trembling and then they saw the delineation markings of the dead birds (as a B
OUNDARY) who had died because flesh dies in the presence of God's holiness. That's what reba was talking about a while ago when she quoted the Holy Spirit through Paul to the Hebrews about the Two Mountains, Mt. Sinai the Trembling and Zion from chapter 12. Here is part of the Preamble to that from the Holy Spirit in chapter 8:
Hebrews 8:1
Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. I think about that "true tent" as a reference to our bodies, our fleshly temples, or Jesus true body that we have a claim to by faith, but it could also be a reference to the Tent (this is more likely maybe?) that David entered? That temple? Knowing Paul, it could be reference to both the Davidic tent/temple as well as Jesus living and resurrected body and also the Ezekiel Temple that he knew was coming... But I can't even try to "prove" that one. Who knows what Paul was thinking as he was inspired to write this? Right? God alone knows. He's the source. And He has more for us, too.
... Hebrews 8:6-7
But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. And we are children of THAT promise. That's what I think Jesus meant (in part) when he spoke of the faith in those who believe but have not seen being greater.
Hebrews 8:8-10
For he finds fault with them when he says:
"Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them," declares the Lord.
Hebrews 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Looky! He's still doing that very thing. And we get help in order to better understand Him from The Teacher, The Paraclete, The Spirit, the Breath of LIFE, The Holy, and from God Himself! Our help is from the Ruach HaKodesh. The literal meaning is "The Spirit of Holiness."
... Hebrews 8:12-13
For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."
In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
--[Heb 8:1-2, 6-10, 12-13 ESV]
But did they go up and share what could have been their deliverer's (Moshe) burning-bush experience or whatever it was that God, their Father, had in mind for them?!? No. It turns out that they stayed down low (like Lot stayed down low while Abraham moved up high) -- and they demonstrated their preference of worshiping things of their own creation - in this case a golden calf.
Notice also that this idolatry was celebrated by Aaron too, the Priest, and thus even the priesthood
(as given through men, yet anointed) was touched and corrupted. You've heard that prophecy shall fail? That's a topic for another study. But also notice that they pressed Aaron into service when they
noticed the delay of their Moshe's return. That is strikingly similar to what we know 'mockers' will say about the delay of the 2nd coming. We know that it's because Jesus is not willing that any should perish, but there is nothing to say that the mockers whom everybody assumes is the unsaved might also call themselves X-ians (fake Christians) and are just simple tares whose true nature is still, and as yet, un-revealed. I think there is more prophecy to unpack there. Much more.