Mountains of God – Mt. Moriah
Mountains of God – Mt. Moriah.
“Your saving grace and your righteousness are like the mountains of God.” (Psalm 36:6).
Yes, God lives in heaven. But all through Scripture He appears to have a second home here on the earth, in the mountains. God’s personal involvement on mountains deepen the meaning and significance of what mountains have come to symbolize through the ages… stability; safety; permanence; majesty; beauty; spiritual inspiration. One of God’s names in Scripture is El-Shaddai (Genesis 17:1), and an ancient meaning of that name is “God of the Mountain.” It’s easy to see why. God’s attributes can clearly be seen in mountains, including the fixed foundation of His faithful love. “For even if the mountains move and the hills disappear, even then my mercy for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken, says Yahweh Lord, who has mercy on you.” Isaiah is saying that we all know how next to impossible it would be for a mountain to totter and fall. But it’s more likely for mountains to move away than for God to withdraw His unshakeable love for you.
God is like the mountains: He doesn’t change, He stays the same, He is consistently steadfast and stable. Mountains are referenced over 500 times in Scripture. Not only are mountains the go-to place for momentous events all through the Bible, but God Himself made it clear from the beginning that mountains are His first choice as a site to reveal Himself and His favorite place to meet with people. “I lift my eyes to the mountains; where is my help to come from? My help comes from Yahweh Lord who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1-2).
Down through history people have assumed that since God is in His heavens, the closer one can get to God on high, the more spiritual enlightenment one can receive. There have been pagan shrines and mountaintop gurus as long as we can remember. People have always climbed to the “high places” for heavenly insight and personal contact with the gods, or with God. Irish Christians consider mountains to be one of those sacred “thin places” where the layer between heaven and earth is so thin that a believer can easily step from one to the other. As one person excitedly told Barbara Brown Taylor, ‘You’re sinners going up, but you’ll be saints going down!” People still refer to a special time with God as a “mountaintop experience.” As we study the Mountains of God in Scripture, we come to appreciate how central mountains are in the Word, how important they are to God himself. Mountains will be seen as a sacred part of nature that consistently has seen powerful events and profound conversations between us mere mortals and the Almighty God. Let us rejoice and applaud the God who is the Rock, who has a glorious history of preferring His own mountaintop experiences with us.
It has been said that on Mt. Moriah one can view the entire Bible. There are so many monumental events that occurred on Moriah that one wonders how so much heavenly business could have been conducted on one rather small mountain. In fact, observant Jews continue to claim that the Temple Mount, which rests on Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem, is the very center of the world. It is certainly the center of the biblical world. Mt. Moriah remains a vital holy site for Jews Christians, and Muslims. Back in ancient times, Jerusalem was built on two small mountains, Mt. Zion and Mt. Moriah. There was a valley that separated the two, so they were distinct from each other. Through the centuries, though, the ancient valley has been filled in, so that the two mountains have become more or less joined together. Let us consider all the important events that have occurred on Mt. Moriah:
(1.) Abram and Melchizedek. Mt. Moriah is the traditional site of this mysterious but very important meeting between these two biblical heroes.
“And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; now he was a priest of El-Elyon, God Most High. And he blessed Abram and said, ‘Blessed be Abram of El-Elyon, creator of heaven and earth; and blessed be El-Elyon, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” (Genesis 14:18-23).
El-Elyon is a name for God that means God Most High. El is the shortened version of Elohim, the Hebrew generic name for God. Elyon means most high, uppermost, supreme to all creation. The name of God is elevated when referenced as Elyon, highly exalted, majestic, holding supremacy in the universe. Elyon is the only legitimate One that we could truly say is “above it all.” And amazingly, in the midst of His Lordship, Elyon desires our friendship. Elyon is a God who exists in the highest realms, but is willing to stoop to the lowest. He is somehow meek in His exaltation. He is out of our reach, but He is pleased to come within our reach.
The compound name El-Elyon appears in the Hebrew Bible twelve times. An example is Psalm 78:35: “They remembered that God was their rock, their El-Elyon, their redeemer.” The name Elyon is found in the Hebrew Bible 34 times, frequently in the Psalms. A particularly poetic appearance of Elyon is in 2 Samuel 22:14, “Yahweh thundered, Elyon uttered His voice.”
The first time we see this name in Scripture is in Genesis 14 above. The backdrop is the dramatic meeting between Abram and Melchizedek, the mysterious King of Peace (Salem) and the priest to God Most High. These two men met over a Communion meal of wine and bread. Melchizedek has no apparent history, no lineage, like he came out of nowhere. In Hebrews 7, Jesus was named as “a priest in the order of Melchizedek.” Who knows… Maybe Jesus made an appearance to Abram before His time? In Hebrews 7:3, Scripture states that “Melchizedek remains a priest forever, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God.” Jesus, the priest of God Most High, El-Elyon.
(2.) Here I Am. Is it any wonder that Abraham has the unique title of “friend of God?”
“And now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, ‘Here I am.” (Genesis 22:1).
Hineni (Hebrew word, literal meaning “Behold, I am!” but is generally translated in Bible as “Here I am.”) In Scripture it is a response of someone to someone else asking for attention. It could be a response to God, to an angel, a response of a child to a parent, or a servant to a master. Sometimes it is even a loving response of a parent to a child. The Biblical Here I am means you have my full attention; I am at your service; I am completely available to you; whatever you want, I am all in; I am in total readiness to hear and obey you; I have no hesitation in responding to you. Most of the time in Scripture the person saying Here I am doesn’t yet know what the caller wants from him. So hineni can essentially be a statement of faith. When someone in authority initiates Here I am, such as God, it is a declaration of presence and readiness to speak or act. Generally, hineni is often stated in a pivotal moment of that person’s life. Here I am can just be a casual response to a caller, but it often is an important moment in the life of the person responding.
If we are truly children of Abraham, we should be developing the pattern of saying Here I am in our walk with God. Abraham is the Biblical champion of saying hineni, saying it three times in one chapter alone (Gen. 22). By this time he and God were building on an intimate friendship. Many years earlier, Abraham left his home in Ur at the simple urging of Yahweh, and “Abraham went forth as the Lord had spoken to him” (Gen. 12:4). When he and Sarai and his possessions finally made it to the land of Canaan, he built an altar at Bethel and “called upon the Name of Yahweh” (12:8). He made a little side trip to Egypt and returned to Bethel, and once again “called on the Name of Yahweh” (15:4). Abram was then known as “Abram of El Elyon, God Most High,” and was blessed by Melchizedek (14:19), the mysterious king and priest of Salem, soon to become Jerusalem. Yahweh then spoke to Abram in a vision and promised him a son and countless descendants. Abram took God’s words to heart, as he always did. Fast forward to the miraculous birth of his son Isaac, and the divine encounter with the Lord in respect to the doom of Sodom. Abraham and the Lord seemed to be bargaining as to Sodom’s fate at that time, and they seemed to trust each other as close friends through the whole exchange (Gen. 18). As we approach chapter 22, it’s clear that Abraham is a model of faith in God, and that he maintained, usually, an attitude of “Here I am” with Yahweh. Abraham lived with God in the spirit of ongoing availability and trust.
(3.) Abraham and Isaac.
“Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. ‘Abraham!’ God called. ‘Yes, here I am,’ he replied. God said, ‘Take your son, your only son who you love so much, and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.” (Genesis 22:1-2).
This sacred biblical event has been etched into the mind of every observant Jew or Christian for over 4,000 years. Hebrews, holding this moment in special reverence in Judaism, have a special name for this event, “Aqedah” which means binding. Perhaps the clearest reflection of the gospel story reflected in the life of Isaac was the unspeakable drama of Abraham and Isaac on Mt. Moriah, the near sacrifice of the purely innocent teenage boy. Some Jewish traditions maintain that Isaac was probably about 30 years old at this time, which only adds to the drama. Several years after the birth of Isaac to Abraham and Sarah, when it seemed like God and Abraham were bosom buddies, God decided to test Abraham’s faith. God suddenly said to him, “Abraham!” And Abraham responded in his faithful way, “Here I am.” God asked Abraham to take his teenage son Isaac to a nearby mountain, Mt. Moriah. At the top of the mountain, Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac on an altar for a burnt offering. After Abraham and Sarah waited all those years for their promised child, God asked Abraham to a perplexing and horrific thing. Human sacrifice wasn’t all that uncommon, so despite his profound misgivings, Abraham obeyed God one step at a time and took Isaac to the mountain. There he made the altar, and Isaac cried out, “My father!” And Abraham answered, “Here I am, my son.” There he secured Isaac on the altar and prepared him for sacrifice. One often forgets that Isaac himself had to fully submit to God’s test. What was going on in Isaac’s mind as he was tied to the altar? What was the relationship between father and son after this difficult, agonizing scene? We do know that Abraham reconciled God’s impossible request with the fact that God could certainly raise Isaac from the dead if need be (Hebrews 11:19). How else, in fact, would Abraham’s descendants become as numberless as the stars, if Isaac’s line was cut off so soon? Following the binding of the living, breathing Isaac to the altar, the drama of this unforgettable scene intensifies. “And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son” (22:10). But the Angel of the Lord, who very well could have been the preincarnate Jesus Christ, the Messenger of Yahweh, came to Isaac’s rescue. “The Angel of the Lord had called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham! Abraham!” and Abraham once again, as was his habit, answered, “Here I am.” The Angel then instructed Abraham, “Do not lay your hand on the boy, or do anything to him!” (22:11-12). The Angel intervened just in the nick of time, saving Isaac from being sacrificed, and confirming Abraham’s deep trust in God. The Angel then spoke to Abraham a second time, repeating the promise made to him so long ago, that there would be countless descendants in Abraham’s line. The Lord then exclaimed that, “In your seed, all the nations of earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” (22:18). The Angel’s message was straight from heaven, heard loud and clear by Abraham and Isaac. A ram was then found in a thicket, and this was God’s provision for the burnt offering. Isaac, perhaps still terrified and perplexed, must have been thinking, that could have been me. But God came to the rescue. In due time, Father God would know what it was like to lose a Son, and there would be no rescue that time. The Lamb of God, caught in the thicket of evil and hatred, sacrificed on the altar. It’s not surprising to know that Mt. Moriah is just a stone’s throw from Golgotha. The glorious fact is that Abraham received his son Isaac alive after Isaac had been as good as dead. This was a living parable, for it prefigured the Resurrection of Christ, and it hinted at the future universal resurrection of the dead.
One wonders, though, how that dramatic, historic episode on Mt. Morah impacted Isaac’s life. Think of it… As a young man with his whole life ahead of him, he was stretched out on a sacrificial altar, bound, expected to just lie there submissively like an obedient child. The knife was in his father’s raised hand, ready to slay him, and was only stopped at the last minute by the Son of God, the special heavenly Messenger. What was Isaac thinking during that near-death experience? Was he wondering what he had done so wrong that he would be executed? Was he mystified that the father he loved and trusted would kill him for no apparent reason? Did he doubt the very God that had been so close to his family growing up? If he was at all human, and he was, his whole world must have turned upside-down. He would certainly have been shaken to the core for who knows how long. The question is, did Isaac ever get over his experience on Mt. Moriah with his father? Did it effect his relationship with father Abraham in any way? Did he have a difficult time trusting his father after this incident? We don’t know, since the Scripture never tells us about this incident from Isaac’s perspective.
(4.) The Blood of the Lamb. Is there any significance in a ram being caught in the bushes there on Mt. Moriah, other than being a suitable replacement for Isaac on the altar? Yes, that part of the story on Moriah is very significant.
The very next day, the Baptizer saw Jesus coming to him to be baptized, and John cried out, ‘Behold! Look! There He is – God’s Lamb who will take away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
When John the Baptist shouted out that Jesus was the Lamb of God, he was referring to the Passover lamb, the defining moment in Jewish history (Exodus 12). Inspired by the Holy Spirit, John is saying that, just as the blood of the perfect, unblemished male lamb provided a way to escape judgment and experience redemption from slavery in Egypt, Jesus will soon provide for redemption through His very own sacrificial blood. The lamb became the primary sacrificial animal in Mosiac Law, a lamb sacrificed in the Temple every morning and evening for the sins of the people (Ex. 29). For centuries, a lamb’s life had to be sacrificed for the penalty of sin. And now the Messiah, Jesus Christ, offering His pure blood as sacrifice to atone for the sins of the world. “You were not redeemed with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1:18-19).
Jesus didn’t die for just a few lucky saints. He didn’t merely take away the sins of the spiritual elite. Jesus died for the universe, for the sins of everyone, of all mankind. His redemption is as universal as man’s sin. All those who live into Christ’s life and accepts His gift of salvation can have the power of sin taken away. The sins of the world are forgiven, but not everyone has accepted the gift of salvation. The Greek word for “takes away” is often used for “lifting up and away” an anchor stuck on the bottom floor of the sea. We are anchored down to the bottom by our sinful nature. Jesus succeeded in lifting up the anchor and taking it away so we can enjoy new life.
John’s Lamb of God image brings to mind the story of Abraham and Isaac on Mt. Moriah (Genesis 22). A sheep was caught in the bushes and was used as the sacrifice in place of Isaac. Father Abraham made sure there was a sacrifice. Jesus was the lamb caught in the thicket to be offered up in our place as a sacrifice.
(5.) The Threshing Floor. During the time of King David, the Lord was waiting for the right place to be prepared for His Temple in Jerusalem. Interestingly enough, God found it on Mount Moriah where there was the threshing floor of a pagan Canaanite named Ornan. Sure enough, David saw fit to buy that threshing floor and it has been a sacred part of history ever since.
The threshing floor of Ornan on Moriah in Jerusalem is significant in many ways. In Biblical history, threshing floors became a sacred place. It was where Gideon met with God over the fleece of wool (Judges 6). And it was where Jesus’ distant relative Ruth met with Boaz, her kinsman redeemer (Ruth 3). Thus, the threshing floor was perceived as a place of blessing, where miracles happened. And because the busy threshing floor meant a full harvest, it was seen as even more of a blessed place. The fact that the Lord stopped a plague at a threshing floor maintains that symbol of the threshing floor as a site of blessing.
The threshing floor was primarily a place of separating the grain from the husk, the good from the bad, the valuable from the worthless. So it became a symbol of judgment, a place where God judges good and evil, the faithful is accepted and the unfaithful are rejected. The threshing floor is thus a place of discipline, when God puts one in a situation where one is asked to separate good behavior from bad behavior, the wheat from the chaff of one’s character. When one is on a personal threshing floor, God has placed that person in a place of decision, refinement, and self-discipline, of separating the true from the false. Finally, the threshing floor has been seen as a symbol of Calvary, of the place where Jesus Christ defeated death, where he separated the sin from mankind and trampled down Satan, relegating the Adversary to the refuse pile of history.
It is even more astounding then, that this particular threshing floor of Ornan is on Mount Moriah, the site where Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac. This threshing floor now becomes a symbol again of redemption. And this very threshing floor, of a pagan Canaanite no less, became the site of Solomon’s Temple (2 Chron. 3:1). Not only that, but this very threshing floor became the site of the Holy of Holies in the Temple, the very spot where the Ark of the Covenant was placed!
While the plague was being stopped by the Lord, that unique Angel of the Lord, perhaps even the preincarnate Jesus, instructed David to build an altar at that very threshing floor. So David purchased the land surrounding and including the threshing floor from Ornan, and David proceeded to build the altar according to the Angel’s command. He offered sacrifices in gratitude there, and called upon the Lord, and the Lord answered by sending fire from heaven to light the sacrifices. It was at this time that the Angel of the Lord “returned His sword to its sheath.” (1 Chron. 21:27). And this tragic but redemptive episode in our history of faith is finally over.
(6.) The Foundation Stone. Today on Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem stands the Temple Mount, the original site of the Holy of Holies. Inside a beautiful little shelter portico on the Mount is a rock that is unique in biblical history. Isaiah 28:14-18 refers to a time when God would build in Zion on a “tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He who believes in it will not be shaken.” Every listener of Jesus telling the parable about the foolish builder knew that at this time there was a sacred rock, called “the Foundation,” slightly elevated off the ground, sitting in the center of the Holy of Holies, which is in the center of the Temple, which is in the center of the world. With His parable, Jesus is boldly claiming to in fact be the Holy Rock, the Foundation, the fulfillment of Isaiah’s precious cornerstone. He is saying that if you build on Him as the true foundation, by both listening to and acting upon His words, nothing will shake you. You will be unshakeable through life’s storms. Jesus is asserting that the Foundation Rock, built by God, is Himself. His body is the new Temple, the Third Temple, so don’t forget to build your life on Him, through hearing, believing, obeying His word.
(7.) Your Only Son. Those famous words of God as told to Abraham in Genesis 22:2, have stood the test of time. “Take your son, your only son that you love so much…” (Gen. 22:2). Those words are imprinted on every observant Jew as they meditate on the Aqedah. Isn’t it interesting that Father God would quote Himself at the baptism of Jesus by repeating those very words over His Son? God almost certainly wanted listeners to remember that iconic scene with Abraham and Isaac on Mt. Moriah, when the faithful father is willing to sacrifice his only son. God is saying at Jesus’ baptism… Here is another Son about to be sacrificed, only this time the Son’s blood will truly by spilt. (Mark 1:9-11; Matt. 3:13-17; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:29-34).
(8.) Sacrificial Blood. As Abraham raised his knife there on Mt. Moriah to slay the bound Isaac before offering him as a burnt sacrifice, what was the point? Why did God have blood on His mind, especially with an innocent young man?
“Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered Himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.” (Hebrews 9:13-14). Why so much blood? Aaron must have been covered in blood for most of the day. Blood is sacred, says the Lord. Blood is holy, set apart from other aspects of creation. In the eyes of God, blood represents life. Life itself depends on blood. In fact, “the life of the flesh is in the blood.” (Lev. 17:11). Blood is a life principle flowing into the very structure of created life. Since the Fall in the Garden, the world has had a disastrous problem: sin. The result of sin is death. And the result of blood is life. So it naturally follows that blood is somehow the remedy for sin. Blood has to be involved if forgiveness is to happen, if life proves victorious over death. In God’s plan of redemption, His universal solvent is blood, it dissolves the presence and authority of sin.
God designed a blood sacrifice system long before Abraham and Isaac and Mt. Moriah. The first blood sacrifices were actually in the Garden of Eden, in which God sacrificed animals to provide clothing over the sinful Adam and Eve. Much later in the Old Covenant, God designed a blood sacrifice system that atoned for the sins of the Chosen People. As a God of justice and righteousness, He demanded a punishment for sin, and the blood of an animal sacrifice was put in place to satisfy that demand. Pure blood from unblemished and utterly innocent animals. Innocent blood was the only answer to the guilt of sin. But this sacrificial system was not meant to be permanently in place. It was ultimately an incomplete system in many ways. It required ongoing sacrifices; it was only a temporary atonement until the person sinned again; it was merely for external purposes, making the person ceremonially clean; it didn’t necessarily change the heart of the person making the offering. So the Mosaic system was adequate and God-ordained for a time. But it was only a shadow, a hint of a better system coming along in God’s perfect timing. It was a necessary beginning to what turned out to be a perfect end. In the Old Covenant, the Mosaic sacrifice was necessary but insufficient. The best was yet to come in the fullness of time.
Jesus was the perfect sacrifice hinted at in the animal sacrifice. He fulfilled all the requirements of the Old Covenant system… an unblemished, pure, innocent victim offering blood for atonement. Jesus completed the sacrificial system, so only one sacrifice, His, was needed. His blood brought forgiveness of all sins, by all people, for all time. At a superficial glance, it looks like God is out for blood. But God “doesn’t want blood, He wants life.” Only Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can offer his blood for eternal life, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). Isaac on Mt. Moriah, so close to Mt. Calvary outside Jerusalem, was a picture of what was to come 4,000 years later.