“And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest,
and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering
upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and
saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and
clave wood tor the burnt-offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of
which God had told him.”
(Genesis 22:2-3)
Abraham was a principal figure in
God’s plan to redeem mankind, and his story is central to the record in the
book of Genesis. One of the most
striking and important events of his story is the offering of Isaac, described
in chapter 22. In an account that
reminds us of the Gospel story, especially as it is given famously in John
3:16, Abraham is commanded to offer his “only son,” whom he loved, as a sacrifice
at a place in the mountains of Moriah which would be designated by the Lord:
“the place of which God had told him” (verses 2 and 3). We know where “the land of Moriah” is, and
after the incident of the great man’s interrupted offering of his dear son
(read about it in verses 4 through 14), “Abraham called the name of that place
Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be
seen.” Here was a place in the mountains
of Moriah that was called by Abraham “Jehovah-jireh” (The LORD sees) apparently
because something important, related to the offering of Isaac, will be seen
there.
As Moses led the children of
Israel out of Egypt centuries later, God promised them a special land to which
He was taking them, and where they would live under His watch-care. Within the Promised Land, there was to be a
place where God would live among them.
In “The Song of the Redeemed,” Moses offers a prayer to the Lord, and
mentions the place with these words:
“Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine
inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in,
in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.”
(Exodus 15:17)
This special place is mentioned
repeatedly in the later writings of Moses, especially in the book of
Deuteronomy.
“Thou shalt eat before the LORD thy God, in the place which he shall
choose to place his name there…”
(Deuteronomy 14:23)
“All the firstling males that come of thy herd and of thy flock thou
shalt sanctify unto the LORD thy God: thou shalt do no work with the firstling
of thy bullock, nor shear the firstling of thy sheep. Thou shalt eat it before the LORD thy God
year by year in the place which the LORD shall choose…”
(Deuteronomy 15:19-20)
“Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the Passover unto the LORD thy God, of
the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place his
name there…Thou mayest not sacrifice the Passover within any of thy gates,
which the LORD thy God giveth thee: but at the place which the LORD thy God
shall choose to place his name in…”
(Deuteronomy 16:2,
5-6)
As the Israelites entered the
Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua, the new leader also spoke of “the
place where he (God) should choose” (Joshua 9:27). There was going to be a special place where
God would be honored and worshipped. It
would be chosen by the Lord, and His people would be led to it.
Of course, Israel finally settled
in what had been the Land of Canaan, and worshipped God at the Tabernacle they
had made for Him in the wilderness. The
Tabernacle, which was the center of the formal worship of Jehovah, was actually
a large tent that was moved from place to place. You can follow the movements of the
Tabernacle in the narrative of the Old Testament scriptures.
When David was made king of
Israel, the worship center was split up and unusable. The Ark of the Covenant had been taken out of
the Tabernacle and used like a good luck charm in the war against the
Philistines (read the story in First Samuel 4 through 7). When the battle was lost, the enemy took the
sacred Ark away, and then, after the Lord punished the Philistines, it was
brought back to the Israelites but remained separated from the Tabernacle for
years. It was one of David’s first goals
as king to restore the Ark to the Tabernacle and restore the worship of the
true God.
But actually, he never
accomplished this goal in his lifetime.
Yet toward the end of his reign, King David did something by which he
unknowingly paved the way for Jehovah-worship to be revived in a magnificent
Temple. A time came when God had to
judge Israel and David for their sin, and He sent a destroying angel to plague
the land, and the city of Jerusalem. In
response to the contrite pleading of David, the prophet Gad was told by the
Lord to direct the king set up an altar and offer sacrifices.
“Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should
go up, and set up an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Ornan the
Jebusite. And David went up at the
saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the LORD…Then David said to Ornan,
Grant me the place of this threshingfloor, that I may build an altar therein
unto the LORD: thou shalt grant it me for the full price: that the plague may
be stayed from the people.”
(First Chronicles
21:18-19, 22)
So “the place” of Ornan’s
threshingfloor was bought by David, and an altar for sacrifice was built upon
it. When the sacrifices were offered,
the plagues ended.
Later David got into his heart
the desire to build the Lord a permanent Temple in Jerusalem. Find the accounts of this in Second Samuel 7
and First Chronicles 17. The Lord’s
house would no longer be a tent, but a physical structure constructed as a
house of sacrifice, worship, and prayer.
HoweverGod would not allow David to accomplish this project personally
in his lifetime, but promised him that his son Solomon would build the Temple. When it was built, it was built at the place
David had bought, and that God had chosen.
“Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in
mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his father, in the place that
David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.”
(Second Chronicles
3:1)
The Temple was built in Jerusalem
by King Solomon at the threshingfloor of Ornan, which was located on Mount
Moriah. The place was called “the place
that David had prepared.”
The site of the Temple was indeed
to be the place God had chosen to be identified with His own name and
glory. When King Solomon dedicated the
Temple, he referred in his prayer to the significance of the place where it
stood.
“Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his
supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which
thy servant prayeth before thee to day: that thine eyes may be open toward this
house night and day, even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall
be there: that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall make
toward this place.”
(First Kings 8:28-29;
see also Second Chronicles 6:20 and 26)
In response to this request, God
said, “Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that
is made in this place” (Second Chronicles 7:15). The Temple stood at a “place” where God would
give special attention to prayers offered in or toward it! It was the chosen place they had been looking
for.
God’s people before the coming of
Christ repeatedly gave respect to this special place. The LORD had said to David, “Since the day
that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt I chose no city among
all the tribes of Israel to build an house in, that my name might be there:…but
I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there” (Second Chronicles
6:5-6). Nehemiah referred to the fact
that God calls it “the place that I have chosen to set my name there” (Nehemiah
1:9). David called it “the hill of the
LORD” and “his holy place” in Psalm 24, and “the place where thine honour
dwelleth” in Psalm 26. The prophet
Daniel “went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward
Jerusalem, prayed, and gave thanks before his God” with his face toward the place
(Daniel 6:10). He prayed, “Cause thy
face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate” (Daniel 9:17). The Temple had been destroyed by the heathen
because of Israel’s sins, but the place where it had stood still had its great
significance. In Palestine there was a
place to which God attached His name and His honor, and in regard to which He
heard and answered prayer. The evidence
indicates that this place was the very place in the mountains of Moriah where
Abraham offered Isaac.
The ancient city of Jerusalem
sits upon two elevations, called Mount Zion and Mount Moriah. Between them is a ravine called the Tyropoeon
Valley. What we call Mount Moriah is
really an eminence or ridge running diagonally from the north to the east of
the walled city. On the east end is what
has for three thousand years been designated the “Temple Mount,” where the
Temple stood. On the north end, outside
the wall, is the rocky ridge which in modern times has been called “Gordon’s
Calvary.” Appearances and archeological
evidence lead us to believe that this is the place where Jesus died.
“And they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is, being
interpreted, The place of a skull.”
(Mark 15:22)
The place looked and looks like a
skull. It is the place where Jesus died
as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.
“And they took Jesus, and led him away.
And he bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a
skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: where they crucified him…”
(John 19:16-18)
It was at this place that our
salvation happened. The Son of God came
to earth on a rescue mission, to save mankind from the consequences of the
first man’s sins (read about it all over the New Testament, but especially in the
fifth chapter of Romans). It was at a
point in time, a date in history, and at a certain place that Jesus
accomplished our redemption, by offering Himself as a Sacrifice to pay for our
sins. The penalty for sin is death, and
Jesus died for us. On that day and in
that place, He took the blame for our sins so that He could suffer the
punishment. When He did so, He bought
our way out of Hell and into Heaven.
“Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden: and in the
garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.”
(John 19:41)
It was in that tomb that the dead
body of Jesus was laid after He gave up the ghost on the cross. And it was in this sepulchre, located in the
place called Golgotha, that Jesus won the victory for us over death and sin and
Hell, by rising from the dead.
“Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried,
and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures…”
What a wonderful place is this
very special spot in the mountains of Moriah where God gave His Son as a
sacrifice to save us from sin and death and Hell. Every sinner who turns from the darkness to
the Savior of the world will be saved forever, and will receive eternal life.
“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in
thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
(Romans 10:9)
Friend, will you not recognize
that Jesus Christ is your Best Friend, and make up your mind to receive Him as
your Savior. Just think of what He did
for justly-condemned sinners like you and me at the place they call Golgotha
and Calvary. We have broken God’s Law,
repeatedly and knowingly, and justice would condemn us. But Jesus Christ volunteered to take the
condemnation of the Law for us, and satisfy it by giving His life. Thank Him for what He did, and turn to Him
for your salvation today!
Dr. Rick Flanders
Revival Ministries
Dr. Rick Flanders
Revival Ministries