When I was a small child, my family visited both the White House and Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home in Virginia. The White House impressed me only with its officialdom. We were part of a guided tour, trapped behind red velvet ropes. It was like walking through a modern-day office building but with quality art on the walls.
Mount Vernon was different. It was personal. I remember being in a daze thinking about the first president:
George Washington touched this doorknob. George Washington walked up these stairs. His hand may have held this banister. George Washington looked out of this window. George Washington sat on this couch. I was deeply moved.
When history gets out of the textbooks and into your heart, it can be amazing. And few things are as moving as being there.
One of the most amazing places in Biblical history is Mount Moriah. Talk about “being there”–Mount Moriah is one of the most important places in the Bible. A child who knew the stories could walk around that mountaintop in a daze for hours…
“Moriah” means “chosen by Jehovah” because God chose this mountain four thousand years ago. In 2,000 B.C., the region appears to have been a wilderness. God sent Abraham and Isaac on a fifty-mile journey when he asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on Mount Moriah. Just as Abraham was about to do it, “trusting God to raise [Isaac] from the dead” (Hebrews 11:19), the angel of the Lord stopped him, saying “now I know that you fear God because you have not withheld your only son from me” Genesis 22:12.
Why does the angel refer to God as ME? Because this angel is the pre-incarnate Christ. It’s Jesus! Abraham then spotted a ram in the bushes, sacrificed the ram, and named the place—named the mountain—“Jehovah Jireh.” That led to the expression “in the mount of the Lord it will be provided” or “in the mount of the Lord, God will see to it” Genesis 22:14.
–And that is exactly what happened: on this very mountain, God provided. On this very mountain, God saw to the salvation of his children.
“Jesus … stopped Abraham a short distance from where He would be crucified two thousand years later in Jerusalem. Isaac lay on the altar when the voice of the person he prefigured [symbolized] called out from heaven. Abraham and Isaac heard from the individual who would later die for their sins, fulfilling what they were only prefiguring”[1]
Did you catch that?
Abraham, symbolizing God the Father, placed his son Isaac, symbolizing Jesus, on the altar. And that altar was erected atop Mount Moriah, where Jesus would be crucified some two thousand years later.
There is some controversy about the location. Solomon’s Temple was built on Mount Moriah (2 Chronicles 3:1), and the temple remains a known location today. Jesus was crucified on a hill outside of town, outside the city walls (John 19:17-20). That hill was called Golgotha. But topographical maps can clear up this apparent contradiction: the entire area is Mount Moriah. The temple is inside the walls of Jerusalem, but the ridge of Mount Moriah continues outside the walls where the Golgotha peak rests. The point is, God did not send Abraham to just any mountain to perform a bit of ‘street theater’ acting out a prophetic sacrifice play. God sent Abraham to the EXACT SAME MOUNTAIN to demonstrate what God would one day do for his people–on that mountain.
This amazing bit of symbolism can be summed up in the words of Abraham. Before Abraham and Isaac reached the mountaintop, Isaac said “here’s the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the offering?” and Abraham answered, “God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering” Genesis 22:7-8. That is a prophetic statement of exactly who Jesus turned out to be: God provided Jesus as the sacrificial lamb for us. “the Son of Man (gave) His life a ransom for many” Mark 10:45.
God himself will provide a lamb.
AΩ
[1] https://www.scottlapierre.org/mount-moriah-and-golgotha/ Consider this excellent article in order to explore the third bit of symbolism at Mount Moriah. I have simplified the matter by not discussing David’s sinful census, the plague that followed, and the fact that the death angel stopped at the threshing floor of Araunah—which was also located on Mount Moriah.
Household Words: 