The Mountains of God: Mount Moriah

Before there was the mountain of God in Sinai as Israel’s history, there was Mount Moriah.

Abraham called the name of that place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “Yahweh will provide”). To this day, people say: “On the mountain of Yahweh it will be provided.” (Genesis 22:14)

You know the story. After God approves of Abraham sending his son through Hagar out from his household so that Isaac is his only son, God tells Abraham to go to the region of Moriah and sacrifice his only son, whom he loves, as a burnt offering to Yahweh on a mountain God will show him. The mountain of Yahweh in Moriah has usually been identified as Jerusalem but…

The only other reference to Moriah is in 2 Chronicles 3:1, which identifies it as the site of the temple in Jerusalem, but it makes no mention of Abraham or this incident. Abraham appears to be familiar with the place, and since he takes firewood with him, presumably he knows that wood is not available in the region. In contrast, the wooded hills around Jerusalem would have provided ample firewood for the sacrifice. Furthermore, if the site were Jerusalem, we would expect it to be designated “Salem” (as in Gen. 14). (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary)

So let’s assume that the mountain of God in Moriah is not Jerusalem, but another mountain where God has made His presence known. Abraham, of course, takes his son Isaac, likely now a teenager, to make offering on this mountain, but Isaac notices that they have no animal to sacrifice, and Abraham merely says, “God will provide” (Genesis 22:8). Oh my, the faith of Abraham!

God does indeed provide, right at the last minute, right as Abraham is lifting his knife to plunge it into his son (he believed God was going to raise his son from the dead, Hebrews 11:17-19). Yahweh calls to Abraham from heaven to stop him and directs him to a ram caught in the thicket nearby, which Abraham then offers.

Moriah is the mountain of testing, the proof of our faith, where God sees if we will truly trust and obey Him, even if what He is asking us to do seems outlandish. Some believe that Abraham was not totally taken aback by God’s asking for a human sacrifice, since this was culturally accepted as an appropriate way to appease the gods, but that doesn’t really seem likely:

God’s demand that Abraham offer Isaac is unlike anything in the ancient world. Child sacrifices would have been carried out soon after birth and would have been associated either with fertility rituals or foundation offerings to secure protection for the home. The prohibition of child sacrifice in the Pentateuch demonstrates that it was sometimes practiced, but none of the potential ritual contexts are pertinent to Genesis 22. Human sacrifice may have been carried out in extreme circumstances, but there are no dire conditions here. Undoubtedly in Genesis 22 Abraham would not have considered this command of God commonplace. (Zondervan IBBC)

What is your Mount Moriah? Where would God test the genuineness of your faith? How much do you believe His promises? Have you already made your journey to Mount Moriah? Could it be required more than once? God does not test our faith because he doesn’t trust us. He tests our faith because He does trust us and because we need to see how much we trust Him.