Mount Moriah

2023-05-03

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. (2 Chronicles 3:1)

The site for the temple mount is this mount Moriah. This verse should remind us of two stories: the sacrifice of Isaac and David’s census.

The first story is where Abraham was told to sacrifice his son of promise Isaac. Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born; he waited his whole life for this promise to come true. Now the Lord wanted him to sacrifice his son in this mount in the land of Moriah. He knew that the Lord could raise Him to life again... the patriarch was not so sure how it would play out, but he trusted that God would perform some miracle. However, God intervened at the last moment: “And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen” (Genesis 22:13-14). Moriah was the place of a substitutionary sacrifice. In the future, in the mount of the Lord it would be seen!

Again, the second story is when David sinned by numbering his people, just to see how much power and might he had. After the king chose what the consequences would be, he saw the Angel of the Lord about to destroy Jerusalem. God commanded him to stop, and the Angel stood at a certain threshing floor of Ornan (Araunah). There David built an altar “that the plague may be stayed from the people” (2 Samuel 24:21). “And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof” (1 Chronicles 21:27). “Then David said, This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel” (1 Chronicles 22:1). Moriah was also the place where the wrath of God was satisfied.

There on Moriah was the place where the lives of the people were spared, and the wrath of God was appeased. This is what Jesus did for the world: He died and received the wrath of God in our place.