Mount Moriah

Genesis chapter 22:1-18

Abraham’s Faith Tested

22 Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called.

“Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.”

²“Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom 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.”

³ The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about. ⁴ On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵ “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the servants. “The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back.”

⁶ So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked on together, ⁷ Isaac turned to Abraham and said, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“We have the fire and the wood,” the boy said, “but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?”

⁸ “God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together.

⁹ When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. ¹⁰ And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. ¹¹ At that moment the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am!”

¹² “Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.”

¹³ Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. ¹⁴ Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

¹⁵ Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven. ¹⁶ “This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that ¹⁷ I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants^[a] beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. ¹⁸ And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.”

Now I know many of you are rolling your eyes thinking “We are tired of reading this portion in the bible”. Many people have created studies and powerful preaching regarding this chapter. What if I told you we may have missed the point of this bible portion? What if everything you thought you knew about this scripture was not what God wanted you to understand? Could we have really missed the whole point? Let us dive into the word now.

I was inspired by this study by a preaching I heard on the radio on my way to work. Then confirmed again through a preaching on sunday at church. If you would like to listen to the preaching I heard on the radio I will paste the link below:

Jehovah Jireh: The Lord will provide

Now, let’s go back to Abraham and Isaac. I know what everyone is thinking, “Yes, this scripture is about obeying God regardless of what He asks you to do.” Amen. That is correct and I am glad we got this from these scriptures. However, what if I told you it goes deeper than that? What if I told you it all started with 3 words.

HERE I AM
These were the first words of out Abrahams mouth before we even get to the obedience portion and the sacrifice, etc. The first thing that stands out to me is Abrahams response to God’s call. If Abraham was distracted or busy doing other things He would have never heard the voice of God speak to him and call his name. How many times has God tried to speak to us but we were too distracted to hear him?

 “My child, pay attention to what I say.
Listen carefully to my words.“
Proverbs 4:20

The second thing that attracted my attention was the way Abraham responded to the Lord’s call. His words were “Here I am”. In other words, I am here to do whatever it is you ask of me God. Even though he had no idea that the Lord was about to ask him to do something very difficult. A lot of times we don’t have the disposition to allow God to do great things in our lives. Make the decision to make yourself more available to the Lord. It is the only way we will get closer to God and see his manifestations in our lives.

Another key point that grabbed my attention was the fact that Abraham before leaving told his servants “The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back.” (V. 5) As in even though He knew what the Lord had asked him to sacrifice Issac, he had faith in God. Abraham had faith in God that he would do something to shift the circumstance. He loved God enough to move forward with what He was asking him to do, but had enough faith to know God had to do something! A lot of times this is what God is requiring and asking of us. That we trust him enough to leave it all at his disposition but have enough faith to know He will do something great through it.

“But I am trusting you, O Lord,
saying, “You are my God!”
Psalm 31:14

“But I am trusting you, O Lord,
saying, “You are my God!”

Psalm 84:12

Now let’s jump back and see what happens when Abraham and Isaac get to Mount Moriah. Here is Abraham getting things ready for the sacrifice. This required EXTREME WILL POWER. Abraham had to set aside his FEELING AND EMOTIONS. He had to suppress his will so that the Fathers will could be done. Sound familiar?

“saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.”

Luke 22:42

Jesus himself experienced this. Would have been easy for Abraham to be led by his emotions and think “I’ve waited too long for this blessing. I refuse to sacrifice him”. Would have been easy for Jesus to say, ” I will not go through with this”. However, they chose not to. By one man you have reached salvation by the other you have learned what it is to have will power and extreme obedience. God wants us to regain our will power in every situation. It is a gift that comes from the Holy Spirit and it’s the only way we will be able to accomplish the things that Lord has asked us to do and is yet to ask us to do.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

Galatians 5:22-23 

Mount Moriah: The Mountain of Sacrifice.

How many times has God called us to go the Mount Moriah and we refuse to do it?

1. Because we fear what He will ask us to bring
2. Because we have no will power to do it.
3. We REFUSE to sacrifice what He ask of us.

God is calling many of us today to the Mount of Moriah with a sacrifice. Some of you are saying, “well I have gone to Mount Moriah with my sacrifice”. My question would be is have you really let the sacrifice go or are you still holding on to it at Mount Moriah because you are scared to let go of it?

SACRIFICE IT.

We go to the mountain of sacrifices but we fail because we come empty-handed. We do not want to let go of what we need to sacrifice or we trade our sacrifices with the Lord. Example: “WELL GOD I CAN’T GIVE THAT UP BUT I AM WILLING TO GIVE THIS OTHER THING UP THAT IS NOT AS GOOD AS THE ORIGINAL BUT IT SHOULD BE GOOD ENOUGH TO SACRIFICE.”

“A son honors his father,
And a servant his master.
If then I am the Father,
Where is My honor?
And if I am a Master,
Where is My reverence?
Says the Lord of hosts
To you priests who despise My name.
Yet you say, ‘In what way have we despised Your name?’