What is the significance of Mount Moriah in the Bible?

Yet this expression, the mountain of God, does not only refer to Mount Sinai. It is also used for Mount Zion, and for the Temple Mount, after the ark of the covenant (the visible sign of God's presence) found a resting place there (cf. Ps. 15:1, Ps. 24:3; Ps. 48:1-2). This is very striking indeed with regard to the Temple Mount, for there is a clear connection between Genesis 22, 1 Chronicles 21-22 and 2 Chronicles 3. Abraham went to the land of Moriah to offer his son on one of the mountains of which God would tell him, while king David built his altar of burnt offering on Mount Moriah.

This was the place where atonement was made for a sinful people, the place of the altar of burnt offering for Israel — which enabled God to dwell in the midst of His people. Mount Moriah, the place where Abraham sacrificed his son, was the place of the altar of burnt offering for God's people. This mountain therefore points to the place called Calvary, where God did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. And in doing so He laid a just foundation for the future temple in the Spirit, that was to be built after Christ's resurrection from the dead!

Chronicles highlights this great event. God's counsels can be fulfilled only at Moriah (2 Chron. 3:1). As far as the promises of God were concerned, that had already been revealed in figure to Abraham at this same place when Isaac was sacrificed. Without the Father's “one beloved Son” (Mark 12:6), no sacrifice for sin could be provided. Hence the name of this place: “On the mount of Jehovah will be provided” (Gen. 22:14). In type, grace had found a way of displaying itself in its fullness at the altar on Mount Moriah, where Isaac, the father's son, had been offered; and not at the brazen altar which belonged to the order of Sinai and which could never take away sins. At Moriah grace met righteousness, and there God found the means (He alone could do so) to make these two apparently irreconcilable attributes of His Being kiss each other. Thus triumphant grace reigns through righteousness; thus God's counsels are fulfilled!

Moriah was the historical site where Abraham had offered Isaac* (Gen. 22:2). On this mountain of Jehovah would be provided. How much more so when the sin of Israel and of their king had stirred up Jehovah's judgment against the people. Provision was now made by a sacrifice which cost the people nothing but for which David paid the full price. Provision has been made in a far more perfect manner on this same mountain where Jesus has been crucified for us.

Abraham recognized the wonderful way in which God had provided the lamb for a burnt offering, and signalized it by naming the place Jehovah-jireh, meaning, "The Lord will provide." And out of that sprang a saying which was still current when some four centuries later Moses wrote these things: "In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen," or "shall be provided." That was the language of faith, for another four centuries, or so, after Moses, there stood on Moriah the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, and years after that Solomon's temple was built there, and so it became the place for Jewish sacrifices. That to which all these sacrifices pointed took place "without the gate," for the Lord Jesus was the rejected One.

What was it that constrained David to say when standing upon the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, "This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt-offering for Israel." (1 Chron. 22:1). There was no direct word from God to this effect. David was a man of spiritual perception, and the pardoning grace of God expressed at that spot suggested to his heart that in that place Israel's Jehovah would delight to dwell. The grievous sin of numbering the people (mainly that the king might know how many soldiers he had!) brought down judgement. David's humble repentance, and his pleading for the suffering sheep, brought him an angel from Jehovah bidding him set up an altar in Ornan's threshing floor. As the smoke of the sacrifice ascended to heaven, Jehovah answered by fire, and He commanded the destroying angel to sheathe his sword (1 Chron. 21). This intervention of God in grace suggested to David that Jehovah had thus indicated His choice of site for the sanctuary. Accordingly, when building-time came, we read, "Solomon began to build the house of Jehovah at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah, where He appeared to David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite" (2 Chron. 3:1).

The divine answer is given man at Ornan's threshing floor. Henceforth it is there that David sacrifices. “At that time when David saw that Jehovah had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there. And the tabernacle of Jehovah, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt-offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. But David could not go before it to inquire of God; for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of Jehovah” (vv. 28-30). The brazen altar at Gibeon, instead of being a place of security for David, was a terrifying place and he would go there no more. All that had been instituted under the law could not henceforth reassure his soul, for the law was a ministry of condemnation. God had revealed another place of approach to Himself, the place chosen by grace where divine judgment had been abolished, the only one that could suit David from now on.

This scene of peace and well-being has its starting point on Mount Moriah, a detail, let us carefully note, which is missing in the book of Kings: "And Solomon began to build the house of Jehovah at Jerusalem on mount Moriah, where he appeared to David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite" (2 Chron. 3: 1). It was at Moriah, first of all, that Abraham had offered Isaac on the altar and received him again in figure by resurrection; there, all that the holiness of God demanded had been provided. Next, it was at Moriah where, on the occasion of David's failure, grace gloried over judgment. Solomon's reign of peace is thus established after resurrection, on the principle of grace, just as the future reign of the risen Christ will be based entirely on the grace that triumphed at the cross. Following the sacrifice of Moriah and in virtue of the sovereign monarch's personal perfection, the latter may from this time forward enter his temple. The eternal gates will lift up their heads to let the King of glory pass. He will have a rich entry into His own kingdom. Only in Chronicles do we find the immense height of this porch (2 Chron. 3: 4; cf. Ps. 24: 7, 9; Mal. 3: 1; Hag. 2: 7; 2 Peter 1: 11, 17).

Appropriately, Abraham named that place “Jehovah Jireh,” meaning “the Lord will provide.” Added to this we are told it is “the mount of the Lord.” Later Mount Sinai and Mount Horeb are called “the mount of God” and “the mount of the Lord,” for the expression speaks of the height from which God deals with mankind. But this mountain, speaking of the grace of God in the gift of His Son, is the first mentioned, for it is nearest to God's heart. The law must take a lower place.

Appropriately, Abraham named that place "Jehovah Jireh," meaning "the Lord will provide." Added to this we are told it is "the mount of the Lord." Later Mount Sinai and Mount Horeb are called "the mount of God" and "the mount of the Lord," for the expression speaks of the height from which God deals with mankind. But this mountain, speaking of the grace of God in the gift of His Son, is the first mentioned, for it is nearest to God's heart. The law must take a lower place.

But why was the land of Moriah selected for the surrender of Isaac? It was not one of the patriarchal places of worship, like Shechem, Bethel, or Beersheba. We read not that Abraham had ever been there before, or that he revisited it, and worshipped there again; nor in the lives of either Isaac or Jacob is that land even once mentioned. In the history of Solomon (2 Chron. 3:1), the answer to the question is found. It was there the temple was to be built, on the site of Araunah's threshing-floor. It was also in the near neighbourhood of mount Moriah that the Lord Jesus Christ must have hung on the cross. We understand therefore the reason of its selection as the site on which Abraham was to offer up Isaac - God there foreshadowing the death of His well-beloved Son for those who should believe on Him. The land of Moriah! The temple was built on mount Moriah, but the name in Abraham's day designated more than the future site of the temple.