Mt Moriah – A Mountain of Trust?

Note to the reader: This is part 3 of a series I am calling “7 Summits” where various Bible heroes have mountain top encounters with the Holy One. Thus far in the series we’ve touched down on the summits of Mt. Tabor (the Mount of Transfiguration) and Mt. Ararat (where God forms a covenant with Noah). This week’s summit is on Mt. Moriah and involves Abraham and Isaac. Note: A companion medium to these blogs can be found on the First Marion Baptist Youtube channel where sermons on these topics are recorded.

Abraham and Isaac’s visit to Mt. Moriah (Genesis 22) may well be one of the more troubling narratives in the Old Testament. It centers around plans for a child-sacrifice, as Abraham obeys God’s directive to take his son, “his only son” to Mt. Moriah “and offer him there as a burnt offering”.

Immediately the reader/hearer is faced with a conundrum. How do we understand what feels like a barbaric request more akin to the followers of Moloch than Yahweh? Is this a story of pilgrimage? Is it a story of an abusive God? Is it a story of a misguided patriarch (Abraham)? Or, is it a story of faith and trust?

Child (human) sacrifice was a practice of Abraham’s day in the land of Canaan. His neighbors, mainly the followers of the Ammonite god Moloch, offered up children as burnt offerings to gain the favor of their deity. The thought perhaps being that the sacrifice of a child was more meaningful and therefore more likely to gain the god’s favor that than of an animal. Could Abraham have been swayed by this neighboring practice as he sought Yahweh God’s favor? Or was Yahweh simply using a comparative practice to make a point to Abraham as his faith was tested?

As the narrative unfolds there doesn’t appear to be any waiver in Abraham’s resolve to obey God’s directive. He departs on the three day journey to Moriah from Beer Sheba with Isaac in tow. He leaves the servants behind, some distance from the summit, and advances with Isaac alone. He responds to his son’s query: “Father where is the lamb for the offering?”, with assurance: “God will provide the lamb, my son”. Remarkable! Maybe this is just the curt simplicity of a narrator’s recounting of events, but as it unfolds there is a stoic, determined, might we say “faithful” quality in Abraham that is notable.

“Unwavering” might be too strong a word, but Abraham does not seem to falter even to the point of binding his son upon the wood of the altar, and raising his arm – knife in hand – to execute the directive of God. Wow! I cannot imagine such determination. And maybe that’s the point. If, as the scriptures suggest, this was a “test” of Abraham’s faith; he clearly is prepared to pass the test.

Does he have faith that God will intervene even up until the point of impact? Does he believe that God will raise from the dead his son, “his only son” who is the long awaited heir?

I will admit that I’ve long struggled with the concept of God’s testing us. Why does a loving God need to put people to a test? What does that say about God? What does it say about people? If God is all knowing doesn’t God already know what the results of such a test will be? Or, is it about giving people the freedom of choice and volition? So many questions . . . . .

Two phrases in the Genesis 22 story may help shed some light on this idea of God’s testing Abraham. One is the chapter’s opening phrase: “After these things….”. What things? One supposes the things that Abraham has done prior to this event. It’s not exactly an A+ track record. Abraham has tried to pass off his wife, Sarah, as his sister to save his neck in Egypt. He’s listened to Sarah’s guidance and ended up in the mess with Hagar and Ishmael. Then, he failed to stand up for Hagar or Ishmael by allow Sarah to exact her revenge. “After these things” may have been enough to give God pause as to the selection of Abraham as progenitor of multitudes who would know blessing.

The other phrase comes as God puts a halt to the test, saying “now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me”. This phrase carries the weight of Abraham’s having passed the test. But it also very much foreshadows a bigger, later story – the story of Jesus – where God will not withhold God’s son from becoming an offering.

Christ followers cannot read or hear the story of Mt. Moriah, the mount that will become the Temple mount (site of innumerable offerings – including one nearby at Golgotha), without connecting the dots to Jesus. Is it too much to consider that God may have wanted to be sure “after these things” that Abraham was the right one through whom “all nations will be blessed”? There was more at stake than the dynamics between a father and son on Mt. Moriah. Seems to me this unusual and somewhat absurd story is a key part of the pilgrimage journey for all of us who will claim the gift of the cross and the hope of Easter. But that’s getting ahead of myself . . . . .