On Mt. Moriah it WAS Provided!

The Church’s Gospel Witness and the Promise of Grace

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

The Reading from Genesis 22

First reading is from Genesis, chapter 22, verses 1 -18. After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, Here I am. He said, Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac. And he cut wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, Stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.

And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, My father, and he said, Here I am, my son.

He said, Behold the fire and the wood. But where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. So they went both of them together.

When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here I am. He said, Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.

And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

So Abraham called the name of that place the Lord will provide as it is said to this day. On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son.

I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice.

This is the word of the Lord.

Mount Moriah in 1 Chronicles 21 and the Judgment on David

In the name of Jesus. Amen. So what are we to make of this Old Testament text? Have any of you ever read that text and go, What is God up to? Asking Abraham to offer and sacrifice his own son. What kind of God are we believing in?

It's a little bit troubling and a wee bit disturbing if you think about it. But the reality is that there's a lot more going on in our Old Testament text than meets the eye. And in order to understand what's going on in our Old Testament text, we need to do a little bit of a Bible study, if you would, on Mount Moriah itself.

And so I'm going to have you turn with me to 1 Chronicles chapter 21 in your pew Bibles and we're going to read an account that may not appear at first to be related to Genesis 22, but it has everything to do with Genesis 22 and I think you'll see it as the story unfolds.

Let me give you a little bit of the context here in 1 Chronicles 21. King David is now well advanced in years. In fact, he's getting ready to wind up his life and sleep with his fathers in Sheol is the way the Hebrews would discuss it and talk about it.

And he wants things to be properly in order for his son Solomon to take the throne and unfortunately David, in getting ready for the handoff, isn't really thinking in faith that the Lord is the one who's going to sustain the kingdom.

He's now wanting to count up and do a census and figure out how many soldiers and how big the military is at the time. As if somehow military might is the thing that ensures the longevity of a kingdom, at least the kingdom of Israel.

No, it does not. And so David is sinning greatly, we're going to see in this text. Chapter 21 verse 1 begins then then Satan, I'd like to correct that, it's the Satan, it's the devil himself, stood against Israel and he incited David to number Israel.

Now granted, there's no command in the Old Testament that says you can't take a census. It's not like every ten years here in the United States when we do a census, we're somehow sinning against God. That's not the issue.

The issue is who is he trusting in? So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, go number Israel from Beersheba to Dan and bring me a report that I might know their number. But Joab said, may Yahweh add to his people a hundred times as many as they are.

Are they not, my lord, the king and all of them my lord's servants? Why then should my lord require this? Why should it be a cause of guilt for Israel? Joab, who's known David all his life, is pushing back and rightly so.

He can see that this request isn't coming from faith in God, but it's coming from something different. But the king's word prevailed against Joab. So Joab departed, went throughout all of Israel, came back to Jerusalem.

Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to David and all of Israel. And you're going to note, he rounds the numbers up here, which means he's not interested in giving a specific number. Joab is actually incensed and really upset by this whole thing.

So in all of Israel there were one million, one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and in Judah, four hundred and seventy thousand who drew the sword. But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, for the king's command was abhorrent to Joab.

A little bit of passive aggressive behavior on the part of Joab. He's really upset by this. And not only was he displeased, but verse 7 says, but God was displeased with this thing, and he struck Israel.

And you're going to note, God's punishment here is severe. Even more severe than, well, the sin that David committed with Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite. You're going to note that this is ramped up as far as consequences.

So David said to God, and here he confesses, I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing, but now please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly. And Yahweh spoke to Gad, David's seer, that's another name for a prophet, saying, go and say to David, thus says Yahweh, three things I offer you, choose one of them, that I may do it to you.

So Gad came to David and said to him, thus says Yahweh, choose what you will, either three years of famine, three months of devastation by your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of Yahweh, pestilence on the land, with the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.

Now a little bit of a note here, you're going to note the phrase, angel of the Lord. Over and again, when the angel of the Lord shows up, it is a pre-incarnate visitation of none other than the Son of God Himself.

Think of it as Jesus pre-incarnate, and I'm pretty convinced that if you could take a camera crew back in time, whenever the angel of the Lord shows up, He's going to look exactly the same as Jesus looks.

I'm just saying. And over and again, He is referred to as God, He receives worship and sacrifices as God, so this is God. And you're going to note that here it's the sword of the Lord that is being offered as option number three for three days.

Those three days things, big stuff in Scripture, always pay attention to that. So then David said to Gad, by the way, none of these seems like a great option, I am in great distress, let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for His mercy is very great, but do not let me fall into the hand of men.

You see, the Lord didn't offer David forgiveness at this point, there's no absolution that has been spoken. He's only offered him judgment, but David goes with option number three, he wants to fall into the hand of the Lord because he knows, just like we learned last week, that the glory of the Lord is to forgive sins.

And so even though all three options seem like it's only about judgment, he understands that the third option, he sees in it gospel, which is a strange thing to see. So, Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel, and listen to this, 70 ,000 men of Israel fell.

You think about the American Civil War, that was the worst war as far as total casualties for our armies. And like the Battle of Gettysburg, 50 ,000 men fell in the course of the three-day battle in Gettysburg.

Now, when we say 50 ,000 men fell, not all of them died. That is 50 ,000 men who either died or were seriously wounded, and they were out of the fight, the war was over for them one way or the other. But here, 70 ,000 men of Israel fell, that's 70 ,000 men actually dying by the hand of God, by His judgment.

Now, I want you to think about this. What did these 70 ,000 men do to deserve this from God? You're going to note that David's sin now is taking on the same characteristics as Adam's sin. The one man has sinned, and all are impacted by the sin.

Sin, don't think for a second that sin is a private matter. It is not. Your sins, even your secret sins, impact everybody, the whole world, the entire universe. And that's the idea, that in Adam we have all fallen, and we are all held accountable for Adam's sin.

And this is why we confess at the beginning of the service, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean, and that each and every one of us has been impacted by Adam's sin. And the solution then that we need is a solution that impacts all of us, that gives us hope for all of us.

So you're going to see in here, some of the major themes of how sin universally works, because the solution that's going to be given is a universal one. We'll watch. So, the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel, 70 ,000 of the men of Israel fell.

God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. But as he was about to destroy it, Yahweh saw, and he relented from the calamity. And pay attention to the place. And he said to the angel who was working destruction, It is enough!

Now stay your hand! And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornon the Jebusite. David lifted his eyes, saw the angel of the Lord, and listen to these words, standing between earth and heaven.

That's an interesting place to stand, and that detail is not a throwaway detail, and you'll see why in a little bit. Standing between earth and heaven, and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem.

And this picture of the angel of the Lord with a drawn sword, literally swinging it, literally engaging in judgment, literally people falling, harkens to what we see at the very end of the Bible in the book of Revelation, where Jesus, on His white steed, marches and swings His sword to the point where at the battle of Armageddon, the blood of the nations is spilt so badly that the blood has risen up to the level of pool height, and it's coming up high up on His horse.

That's the picture of it. You sit there and go, how can Jesus do that? You see, you'll know, this is not precious moments Jesus. Remember, God, God is most merciful and He is also wrathful. And it's His wrath that we must fear, and it's because of His great mercy that we are saved from the wrath of God.

And so Jesus also has that same wrath. So if you're picturing Jesus as the one standing between heaven and earth with a drawn sword, you got the right picture in your mind, and this is important. So the story then continues.

David lifted up his eyes, he saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth with a drawn sword. Then David and the elders clothed in sackcloth, they fell on their faces. David said to God, was it not I who gave command to number the people?

It is I who have sinned and done great evil. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Yahweh my God, be against me and against my father's house, but do not let the plague be on your people.

And here's the rub. David is offering himself as sacrifice, but David is the one who has committed the sin. He is not capable of being the sacrifice. His life being spared, or being taken so that the others can live, won't do.

God has to provide the sacrifice. A spotless lamb, if you would. So the angel of the Lord had commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and raise an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Ornon the Jebusite.

And by the way, the place is the most important part here. So David went up at Gad's word, which he had spoken in the name of Yahweh. Now Ornon was threshing wheat. It's so appropriate that this is a threshing floor.

It is so important here, because on this threshing floor what is taking place? Wheat and chaff are being separated from each other. And this is a major theme of Scripture, where Jesus describes the day of judgment itself as a separating of the wheat and the chaff.

So important. We'll pick this up in just a little bit more. So he was threshing wheat. He turned and saw the angel and his four sons who were with him. They hid themselves. Angel, four sons, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John.

Just saying. It's weird the details how they line up. So as David came to Ornon, Ornon looked and saw David and he went out from the threshing floor, paid homage to David with his face to the ground. And David said to Ornon, give me the site of the threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to the Lord.

Give it to me at its full price that the plague may be averted from the people. Then Ornon said to David, take it. Let my Lord the King do with it what seems to him. See, I give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, the wheat for the grain offering.

I give it all. David said to Ornon, no, but I will buy them for the full price. I will not take for Yahweh what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing. So David paid Ornon 600 shekels of gold by weight for the site.

David built there an altar to the Lord and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings and called on Yahweh and Yahweh answered him with fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering. And you're going to note, what needs to happen at this place at this point, this is the Old Testament.

This is the time when everything's in type and shadow. The animal sacrifices prefigure the sacrifice of Jesus and as the book of Hebrews say, that the blood of oxen and sheep cannot atone for sin, but our sin is atoned for by Jesus Christ himself.

But following the instructions of the Mosaic Covenant, now there's a sacrifice for sins. And you're going to note that God answers the sacrifice with fire from heaven. The absolution shows up then as a cleansing fire.

That's the idea. God lets David know he has accepted the sacrifice, he has responded with fire, there's no doubt, so the absolution comes from action. Then, and only then, Yahweh commanded the angel and he put his sword back into its sheath.

Great picture. The wrath of God is the angel of the Lord with a drawn sword, killing rightly those who have sinned against him, and when the sacrifice is made, the sword is sheathed. Beautiful picture of forgiveness.

So at that time when David saw that Yahweh had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornon the Jebusite, he sacrificed there. For the tabernacle of the Lord which Moses had made in the wilderness and the altar of burnt offering were at that time in the high places of Gibeon, but David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.

And then David said, here shall be the house of Yahweh Elohim, and here the altar of burnt offering for Israel. So the threshing floor of Ornon the Jebusite will become the holy of holies in the temple.

The Temple on Mount Moriah and the Meaning of the Place

Now, flip forward just a few pages to 2 Chronicles chapter 3, and you'll see it. 2 Chronicles chapter 3, we'll just pick up a few verses. Then Solomon began to build the house of Yahweh in Jerusalem, and watch the place, on Mount Moriah, where the Lord, where Yahweh had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed on the threshing floor of Ornon the Jebusite.

Mount Moriah itself. That is significant. So now, moving forward, we've gone forward just a little bit, and we can see, okay, this is an important site. This is the place where the holy of holies is, where the sacrifices are made.

The threshing floor, this is where the wheat and the chaff are separated. Fast forward just a little bit, and on the exact same mountain, on a Friday afternoon, there's Jesus Christ, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, the true angel of the Lord, the Son of God, standing between heaven and earth.

And this time the sword is in the ground, and He's nailed to it. And He's bleeding and dying for the sins of the world. And just like the work of a threshing floor, the wheat is separated from the chaff.

On one side one of the thieves that He's crucified between believes. And on the other side, the chaff, the fellow disbelieves and scoffs and mocks Jesus. You can begin to see how it all works out. Now what does this then have to do with Genesis 22?

Abraham, Isaac, and the Son Who Is Truly Provided

Well, let's turn back to Genesis 22 and work through the details and then you'll really see what God is up to in this passage because it doesn't make sense unless you have the right sacrifice in mind, unless you're paying attention to what all of this is pointing to.

Genesis 22 verse 1 reads,. After these things God tested Abram and said to him, Abraham, and he said, Here I am. He said, Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.

Only son? By Genesis 22, Abraham had two sons. Ishmael was born first to the slave woman and Isaac has now been born as son of promise to Sarah. How is it that God is saying, Take your son, your only son and sacrifice him?

The answer, God really is kind of looking through Isaac, looking all the way through all of the men who would be born as direct descendants of Isaac and seeing through him in that lineage the one to come who is none other than the only begotten son of God.

What we're going to see here in type and shadow is like a dress rehearsal for Jesus being taken to the slopes of Mount Moriah. You'll see it as it develops. So take your son, your only son, offer him as a burnt offering on the mountains of which I shall tell you.

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac. He cut the wood for the burnt offering, arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

And on the third day, pay attention to that third day stuff, isn't it strange how it always seems to show up? Abraham lifted up his eyes, saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, Stay here with the donkey.

I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you. You'll note that they had a donkey. Isaac comes close to Mount Moriah while riding a donkey. I seem to remember Jesus riding a donkey too when he comes into Jerusalem.

So stay here. I and the boy will go over and worship and come to you again. Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, laid it on Isaac, his son. And this harkens then to when Christ, after having been beaten, scourged, punched in the face, had a crown of thorns pressed into his head, then was forced to carry his cross to the slopes of Mount Moriah, which is Golgotha.

But he buckled under the load because of the beating. But here Isaac is carrying the very wood on which he is supposed to be sacrificed. So he laid it on Isaac and he took his hand, the fire, and the knife.

So they went, both of them, together. And Isaac said to his father, Abraham, my father, he said, Here I am, my son. He said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.

So they went, both of them, together. And no truer words could have been spoken. God himself truly was going to provide the lamb for the burnt offering. But it's not Isaac. Remember, Isaac is a sinner like you and I.

He cannot be the sacrifice for our sins. He cannot even be the sacrifice for his own. So when they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there, laid the wood in order, bound Isaac, his son, laid him on the altar on top of the wood.

Hmm. Just see pictures of Christ being laid on the cross and being nailed to the wood of the cross before he was suspended between heaven and earth. So Abraham reached out his hand, took the knife to slaughter his son.

But the angel of the Lord, yeah, the same one who had the sword out in 1 Chronicles 21, that same angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, here I am. He said, do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him.

For now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.

This type of plant, by the way, when you look it up in the Hebrew, is a thorn bearing thicket. This ram is literally caught by its horns by thorns. And this is a great picture of the crown of thorns that Jesus was to wear when he later would be at this exact same spot on this same mountain.

So there was the ram caught in the thicket by its horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering. And listen to these words. Instead of his son. Now, a couple of notes here.

If you remember, when David sinned, he ended up buying the site of the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite. And his point was, I have to buy these things because the sacrifice can't cost me nothing.

It has to cost me something. And here in this sacrifice, what did this sacrifice cost Abraham? Zero. This was a free sacrifice. But see, this is the sacrifice that points to the ultimate sacrifice. And this is where it's important that we pay attention.

The sacrifice that was given for your sins and mine cost us nothing. Just like this sacrifice cost Abraham nothing. But the sacrifice for our sins cost God the Father everything. Everything. Because God the Father did not withhold his son, his only son, so that he can bleed and die for your sins and mine.

It cost us and Abraham nothing. It cost God everything. And it cost Jesus everything. But see, that's the thing. In order to save us, God and Christ himself, they were not only willing, but they did literally lay down everything in order to redeem you and I.

And you can see this beautiful picture of it right there. And then focus again on these words. Instead of his son. And this then hearkens to that wonderful biblical teaching that we are saved because Christ is our substitute.

That what we deserved Christ took for himself. Jesus was sacrificed and he suffered for your sins and mine instead of you. And so the words instead of his son, so important. Because that then helps us understand that when we're talking about what Jesus was doing on the cross, it was a substitutionary work for your sins and for mine.

So Abraham called the name of that place. And here's the name Yahweh will provide as it is said to this day on the Mount of Yahweh. It shall be provided now back when Moses penned these words. Jesus is crucifixion on the slopes of Mount Moriah was still something that would take place in the future.

But we now looking back to the finished and accomplished work of Christ. We can say that on the Mount of Yahweh it has been provided. It has God himself has provided the lamb. God himself has provided the sacrifice.

And this is absolutely good news. So if you just read Genesis 22 on a cold reading and you don't consider its significance in light of what the rest of Scripture reveals. Then God looks like a monster.

But if you read what Scripture reveals regarding this place and what was going to take place on it. Now all of a sudden God no longer looks like a monster. He looks like somebody who truly loves us. Who demonstrates his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.

And you can see that going all the way back in human history that this was God's intention all along to save sinners like me and like you. And so I think it fitting and appropriate then to close our meditation on this text with the words of Christ from our Gospel text this morning.

Repent and Believe in the Gospel

Jesus said the time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel. Consider again the fact that you have deserved God's wrath. That the sword of the Lord rightly should be pointed at your chest and there's nothing that you can offer that would keep God from executing the judgment upon you that you have deserved for your sins.

Same with me. But see the thing is that God himself has provided the sacrifice. The angel of the Lord stood between heaven and earth in order to reconcile us to the Father. So this being lent as a time to reflect on our lives and to repent over and again to say that we are not worthy that we should do better and we have incurred God's wrath.

But Jesus assures us with these words. Believe in the Gospel. The Gospel is the good news that Christ on a Friday afternoon on the slopes of Mount Moriah was the Lamb of God that he provided so that you can be reconciled to the Father.

And because of this great act of mercy on the part of God that God's sword, the sword of God's wrath has been sheathed and you are made right with God. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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