2: Was Jesus Sacrificed on Mount Moriah?

Welcome to the Ready for Eternity podcast. My name is Eddie Lawrence, and the episode today is answering the question,

Was Jesus sacrificed on Mount Moriah? As I mentioned on the last episode, this blog post is the most read article on my entire website, and I'm not really sure why people are so interested in this particular topic.

If you have an idea about why people gravitate toward this particular article, leave me a comment on Facebook or Twitter.

I'd really like to get some feedback on why this article is so popular. So, was

Jesus sacrificed on Mount Moriah? The answer is pretty simple, so let's get to it.

According to 2nd Chronicles 3 .1, Solomon built the first temple on Mount Moriah, and as I noted on the previous episode, some people confuse

Mount Moriah with the mountain where Isaac was bound. As we noted, there is zero scriptural support to conclude that Isaac was bound at the site of the future temple.

This conflation has led some people to assert that Jesus was sacrificed on Mount Moriah.

Now, it is true that his crucifixion was near Mount Moriah, but we can be sure it didn't take place on Mount Moriah.

If the crucifixion were on Mount Moriah, his cross would have been on the

Temple Mount. The New Testament is clear that his crucifixion happened outside the city.

John 19 -20 and Hebrews 13 -12 spell this out. Since the

Temple Mount, also known as Mount Moriah, was inside the city walls, we can be confident that the sacrifice of Jesus didn't happen there.

Besides this, it would have been unthinkable for the Jews to conduct a crucifixion in the sacred temple precincts.

It's the theological connections between Isaac and Jesus that should grab our attention, not the geographical connections.

There are a number of parallels between Isaac and Jesus that are too interesting not to take note of.

For example, Isaac was a miracle baby. He was born to a barren woman who was too old to conceive in the first place.

Likewise, Jesus was a miracle baby. He was born to a virgin. Isaac was an only son,

Genesis 22 -2, and Jesus is an only son, John 3 -16.

Isaac was figuratively dead for three days, and Jesus was dead for three days.

Isaac was accompanied by two servants, and Jesus was accompanied by two criminals.

Isaac carried the wood for his sacrifice, and likewise, Jesus carried the wooden cross for his sacrifice.

Isaac willingly submitted to his father's wishes. Jesus willingly sacrificed himself according to his father's wishes.

Isaac was bound on a mountain in the land of Moriah. Jesus was crucified near Mount Moriah, and Isaac was figuratively brought back from the dead.

Jesus was literally brought back from the dead. There's a chart on the website in the article which lays out these comparisons.

Surprisingly, no New Testament author ever makes a comparison between Jesus and Isaac.

What should this omission signal to us? Well, perhaps the New Testament authors thought the parallels were too obvious to be worth mentioning, or maybe the connections weren't pertinent to the problems the early church faced, and therefore it never made it into the letters.

For all we know, the early Christians talked frequently about this connection, and the discussion just never made it into the

New Testament writings. What seems obvious is that the binding of Isaac was a foreshadowing of things to come.

God provided a substitutionary sacrifice, which took the place of Isaac, and Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.

And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

Genesis 22 13. This led Abraham to name the site. 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. Genesis 22 14. Abraham's confidence in God was absolute.

He now knew beyond any doubt that God will make provisions for his people, and God keeps his promises.

This led to a later saying, on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.

What is the it in it shall be provided? Was it that God would provide?

Some say this is a prophecy about Christ sacrificed. The it may refer to the sacrifice of Jesus which

God provided. Was Jesus sacrificed on Mount Moriah? No, he was sacrificed near it, but not on it.

I think the important thing to take away from this is not the geography of where these two events took place, but the theological connections.

There are significant theological parallels between the binding of Isaac and the crucifixion of Jesus, and that is where we need to focus our attention, on the theological, not the geographical.

Thanks for listening to the podcast. I hope this episode has deepened your understanding of Scripture.

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That's all for now. Keep studying your Bible, growing closer to God, and getting ready for eternity.