Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!”
And he said, “Here I am.”
Then He said, “Take now 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.”
Genesis 22:1-2, NKJV
God never gives details in the scripture without a reason. In fact, nothing is recorded in the scripture without a reason. And that reason is often incredibly profound. There is a powerful proverb that I have found to be important in my life:
It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.
Proverbs 25:2, NKJV
This proverb describes the incredible glory of our God to conceal treasures in His Word. And He has given us the opportunity to seek out these treasures in order to learn more about our awesome Father God. This is our glory – to use the mind, heart and spirit He has given us to learn more about Him! In that spirit, let us now open up God’s treasure chest to understand what God was showing us in this incredible mystery. We will start with a clue given in one of the details regarding the sacrifice – the location: the land of Moriah.
Why would our God record for us the vicinity of this nerve-wracking story of a Father’s ultimate sacrifice? Moriah is not a well-known region. In fact, this name is only briefly mentioned in the entirety of scripture. And this story is the first mention of the geographical name, Moriah. After this passage, we do not hear of Moriah again, by name, until Solomon begins building the temple, several hundred years later:
Now Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
2 Chronicles 3:1, NKJV (Note: Ornan is also known as Araunah in other passages.)
Did you see it? The Temple of Solomon (God’s first man-made temple) was built on Mount Moriah! This tells us that Mount Moriah is actually Temple Mount itself! Now, it is important to note that there is a slight difference between the Genesis passage, where Abraham was commanded to sacrifice Isaac “on one of the mountains in the land of Moriah” and the actual Mount Moriah. This difference will be very important later in this discussion.
As mentioned earlier in this blog, God is a God of details. And when He gives details in the Word, these details can often lead us to amazing truths. Let’s examine one of those details in the passage above – a small, but incredibly important milestone in the history of Mount Moriah.
God could have simply said “Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah.” Instead, He went on to add: “where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.” This would be like you or me saying, “I was born in such and such a place,” and then going on to add, “where the battle of such and such was fought.” This inclusion would only be meaningful to the reader (or listener) if it were a very important aspect of history. With this understanding, let’s take a look at the story of Mount Moriah, King David and Ornan, the Jebusite.
In this story we are given a glimpse of King David’s failure, and the penalty of that failure, which severely impacted all Israel. We will not take the time to go into all of the details of David’s troubles in the mountains of Moriah in this session (we will save that story for another study). But we will pick up, in the land of Moriah, as the Lord is punishing Israel with a plague in response to one of David’s sins, and David repents and earnestly seeks the Lord’s forgiveness:
And when the angel stretched out His hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the destruction, and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “It is enough; now restrain your hand.” And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Surely I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.”
2 Samuel 24: 16-17, NKJV (italics added for emphasis)
In this story, we are given a glimpse of God’s judgement on His people, and on His mercy in relenting of that judgement. But I believe that we are also given another glimpse – possibly a flashback from the past, and a premonition of things to come! We will explore both of these in turn. But before we do, let us take a look at what David did in response to God relenting in His judgement:
And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” So David, according to the word of Gad, went up as the Lord commanded. Now Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. So Araunah went out and bowed before the king with his face to the ground.
Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?”
And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.”
Now Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look, here are oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing implements and the yokes of the oxen for wood. All these, O king, Araunah has given to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God accept you.”
Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the Lord heeded the prayers for the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.
2 Samuel 24:18-25, NKJV
There is so much packed into this story! We will only examine a small part of it. We will start with one of the objects of the passage – the threshing floor. Many of us read this passage and simply pass right over it. He bought a place to erect an altar. It just happened to be a threshing floor. So what? Most of us have no real concept of a threshing floor anyway. It’s just one of those little details that we miss. What is a threshing floor anyway?
In the days before modern agricultural equipment (and even now, in underdeveloped countries), farmers had to rely on manual methods of separating wheat kernels from the rest of the plant – that part that was of no use. This method included some sort of physical jarring or shock, separating the kernel from the stalk, and then a secondary process of eliminating the chaff. Separating the kernel was often accomplished by trampling the wheat underfoot or beating it with some sort of instrument. This was known as threshing. Then, the elimination of the waste product (the chaff) was often accomplished by burning or by allowing the wind to carry it away.
In many passages, God used this concept to describe His treatment of His people (the wheat) and His judgement on the ungodly – the chaff. This is illustrated in the following passages:
Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord ,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.
The ungodly are not so,
But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.Psalm 1:1-5, NKJV
Plead my cause, O Lord, with those who strive with me;
Fight against those who fight against me.
Take hold of shield and buckler,
And stand up for my help.
Also draw out the spear,
And stop those who pursue me.
Say to my soul,
“I am your salvation.”
Let those be put to shame and brought to dishonor
Who seek after my life;
Let those be turned back and brought to confusion
Who plot my hurt.
Let them be like chaff before the wind,
And let the angel of the Lord chase them.
Let their way be dark and slippery,
And let the angel of the Lord pursue them.Ps 35:1-6, NKJV
God sees the ungodly and evil man as nothing more than chaff – something worthless, to be crushed, and ultimately blown away by the wind. But even as impassioned as these passages seem to be, they are far surpassed by the following passage, related by John the Baptist, in the New Testament:
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
The Gospel of Matthew 3:7-12, NKJV
So there is much significance in the fact that the passages under study take place on a threshing floor. Now, let us examine the name of the owner of this threshing floor. Again, God is a God of details. He mentions the name multiple times. Is that important? The name Ornan means “strong”. It likely comes from a root, “aran”, or “oren”, which describe a type of tree; likely similar to a fir, or cedar, again, indicating great strength. We will return to this name later, as we bring these concepts together.
Thus far, we have Solomon building the temple of the Lord on Mount Moriah, on a site that served as, first, a threshing floor owned by Ornan (strong), and then an altar bought by David. And this location was also the spot where the Lord stopped the spread of the plague that He brought on the people of Israel as a response to David’s sin. And centuries before, Abraham was called to sacrifice his son Isaac right in the vicinity of this very mountain! Is it possible that all of these events are actually woven together? To explore this further, let’s examine another pair of scripture passages describing God’s people Israel:
“When Israel was a child, I loved him,
And out of Egypt I called My son.Hosea 11:1, NKJV
And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn.”‘”
Exodus 4:21-23, NKJV
Did you see it? How has the Lord described Israel, His chosen people in these verses? As His son! In both cases, He describes Israel as His chosen son. So consider the mind of God as He is punishing his “son” in this area. As the Angel of the Lord brings plague upon the people, God sees His “son” dying on this very spot. The spot that he had chosen to test Abraham. But in both cases, God relents and stops the process. Why? Why did God ask Abraham to sacrifice the son that he loved Isaac, why did He begin to kill the “son that He loves”, Israel, and why did He relent on this very spot?
The scripture tells us that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin (The book of Hebrews, 9:22). It was Israel’s sin that brought about God’s punishment. But I submit that it was a recognition of His ultimate plan for redemption that brought Him to relent. A plan that would be enacted roughly one thousand years later – in exactly the same spot.
Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’” Having said this, He breathed His last.
The Gospel of Luke 23:44-46, NKJV
Do you get the full impact of this passage? Jesus, God’s only Son, the Son that He loved, was put to death – voluntarily sacrificed for the redemption of not just Israel’s sin, but ALL sin – in the very same spot that Abraham was called to sacrifice Isaac, and the same spot that the Angel of the Lord (a pre-incarnate manifestation of the Lord Jesus) stopped the plague from destroying Israel. Coincidence? Not a chance. “This was the Lord’s doing, and it was marvelous in our eyes!” (The Gospel of Mark 12:11).
Finally, let’s return to the threshing floor of Ornan. This was a place of the threshing of the wheat – a gathering place for the wheat, and a place of destruction of the chaff. Owned by the strong one. This was the threshing floor of God Himself. Take a look at the passage in Matthew above:
“…He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
The threshing floor is God’s, and He has redeemed His people through the blood of His Son, Jesus. Without the shedding of blood, there is no redemption. But through the blood of Christ, all are redeemed. Did Jesus fulfill this most important statute? Did He fulfill the ultimate sacrifice to be given in the land of Moriah, on the place that God Himself chose? Absolutely! He did so for me! And He did so for you if you have accepted His redemptive work! Those that choose to ignore His shed blood and turn away from His redemptive work will ultimately be trampled underfoot and burned with unquenchable fire. My fervent prayer is that none of my readers ever follow this treacherous path!
There is SO much more hidden in these passages, and others like them! May you continue to study the Holy Scripture and find the many riches of His Word! Selah!
YouJi