Chapter 2
Mount Moriah
We now come to the second mountain, which is the Mount of Sacrifice, and it is Mount Moriah. This is one of the mountains that the human family will hold very sacred, for it was on this mountain that our Father Abraham offered up his son Isaac on the altar as a burnt sacrifice.
The human family will never forget the man Abraham, for he was called the father of the faithful. Well, it was because he was faithful, and he never flinched one hair’s breadth. Bro. H. C. Morrison says that “God called and Abraham went, and God promised and Abraham believed, and God asked and Abraham gave.” I thought at the time that I heard my beloved brother say that, that it was the greatest thing I had ever heard fall from a man’s lips, and I still believe it.
So Mount Moriah will always be held in the highest esteem because of its association with Abraham and Isaac. We all remember that on that mountain God asked a man to do the hardest thing that a man was ever asked to do in this world, and that old hero never even asked God a simple question, but got the boy and the wood and the knife and started to the mountain.
We read in Heb. 17:18, 19: “By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac and he that had received the promise offered up his only begotten son of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from whence also he received him in a figure.”
We see that Abraham just as truly killed Isaac and burnt him as if he had done the thing itself, and God gave him credit for killing his son, and so put it down in the sacred Scriptures. So today it stands out that by faith Abraham offered up Isaac, and all men take off their hats to Abraham, and all men take off their hats to Mount Moriah. The very names of Abraham and Mount Moriah are sacred to the Bible reader and the student of sacred history.
In this wonderful tragedy that took place on this mountain we have a beautiful type of God the Father in the man Abraham, and we have a beautiful type of Christ in the boy Isaac, and we have the type of the blessed Holy Ghost in the fire in the hand of Abraham.
We see that Isaac was the child of promise. It had been declared by the Lord Himself that “In Isaac shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed,” and now, right in the face of that promise, God tells Abraham to take Isaac, his only begotten son, and offer him on the altar for a burnt sacrifice. God had just told Abraham that “My covenant will be between me and Isaac.”
Now Isaac was not just a common born child; he was the son of a man one hundred years of age, and he was the child of promise. The angels had eaten supper with Abraham and Sarah and promised them this remarkable child. Now according to the word of the angels and according to the promise of the Lord God Himself, this child was born, and is now the joy and comfort of the old father, for he was a wonderful child. But oh, to the sad surprise of Abraham, here comes the voice of God: “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Now take Isaac, thine only son, and get thee to the land that I shall shew thee, and offer up thy son on the altar for a burnt offering.” And then just listen! We read that Abraham started. Did he start to leave the country with his boy? Oh no, he started to Mount Moriah to obey God and offer up his son for the burnt offering.
In this wonderful tragedy we see Isaac as a type of the blessed Son of God. Yonder goes Isaac to Mount Moriah with the wood on his shoulder that he is to be burnt on. If you will look down the stream of time a few hundred years you will see the Son of God going to Mount Calvary with the cross of wood on his shoulder, on which He is to die. So without a doubt in my mind, Isaac is the type of Christ.
Just as Isaac was a child of promise, so Christ was the child of promise. He had been promised ever since the fall of man. Now we see God the Father and Abraham each making an offering of their son. Isaac was to bless the whole world of mankind, but the command was to put him to death.
The fire in the hands of Abraham was to consume Isaac, and the Holy Ghost in the hand of the Father is to consume all of the old self that is in us. Just as truly as Abraham received Isaac from the dead, we are to die to this old world, and be put to death and let the fire from heaven fall on us and consume all the dross and tin, and we are to rise and walk in newness of life as new creatures in Christ Jesus. Old things are to pass away, and the Book says, “Behold all things are new.”
Abraham just simply believed that God could take the pile of ashes and make his son as truly as he believed that he was on the earth, and so he did not hesitate when God told him to offer up Isaac. Now we can see the force of the statement of Bro. Morrison when he said that “God called and Abraham went, and God promised and Abraham believed, and God asked and Abraham gave.”
The reader will remember that it was said of Abraham that he was the “friend of God.” It doesn’t say that he was friendly with God but it does say that he was the friend of God. There are plenty of people that we are friendly with, but we never tell them anything; but there are others that we tell all we know, and they are the friends, you see. Again, it is said that Abraham is the father of the faithful; again, it is said that Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. I have heard men say, “I would vote the Prohibition ticket, but I am afraid I would lose my vote.” Well, the Bible said that, “Abraham believed God and it was counted,” and if you will do right God will count you also.