Living on a Prayer: The Altar of Mount Moriah

Living on a Prayer: The Altar of Mount Moriah

 

Welcome friends! Today, we conclude our series “Living on a Prayer” with the historical account of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah. This story is wild! A God that demands human sacrifice and a father willing to do it? What in the world!?? 

 

Today, we’re going to discover the kind of sacrifice God really wants from us, but please be nice to your kids…they’re not on the menu!

 

The Lord kept his word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised. She became pregnant, and she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. This happened at just the time God had said it would. And Abraham named their son Isaac. Eight days after Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded. Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born. And Sarah declared, “God has brought me laughter. All who hear about this will laugh with me. Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse a baby? Yet I have given Abraham a son in his old age!” Genesis 21:1-6 (NLT)

 

Some time later, God Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called. “Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.” “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.” 

 

The next morning Abraham got up early. He saddled his donkey and took two of his servants with him, along with his son, Isaac. Then he chopped wood for a fire for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day of their journey, Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told the servants. “The boy and I will travel a little farther. We will worship there, and then we will come right back.” Genesis 22:1-5 (NLT)

 

AFTER Abraham walked with God for 10 years, God began to reveal more of Himself to Abraham directly:

 

Genesis 12:1 : The Lord or I AM 

(Called Abram to leave his homeland for His eternal promises.)

 

Genesis 15:2 : Lord or Master 

(God’s lordship and Abram’s acknowledgment of His authority.)

 

Genesis 17:1 : God Almighty 

(God’s power and ability to fulfill His promises (God of Creation)

 

Genesis 14:18 : God Most High 

(Melchizedek spoke to Abraham about this God who would bless his legacy.)

 

Genesis 21:32 : The Eternal/Everlasting God. 

(Abraham has lived 100 years…God’s faithfulness was dynamically evident.)

 

God TESTED Abraham. Church there’s a big difference between a and a :

 

A test is a specific challenge or set of circumstances designed to assess or refine a person’s faith, character, or abilities. 

 

A trial may not always be perceived as directly from God; it could result from living in a fallen world, natural consequences, or the work of adversarial forces.

 

Would Abraham trust God all the way home? (from womb to work to wedlock to world domination) How do you know you can trust someone/how do they know? Until you call on your friend in your desperation, you can’t say you KNOW how they will respond…and neither can they!!! THAT’S THE TEST! Do you know how you would respond to God?

 

When we are willing to give God our all, we discover God always offers more than He requires!

 

Now it was time for Abraham to learn one of the most incredible names for God:

 

So Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on Isaac’s shoulders, while he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked on together, Isaac turned to Abraham and said, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “We have the fire and the wood,” the boy said, “but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?” “God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together. 

 

When they arrived at the place where God had told him to go, Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. Then he tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. And Abraham picked up the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. At that moment the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Yes,” Abraham replied. “Here I am!” “Don’t lay a hand on the boy!” the angel said. “Do not hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.” 

 

Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.” 

 

Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven. “This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. And through your descendants, all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me.” Genesis 22:6-18 (NLT)

Altars represent the occasion and place where we have had a personal encounter with God. We may not always be able to make a physical altar, but there can be one established in our heart. What it takes to build an altar are rocks, broken things.  The geological application is relevant. There are volcanic explosions in our lives. There are seismic events in our lives. There is the continual grinding of life for each of us. You can take the hard things and arrange them before the Lord or you can drag the rock around and be burdened by them. Or when you are frustrated at lugging them around, you get mad and throw them at someone else. The way you build an altar is to bring those hard, broken things before the Lord and put them there.

God has a place of altaring for us and a price of altering. Altars have a price- God intends that something be “altered” in us when we come to altars. To receive the promise means we make way for the transformation. Have you ever felt the Lord put in your heart an expectation of promise? 

Such aspirations come from the Lord—Psalm 62:5 “Let all that I am wait quietly before God,

for my hope is in him.” 

You sense anticipation of something God has put in your heart and underwritten by promises in His Word. You look at the promise and begin to picture in your mind what it’s going to be like. The fact is, we often visualize things that have nothing whatsoever to do with what God wants to do with us.

Abraham probably imagined an incredible verdant valley, flowing stream, lovely mountains. I am confident he had envisioned this “Promised Land!” But Scripture says he came to a place where Canaanites were living in the land. The Canaanites were the most perverted, corrupt culture in human history. They made up the population of Sodom and Gomorrah. There were the Satanists of that time. In Ur, Abraham was living in a land where many gods were worshiped because the people believed that all the gods were necessary to ensure great crop production. They needed a god for rain, god for sunshine, god for fertilization, god for great crop yields. Ancient people believed the gods of antiquity required all kinds of sacrifice, even the sacrifice of children. 

When we read this, we are appalled. How could a kind loving God ask Abraham to do such a thing? But when Abraham heard this directive within his cultural context, he would have been thinking, Yes, this is exactly what the gods require. If I am going to enter a covenant relationship with this God, of course He is going to ask for my firstborn son. But even stronger than this, Hebrews 11 indicates that God in His relationship with Abraham explains what is expected in this ask, 

It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.” Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead. Hebrews 11:17-19 (NLT)

Abraham’s building of this altar represents his saying: “I’m accepting a promise, understanding that this is different than what I thought it was going to be, but it’s also something that I believe God can bring to pass. I trust You, Lord, that you will make it work. 

Abraham had been trusting in the Lord so very long now, he knew what God wanted him to do and he was willing to obey. Paul has the perspective of meeting the Messiah, who was offered as the only sacrifice that would rid the world of sin. God requires that we acknowledge what His Son did for us and receive forgiveness for our sinfulness. 

 

Abraham met the God who provides for His people…

 

Genesis 22:14 : The Lord will Provide 

(God’s provision, particularly in times of great need or testing.)

 

We must dedicate our family to the work of the Lord! When was the last time you did something for God together? Turn it all off/down and get to serving Him!

 

Can I say this? I feel like sometimes instead of honoring and worshiping God WITH our family, we worship our FAMILY with God. (we choose family fun over fellowship with God…soccer over Sunday school. Baseball over Bible study. Super bowl over singing worship songs.

 

Question: Isn’t God…God? Isn’t He supposed to be our number one priority? Let’s do it!

 

Here are some homework assignments to realign our family to our divine purpose:

 

1. Serve as a family this year/Sacrifice together (missions…have EVERYONE join in!)
2. Christmas gift/Thanksgiving gift to God…gift Jesus a gift!

 

Abraham is teaching us that serving the Lord is expensive: God wants our best and He deserves nothing less…I mean, look at all the weird idols and fake gods during the time Abraham required the people to die for them:

 

Nanna: Night Praise

Inanna: Sacred Prostitution

Anu: Astrology/Star Worship

Enlil: Crying and screaming

Baal: Sexual/Child sacrifice/Animal

Asherah: Sexual Offerings

Dagon: produce and animals

Ra: animal sacrifice

Osiris: dead mummification/preparation

Isis: casting spells and incantations

Horus: praying to/through pharoh

Teraphim: household idols with daily gifts/prayers

 

According to Joshua 24:2, Abraham’s father Terah worshipped other gods…Abraham took his family away from the idolatry of his past and served the one true God. 

 

These gods required their followers to acknowledge them and provide sacrifices and observations that were costly and often divisive. Some of these gods demanded human sacrifice: cutting their bodies to spill their blood and even child sacrifices.

 

Abraham served a God that wanted to him witness obedience of the highest order: Knowing Jesus would die for us all in 2000 years: about “2 days later in heaven.”

 

The response of the Angel of the Lord is noteworthy in this story. It is rare and noteworthy for Jesus to speak out from the heavens. He usually came to earth to speak to His people. I believe this act of faithfulness and surrender honored God and Jesus was moved by this scene.

 

This is where God appeared to David, where Solomon built the Temple and where the Lord Jesus would stand and declare: “I am the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd gives His life for the Sheep.” John 10:11

 

Have you and I ever done something so beautiful for God, we felt His joy/pleasure? Scripture says all of heaven rejoices when someone receives God’s forgiveness and starts an eternal relationship with Jesus! Would you like to start one right now?