01.020. Mount Moriah (Genesis 22:2)

Mount Moriah Get thee into the land of Moriah.—Genesis 22:2.

If places could tell what they have seen, what stories some of them could relate! Some have been the scene of great deeds repeated again and again at different times in their history. Think of the coasts of the Dardanelles and what they have seen from the days of the Trojans until they witnessed the sunk mines and the naval bombardment of World War I! Think of Westminster Abbey, where kings have been crowned and buried since Saxon times! Or the pyramids of Egypt, which have stood like silent witnesses while many dynasties passed away! They have seen the Pharaohs, and the Greeks, and now they look down on the British in possession of their land. The land of Palestine has many such places, with a history so old that we cannot trace it to its beginning. Such a place is Mount Moriah. This is the name given to one of the hills on which Jerusalem is built.

I. The first glimpse we get of Moriah takes us back some four thousand years, to a time when our own country had not a history at all. We see a little procession of four men wending its way through a district in Palestine known as “the land of Moriah.” One was a very old man, one was a young lad, and the other two were servants. They had with them a donkey, laden with provisions and a large bundle of wood. Two days they journeyed, and on the third they saw the hill for which they were bound. “Stay here,” said the old man Abraham to his servants, “while my son Isaac and I go yonder and worship” And those two went on alone, the son bearing the wood to make a fire for the sacrifice, the father carrying fire and a knife.

Only one thing was wanting—there was no lamb to be offered. “Father,” said the lad, “here is the wood and the fire, but where is the lamb?” And Abraham answered, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb.” So they went on till they reached the appointed place, and then Abraham built his altar and laid his wood upon it, and on the wood, instead of a lamb, he bound his dear son, and prepared to offer him as a sacrifice to God. But just as he raised the knife, a voice called to him, telling him to do Isaac no harm, since God knew he would willingly give even his only son. And, looking round, Abraham saw a ram in a thicket near, which he took and offered instead. That is the first glimpse we have of Mount Moriah. Now for the second.

II. A great plague was sweeping over the land of Palestine. For three days it lasted, and thousands of people perished. Then it approached Jerusalem. As we read in the Bible, “an angel was sent to destroy it”; but he paused outside the city at a place where there was a threshing-floor. This belonged to a man called Araunah, who was busy threshing wheat in the Eastern fashion—by spreading it out on the ground and driving oxen over it.

Now David had been praying to God that the plague might be stopped, and the prophet Gad came to him and told him to go to the threshing-floor of Araunah, and build there an altar, and offer sacrifice upon it. Araunah looked out and saw the king coming up from the city with his servants, and went out to meet him, and asked him why he had done him the honor of coming there. Then David told him he had come to buy the place from him, and build an altar and sacrifice upon it that the plague might be stopped. Araunah wished to make him a present of the oxen for the sacrifice, but the king refused, and insisted on paying for them, because he would not offer to God what had cost him nothing. So the threshing-floor was bought, and the altar built, and in answer to David’s prayer the plague stopped. On this spot David determined to build a great Temple to God. But this was not to be in his time. However he collected a great store of gold and silver and brass and iron for the building of God’s house, and left all these materials to his son Solomon, that he might carry out the plan.

III. A few years later we see Mount Moriah again. The threshing-floor where Araunah drove his oxen over the heaps of corn is no longer there. Instead there is a great court divided into smaller courts, containing the magnificent palaces of King Solomon, and, in a court by itself, the beautiful Temple which he reared on the site of David’s altar. It was built of costly stone, and was lined inside with cedar wood, carved and covered over with gold. Outside stood two tall brass pillars and a great altar for sacrifice. Inside were the golden candlestick and the table of shewbread and all the vessels of gold. And here the ark was brought, and placed in the Holy of Holies, with great rejoicing that at last a suitable house had been built to contain it. For many years the Temple on Mount Moriah was the glory of Jerusalem and the center of worship for all the people of Judah, but at last, for their sins, the enemy came upon the city. The Chaldaeans, under King Nebuchadrezzar, besieged it and built a strong rampart round it to prevent any escape from within or any help from without. After a long siege the enemy succeeded in making a breach in the wall, and poured into the city. The Temple was burned and leveled to the ground, and all its furniture and golden vessels were carried to Babylon. The people also were taken away as prisoners and exiles to a foreign country, there to mourn the loss of their land, and of their Temple; but to learn that there also God could be worshipped, in spirit, and without sacrifices and ceremonies.

IV.

Years passed away, and Mount Moriah still lay desolate. Only a few poor people were left in the land, and they did not worship in Jerusalem. The Temple was still in ruins. But a new ruler reigned in Babylon—Cyrus of Persia, who had conquered it. This king gave permission to the Jews to return to their country. A great many of them preferred to stay in the land of their captivity, but some of them came back under Joshua and Zerubbabel and set to work to restore the Temple. But this Temple was very different from that of Solomon. Here there were no stores of gold and silver. There was no fine wood to be had in the neighborhood. The builders had to use what they could get, and they met with bitter opposition from their neighbors the Samaritans, who were angry that the Jews had refused to allow them to help in the building, because they were not true Jews, though they had partly adopted their religion. But at last, in spite of many difficulties, the Temple was rebuilt, and once more the people went up to worship on Mount Moriah.

V.

Jerusalem saw many changes after the days of the rebuilding of the Temple. The Jews struggled in vain to keep their independence, first against the Greeks, and later the Romans. They had to submit to those stronger than themselves, and to obey foreign and heathen rulers. By the Romans, Herod the Great was made king of the Jews. Herod was a very clever man and might have made a wise king, but he was one of the wickedest men who ever lived, and a cruel tyrant to his people. He put many of them to death, and punished their rebellions against him with great cruelty. He brought into the Holy City of Jerusalem foreign customs which were against the religion of the Jews. No wonder they hated him! When he offered to rebuild the Temple they refused at first to allow it. He had built a great deal in Jerusalem—strengthening the walls, and raising high towers of beautiful white stone. Beside these the Temple which Zerubbabel had built looked small and mean. It had been partly damaged too when Herod besieged the city at the time when he was made king. But the people would not have it touched. At last Herod persuaded them to let him do so. He promised that he would not pull it down till he was quite ready to build the new one, and he had a thousand priests trained as masons and carpenters, so that none but priests might touch the Holy Place. Then a beautiful white building rose on Mount Moriah where the old Temple had stood. It was built of great blocks of white stone with plates of gold on the front, and looked at a distance like a mountain covered with snow. Inside it was the same as the old one, and it had the same furniture, because the Jews would not allow anything to be changed; but the building was much higher, and the porch was larger. At the doorway was a Golden Vine with leaves and clusters all made of gold.

It was to this beautiful Temple that Jesus came with His parents. It was from its courts that He drove out the money-changers and those that sold doves. It was in its courts that He walked and talked with His disciples; and when they called His attention to the great stones He said “There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” And this was what happened not many years later. The discontent of the Jews drove them into rebellion against their Roman rulers, and brought the Roman army against Jerusalem. After a terrible siege, the city was taken, the Temple, which had been fortified against them, was burned and the stones were removed from it, while the golden lamp and the table and other things were taken to Rome in triumph. Christ’s prophecy was fulfilled, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”

VI. For nearly seventy years the Holy City lay in heaps of trash. Every stone of the Temple had been thrown down. No new buildings were put up, and jackals wandered through the desolate ruins of Jerusalem. For more than a hundred years no Jews were allowed to enter it, and then only to weep over the stones of the Temple. The Emperor Hadrian set up his own statue and one of the Roman god Jove on the spot where the Holy Place had stood. But as time went on the Christian faith spread throughout the Oman Empire, and the emperors themselves became its champions. New buildings rose on the Temple hill. They were Christian churches built by the Emperor Justinian on the spot that had been holy so long.

VII. But now a new force and a new faith made themselves felt in the world. The Arabs rose suddenly into power and swept like a great wave from the west of Asia, over the north of Africa, to Spain. They were men of the desert, brave and chivalrous and simple in life. They besieged Jerusalem for four months, and then it surrendered. When Omar, the victorious general, entered the city he came riding on a camel, and dressed in a coarse cotton shirt and a sheepskin jacket. These Arabs were Muhammadans, who believed in one God and in Muhammad as His prophet, and regarded Christ merely as another, and inferior, prophet. Yet they promised, and faithfully fulfilled the promise, to spare the lives of the dwellers in the city, “in the name of God, merciful and pitying.” They also promised not to pull down or occupy the Christian churches. But they must have a place in which to pray, and it was agreed that they should have the spot on which Solomon’s Temple had stood. On this spot was built the mosque of Omar, named after the conqueror. It was a crude wooden building, but it was replaced later by another, the Dome of the Rock, which is there to this day. It is one of the most beautiful churches in the world. It is a circular building, like a drum, with a great gilded dome supported on pillars and round arches. This is built over the Holy Place, and round it is an octagonal arcade with pillars and round arches. These arches are covered with glass mosaics and over them are texts in golden letters on a blue ground.

VIII. And today Mount Moriah has seen still another triumphal entry into Jerusalem. On the 11th of December, 1917, General Allenby, the Commander of the Allied troops in Palestine, entered the Holy City on foot. He chose to enter thus humbly. And the whole world admired the spirit of the man who thus set foot on one of the most sacred spots on earth. From the steps of the Tower of David a proclamation was read in Arabic, Hebrew, English, French, Italian, Greek, and Russian, assuring the people that since the city was regarded with affection by the followers of three great religions, Jewish, Muhammadan, and Christian, their sacred buildings would all be kept safe from harm. And so the great mosque of the Dome was guarded by Moslem and Indian troops.

What Mount Moriah may see in the future who can tell? One day—one happy day—it may see all the peoples of the earth at peace with each other, and worshipping there the one true God and Jesus Christ His Son.