Articles
Hope in Mount Moriah
Hopes in Mt. Moriah
The city of Jerusalem’s physical landscape has two prominent peaks. One is Mount Moriah, known today as the temple mount, and the other is somewhat to the south, today called Mount Zion. Both have their history, and a special religious significance to many people. But Mt. Moriah commands a great deal of attention for Jews, Muslims, and many who are called Christians. There about 4000 years ago, Abraham bound Isaac, ready to offer him to Jehovah in that great act of faith which capped a great life of faith. There, 1000 years later, Solomon built a temple to Jehovah according to the instructions given to his father David. There the second temple was built after the Babylonian captivity. There Herod the Great built his magnificent platform of walls, gates, porches, and fortresses. There Jesus walked, healed, taught his disciples, challenged the chief priest and elders, and overturned the tables of the money changers. Even Muslims revere this place, holding it to be the site of Mohammed’s ascent to heaven. A Muslim shrine, the Dome of the Rock, stands there today. Modern day Jews have high hopes of regaining control of this mountain, and rebuilding their temple. And a great number of people who wear the name Christian also eagerly support the reestablishment of the Jewish temple, regarding this as necessary for Christ’s reign on earth in his millennial kingdom. Thus the hopes of literally millions of religious people are pinned squarely on this rocky mount.
It is striking to visit Mt. Moriah today and to see that the religious hopes of so many are tied to a physical place – the rock, the mountain, the mosque, the temple, the earthly city – and these have become a lightning rod for tension, hatred and bloodshed. The place which was a symbol of spiritual hope and salvation to so many has been degraded, politicized and prostituted for the sake of religious pride, misguided zeal, national ambition, and terrorist “holy wars”. When I reflected on it, walking around on Mt. Moriah, it really seemed like a tragedy. But perhaps I needed to adjust my thinking on this.
Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem 2000 years ago, but His tears were for its people, not for the mountain or the temple or the stones. Let us hold precious in our hearts Jesus’ proclamation, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight…” It is hard to resist placing our hopes in worldly things – possessions, places, church buildings, governments, military hardware, scientific achievements, education, etc. But all these things cannot relieve our guilt, cleanse our conscience, nor reconcile us to our God. And they cannot last – they will certainly eventually crash and burn.
We must ever keep in front of us that kingdom that cannot be shaken. Our true mountain is a spiritual one. “But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant…wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing unto God” (Heb. 12:22-28).
Lord, give us eyes to see by faith the spiritual realities to which our Lord Jesus bore witness. And strengthen us to ACT as men and women of faith!
Larry Walker
May 2010
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