[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us
[email protected] be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast. Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: We're gonna dive in tonight with a little bit of a review. We had three weeks before Thanksgiving, then we got a week off. And so maybe you saw the Spotify. If you missed some weeks and you were able to catch that up or the church archives, whichever one.
And if you did, great. If you didn't. I just wanted to begin with does anybody remember those five main elements of story that we talked about on night one? Before we dive any further.
[00:01:07] Speaker B: The five elements of story are conflict, plot, setting, characters, and theme. And we made a point to say, okay, theme ties into theology for biblical authors. So we need to keep that in mind that when we're talking about these different things that, that oftentimes, as far as I can tell, the biblical authors are making a very, very strong show of their theology, and that's going to show up today in Babel and in Mount Moriah. So we want to pay very close attention to that. The one that we talked about a lot in terms of motifs was the idea of setting. I mean, this whole class is built off of the setting motif of the mountain. But one thing that we're going to already start seeing today, especially at Moriah and a little bit in Babylon too, is we talked about how plot can have little structures with it, too. That structure, people call those structures type scenes. And so those type scenes can show up where the same things seem to happen over and over again. And this is going to be overlaid on the mountain theme. And so we want to see what is important for us in terms of living out as a character in God's story, what it looks like to live that life. Well, another thing that we talked about so far is the idea that mountains are present at creation. If we look at the Psalms, if we look at the prophets, mountains are present in Eden. We talked about that in terms of the garden, that was week two and three. And then at the end of week three, we spent some, a very brief, maybe five minutes talking about how Ararat starts replaying a lot of the same things that happen in the days of creation and in the garden. And things that we said that were important are biblical authors use motifs to illuminate their theology. Creation is God's temple and we are thus his priests. And then God made humanity to be in communion with him. And specifically, what we're going to see, especially at Moriah, is this happens a lot of times in the type setting of a mountain. And so not to say that we can't experience God. In fact, when we get to the New Testament, we're going to spend a lot of time talking about how this shows up in the daily lives of Christians.
But right now we just have the Old Testament to give us a little bit of understanding. So without further ado, if you would turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 11.
We're going to begin in Genesis chapter 11 tonight. And we will begin with the tower of Babel. So the whole earth had a common language and a common vocabulary.
When the people moved eastward, they found the plain of Shinar and settled there.
Then they said to one another, come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They had brick instead of stone and tar instead of mortar. Then they said, come, let's build for ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens. So that way we might, we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise we will be scattered across the whole entire earth.
So where we are now with Babylon, we have the idea of one language. And some of the scholars that I looked up said, oh, look, this is kind of setting itself up for the kind of unity that we're supposed to be seeing in the garden.
I have a hard time drawing that connection, but that's fine. But I wanted you to pick up on the movement. Did anybody pick up on the movement of the people at the very beginning in verse one or two there, Juan's nodding, they were moving eastward again. And we said it as they left the garden, that they went east and then Cain's descendants went east. And as you leave the Tabernacle, you're going east. As you leave the temple, as you go east, when you leave Ezekiel's End times Temple, you're going east. And they end up on the plane of Shinar, which is mentioned like one other place in the Bible, it's mentioned when Nebuchadnezzar leaves Babylon. I Think is where it is. And he ends up on the plains of Shinar, right outside of Babylon, where he goes crazy. So where we are is the epitome of, or the antithesis, I should say, of Jerusalem, right? We have. We have come to the. One of the most ungodly cities that we could possibly have. So the lens that we should already be reading through this is that when we see Babel, when we read about Babel, that we're also kind of taking a peek into early Babylon.
And this is bad, right? These are the people who, when this was written, they were already a power that had to be contended with or at least traded with, or at least monitored. And then depending on.
Depending on who was reading back on this, this could be read in the exilic period, so when people had already been captured by the kings of Babylon and taken off into other lands, Daniel and the like, that these are the bad guys, right? These are the ones who we're not supposed to like.
So we've got trouble here. And they said, let us build a tower for us together. I've got here the ruins of a ziggurat. This is what a lot of people tend to associate with maybe what this passage is talking about, this ziggurat right here. And if my tablet was working, what I was going to do is this ziggurat had usually seven layers to it. So again, just like in the Bible, seven is a holy number, if you will. And so there are seven layers where you go up all these different steps to enter into what was at the top most of the time a temple.
So quite literally here, what is being built on this plain of Shinar is our own little pseudo mountain, right? Like, we don't need.
We don't need Mount Moriah, we don't need Mount Hermon, we don't need Yevulakra up in the north. We don't need any of those things. We can build our own. We have bricks and we have mortar, and we can do it ourselves.
And one of the key passages here that gives us an idea as to, like, what's going on.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: Is right after that, when they start taking. What was even the purpose of building this ziggurat in the first place? According to the text.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: We want to make a name for ourselves. We're going to do it ourselves. We don't need God or any God to tell us how. And the other big problem, too, lest we be dispersed, right? Like, if you don't read Genesis 1:11 in one long stretch, the lest we be Dispersed might escape you as an important detail.
It did me for a long time. So we've got. We're going to make a name for ourselves and we're going to be dispersed. So what's the problem here? Like, what's the big deal? What is if we're reading this as a Hebrew or as a modern day Christian, what are we supposed to be pulling out here in terms of the problems on one side and the ideals on the other side? What are some of the issues? I mean, we just identified some. But what would be the ideal in opposition to making a name for ourselves?
[00:08:18] Speaker C: Well, the name we carry should be God.
[00:08:20] Speaker B: Yes. We are made in the image of God, right? So we don't need to be carrying some sort of other God's image. Right?
[00:08:30] Speaker B: We need to carry God's image, his name.
The other one is, this is, in a sense, taking a forbidden fruit. If you read C.S. lewis's oh, Chronicles of Narnia series, the Magician's Nephew, the boring one at the beginning that people skip to start with the lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. But at the very end you have this scene where the main character. Sorry, you've had like 60 or 80 years to read it, so if I'm spoiling it for you, I apologize. You have the little boy at the end has a sick mother and he's doing anything he can to help his sick mother. And so he talks to Aslan and Aslan says, if you go well west, which I wonder if CS Lewis knew what he was doing there. And then you have to climb a large cliff where there is a waterfall. So you've got the mountain and the rivers coming down out of this. And then you've got to cross a plain and you will arrive at this small hill where atop sits a garden, right? Like, it makes me think that CS Lewis was trying to get people to see. Like, I'm telling this kid to go back to the garden. And the kid gets there. I can't remember his name right now, but he gets there. And when he gets there, he meets a holy being who is at the gate and says, wait a second. This tree that is in here that you intend to heal your mother, if you eat it for yourself, it means evil, but if you take it for someone else, it means good.
And so the angelic being lets him in. And who does he find already in the garden? Who had jumped over the fence to get there, other than Queen Jadis herself, the White Witch, and she is eating of the fruit. And so we've got this thing Here, that by trying to build this mountain ourselves, rather than Genesis 2 talks about God placed them in the garden. That this seems to be something that's a.
How can I say it? An invitation, if you will, that God makes the way up the mountain for us, that we're not supposed to do it in ourselves, that we are, by making our own mountains, we are ignoring God's invitation or instruction, or at the very least, not trusting in him to do that for us. We are claiming for ourselves a certain amount of deity. Right. And if you look back, I think it's maybe Athanasius talked about it the first. No, it was Augustine talked about it the first time. Augustine. And then there was a guy in the mid-90s who kind of developed it a little bit more. But they separate sin into two main categories. One, where you are attempting to be more godlike than the image of God that has been bestowed upon you. So you are taking the forbidden fruit, as it were. It's a sin of pride. Or there are sins that are more based in bestiality, where you reach down into your fleshly nature a little bit more than you ought to. And so this, by making a name for ourselves, we are trying to do what God is supposed to be doing with or for us, make a name for ourselves, rather than priests elevating the name of God. And then the one that never really occurred to me until recently is, lest we be dispersed, the first command, the first mandate, maybe not even command, but the first thing that we're told as humans is go, multiply. Fill the earth. Like this is a place where you're supposed to expand and go out, not center yourselves up into cities and build bricks. And.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: I've got to admit, I don't know the full extent as to what this means, but there seems to be a connection here in terms of we need to be dispersed, or we don't want to be dispersed versus God saying, fill the land.
[00:12:12] Speaker C: You know, Will, that could be our problem as Christians as well.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:18] Speaker C: You know that we try to take on that role of God as Christians and make those decisions that we shouldn't be making. Make those.
[00:12:34] Speaker C: Calls on others, if you will.
You know, we have sometimes pride that forbidden fruit.
We try to make a name for ourselves sometimes as congregations. Look what we're doing. Look how good we are. And we don't want to be dispersed. We want to sit here in our congregations and be real comfortable and everything. When Christ himself tells us to go into all the world and make disciples, he's telling us to get Out.
Get out of yourselves.
[00:13:09] Speaker C: You know, I see a lot of us in that as well.
[00:13:12] Speaker B: Yeah. In terms of seeing a lot of ourselves in this, I think. I don't know what Yalls classes on Sunday morning have been like in terms of what Genesis 1 through 11 look like, but Genesis 1 through 11, while it is the story of the beginning, I think it's a superposition, if you will, of every segment and moment in history. Right. Like, we get invited into these great moments in great places with God, only to turn our back on him, only to do this. And whether that's on an individual level that.
I love teaching. I really love teaching.
I love doing this on Wednesday nights. I've taught too many quarters since we moved back.
But it's easy. It can be very easy to do it because I want to be the cool, the good teacher, the whatever else it might be. Right. Like on an individual level, but you're right on a. On a church level that we build these buildings. And I'm not criticizing our addition or anything. It's like it's. But it is. It tends to be very centrally focused instead of outwardly focused. The whole point of having these places to gather is to come, be abundantly aware of the presence of God, to go back out and carry that out to the people in our community.
[00:14:37] Speaker C: If we don't continue to be focused on the ideal and try to emulate that ideal.
[00:14:44] Speaker C: Then that's our. That will be where we go.
[00:14:46] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. And I think that's what the.
I was listening to a podcast today that Leslie Jahondefard sent to me that was talking about mountains and valleys and one of the things they focused on. And I thought it was good because we do this a lot in our classes, I think. Well, at least I do, because I get so academically deep in some of these topics that it's easy to let it slip by that this is important in terms of what's going on in Genesis chapter 11.
[00:15:15] Speaker B: Because it's also important to us now that anything that we read in these passages, whether we're in Genesis 11 or in just a little bit Genesis 22, these are the same mistakes that we can fall into and the same traps that we can be a part of and the same. Yeah, I think you're right, Norm. Thank you. Any other thoughts on that while we're kind of parked here for a second to go off of the.
[00:15:38] Speaker D: Trying to make myself my own name. Great.
I'm pretty sure in Genesis, when God calls out Abraham, he specifically tells him, I'm going to make your name great.
Instead of like what Babylon was doing.
They wanted to make their own name great.
So usually what the ideal, like when I trust God, he will usually elevate me if that's his so desire, I.
[00:16:03] Speaker B: Think, I don't know, like I would the class that I'm taking at Harding this semester.
One of the funny comments that the professor made that I thought, yes, if only, right? He said, I wish we had an inspired audio version of the Bible, right? So we could hear the intonation and hear like, and have Paul's commentary on his own work. And that kind of stuff. Like that would be awesome. And some of the things that I think of in terms of what you're saying, James, is.
I wonder what the New Testament authors were thinking when they said, humble yourself in the sight of God because He will lift you up, right? Like, this is the whole idea that we acknowledge our place and it's not a bad place, but it's that God is still above us and he does the elevating up to his position, right? And so I think that's important. I think it's important too, because Philippians chapter two follows that exact thing. Because Jesus himself, who was God, didn't consider equality with God a thing to be grasped. Instead, he made himself low and God raised him up, right? So these are the things that if we're trying to climb this mountain all by ourselves and doing it without. Without any consideration of who God is and that we are part of his story.
[00:17:18] Speaker B: Two takeaways before we leave the mountain of Babel. The first takeaway, and I didn't put it up here again, I was planning on writing this out. Babel serves as the antithesis or the inversion of God's cosmic mountain.
So it flips on its head what God's cosmic mountain is supposed to be. And don't forget, anytime we use the word cosmic, we're saying that this is where heaven and earth are meeting.
And then the second one, the pride of the Babel tower or mountain or city or. Or Babylon. I think it's also being said too that if this is the Hebrew text, counterimposing himself onto the Mesopotamian text, this is to say that, listen, if you read the rest of the text, which I got caught up and we didn't finish yet, but God comes down and confuses the language. One that I didn't say here that maybe we should think about.
If you read forward, I think it's in verse five, it says, I'm going to do this one because they're like us.
And two, nothing will be impossible for them.
What is God saying in terms of nothing will be impossible for them?
Because I know the way that I thought about it as a kid, a six year old growing up in vbs, well, if we don't do this, remember that ancient Near Eastern cosmology that we talked about at the first or second week? Right. You've got the flat earth with the mountain that scrapes the top of that dome of the sky. Right.
So if you have that uploaded. And again, I was planning on this going a little bit differently here.
I don't think I put it on here. So if we are doing that ourselves, then I as a kid thought, oh yeah, then they're going to be able to knock on heaven's door. Right?
And maybe that's part of it, but I think there might be something deeper in here in terms of the movement and where we are in terms of Babel and Babylon.
What is going on here in terms of nothing will be impossible for them? Just some thoughts I'm just reading New King James says now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. That's basically saying the same thing. But is there any subtlety there that. I think there is. I think there is. Because now if it's anything they propose to do, it won't be withheld from them. What is the state of humanity? As they have moved further east, they have become more and more and more evil. They have moved further and further away from God. That the evils that they devise in their own mind, there will be no end to it. So I have to confuse their language again. The things that we see are, yes, acts of judgment that we focus on, I think are simultaneously, in one sense, acts of mercy. Right.
I gotta put a stop to this decline into chaos.
[00:20:19] Speaker E: My virgin says soon they'll be able.
[00:20:21] Speaker B: To do anything they want. They want. Yes. No matter what evil it might be.
So let's put the brakes on that this is not what I intended for you to be.
[00:20:33] Speaker B: And let's bring you back to where you're supposed to be.
[00:20:35] Speaker D: James, this kind of reminded me of what you said at the beginning when you're talking about the commentators saying that, oh, this is kind of like the unity that we should in Genesis.
It almost looks like a type of unity that God wants. But to do evil. When you think back in human history, the most evil things that have ever happened is when a lot of people were unified.
To do evil is probably what's being talked about.
[00:21:03] Speaker B: And so it's an inversion of what godly unity is supposed to look like. Michael, did you have your hand raised too?
[00:21:08] Speaker E: I did, kind of what's been said. I was just thinking that I think this text reinforces. You mentioned last time when we see God, you know, telling man it wasn't. They were afraid that, you know, by eating of the fruit, that God was really afraid that, oh, no, they're going to become like us. I think that reinforces the idea of without the gift of death, about the gift of dying without being able to die, they could not get out of that lost state, come back, which is what I think, you know, that reading of that's the concern. They eat and live forever. They're permanently lost. Almost. I guess it gets a little weed to maybe what we like to see in the.
[00:21:50] Speaker B: The demon.
[00:21:51] Speaker E: It's a state where they cannot find redemption, which is, I think this right here, I think reinforces that interpretation because it goes back to God saying they can do what they want.
This takes them further from me.
We have to bust this up because they're going about this the wrong way.
We're spinning. I think it's worth spinning our wheels. We've completely left the track at this point. And God's got just. This is not going to work because he has a plan to bring them back.
But that's not it. And so I think it reinforces that interpretation of you cannot come back to me if you live forever in this state and death is essentially a gift that's going to allow you to come back. Does that make sense?
[00:22:32] Speaker B: Yeah. This is not the way that I was worried about or concerned about as a kid in the sense of like, God is fearful that man will take his place in the cosmos. That's how I grew up thinking about it. Instead, the being like us is that.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: This knowing good from evil. Reading back to Genesis, chapter three, that there is.
[00:22:57] Speaker B: Like James pulling in what he says, right? Like it's like us, but in an inverted state of where we're supposed to be.
[00:23:06] Speaker E: And what's significant is just a few chapters earlier, I know we didn't spend.
[00:23:12] Speaker C: Much time on Noah, but only eight.
[00:23:15] Speaker B: People out of a million billion.
[00:23:17] Speaker E: We don't know the exact amount.
Noah was not doing evil.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
And even as soon as they get off the boat, you have Ham and Noah and the cycle continues, Right? Like the cycle into sickness and decay continues. So Babel serves as the antithesis or inversion of God's cosmic mountain. And two, the pride of the tower mountain city of Babylon cannot Stand against Yahweh. I think that's one of the important things here is no matter what Mesopotamia is, Babylon is. It cannot stand up against our God.
So let's move on to.
[00:23:56] Speaker B: Abraham really quickly. Before we get into chapter 22, I wanted to do a quick upload of Abraham's story before we get to chapter 22.
Abraham is called by God in Genesis chapter 12.
And with that, I think we're already supposed to see again that this is Adam and this is Noah. Because we see a rephrasing of the same covenant that was given to those two people in the sense of. If you want to look at Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3, really quickly, Genesis 12:1 3 says something to the effect of, now the Lord said to Abram, go out from your country, your relatives and your father's household to the land that I will show you. Then I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and I will make your name great so that you will exemplify divine blessing. I will bless those who bless you, but the one who treats you lightly, I must curse. And all the families of the earth will bless one another by your name that this be fruitful and multiply. The blessing that God gives in the middle of the mandate in Genesis chapter one is given to Noah. It's given to Abraham. And so we have the story yet again restarting. And so we see the end goal here already. Well, already we saw this in chapter three, that as soon as the fall happened, the pavement was set, the yellow brick road was made back up to the garden, back into heaven, in the sense of someone will come and crush the heel of the snake. The whole point of this blessing of Abraham is that all families, all nations will be blessed. Then Abram ends up in Egypt.
He has no son. And so he and his wife take Hagar, and he has a son by Hagar named Ishmael. And God explains, this is not the way. This is the way up the road to Babylon. You have tried to do this yourself, which is not the way. My mountain is over here.
And to that effect, after the story with Abimelech, we have in Genesis 21, the promised Son finally comes many, many, many years later.
Can't remember, I think Sarah was like 90 something years old when. When Isaac was born. So a little late in the game, but still right, like the Promised Son was here. And it's interesting because once again, after the Promised Son has arrived, we end up back again on a mountain in chapter 22.
So if you want to pick up in chapter 22, I'm going to read the first two verses here.
After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, abraham. And he said, here I am. He said, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah or Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.
So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey and took his young men with him and his son Isaac.
Okay, so in verse one and two, we've got a ton of things happening.
First off, God tested Abram Abraham. We'll come back to that here in a second.
I struggle with the story in the sense of how to teach it because of the next part. Take your son, your only son, and offer him there as a burnt offering. I didn't. I should have looked up. I don't remember how early the religions around Molech started, but, you know, Molech was the God of child sacrifice. And so you gotta wonder, like, what's.
Abraham did not have the hindsight of the New Testament to understand what God was doing here. Like, in a sense, this seems evil of what God is asking. And I don't say that lightly. I'm not calling God evil. But you gotta wonder if any of you who are parents, who have children are told, take your son the word from the Septuagint for the next part, your beloved son, your only begotten son, if you will take him and offer him up on the mountain.
[00:28:06] Speaker B: We didn't have Hebrews 11 to look back upon at this time to say, like, he knew that God could raise him from the dead, right? But like, you got to wonder if I was told to take Isaiah up the mountain to offer him as an offering, that, yes, he's offering the life of his son, but he's also offering his own life, right? Like, the way that these patriarchal societies progressed was by passing their inheritance down to their sons. And Abram, Abraham had already tried to pass off his inheritance to his chief servant. And God said, no, that's not the design. That's the way up of Babylon.
My way up here is different.
And so I don't know there I looked at all the different groups as to what they say about the sacrifice of Isaac, and I don't have good answers on it. Some debate why God would ask Abraham to do this.
Without retrospect of the New Testament, there's a lot of debate on Isaac's age, that he was old enough to carry wood so that he should be Old enough to fight off his hundred year old father who's trying to tie him down on the altar, right? So maybe there was some willingness there. But then he asks a very childlike question of like, but father, where is the gift we're supposed to be offering on the mountain? And Abraham says, the Lord will provide. And so there's debate there. Jewish tradition, if you want a number, if you're a mathematician like me, the Jewish tradition says that Isaac was 37 years old. So this is at least, I think they said in the Mishnah that Isaac was 37 years old.
And it is worth noting, Hebrews chapter 11, that what the New Testament authors understood through their traditions is that Abraham believed that God would handle the situation. And so instead of all the times in Abraham's life leading up to this moment where God says, put on the brakes, that's the way back to Babylon, don't go that way. My mountain is this. My mountain is in Moriah right now. So come to the cosmic mountain. And Abraham at least at this point seems to understand, okay, I have failed to trust you this time, this time, this time, this time, this time, today I'm going to trust you and we're going to go up this mountain. So whatever that's worth to you. I don't want to gloss over the difficulty of this passage, but we have go into the land of Moriah and on one of the mountains.
And it's interesting that on the day that they start going up the mountain, I think this is in verse three or four, my Bible fell closed here it says that Abraham lifted up his eyes and again when after the sacrifice was stopped, when he looked and saw the ram, it says that he lifted up his eyes as well. And some of the sources that I pulled said that this has some connotation of maybe the reason that he knew that God would deliver him from the situation is it has the connotation of seeing in the divine plane, if you will, that this lifting up the eyes is a play on words for him to say, I recognize what God is doing here. I don't know. That's reading into a lot of Hebrew texts that I don't have the skill to read. But it was at least interesting to pull out there. So what's going on here in terms of the mountain? Well, I think it's worth diving into the very first sentence here and sorry, this, I was going to draw this out with you guys. So it wasn't just a big brain slop on there.
But the first sentence here says that God did this to test Abraham, right? This is an important moment to see if Abraham is really the guy that God chose him to be back 70 years ago or so. And so the Hebrew word for test, the root word is nish. I don't know exactly how to say that. And then down below that, the word used in this passage is NASA. So NASA is what is being offered here. In the Greek Septuagint of the Old Testament, you've got the root word is piera. I don't know how to say that without a Spanish accent. And then you've got down below, the actual word used in the Greek Septuagint is EPI Arasin. I don't know how to say that either. But this is Genesis 22, verse one. And so we've got this test happening on Mount Moriah here. Now, I don't think it's a stretch to go back and say, okay, well, what were we told back on Mount Eden in Genesis chapter three in terms of what it looked like to live godly life?
Choose life or choose death, right? The tree of knowledge of good and evil will lead to death. And so in a sense, this was a test for humanity back in Genesis chapter three as to whether we were going to trust God or trust ourselves.
Are we going to trust God? Are we going to trust ourselves? On Babylon, Are we going to trust God? Are we going to trust ourselves? Well, I think this is interesting because then if we fast forward to the temptations of Jesus in the New Testament, up on the Temple Mount, Jesus is told by Satan to, throw yourself down from here. And Jesus says, listen, you don't put the Lord your God to the test. Same root word is used here. And then in Matthew, chapter six, on the Sermon on the Mount, we have in the prayer that is offered, do not lead us into temptation.
The word there is the same root word here. It's don't lead us.
We know you test us. That's in the book of James, the Epistle of James, but spare us in the test, right? So all of these things, I think, are colliding here in terms of mountains and what is being offered here in terms of what this test means in terms of Abraham.
Are you going to trust me or are you not?
Because you are my new model for humanity, just like Adam was my first model of humanity.
Noah's test was build a boat. No, it hasn't rained. No, you don't know what rain is, but it's coming.
Build a boat.
Noah said, okay, I'll build a boat.
And he did. And so this is what it looks like to meet the tests that God gives us head on to when God invites us up the mountain, that we engage with what he's offering there. And then it's also interesting in terms of what Moriah, Moriah, however you pronounce it, that in Second Chronicles chapter three, this is offered here in terms of the. The temple being built. And it says that on Mount Moriah, this is where we are told that Solomon builds his temple. Now, some people say that it's the same mountain, some people say it was the same chain of mountains the Samaritan said the mountain of.
[00:34:59] Speaker B: Of Isaac's sacrifices somewhere else.
But the same word, the only other time it's used in the Bible is used in conjunction with the temple. Here Moriah is only used in conjunction with the temple and the different etymologies here that Hebrew scholars have picked out in terms of the central part, the ria there is either in connection with the Hebrew word see or to have fear or to teach.
Most people, as you might imagine, end up on one of these two because what ends up happening at Moriah is Isaac's sacrifice or the temple, right? And so several of the ones that I read end up following this idea of what is being offered here is see, because we see Abraham lifting up his eyes and God speaking to him. And so this is the mountain of seeing. Like God reveals himself on this mountain. You will see God here, which again tying back into Matthew chapter six.
[00:36:01] Speaker B: One of the Beatitudes. Blessed are the pure in heart, the ones who are willing to travel up my mountain because they will see God, Right? So all of these things I think are colliding here in this text. And I think it's important to make sure that we understand that, that what's going on here with this test, I think this is the crucial point of the text. Chapter 22, verse 3 through 14. Let's fly through that in our remaining time here really quickly. I might just pick out some of the high points I left off. In the middle of verse three, he cut wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to a place on which God had told him. On the third day, which there's some things there if you look at some of the scholars. On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw a place from afar. Then Abraham said to the young men, stay here with the donkey, I and the boy will go over there and worship and come to you again. And Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son. And he took his hand, the fire and the knife. And they both of them together went up the mountain.
And Isaac said to his father, Abraham, my father. And Abraham said, here I am.
And Isaac said back to him, hey, look, the wood is here, the lamb is here.
But where is the burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself, the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. So they went up together, the two of them.
When they came to the place of which God had told them, Abraham built an altar there and laid wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took a knife to slaughter his son. And but the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, abraham, Abraham. And Abraham said again, here I am. He said, do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything for him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.
So Abraham called on the name of the Lord. Excuse me, called the name of that place. The Lord will provide, as it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided.
So again, tying in with the idea of the temple we have colliding here, that God provides a scapegoat, if you will. Right. Like quite literally, here we have the scapegoat presented. And so Abraham obeys and trusts God, unlike his previous attempts, unlike the previous folks before him, God provides the ram. And it's interesting here because the again, where a lot of people land on this idea that Moriah, Moriah comes from the Hebrew word see is this word the Lord will provide. The actual word there is more closely translated considered, which has a root word and a different verb for see, that if you see someone's need, you consider them and you provide for them, that these are all the same actions. So on the mountain of the Lord, he's going to see to it, he's going to see your need and fill it.
So the mountain of seeing is where God sees you, and where in turn we see God.
And so God renews the covenant right after this in verse 15 again and reaffirms that. And so the question is, as we wrap up in the remaining three minutes tonight, what do we learn from the mountains in Genesis chapter 11 and Genesis chapter 22, like what's the whole point of diving into the weird brain fog map that I had on there in terms of the word test, like, what's the point of the mountain in these passages?
[00:39:53] Speaker E: I think a lot of these, it's about teaching how important surrender is to.
[00:39:58] Speaker B: Being able to see.
[00:39:59] Speaker E: And I can't help but think about, you know, you really can't even see the mountain until you surrender. That's the first thing you got to surrender to God and his will to be that. Even you mentioned the test, the idea of approaching the test and how you respond to that and, you know, prevent this from happening or spare me this. But even Jesus, you'll see in the garden, he's praying, if it be your will that this come from.
Which is totally different than what we see at Babel.
There's no surrender in there. Which I think goes back again to God, said that you're not.
[00:40:32] Speaker B: You can't.
[00:40:32] Speaker E: You cannot see me this way. You can't do it.
And so here even.
[00:40:37] Speaker B: Maybe it's something with.
[00:40:38] Speaker E: It's ironic that, you know, the mountain is to see. And he brings Abraham. And Abraham in this moment surrenders. The God says, okay, and he does it. And then he sees. And I think there's something there.
[00:40:51] Speaker A: There's that whole.
[00:40:51] Speaker E: You can't start the climb until you surrender. So you have to.
You drove yourself from me because God said, but I have to bring you back.
[00:41:02] Speaker B: So.
[00:41:03] Speaker E: And I think we see that in the Garden of Eden, which we just talked about in our Sunday class. I mean, it's ironic for nothing when we're doing this other day, that, you know, God comes to them. You know, there's a parallel here where, you know, Isaac says, you know, where, Father, where are you? You know, here.
[00:41:18] Speaker B: Here I am.
[00:41:18] Speaker E: You know, after Adam and Eve sinned, they hide and God comes. He's in the garden, walking. Where are you? He knows where they are.
But even though they're right there, they've never been farther away from each other. And then they're right there. And it's at that moment God said, you're. You're lost.
And so to me, there's a parallel here. Put it that way.
Being able to surrender and see.
[00:41:42] Speaker B: You.
[00:41:42] Speaker C: Know, as we climb these mountains, you know, when I say have fear, you know, I think of throughout scripture, it says, you know, fear God. And it doesn't mean that we're terrified of him, trust him, that we have faith in him, that we.
That we believe in Him. And as we climb these mountains in our own lives, that climb can be tough, you know, that's not a day walk, you know. And to have that fear is to have that faith is to have that trust that he's going to be with us, that he's going to take care of our needs, he's going to provide like he did with Abraham and Isaac there.
[00:42:24] Speaker B: I think if I can summarize Yalls thoughts with us being past time now is mountains are often coincident with tests and what that test looks like. Are you going to trust in yourself or are you going to trust me? And what it means to trust God is oftentimes it means you have to surrender what is most valuable to you. And oftentimes that means your life. Which is exactly what we as Christians are called to do. Right. In our baptism we lay down our own lives, be raised again in the Holy Spirit through baptism. Right? Like this is what's happening in both these places. Babel is what it looks like to not follow that.
Abraham here in this case shows us what it looks like to do this right.
So keep that in mind for next time.
Next time next week will be at Sinai. So start picking up in about Exodus chapter three. And we're basically going to pick apart, cherry picking verses almost the entirety of the book of Exodus because the whole second half of the book of Exodus happens at Sinai, right? So we're going to spend a lot of time in Exodus 3, 4 and 5. And then we're going to spend a lot of time, probably the second half of class in the second half of the book of Exodus. So be there, be prepared for next time and I'll see you all next week. Thank you all for coming.
