Chapter 2. God’s Revelation to Abraham - Part B

This was confirmed by the equivalent Name given to this place: ‘Yahweh Yireh’, which is the first compound Name of the Lord that is revealed in the Bible, which makes it the foundational Name. 

The 8 Compound Names of Yahweh (Yireh, Shalom, Shammah, Nissi, Rophe, Rohi, Tsidkenu, Mckeddesh) are also known as the COVENANT Names, for between them they describe all He is to us through the Covenant ultimately established in the Blood of Jesus. So, the Lord is our Righteousness, Peace, Victory, Healer... through His Death. Thus, they are also known as His REDEMPTIVE Names. 

Yahweh Yireh means: ‘the Lord our Provider and Provision’: ‘the Lord God of Physical Manifestation’, meaning the Lord Himself would be manifested in human flesh as our Provision, as the Sacrificial Lamb of God we need. And it would be in THIS Mount of Moriah that He would be manifested as the Lamb of God, offered up as the all-sufficient Sacrifice for our sins. This is what Abraham saw in his vision. He saw the Lord Himself, being offered up as the Lamb of God on Mt. Moriah. Abraham was declaring what God had shown him, that God would PROVIDE Himself as the Lamb of God. He then prophesied that on this very Mount Moriah, the Lord would appear, being provided by God as the ultimate offering for man.

Now why was this place given this most holy Name of Yahweh Yireh, that necessarily enshrined a supreme revelation of God to man? Surely it was not just because at that place God provided the Ram caught in the thicket for Abraham to sacrifice! No! It was because it would be here on this Mount, that the Lord Himself would be manifested in human flesh as the supreme Sacrifice that we all need. This is where the Lord would provide Himself as the sinless Sacrificial Lamb of God. God promised to be our Covenant Partner, Provider and full Provision through the sacrificial Death of Jesus Christ. Now that Christ has died, He has provided us all things through His Blood (Ephesians 1:3, Romans 8:32, 2Peter 1:3,4, and 2Corinthians 1:20). He has provided us with forgiveness, and an eternal inheritance though His sacrificial Death on Mount Moriah.

Abraham’s declarations show that God had revealed to him the Good News of what He would do through His Son, Jesus, in His corresponding Death and Resurrection. This is clearly confirmed in Galatians 3:8: “the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify (bless) the Gentiles by faith, preached the Gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you (and your seed) shall all the nations be blessed." Abraham foresaw God would send His own Son into the world, that He would become a Sacrifice and, in rising from death, would bring a multitude of believers to eternal glory. God wants us to: “Behold the Lamb of God (whom Abraham foretold)” (John 1:29).

Genesis 22:15-17: “Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a 2nd time out of heaven, and said: “By Myself, I have sworn, says the Lord (see Hebrews 6:13), because you have done this thing, and have not WITHHELD your son, your only son: Blessing, I will bless you, and multiplying, I will multiply your SEED as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand on the seashore; and your SEED shall possess the gate of his enemies.”

Genesis 22:18: “In your SEED (Christ) all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My Voice.” 

When the Angel spoke the first time, He stopped the death of Isaac, revealing in a vision that God would provide His own Son to die a Substitutionally Death in that very same place. Now speaking the 2nd time, He declared the multiplied blessings to be released as a result. You see, ‘Yahweh Yireh’ does not just speak of God’s Provision of Christ as the Great Sacrifice, but of all His blessings released (provided) to us through His Sacrifice. God’s full Provision to man was made by this one perfect and complete Sacrifice of God’s Son on Mt.Moriah. Thus ALL God’s blessings are now ours IN CHRIST, made available to us through His Death and Resurrection.

Romans 8:32: “He who SPARED (withheld) not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all (to die on the Cross), how shall He not with Him (the Seed, Christ), also freely GIVE (provide) us all things (all the blessings of God)?” 

The key to all these blessings is Abraham’s SEED, which is primarily a reference to CHRIST, for Genesis 22:18 says: “In your SEED (CHRIST) all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” 

As Galatians 3:16 says: “Now to ABRAHAM and his SEED were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of One, “And to your SEED,” Who is CHRIST.” 

By His Death and Resurrection on Mount Moriah: “the SEED of Abraham possessed the gate of His enemies!” (Genesis 22:17).

Thus, God reinforced His revelation to Abraham, that in connection with his obedience on Moriah, God would now provide the blessings of Salvation to all mankind, through the Sacrifice on Mount Moriah of His only beloved Son, the Coming Messiah (Christ). 

The additional revelation in these verses (v15-18) is that God’s beloved Son would also become a MAN: ‘the Seed of Abraham.’ This confirmed the previous revelation of ‘Yahweh Yireh’ that God Himself would be manifest in the flesh, to provide the Atoning Sacrifice on Mt. Moriah for our Salvation. Thus, ‘because Abraham had obeyed God’s voice’, by being willing to offer up his SEED (Isaac) on Mt. Moriah, God would provide him with another greater SEED, greater than his seed Isaac, Who would be offered up for the Eternal Salvation, Victory and Blessing of people from every nation. 

The people who receive Christ are put INTO CHRIST, and so spiritually they also become the Seed of Abraham. In this way, God will surely: “multiply Abraham’s SEED as the stars of the heaven”, as well as blessing and multiplying his natural seed, Israel, as: “the sand on the seashore.” 

This is all confirmed by Galatians 3:26-29: “You are all sons of God through faith IN CHRIST JESUS. For as many of you as were baptised INTO CHRIST have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one IN CHRIST JESUS. And if you are Christ’s (who is the SEED of Abraham), then you (also) are Abraham’s SEED, and heirs according to the promise.”

Genesis 22:15-18 reveals the importance of Abraham’s obedience in offering up Isaac. God delights in and works through our obedience (when we put Him first). He had found a man, a covenant-partner, fully faithful to the Covenant, through whom He could fulfil His promises. Now He could release full and multiplied blessings. God said to Abraham that because he obeyed and did not withhold his son, but gave him up to God, so neither would God withhold His own Son from being offered up on Moriah. Thus, as a result of Abraham’s obedience, multitudes of blessings were released. 

Notice Abraham’s obedience was not just a picture, but it also provided the legal basis in the Covenant for what God would do.

God said to him: “Because you have done this thing, and have not WITHHELD your son, your only son: through your SEED, IWILL BLESS all the nations of the earth, because you have obeyed My Voice.” It is clear from this language that this was no isolated event, but Abraham’s Sacrifice of Isaac on the Peak of Mt.Moriah became the basis and foundation for God’s ongoing purposes of Redemption, which culminated in the final Sacrifice of Christ at Mt.Moriah’s Peak, having also been prefigured in the Temple Sacrifices (also on Moriah). This confirms that this whole event (including its location) was prophetic of the ultimate Sacrifice.

Abraham’s obedience sealed his destiny as the one through whom Christ (the SEED) came. As he was prepared to do this for His Covenant Partner, God could do no less - He would give His only Son, so that all who believe on Him might have eternal life (John 3:16). As Abraham withheld nothing from God, so likewise God could not hold anything back that would benefit His Partner and his seed. 

Abraham’s lesser seed, Isaac, is a picture of Abraham’s greater Seed, Jesus. Both seeds were the result of a supernatural birth and were greatly beloved. Through Abraham’s obedience in offering up his beloved son, Isaac, God was able to present a prophetic Picture of Himself faithfully giving His beloved Son to died in our place. His obedience on Mt.Moriah also sanctified it as the Place where God’s Redemptive Purposes must be accomplished (see Genesis 22:8,14). In the fulfilment, however, there would be no pulling back from death, no voice from heaven calling a stop to it, no way out. Jesus, the Greater than Isaac, had to fulfil the vision by enduring the Cross. 

However, this picture of Isaac as a prophetic Type of Christ was not finished with his offering unto death, for Abraham also received Isaac back, as it were, risen from the dead. Since God chose Mt.Moriah as the place where Isaac was both offered to God and received back from the dead, it follows that it must be both the Place of Christ’s Death and of His Resurrection. Isaac’s obedience in offering himself up to God resulted in the full blessing of God being released upon the ‘resurrected’ Isaac (the seed of Abraham), He rose again into great blessing, for God immediately pronounced the blessings upon the seed of Abraham, which started with Isaac, and then through him to many others. Thus, he became the channel of blessing to many. Likewise, when Jesus, the Greater Seed of Abraham, rose again, God pronounced and imparted every blessing to Him, and then in Him and through Him all those blessings are ours!

Genesis 22:14 is a Prophecy that God would provide Himself as the Lamb of God to die in our place on the Peak of Mt. Moriah, and this was fulfilled in the Person of Jesus Christ. Therefore, if we can locate this Biblical Mount Moriah, we will also know where Jesus was crucified in fulfilment of this Prophecy. Now 2Chronicles 3:1 makes it clear that Mount Moriah, where Abraham offered up Isaac, is the very same Mount where 1000 years later the Temple was built.

Abraham was shown this Mount by Divine Revelation as the Holy Place which God had uniquely ordained for Sacrifice. This is why, 1000 years later, God also supernaturally led David to set aside this same Mount as the place where the Temple had to be built. Solomon therefore built the Temple on Mount Moriah, where God’s glory would be seen, and where all the sacrifices would be offered, which symbolised Christ. Thus, Christ’s Sacrifice was first of all prefigured in the Old Testament by Abraham’s offering up of his beloved son, Isaac, on Mount Moriah, Jerusalem, and secondly by all the animal sacrifices of Israel, which by God’s Law had to be made at the Holy-Temple, which was also on this same Mount Moriah.

The Temple had to be built on this Mount, since all the sacrifices were outworkings of the Founding Sacrifice, and prophetic anticipations of the Final Sacrifice. Any sacrifice made elsewhere no longer had any validity to God. Thus God emphatically set aside this specific Mount as the only Place where the Final Atoning Sacrifice could be made, if it was to be valid in the sight of God. 

Through Abraham and then the Temple, God pointed to a specific Mount, which He had ordained and set apart as His Holy Mount - the location for the outworking of His Redemptive Purposes, the Place where the final Sacrifice had to be made. It was therefore on this very same Mount Moriah that our Lord was crucified. In order to fulfil the Prophecy of Abraham in Genesis 22, He must have died and rose again on Mt Moriah, even at its northern Peak. Thus, the Old Testament requires that the Messiah had to die on Mount Moriah’s Peak which is to the NORTH of the City-Walls.

This is also confirmed by a fascinating reference in Leviticus 1, that all Temple Sacrifices had to be killed NORTH of the Altar. 

Leviticus 1:10,11: “If his offering is of the flocks, of the sheep or of the goats, as a burnt sacrifice, he shall bring a male without blemish. He shall kill it on the NORTH SIDE of the Altar before the Lord and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall sprinkle its blood all around on the Altar.” 

If a particular direction was given by God about where the Types were to be slain, it surely indicates that the fulfilment (Christ) will be slain in the same direction from the Altar. Why would God insist on this specification, unless it had some prophetic significance? If all the sacrificial animals whose deaths symbolised Christ, had to be slain to the north-side of the Temple Altar, surely this indicates that the ultimate Sacrifice would be killed NORTH of the Temple.