From Whence Cometh My Help— Mount Moriah: The Mountain of Substitution

“8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.” (Genesis 22:8)

Through these forty days, we are lifting our eyes to a series of mountains,

because on these mountains, the Lord tells the story of salvation.

On these mountains, you learn from whence cometh your help.

Lift up your eyes with me to Mount Moriah—

a mountain where the promise is brought to the edge,

and where the Lord reveals how help truly comes.

I. The Mountain Where the Promise Is Tested

Before we arrive at the mountain,

God tells Abraham to take his son.

Not just any son.

His only son.

The son of promise.

He tells him to go to the land of Moriah

and offer him there as a burnt offering.

This is not a test of whether Abraham will obey.

He rises early.

He saddles the donkey.

He takes the wood.

He goes.

Obedience is not in doubt.

The question is deeper:

What happens to the promise

when everything that seems to sustain it

is placed on the altar?

Isaac is not merely a child.

Isaac is the future.

Isaac is the name through which God has sworn to bless the nations.

If Isaac dies, the promise dies.

Mount Moriah presses the promise to the edge—

not to destroy it,

but to reveal it.

Either Isaac would live,

or God’s promise would prove untrue.

So they go.

God leads them to the land of Moriah.

They see the mountain from afar.

And father and son walk together up the mountain.

II. The Ascent and the Question

Scripture records no argument or protest from Isaac.

Only a question: “Where is the lamb?”

Where will the sacrifice come from?

Where will provision be found?

From where will help come?

Abraham does not answer. He does not offer an explanation.

He says, “God will provide for Himself the lamb.”

God had not spoken those words.

But God had said, “In Isaac shall your offspring be named.”

He had bound to Isaac the promise: “Through you all nations will be blessed.”

And the God who bound Himself to this child

will not abandon His own promise.

So Abraham’s answer is not confidence in outcomes.

It is confidence in the God who has spoken.

At this point, faith clings not to what it sees,

but to what God has sworn.

III. The Moment of Substitution

The altar is built.

The wood is arranged.

The knife is raised.

Everything now hangs on what God will do.

And the Lord intervenes.

Isaac is spared.

A ram is provided.

One life is given in place of another.

The story does not end with Abraham’s faith or Abraham’s obedience. It ends with Abraham naming the place after God’s action:

“The Lord will provide.”

Not, “I trusted.”

Not, “I obeyed.”

But, “The Lord provided.”

Mount Moriah becomes the mountain where God teaches you this truth:

your help does not come from what you offer to God,

but from what God provides for you.

IV. The Mountain That Points Beyond Itself

And yet Mount Moriah refuses to stand alone.

What Abraham and Isaac live out on this mountain

is a scene that will unfold again,

on another hill,

in another generation.

There would be another obedient Son

who carries the wood up the hill.

There is a Father who walks beside Him.

There is silence. There is trust.

But there is also a difference.

Isaac does not fully know where he is going.

He does not yet understand why this must happen.

He walks forward in obedience without seeing the whole.

The Son to come will know.

Jesus knows where He is going.

He knows what waits for Him at the top of the hill.

He knows there will be no voice calling out for the knife to stop.

And still He goes.

Not in ignorance.

Not in confusion.

But in willing, knowing obedience.

Isaac is spared because a substitute is provided.

Jesus is not spared because He is the substitute.

What is shown in part on Mount Moriah

is carried out in full at the cross.

V. The Promise That Is Given—and the Exchange It Makes

Come with me one last step.

You lift up your eyes to Mount Moriah,

to that father and son.

And as you look, you begin to see more clearly.

Not only Abraham and Isaac—

but the Father and the Son.

Mount Moriah points to Golgotha.

What was shown in part is carried out in full.

But this is not only history.

It is not only a promise once made.

It is the promise made to you.

From where does your help come?

Mount Moriah gives you the answer.

In fact, it gives more than an answer.

It gives you a promise.

Not only for Isaac.

For you.

Isaac was laid on the wood and spared.

Jesus was laid on the wood and not spared,

for He had come for this very purpose—

to be your substitute.

This is not simply the pattern of Abraham and Isaac repeated.

It is your redemption accomplished.

He was born under the Law

to redeem those under the Law.

He took the form of a servant,

so that those enslaved to sin might receive adoption as sons.

He bore the curse for you.

He gave Himself in your place.

He who had no sin

was made sin for you,

so that in Him you might become the righteousness of God.

You are no longer named by your sin,

no longer defined by your failure,

no longer slaves to fear—

but sons.

Heirs.

Dearly loved children, clothed in Christ.

And there is one other difference between Isaac and Jesus.

Isaac walked down the mountain alive,

but otherwise unchanged.

Jesus did not walk down that mountain.

He was carried down.

And because He was not spared,

you were changed forever.

That is the promise Mount Moriah teaches you to trust.

The promise given to you does not merely spare you.

It redefines you.

VI. Where That Promise Is Tested

Because Christ stood in your place beneath God’s judgment,

you are no longer defined by your sin.

You are named righteous in Christ.

You are a child of God.

That promise will be tested.

It is tested in the quiet places of conscience.

It is tested in the mirror.

It is tested when the sins you remember speak more forcefully

than the promise God made to you in baptism

when He claimed you as His child.

It is tested when circumstances seem to contradict that promise—

When suffering makes it difficult to believe that you are dearly loved.

When prayers feel delayed and you wonder whether sons are treated this way.

When loss unsettles the future and the Father feels distant.

It is tested when guilt returns with familiar accusations:

“You are still this.”

“You have always been this.”

“This is who you really are.”

“This is who you will always be.”

Two names contend for you.

The name your sin insists upon.

And the name your Father has placed upon you in Christ.

The old name feels louder than the new one.

Either you are what He declares you to be,

or you are still what your sin insists you are.

So cling to what He has declared.

Cling to the promise spoken over you in baptism.

Cling to the name “child of God.”

It will not always feel true.

It will not even seem reasonable.

And when it is hardest to believe—

when what you see and feel and hear

seem stronger than what God has said—

From where does your help come?

Not from arguing with your conscience.

Not from improving your record.

Not from climbing back up the mountain to prove yourself worthy.

Your help comes from the Lord

who has already provided the substitute

and already made the exchange.

The One who was not spared

has borne your sin.

The One who was counted cursed

has clothed you in righteousness.

So when the promise is tested,

you are not called to relive the sacrifice.

You are called to trust that it has already been made.

VII. Lift Up Your Eyes

Lift up your eyes with me to Mount Moriah.

Lift up your eyes to the Lord

who provided the substitute,

who made the exchange,

whose Son was not spared

so that you might be named sons—

From where does your help come?

From the Lord

and the Lamb He has provided for you.