Page 89 - Satan in the Sanctuary

Moses to Moshe—A Bloody Site 91

Let's look a moment at the heartbreaking history of the
Temples.

THE FIRST TEMPLE
"Upon one of the mountains which I will
tell thee of" (Gen 22:2).
The Bible begins its chronicle of the history of mankind
"In the beginning"—a long time ago. But one doesn't have
to turn a great many pages before coming to God's first di-
rection as to the Temple site.
In the book of Genesis God directs Abraham to sacrifice
his only son, Isaac, on a certain mountain. This turns out
to be Mount Moriah, the very site of the later Temples. The
Dome of the Rock is now standing on the spot where Abra-
ham willingly prepared to sacrifice Isaac.
That fine story is typical of the pathos and heartbreak
that were to follow on this piece of ground. One has to ap-
preciate that Abraham waited a lifetime for the birth of
his son. He waited on the Lord even past his wife's normal
time of childbirth, until she was far too old to bear a child.
He had a son by his wife's maid, but this was not acceptable
to God, who assured Abraham that his prayer for a son by
his own wife would be answered.
And when it miraculously was, Abraham was asked to
kill the child.
There came a happy ending, of course. God was testing
Abraham; Isaac was spared. Because Abraham's faith was
so complete, God made his loyal servant a wonderful
promise which we can easily see fulfilled today: "By my-
self have I sworn . . . because thou . . . has not withheld
thy son ... I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the
heaven . . . and thy seed shall possess the gate of his ene-
mies" (Gen 22:16-17, italics added).