LECTURE 13
ON HOW TO GET ON TOP OF MORIAH’S MOUNT WITHOUT ANY HINDRANCE : THE ABRAHAM’S PATTERN.
The Mount of Moriah, like I indicated earlier, is the place we see the true nature and miserableness of ‘things’ and ‘people’. It is the place we lose our ‘Isaac’: a place we split with ‘self’. There, our ‘Isaac’ dies, and ‘God’s Isaac’ is born.
On Mount Moriah, creatures are divided from creatures: they are torn wide apart. I mean, men are separated from trifles, from other men, and at last, from themselves. It is a place bereft of affection and sympathy. There, sons are taken away from their fathers, and daughters from their mothers. I mean, little boys are removed from their fathers and bound on wooden altars. There, ‘toys’ are snatched from little kids, and they are suffered to weep their hearts out in abject tantrums and murmurs. On Moriah’s Altar, ‘golds’ and ‘valuables’ are taken from men and tossed into raging fire.
This Mount always welcomes men with a sword. It would put a sword in the hands of loved ones, and incite them to slay each other. It would set a man at variance against his father; the daughter against her mother; and the daughter- in-law against her mother-in-law. It would cut them to the quick, and make painful incisions and slits on their hearts. It would cut into their ‘tumors’ and ‘growths’, and drain out their pus and filthy fluids with tracts and tubes. They would cry and whine in pain, yet it wouldn’t pity. They are bleeding their last pint of blood, and it would show no sympathy. They are just sick of their ‘Isaacs’ and they have to be cured. They are sick of themselves and they ought to be treated. I mean, they’ve developed ‘growths’ and ‘cancers’ on their heart, and it is only needful that they go under sharp retractors and distractors.
Oh Mount Moriah, a place full of gloominess and despair: A mount covered with grief and pain, yet it holds the joy of creation. It tears creation away from trifles, and unites them back to God. There, Heaven celebrates, and earth grieves: Heaven wins a stray soul while earth loses a joyful being. There, God is won but contacts are lost: we lose our dear ones. And so I wonder if creation will ever climb this Mount! So thou Mount Moriah, will creation ever climb thee?
Sadly, they who have the tenacity to climb fear for their lives and that of their ‘Isaacs’. They only stand to behold it from afar to estimate its height and cost. And should they ever draw closer to its terrain, they get frightened by the faint voices of men, high up in the Mount wailing in anguish and despair. Estimating it to be so great a price to pay, they turn back with self-love; not wanting to hear any more of those voices. It is already giving them chills and tremors and if they are to stay any longer, their ‘Isaac’ will be troubled. So sadly, they go back home with self-love, with their ‘Isaac’ tightly clutched to their chest.
That said, they who are also desperate to climb the Mount, find it so tall and huge. Inasmuch as they are in earnest need of cure for their ‘cancers’ and ‘growth’, and thus, willing to undergo any therapy; they find the tracks of the Mount very rough and crude. They find its ascent very sharp and brute: it is just too hilly for their frail legs to hike on. Nonetheless, they would exercise their faith with a step of faith. So they begin the journey anyway; but then they soon get wearied and return home. After trekking few miles up the rocky hills, they develop sprains and muscle pulls. They get stuck on the way, unable to move. So they plead with passer-bys to help them transport their body back home. That Mount is just too high a Mount of perfection for them. They will rather die of their ‘cancers’ than rapture veins and muscles. So thou Mount Moriah, will creation ever climb thee?
Brethren, every man may decide to climb this Mount, and every man may decide not to climb. And but for a few whom God may invite there himself, as in the case of Abraham, no man is forced there against his will. He who goes there goes there because of his troubles, and he does so of his own will. He goes there because his ‘cancer’ has become malignant and that, it is fast spreading into cells and tissues. He goes there because his life is at the verge of crushing, and except he undergoes incisions and cuts, he will die. He goes there to seek Life, and to have his heart repaired.
So understandably, every man may climb, and every man may decide not to climb. However, he who decides to climb, must be willing to put his ‘Isaac’ on the line. He should be having his Isaac in one hand, and his fire and his wood in the other. He must admit that his heart is sick with bloated and corrupt love for creatures and trifles. He should hold his head in shame for suffering the Lord to dwell under curtains, whilst he himself dwells in houses of cedars. I mean, he may diagnose his ‘cancer’ as an upshot of him turning away from The Perfect, to those things which are in part.
Yes, we may also caution that man that he will be torn from ‘his Isaac’ and from himself. Nevertheless, we may patt him on the shoulder, and encourage him to take solace in the fact that; after those crucifixion, awaits an enigmatic glorification. He should take solace in the fact that, God stands at the rear end of the Altar to knit him unto Himself, after having suffered the afflictions of ‘knives’ and ‘surgical blades’. Certainly, God will restore him a brand new ‘Isaac’, one that wouldn’t desecrate his heart with maladies.
Actually, there are many ‘sick’ men who long to climb this Mount, but they know not how. There are also many who long to part with trifles and ‘toys’ on Moriah’s Altars; but they just don’t know how to rise on its ascent. So, my objective in this particular lecture is a very simple one. I seek to teach, by way of practice and exercise, a clear way to get on top of this Mount, being a regular patron myself. For anytime my heart gets sick with ‘toys’ and ‘people’, I rush myself there for a cure. And just love it for how it welcomes me: it will pounce on my heart with insistence, and then melt away all my corruption; with fire and brimstone. It will always impound my ‘toys’, and then restore my joy. Oh Mount Moriah, thou restorer of the joy of creation! But will creation ever climb thee?
Now, for those who are desperate to make it to this Mount, I introduce you a method: The Abraham’s Pattern.
But what about the Abraham’s Pattern? What do I mean by that? Well, by the Abraham’s Pattern, I only refer to the protocols Abraham observed before making it successfully to the Mount. Well, The Bible spares us the entire exposition of that incident. But notwithstanding that, we can confidently make some thoughtful estimations to model the reality of the story.
And I should begin by saying this: Abraham’s mission at Moriah, was one that he concealed from his wife. I mean, he never communicated his true intent to his wife, Sarah. Because had he told her his true mission in that land, she would have been a great hindrance to that holy assignment. For which affectionate woman, a newly made mother for that matter, will sit back and repose, should she discover that her only son is being led to the slaughter in a far land?
I am yet to see a mother who would sheepishly watch on. I should believe that no woman or mother in her right senses will consent to that; much less Sarah, a woman of old age, who for many years had desired a child of the Lord, and had just been gifted with one.
We all can possibly imagine what her reactions would have been. She would have fought back with every fleeting breath of hers to hinder that mission. She would have snatched the boy from his dad, and probably make a bolt with him to a distant land to seek solace there. She would have possibly kept the boy there until he becomes boy enough to resist evil for himself. I guess this is what Sarah, and for that matter any mother, would have done.
Although we cannot discount the fact that Sarah knew of Abraham’s sacrifice at Moriah, I doubt if she was privy to the fact that the life of her little boy was on the line. Abraham probably, might have kept the real mission concealed. Recall that before they began ascending the Mount, Isaac called on his father and asked, “Father . . . Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” (Genesis 22:7). Clearly, the boy was only made to believe that they were going to render offerings of rams and bulls to God. In the same way, we may believe that Sarah was told the same.
Of course, the sacred chronicle of Genesis doesn’t tell us this. But I, for one, believe that that was what Abraham did. It is obvious the Prophet kept his true mission concealed from both mother and son. He never made his true intentions known unto Sarah. And what but faith can move a man to that extent. His faith was indestructible, a fabulous epitome of ‘hope against hope’. For even the writer of Hebrews tells us that, “By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son” (Genesis 11:17). He tells us that he sacrificed the boy, “Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead” (Genesis 11:19). My goodness!! What a man? Trust me friends, men who possess this type of faith will surely be fathers of nations and cities. They will lose count of stars and sands, and will have their descendants as such. Also, for every Isaac they lose, “they will surely received him back in a figure.”
So friends, if you so desire a successful journey into the land of Moriah, then you ought to go by the pattern of Abraham. And the first thing to do, is to endeavor to keep your true intentions concealed from Sarah, your wife. What do I mean by Sarah, your wife? I mean the person or thing with whom, and by whom, you conceived ‘Isaac’. I mean the substance or persona, with whom and by whom you procured that which you seek to sacrifice unto God on Moriah’s Altar. It could be a partner, your intelligence, your hard work, your virtue; or anything at all. Any of these can stand as a wife to hinder the assignment, and so you ought to keep the true mission at Moriah, a secret one. And the easiset way to do that is to fall on deaf ears to the voice of reason.
Hitherto, it is very obvious that ‘wise men’ and ‘intellectuals’ can’t ascend the heigths of Moriah. It only takes men of reckless faith to attain the heights of Perfection: men who will neither count cost nor estimate heights. Men who are ready to tie little kids unto wooden frames, and point knives at infantile heads, refusing to reason through their actions or pay the slightest respect to consequences. I mean, men who will defy the voice of reason to kill their dearest and their only ‘Isaac’, and yet account that God will raise him up to them again, probably by the time they will be descending the mount.
But for ‘MADNESS’, no man will actually be at Moriah. It is only they who ‘refuse’ to reason that make it there. I mean, men who are ready to put jobs and treasures and people on the line, with little regard to consequence. Well I, for one, know where I stand. I am never ashamed to confess my madness. In fact, I deem my inability to reason a great virtue. We’re talking JESUS, not trifles. Of course, this is foolishness to the World; but to those of us who are saved, it is the power of God.
Friends, if you will fall on deaf ears to the voice of reason, Moriah will just be a step away. As long as you remain deaf to the voice of reason, the matter would be concealed from your wife. But he who gives an ear to this voice would receive a lengthy lecture on the Self-life. He will only end up fueling his ego, I mean the ‘I’, to fight back. So yes, if you so desire to arrive at the land of Moriah in peace, then I beseech you to remain utterly deaf to the voice of reason; lest it fights and hampers you from crossing over to this land.
Again, we see from Abraham journey that though he went with two of his servants, he never climbed the Mount with them. He only bade them to abide in the land with the donkeys and then made the journey with his son alone into the Mount. Had he climbed the mountain with those servants, he would have yet again faced a great opposition; and Isaac perhaps would have been spared. Even so, you are also permitted to journey with your two servants: LOVE and AFFECTION. But endeavor not to climb the Mount with them lest they cry out to rescue the object of the sacrifice and hinder you from your divine assignment. Strip yourself of any LOVE and AFFECTION before you climb this Mount. Only bid them to wait for you in the land and take the journey alone with your son into that Holy Mount.
In doing this, you will be able to bind ‘Isaac’ unto the altar, and draw up the sword to slay him as though you only had a lamb or a fowl before you. Trust me, God will speak out in no time to intercept the sacrifice. He will grant you the grace to clean your heart of all carnal affections and self- infections. Though He would spare ‘your Isaac’, He will teach you how to lose him altogether.
Above all, you would find yourself a cross in that holy path of obedience and self-denial and it would cheer you on to a happy and a glorious death.
ISAAC WAS RANSOMED WHEN HE LAY
By James Montgomery
Isaac was ransom'd when he lay
Upon the altar bound;
Moses, an infant cast away,
Pharaoh's own daughter found.
Joseph, by his false brethren sold,
God raised above them all;
To Hannah's child, the Lord foretold,
How Eli's house must fall.
David the bear and lion slew
And o'er Gath's champion trod;
Josiah, from his boyhood, knew
His father David's God.
To good Naomi gentle Ruth
Clave with a daughter's soul;
A little maid reveal'd the truth,
Whence Naaman was made whole.
Children are thus Jehovah's care;
Thus youth may seek His face;
Since His own Son He did not spare,
With Him He gives all grace:
Grace, like the young of whom we read,
Early in Him to trust;
A Friend in need, a Friend indeed,
As merciful as just.
Lord, while like them our course we read,
Be Thou to us that Friend,
And in the footsteps of Thy Son,
Conduct us to the end.