Then David said, "The house of the LORD God is to be here, and also the altar of burnt offering for Israel." – 1 Chronicles 22:1

Today's Scripture Reading (September 13, 2022): 1 Chronicles 22

In one of the strangest biblical stories, Abraham is told by God to sacrifice his son, Isaac. The command to kill Isaac comes after God has promised Abraham that he will become the father of many nations. The child that will allow this promise to take place will be the son of Abraham and Sarah. When the promise was made, it sounded like a ridiculous assertion. Abraham and Sarah were well past their child-bearing years, and no child had been born from their union.

Then Sarah got pregnant. The impossible had become a reality, and a child was born to Sarah. Suddenly God's promise no longer sounded ridiculous; it was a reality that would come true through the birth of Isaac. Sarah had doubted, and yet she was pregnant. Abraham had doubted, slept with Sarah's maidservant, Hagar, and had a child named Ishmael with her. He thought he could help God's promise along as if God needed help from Abraham. Yet, in Isaac, everything had changed.

And then, God demands that Abraham sacrifice Isaac. Abraham took his son out to make a sacrifice to the Lord. Isaac recognized that there was something wrong with the plan. They were carrying wood for the sacrifice, but no sacrifice. "Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together" (Genesis 22:8). Sometimes I wonder if Abraham knew that Isaac wasn't really in trouble. God had promised him Isaac, so sacrificing him made no sense. God already had a plan when he promised the birth of Isaac, so God must have a plan even in this situation.

And God did. In the central plot twist of the story, God provided a sacrifice other than Isaac, and this strange story was told from parent to child for generations. Traditionally, the place where Abraham had bound Isaac, preparing him to be sacrificed, was a place called Mount Moriah.

David knew the story, but I don't know if the Poet King knew that the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite was the same spot where Abraham had once prepared Isaac as a sacrifice to God. But, on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, David both made a sacrifice and declared that the future Temple would be built on this spot. Today, Mount Moriah and Araunah's threshing floor are known by another name, Temple Mount.

Was this spot just the threshing floor of a poor Jebusite farmer? That is unlikely. Jebus was the ancient name for Jerusalem, and Araunah was likely a title indicating Lord or King. The King of Jebus sold the threshing floor to the King of Israel so that one day a Temple could be built on that spot to worship the King of Kings.

Today's Scripture Reading: 1 Chronicles 23