Moriah [guest]

by Elizabeth Olwin

The approach is grim. Low gray clouds threaten rain, and the foot of the mountain rises sharply from the wasteland that you now travel. Your steps feel ponderous and slow, yet the terrain speeds by as if hastened by the horror of the task ahead of you. You wish that you were not on this path, but you were commanded to climb, and His commands are not to be ignored. Somehow you reach the mountain and begin the ascent.

How do you climb Mount Moriah? I know, I know… before anybody points out the fact that I am most decidedly NOT Abraham and I most decidedly do NOT have to sacrifice my son… let me explain. I have no struggles that are not commonplace to humankind. But, every Christian at some point in their walk with God faces a call to sacrifice their heart on the altar of obedience. That altar lies at the top of Mount Moriah.

Moriah is a place where you go to give God the thing that you love most. That piece of your life that you believe is a keystone. Your most precious prize. Moriah is a place where faith meets action, and trust is acted out in a life devoted first and only to God. Moriah is a long climb with a dreaded summit and an agonizing decent. Moriah, to be quite blunt, is impossible.

The Bible doesn’t tell us how much Abraham cried or the intensity of heartbreak that he must have felt, but I can guess. Abraham had waited for over 100 years for this boy. This was his promised one from God, the baby that he and his wife had dreamed and hoped and prayed for longer than I have dreamed, hoped, or prayed for anything. This child was his flesh and blood, and was laughter and hope and legacy. His heart was breaking, but his faith remained unshaken.

Abraham had already seen how God operates; he was a dad after all hope of fatherhood was long since dead. His faith is described in Romans as follows: “…in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. In hope against hope he believed…” Abraham simply took God at His word. He figured that his God knew what He was about and was not going to let him down. He understood that this relationship with God is not a guarantee of happiness or ease but of grace, strength, and complete faithfulness when life seems impossible.

How do I grasp that kind of faith? How do I obtain the kind of faith that believes that God gives life to the dead, the kind of faith that would bind my own heart to the altar and offer it as a sacrifice to the God whom I love? In fact, let’s take it one step further. How do I climb Mount Moriah, let alone climb it while teaching the ones that walk beside me that “God will provide the lamb for the sacrifice?”

Altars are tools meant to restore God to His proper place in our hearts. They hurt, and they require shedding of blood (be that literal or figurative). My true test of devotion lies in my struggle to reach the altar. I am not strong enough on my own but I know that my Father is pleased to see me try. Obedience is something only achieved by the grace of God. I am able to walk up the mountain only because He is leading me.

-- Elizabeth Olwin lives in Bellingham, WA. She is an Environmental Studies major; she wonders why grass is green and enjoys going boldly into forests where no man has gone before. --