The God of Abraham is our God, and Abraham’s experience of God needs to become our experience of God also. One of the deepest and highest experiences Abraham had of God was at Mount Moriah, where God instructed him to go and bring his son, Isaac, as a burnt offering to Him.
God tested Abraham in this way, asking him to offer his beloved son whom He promised and He brought forth in Abraham’s old age. God wanted Abraham to rely NOT on his son (even God promised Isaac to him) but on God alone.
Furthermore, God didn’t want to take Isaac from Abraham; rather, God wanted to return Isaac to Abraham in resurrection in a multiplied way for the blessing of all the nations.
As for Mount Moriah, the place of God’s choice for the offering up of Isaac, this mountain eventually became Mount Zion, the site of the temple and the centre of the good land (see Gen. 22:2, 14; 2 Chron 3:1).
In our spiritual experience, Mount Moriah (the place of God’s choice for the offering of our Isaac to God) needs to become Mount Zion, the highest peak in God’s economy, the vital groups as the reality of the Body of Christ.
In a very real sense though, there’s nothing that WE can do to reach Mount Zion except to pray and do our best to cooperate with the Lord.
It is God who initiates our salvation, He calls us out of anything else, He draws us to Himself, He brings us in the good land, He appears to us again and again, and He calls us to go to Mount Moriah – when He sees that we are ready for it.
He calls, He supplies, and He does everything in us and for us for the fulfillment of His purpose. We simply need to give Him our best cooperation through prayer, opening to Him and giving Him a way in our being.
May the Lord gain the reality of the Body of Christ, the vital groups within all the local churches on earth, for Him to have a built-up Body which becomes the prepared Bride to bring Him back!
Mount Moriah Becomes Mount Zion in our Experience
God told Abraham to offer up Isaac on a specific mountain in the land of Moriah. This mount Moriah is the place of God’s choice (Gen. 22:2-2). Abraham did everything according to God’s revelation.
Mount Moriah eventually became Mount Zion, the center of the city of Jerusalem, the more elevated place in Jerusalem where the temple was built. God asked His people that three times a year all males would go up to Jerusalem to worship God in His temple and feast in His presence (Deut. 16:16; Psa. 132:13).
Abraham’s earthly descendants had to go three times a year to Mount Moriah, that is, Mount Zion, where they would offer God their burnt offerings.
Today we as the spiritual descendants of Abraham have come to Mount Zion (Heb. 12:22-23), and eventually, we will all join Abraham to worship God on the eternal mount Zion, the New Jerusalem. The entire New Jerusalem is Zion, the Holy of Holies, the place where God is we will be forever (Rev. 14:1-5; 21:22).
What Abraham did in Genesis 22 is the seed, what the Jews are told by God to do (going to Jerusalem 3 times a year) is a development of the seed, what we are today is the manifestation of this seed, and the New Jerusalem will be the full harvest of this seed.
As we enjoy the Lord as the living water and the eternal life in Beer-Sheba in the church life, growing in life and enjoying the divine life, the Lord will one day call us to go to Mount Moriah to offer up our Isaac to Him.
This journey is a deeply personal journey, and the God who calls us to offer up our Isaac will also inwardly supply us to do this. But after our Isaac has been offered and returned to us in resurrection, Mount Moriah becomes to us Mount Zion, the reality of the Body of Christ.
Then and there we will realize that we are not there alone: there are many people on this mountain, many who went ahead of us and some who are there with us, those who have walked in the steps of our father Abraham.
In reality and experience, Mount Moriah becomes to us Mount Zion, the site of the building up of God’s temple, His dwelling place.
All we need to do is stay in Beer-Sheba, enjoy the Lord, grow in life, until the Lord will take us to Mount Moriah. Wherever we are, we should be what we are until the divine life will make us something else and bring us somewhere else.
The Lord’s Recovery is to Build up Zion – the Reality of the Body of Christ
The church in a general way has failed God when it comes to the fulfillment of His purpose, and today God is calling the overcomers, those who live in the reality of the Body of Christ on Mount Zion (see Rev. 1-2).
Today in the Lord’s recovery in the church life we are “in Jerusalem”, in the place of God’s choice, on the ground of the oneness, enjoying the Lord with the saints.
However, no matter how good the situation in the church life is today, where is Mount Zion in our experience? Where are the overcomers? Where are the vital groups, the reality of the Body of Christ? Where is the realization and practicality of the Body life? Where is the reality and actuality of the overcomers among us?
We all have to admit that, even though we enjoy the Lord and grow in life in a steady way, being built up with the saints in all the local churches and being blended with others in the Body, we still need to reach the high peak in the divine revelation in God’s word.
What the Lord wants today and what He’s working on gaining is the overcomers, the Zion, the reality of the Body of Christ. The Lord’s recovery is here for this: to build up Zion, the reality of the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem (see Rev. 14:1; Eph. 4:16; Rev. 21:2).
The only way we can cooperate with the Lord for Him to gain the overcomers is by praying. May we see God’s heart’s desire, may we realize what is the highest peak in the Bible, and may we see the intrinsic reality of the spiritual revelation in the word of God: Zion.
And may we give ourselves to pray one with the Lord that He may gain the reality of the Body of Christ in the local churches today. May He gain Zion, and may we be those who cooperate with Him by prayer to become Zion, the overcomers!
Lord, gain the reality of the Body of Christ in all the local churches today. May You gain the overcomers, those who live in the intrinsic reality of the spiritual revelation of Your holy Word. Build up Zion in Your recovery all over the earth. May many brothers and sisters cooperate with You by prayer to be brought to Mount Moriah – to mount Zion! Lord, gain what You are after today, the highest peak, the vital groups in the churches! Save us from being content with a good church life – may we care for Zion, the place of Your choosing, the overcomers!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Genesis (msg. 58), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Genesis (2), week 11 / msg 11, The Offering of Isaac and Experiencing God as the One who Gives Life to the Dead.
- Further reading: recommending chs. 2-5 in Witness Lee’s, The Practical Points Concerning Blending.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Raise up a generation / In Thy recovery / To see the high peak vision, / And live accordingly; / The vital groups in function / Thine instrument to be, / To end this dispensation / And turn the age for Thee. (Song on Gaining Zion)
# Ever tender, quiet, restful, / Inclinations put away, / That Thou may for me choose freely / As Thy finger points the way. / Live Thyself, Lord Jesus, through me, / For my very life art Thou; / Thee I take to all my problems / As the full solution now. (Hymns #403)
# Zion: in God we’re abiding, / Our oneness and living, / The processed God, our all. / Zion, the ultimate blessing, / Of God with man mingling, / The Triune God dispensing. / Beautiful churches, the golden lampstands. / God mingling with man; / His satisfaction, / The ultimate consummation! (Howard Higashi song on Zion)
