God's Everlasting Covenants & Mt. Moriah (Mt Zion)

My name is Chadwick Harvey, and this is Faithful Performance, where we explore the testimony of the biblical prophets and how they perfectly correlate with the current events of today. In this episode, we are going to discover Mount Moriah and how it correlates with God's everlasting covenants — the Abrahamic, the Davidic, and the new covenant.

Before we begin, it is essential to understand that geography is deeply important to the Lord. When we read the Holy Bible, we find certain places that are very significant to him. While all the earth is his, there are specific locations he has anointed and in which he has placed his name forever through everlasting covenant. We are going to examine the significance of Mount Moriah in light of those covenants.

In Exodus 3:1 and 4:27, Mount Sinai is called the mountain of God. It was where the Torah was given, where Israel fled from Egypt and received the original revelation of the Lord. Likewise, in Revelation 2:13, we find that Satan dwells in Pergamum, in western Turkey. So Scripture identifies specific locations where God dwells and where Satan dwells. Mount Moriah is one of those locations God returns to again and again as his dwelling place. As Joel 3:17 and Psalm 132:13 declare, the Lord dwells in Zion — and Zion is another name for Mount Moriah. Mount Zion and Mount Moriah are the same location, the same mountain Scripture speaks of repeatedly, known to us today as the Temple Mount, where the Dome of the Rock currently stands.

Mount Moriah is also called Mount Zion, Luz, Bethel, and the Temple Mount. The controversy surrounding that land today — the dispute over who has the right to inhabit and control it — is nothing less than the controversy of the covenants we are about to explore. It is a dispute over the deed to the promised land, the land in which God placed his name through these everlasting covenants. Everything is going to culminate there at Mount Moriah. It is truly remarkable how the Lord has orchestrated that single mountain — the Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant, and the new covenant — all pointing to Messiah's second coming.

It all starts with Father Abraham and the Abrahamic covenant. Abraham was chosen by God for his plan of salvation — specifically, for the pure royal seed line to pass through Abraham so that both Jew and Gentile could ultimately be saved through Yeshua the Messiah. Abraham was the one chosen, and through him began God's plan of salvation through the seed line, establishing the terms of relationship not only with the Jewish people but with believing Gentiles as well.

We will begin with the Abrahamic covenant as the foundation, build upon it with the Davidic covenant, and then come to the new covenant with Messiah, which confirms and stands upon all the previous promises without eliminating them. Those promises will be fulfilled at his second coming and throughout the millennial reign. He is a God of order, and there is extraordinary prophetic revelation when we trace the thread through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and Messiah across each of these covenants.

The Abrahamic covenant — found primarily in Genesis 12, 13, 15, and forward as God extends the blessing through Isaac and Jacob — is the foundation covenant of God's plan of salvation. For this discussion, two major components stand out. First, the promised seed that would come from Abraham's own body, passing through Isaac, Jacob, David, and ultimately to Jesus. Second, the promised land — the deed to the land where the Lord dwells in Zion, on Mount Moriah, at the Temple Mount. This is the location where it will all culminate at the end of the age, and God has been perfectly consistent in Scripture from Father Abraham to our own day.

We see this clearly in Genesis 12:1–3 and 6–8: "Now the Lord had said to Abram, 'Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'" Abraham came from the region of Babel — the area we associate with Babylon — and God called him to journey to the land in which he would place his name. He promised to make Abraham a great nation, to bless and make his name great. That has clearly come to pass. And the promise that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him points ultimately to Messiah and the new covenant, through which all who believe are blessed. In this passage we already see the promise of the pure royal seed line and the promise of the land that the seed will one day rule.

Continuing in Genesis 13:2–4 and 14–15: "Abraham was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold. And he went on his journey from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there Abraham called on the name of the Lord. And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, 'Lift up your eyes now and look from the place where you are — northward, southward, eastward, and westward — for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.'"

This passage is remarkable. Bethel is another name for Mount Moriah — they are the same place. There was such an anointing on this location that Abraham had already built an altar there before this passage, and he returned to it again to call on the name of the Lord. The Lord's instruction to look in all four directions — north, south, east, and west — establishes Mount Moriah as the cornerstone, the center point from which the entire promised land extends. This is how important this piece of real estate is to the Lord: the Temple Mount, Jerusalem, Mount Zion. And it was here, at this mountain, that God's plan of salvation was set in motion through Abraham.

Genesis 17:2–4 confirms the covenant once more: "And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly." Then Abraham fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, "As for me, behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations." This is critical to understand — the Abrahamic covenant is unilateral, unconditional, and irrevocable. It does not depend on Abraham; it depends on God's sovereign righteousness. We see this most vividly in Genesis 15, the covenant between the parts, where God passed through the divided animals as a smoking oven and a burning torch while Abraham was in a deep sleep. Abraham did not walk through. Only the Lord did. It was a one-sided promise — God alone bound himself to it. That is what makes it unconditional, unilateral, and irrevocable.

The Apostle Paul takes this further for Gentile believers in Galatians 3:26–29: "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Paul is here unfolding the mystery of how Jew and Gentile are joined together in one body through Messiah, and how believing Gentiles become, through faith, heirs of the very same Abrahamic promise — sharing in the seed and the inheritance of the land that God swore to Abraham from that altar on Mount Moriah.