God in Christ has devised a way by which justice can be satisfied and yet mercy can triumph.
For our story today, it helps to have a brief overview both of the geography and history of Jerusalem. Coming west from the Jordan Valley through the Judean Wilderness, we meet a long north-south ridge looming over the city. This is Olivet, about 330 ft (100 m) taller than Mount Moriah. Continuing to the west, we descend Olivet into the Kidron Valley. Ahead of us is Mount Moriah. Moriah is not a single peak. It has three high points: the southernmost, where a threshing floor was in use; the central height, where in New Testament times the Antonia fortress stood; and the northern peak, the site of so-called Gordon’s Calvary. Projecting south from Moriah is a rocky spur where the City of David was located, a footprint-shaped hill covering only 10 acres. In the narrative, David had placed himself in the hands of the Lord for judgment, who “sent a plague upon Israel” (1 Chron 21:14). But more, “God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was destroying, the Lord looked and relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who was destroying, ‘It is enough’” (v 15). David’s prediction came true: the Lord demonstrated that “His mercies are very great” (v 13). The angel stayed his hand while standing “by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite” (v 15), on the south end of Moriah, which rises up above the City of David. But David didn’t know the angel had already been stopped. Thus he pled with the Lord for mercy—a mercy already given. Sinners needing mercy today must hear that, on this very mountain, God took the initiative, and at Calvary, “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Ps 85:10-11, KJV). God could also declare of Christ’s death, “It is enough.”