Moriah combines râ’â + yâh, meaning “seen, approved, considered, or enjoyed by Jehovah.”
In 1 Chronicles 21, we read, “David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces” (v 16) and pled for God’s mercy, a mercy already provided. But there is no such thing as bloodless mercy with the Lord. “Therefore, the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite” (v 18). It seems David ascended alone, a fitting prototype, for the Angel no doubt is the pre-incarnate Jesus, who Himself would ascend Moriah to offer not oxen for a nation but Himself for the world. “Then David said to Ornan, ‘Grant me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar on it to the Lord’” (v 22). Graciously Ornan offered not only the land but “the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing implements for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering” (v 23). What words to take on our own lips: “I give it all.” But David declined the generous offer, for, he said, “I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings with that which costs me nothing” (v 24). The purchase price? There’s an interesting twist. We previously read, “David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver” (2 Sam 24:24). Here it states, “So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place” (1 Chron 21:25). You can see the difference. The silver, price of redemption, was to provide a righteous basis for the temple to be built on Ornan’s threshing floor. The gold, on the other hand, was for “the place,” probably the rest of the mountain, and therefore including that sacred spot of which we read, “And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him” (Lk 23:33). What a place! What a price! What a Person!