Arcana Coelestia # 2775
2775. 'And get you to the land of Moriah' means a place and state of temptation. This becomes clear from the meaning of 'the land of Moriah'. It is evident that 'the land of Moriah' means a place of temptation from the fact that Abraham was commanded to go there and to offer his son there as a burnt offering, and in doing this to undergo the utmost degree of temptation. The fact that Jerusalem where the Lord Himself bore the utmost degree of temptation was situated in the land of Moriah becomes clear from the consideration that David built an altar, and subsequently Solomon the Temple, on Mount Moriah, as is evident from the Book of Chronicles,
Solomon began to build the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, which had been shown to David his father in the place which David had prepared at the threshing-floor of Ornan (Araunah) the Jebusite. 2 Chronicles 3:1. (Compare 1 Chronicles 21:16-28 with 2 Samuel 24:16-25.)
From this it may become quite clear that these details which are stated regarding the sacrifice of Isaac are representative of the Lord, otherwise everything could have taken place where Abraham was staying at the time and he would not have been commanded to make a journey from there lasting nearly three days.
1 Chronicles 21:16-28
16
David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of Yahweh standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
17
David said to God, "Isn't it I who commanded the people to be numbered? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Yahweh my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued."
18
Then the angel of Yahweh commanded Gad to tell David that David should go up, and raise an altar to Yahweh in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19
David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of Yahweh.
20
Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
21
As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.
22
Then David said to Ornan, "Give me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build thereon an altar to Yahweh. You shall sell it to me for the full price, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people."
23
Ornan said to David, "Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes. Behold, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering. I give it all."
24
King David said to Ornan, "No; but I will most certainly buy it for the full price. For I will not take that which is yours for Yahweh, nor offer a burnt offering without cost."
25
So David gave to Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place.
26
David built an altar to Yahweh there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on Yahweh; and he answered him from the sky by fire on the altar of burnt offering.
27
Yahweh commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into its sheath.
28
At that time, when David saw that Yahweh had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.
