The mountain on which the temple is built evokes the memory of what happened to Abraham and David. It is the place where Abraham had to sacrifice his son, but God gave an animal in the place of Isaac. Then Abraham had said, “God will provide” (Genesis 22:1–24). This mountain is also where David came face to face with the angel of God’s judgment because David had started counting his army instead of relying on God. When David had built an altar there to make amends, the angel stopped with God’s judgment (2 Samuel 24:1–25). This place is the mountain of the altar. It is the Mountain of Substitution.
1 Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to David his father, at the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.