Moriah (or: The Three Tests of Abraham)

When Sarah, ninety years of age

Found she had conceived a child

She laughed and laughed, then jealous sent

Hagar her handmaid to the wild

Abraham, his heart was grieved

For Ishmael also was his son

He sent them to the wilderness

But wept in secret when they'd gone

She laid her boy beneath a bush

Then knelt a bowshot's length apart

I cannot bear to watch him die

For it would surely break my heart

An angel spoke to her and said:

Fear not-God hears your infant's cries

She dried her tears, looked up and found

Beersheba's well before her eyes

Take and bind your only son

The Lord said unto Abraham

And burn him as an offering

The old man whispered: Here I am (BREAK: V 2nd half)

They journeyed to Moriah's hills

He took fire and knife in hand

Strapped the wood on Isaac's back

And went to do the Lord's command

Alone together they walked on

The second test of Abraham

I see fire, knife and wood

Isaac asked: Where is the lamb?

Again we're on Moriah now

In this time of fear and grace

On the altar all we love

Exiled all we dare not face

What angel now will stay our hand?

With Isaac, stretched upon the stone

While Ishmael, banished from the tents,

Becomes an archer in Paran

What if the angel never comes?

What if this war is never won?

And the enemy we fight and fear

Reveals the face of our own son?

Will we fail this hardest test

And find, at last, that we have slain

The better angels of our souls

While Abraham, in secret, weeps again?

(c)2003 Mark Simos/Devachan Music (BMI)-All Rights Reserved

info@songsofconscience.com

www.songsofconscience.com and www.devachan.com

V3 - Completed: 15 March 2003; Last Updated: 14 January 2005

These lyrics and the underlying work conditionally released under a Creative Commons Music Sharing License

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