After all this, God tested Abraham. God said, “Abraham!”
“Yes?” answered Abraham. “I’m listening.” He said, “Take your dear son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I’ll point out to you.”
 Abraham got up early in the morning and saddled his donkey. He took two of his young servants and his son Isaac. He had split wood for the burnt offering. He set out for the place God had directed him. On the third day he looked up and saw the place in the distance. Abraham told his two young servants, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I are going over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.”
 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and gave it to Isaac his son to carry. He carried the flint and the knife. The two of them went off together.
 Isaac said to Abraham his father, “Father?”
   “Yes, my son.”
   “We have flint and wood, but where’s the sheep for the burnt offering?”
 Abraham said, “Son, God will see to it that there’s a sheep for the burnt offering.” And they kept on walking together.
 They arrived at the place to which God had directed him. Abraham built an altar. He laid out the wood. Then he tied up Isaac and laid him on the wood. Abraham reached out and took the knife to kill his son.
 Just then an angel of God called to him out of Heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
   “Yes, I’m listening.”
 “Don’t lay a hand on that boy! Don’t touch him! Now I know how fearlessly you fear God; you didn’t hesitate to place your son, your dear son, on the altar for me.”
 Abraham looked up. He saw a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. Abraham took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
 Abraham named that place God-Yireh (God-Sees-to-It). That’s where we get the saying, “On the mountain of God, he sees to it.”
 The angel of God spoke from Heaven a second time to Abraham: “I swear—God’s sure word!—because you have gone through with this, and have not refused to give me your son, your dear, dear son, I’ll bless you—oh, how I’ll bless you! And I’ll make sure that your children flourish—like stars in the sky! like sand on the beaches! And your descendants will defeat their enemies. All nations on Earth will find themselves blessed through your descendants because you obeyed me.”
OK – there it is, a passage I really struggle with.
Is it ‘fearlessly you fear God’ or much more simple, unreflected, even fanatic obedience??? Is this how it should be? No question? No doubt? Not even some glimpse of soothing hope in the way up the steep mountain path?
Morally speaking immolating another human being as a sacrifice on an altar (“holocaust” in the literal sense) sounds cruel and dehumanized – absolutely out of our frame of reference post Enlightment.
Abraham’s behaviour is questionable I feel – he lies at the servants “The boy and I are going over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.”. He lies at his son “God will see to it that there’s a sheep for the burnt offering” to hide his intentions and determination to sacrifice/kill him. Or is this lie covering his homicidal intentions already an expression of his unconscious deep knowledge of a good outcome? Unbeknown to himself the unconscious confidence in a solution of this deadly dilemma? A dilemma with a quite tangible sense of suffocation, at least projected onto the reader/observer.
There is no expressed hesitation, no sign of hope in Abraham’s behaviour. No wish for an alternate, more digestible ending. Would there be really a ‘good’ ending in A’s mindset at that very moment? I feel inclined continuing in being doubtful.
Abraham just carries on with the task at hand, doing as he was told. – The needed intervention comes in the very last moment, the knife almost slitting the throat of the horrified son Isaac. A son who must have lost all his primal trust in the ‘real’ paternal figure, Abraham, at that very moment – creating nearly insurmountable trauma and wounding derived from a dramatic collision of interest (fearless fear of God/obedience versus wish to live) in elementary, real human relationship.
But who knows, perhaps Isaac did not feel this betrayal but much more accepted the patriarchal decision and his destiny?
I am not sure whether I will ever be able to really take in some sort of positive message out of this passage.
I too have struggled with this passage – but I think it is the trust that Abraham has that is awesome…. he goes along with it even to the point of being \\\’willing\\\’ to kill his son – which is a concept as a mum I can\\\’t begin to comprehend!!
God then shows Abraham that He can be trusted and there is the ram… I think we have stopped trusting in God and perhaps need to start trusting again more! Those who do – actually see miracles happen! Faith is about trust and in society today we don\\\’t! that is a sad indictment of our culture and of each other!
I’m more and more struck by the way that many of the most horrific passages in the bible are the one’s chosen for children’s bibles – maybe that’s the way we domesticate them and hide from their dreadful reality.
I really struggle with this stuff and once the one hand want to fully take on board Dot’s challenge to profound faith, while on the other want to feel the reality that tbh I can’t take in especially if I think about my own son and the effect it would have on me (and even more on him) to have experienced something like this.
At the same time I saw a slightly new perspective today… within the long story of the old testament there is a sense of a progressive understanding of God and his nature and ways. Taking that into account there’s also the fact that chuld sacrifice was very commonplace then to gain favour with the gods. perhaps the way God subverted and ultimately transformed that in His people was to begin at that point with Abraham and to change it from the inside – not sure if that makes sense to anyonse other than me. In other words Abraham’s not surprsied because from his point of view asking for the sacrifice of a child is that gods do.. he’s obedient, and God shows that one the one hand he’s pleased that Abraham is devoted to Him, but on the other hand that he’s not like the other gods, saying “don;t touch him”
And of course there’s also the fact that the ram God offers instead is really a signpost to the self-sacrifice of God that will follow in Jesus
Still a rough read though!
It is still a rough read, although I can see what you are saying, Richard: It is leaving the human sacrifice behind, the transformation from regular ritual killing to please and appease the gods which now leads to a substitute sacrifice, the ram – and then ultimately to atonement and salvation on the cross in Christ.
Interesting though that Moriah and Calvary are somehow geographically linked in some interpretations.
OK, OK, I don\’t refuse to see the parallels, the ram signpost, Isaac carrying his torture instruments (wood) himself up the hill, Abraham\’s willingness to give up his own son and the son himself willing to give up his own life for God\’s will to be fulfilled.
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Subsequently, a text immanent comment – it is the spiritual surrender which is required, nothing more and nothing less.
I too struggle with this. It seems a passage with 2 completely separate parts, the bit that seems to make God out to be cruel asking for the death of Isaac which is so hard to swallow and His wonderful provision of the ram so that Isaac is protected. Even taking into account the culture of child sacrifice, it would still seem harsh and unfair.
the issue of trust that God\’s character is love is so difficult in the face of the circumstances and demand of the situation. Maybe thats one reason why we/I find it so hard, because somewhere deep inside we haven\’t got that message which would provide the security to trust regardless. not sure if that makes sense. i\’m finding it hard to expain. All I know is that my level of trust is nowhere near Abraham\’s
yes – I struggle with the passage as a whole but i am still fairly obsessed with the concept of movement in these passages – here they kept walking …. would I have?
account on Radio 4 yesterday about being tortured and how the guy came to the place of realising that the physical pain as a result of owning up to your “cause” was far better than the mental pain of trying to deny what you believe in – don’t want to labour the point but it resonated for me and enboldened me.