This chapter is one of
the best-known Old Testament stories
– the testing of Abraham through the near sacrifice of Isaac to God at God’s
own selfish vain command.
Right out of the blue
God tells Abraham to take the teenage Isaacinto the mountains, lay him on an altar
and cast him as burnt offerings before God. Most people would clearly want to
try to defend their children against such a threat to their lives. Not so with Abraham. He neither asks why nor suggests that
this might be a bit much, accuse God of attempted murder or
protest one jot. He gets right on with the task. With two men helping, Abraham
leads his son into the mountains.
The two men seem to be
there to look after the asses the party have used to make the journey. They get
near to the sacrifice point,
as designated by God, and Abraham has Isaac carry the wood and knife up to the
sacrificial altar. (The boy will be stabbed and bled rather than being burnt
alive, as if that makes it much better).
Isaac
hasn’t been told what is coming, but he begins to sense something isn’t right.
He has helped his dad build a sacrificial fire altar, but there is no lamb or
goat to sacrifice. He understandably asks what is going on.
Abraham
lies to him in verse 8. , "God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt
offering, my son." This seems a macabre joke by Abraham who is zealously
setting the boy up for slaughter. When the moment arrives, he grabs Isaac, ties
him up and prepares to cut his son’s throat.
At
that point alone, an Angel arrives to end the sacrifice, and save Isaac. It was
all just a test to see if Abraham truly ‘feared’ God enough to do his bidding unquestioned.
Abraham
clearly passes the test, though virtually anyone killing today and then
claiming as a defence that God told them to do it, usually fares badly in
court.
The
women in Abraham’s community now become highly fertile – the Hebrew races begin
to grow as a reward for Abraham’s unforgivable, irrational behaviour.
Arthur Chappell
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