'God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said,
“Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah,
and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”
So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young
men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and
went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. On the third day Abraham
looked up and saw the place far away. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here
with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come
back to you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac,
and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac
said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire
and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God
himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on
together.
When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid
the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the Lord
called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said,
“Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since
you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham looked up and saw a ram,
caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering
instead of his son. So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day,
“On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”'
--Genesis 22: 1-14
This past weekend I went back to Southwest Virginia, to the parish that sponsored me for ordination: All Saints Episcopal Church in
Norton. And I got THIS passage! Really?! So this is what I get for coming home, huh? Don't ever let it be said that God doesn't have
a sense of humor. Welcome back to your home church, Joe, now go preach about a father nearly murdering his son because God told
him to do so. Fantastic!
This is one of those passages that no preacher ever likes
to get, and this was the first time I had ever preached on a day when it was
part of the lectionary cycle. I
could have easily just preached on Romans, about our freedom from sin. Or I could've recycled the sermon I did three
years ago on Matthew and Jesus’ reminder that whoever welcomes you welcomes
him. But where’s the fun in that?
The Binding of Isaac is a classic text, an essential part of Jewish and
Christian narratives, as well as Muslim retellings where Ishmael takes the
place of Isaac. But to say it’s
problematic is a severe understatement.
It has caused deep concern, especially in a time when abuse of children
is further at the forefront of our minds than ever before. In art Rembrandt paints Abraham facing the
heavens rather than Isaac, with his hand holding the screaming child’s head to
the rock, almost as if in blind obedience to God and oblivious to what his son
is enduring.
Rembrandt's Abraham and Isaac (1634)
Even in a an episode of
Family Guy a character quips “I’m a worse father than Abraham!” and the scene
cuts to Abraham and Isaac walking down the hill and Isaac saying, “Are you
gonna tell me what the $#&% that was?!”
Family Guy gets it.
Yeah, this text is a little messed up. Still, we are always called not to simply ignore difficult texts like
these, but to wrestle with them, in order that we may find some Good News. And if we pick this story apart, I suspect
we’ll find some.
The first thing that jumps out—right there in the first
sentence—is the fact that this is a test.
A test of what, exactly? Some
preachers may tell you that this is a test of Abraham’s faith and trust in God,
that he is willing even to sacrifice his own son to please God, and they’ll
connect it back to the atonement theory of the Resurrection, that God
intentionally gave Jesus to be sacrificed in order to appease the sins of the
world, and so we must be willing to sacrifice ANYTHING, even our children, to
appease our God. Yet more recent
approaches push back against this a little.
Yes, it’s a test of Abraham’s faith and trust in God, but not to the
point that he is WILLING to sacrifice Isaac, but rather it is a test of whether
or not he trusts that God will intervene. Throughout their relationship Abraham has had doubts of God’s
intervening power: he doesn't fully trust God along his travels, and he and his wife Sarah even laugh in the presence of God when they are told that they will have a son. He wants to believe, certainly
that’s what compelled him to leave his home in the first place, but believing
is hard, and Abraham is constantly struggling to fully trust and believe God's promises. This makes perfect sense, really. Believing that you will be given a child when
you’re barren. Believing God will
somehow deliver you from the worst set of circumstances. That ain't easy! That’s the test. Not that Abraham will blindly follow God’s
command, but that Abraham would trust God to save his son. His comment in verse 8 that God will provide
the lamb isn’t, as some have suggested, a lie he tells to appease Isaac, but it
his actual, earnest belief that somehow God will do it. And God does end up providing the animal
because God never intended for Abraham to kill Isaac.
It still seems extreme, and maybe God could have used a different method for being sure Abraham believed, but think about this: The interaction we see between God and
Abraham in this text is the last one. The last
one! After all that they had been through, it's as if after this moment
Abraham has no need to ask God anymore questions or openly wonder whether or
not God will keep God’s promise to him and his family. From this point on Abraham knows to the very
core of his being that God’s promises are sure and true, that God does not go
back on those promises, and that God does bring deliverance from certain
doom. And that reassurance takes on an
even deeper meaning when we remember that Genesis is written during the days of
Israel’s exile in Babylon. As they heard the story the people of Israel saw themselves as both Isaac and Abraham. Like Isaac, Israel had been sentenced to
certain death, but as Isaac was saved, so was Israel delivered from the brink
of annihilation and allowed to return home when Babylon ultimately fell. And like Abraham, Israel
struggled to hold on to the promise that God had made. Israel wondered, questioned, and laughed at
God. But God never forgot them and did
keep the promise made to them.
That is what this story has to teach us. It’s not about blind loyalty to God. It’s not about a sadistic, vulgar God who
demands that parents sacrifice their children.
It has never been about those things.
Instead it is the story of trust that God will bring deliverance,
somehow, someway, even in the moments when everything seems lost.
There's the Good
News, that God does not go back on the promise of deliverance for God's
people. Are there absurd, senseless
experiences in life that can become the occasion for us to lose trust in
God? Absolutely. Deep, dark, and seemingly hopeless valleys
through which we all travel, but that doesn’t mean the promise isn’t still true. This story helps remind us that that receiving
promises, even promises from God, does not entail being shielded from moments
where those promises seem to be called into question. We are all faced, at one point or another,
with a set of circumstances that make us question everything and wonder if God
has abandoned us.
My home church of All Saints faces an uncertain future right now. There's the financial piece, the membership piece, and the lack of a priest piece. Somedays they feel like Isaac, with their head on
the chopping rock, or like Abraham, quietly wondering if and when God will save
the day. While I do not know what the future holds for them, I hoped to remind them that God's promise of deliverance is real. That’s what this story is about. That’s what the Resurrection is about. That even in the times when it seems God has
abandoned us, meaning and hope are found, giving way to a newer, more hopeful
future. God never abandons those whom
God calls beloved. God has not, and will
not abandon All Saints, nor any of us, even when the future seems uncertain. Deliverance may not look the way we want it
to--I'm sure Isaac would echo that sentiment--but it is real and it will lead
to a new journey that is hopeful and exciting and holy.
The nave of All Saints Episcopal Church in Norton, VA, where I was baptized, confirmed, and ordained.
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