Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. Genesis 22:13 (NIV)
There Is Always An Alternative – The Sacrifice and Sons Series – Part 6
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6
Was Abraham's faith tested when God asked him to sacrifice his son as a burnt offering? Or was God putting to the test the whole idea of child sacrifice? The whole idea that we have to sacrifice that which is intrinsically valuable to us in order to create intimacy with the Divine? Was the lamb caught in the thicket a reward for Abraham's blind obedient faith?
An Ancient Jewish text, The Pirkei Avot (Sayings of the Ancestors), a section of the Mishnah (a rabbinic compilation of legal material in which they break down the Torah and ‘argue’ about what it could mean), quotes a list of crazy unexplainable things that were created on the last day of Creation. These things have no rhyme or reason or rational. God created them as exceptions to the rules of nature and history. (Pirkei Avot 5:8).
And guess what’s on this list?
“The ram for Abraham, our father.”
Yep.
Now, look. I don’t think the Rabbi’s who wrote the Mishnah meant that this ram had been caught in that bush since the dawn of time for the very moment that Abraham would see it right before killing his son. I think it’s included in the list of crazy miraculous things because they didn’t know how else to try and explain what was going on in the story.
What if the miracle wasn’t in the providence of the ram? What if the ram wasn’t Abrahams reward of faith? What if the greater miracle was in Abraham?
“Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns.” (Genesis 22:13 NIV).
Perhaps he was so focused on his dreadful and apparently inescapable task that he couldn’t see what was there, right nearby, in plain sight. Perhaps what had been there all along.
Abraham had to turn not only his hand but his heart away from the idea that God really demanded such an awful sacrifice. Abraham was able to undergo a change of spiritual understanding just in time to see that there is a different, an alternative way, to create intimacy with God.
The relevance of this ram being on the list (in the Pirkei Avot) of “crazy, miraculous, unexplainable things” that were created on the last day of creation, isn’t to suggest that this was a supernatural ram of sorts, but that God never intended for Abraham to really kill Isaac. He didn’t change his mind on a whim, or an act of faith. It was always his plan that Isaac lived. But the ability to see the ram? The fact that Abraham lifted his eyes and saw an alternative? That’s the deeper, more everyday kind of miracle.
We live in a world where tragic, unnecessary and un-asked for sacrifices are committed on the regular. Ministry, career, destructive habits, perceived standards, peer pressure, government pressure and oppression, greed, racism, misogyny, inequality… these all sacrifice the innocent on the altar of “give me more, provide for me, protect me.” The problem is, the ‘God’ we're offering our sacrifices to – wealth, reputation, certainty, security, addiction, and more – is never satisfied. It always demands more than what we can give. More than what we can afford.
But the Divine? He is a God who provides, gives, and blesses. One who wants us to forgive our enemies so that we don’t keep the circulation of violence spiralling out of control. He wants us to love our neighbors. And hey, he wants us to cherish our children – physically and spiritually – not sacrifice them.
The story of Abraham and Isaac is thousands of years old. But it’s a modern tale, too.
The ram is always there, there is always an alternative, if we will but trust, and lift up our eyes.
Written by Lizzy Milani
[vcex_image_grid columns=”3″ pagination=”false” thumbnail_link=”custom_link” link_title_tag=”true” custom_links_target=”_blank” overlay_style=”title-category-visible” columns_gap=”5″ img_hover_style=”fade-out” image_ids=”20934,20935,20937″ custom_links=”https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1239768002?pt=118656308&ct=blog%20footer&mt=8,https://www.pktfuel.com/dailyemail,https://www.pktfuel.com/support” img_height=”350″]