Take your dear son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Moriah. Genesis 22:2 (MSG)
Your Dear Son Isaac – The Sacrifice and Sons Series – Part 3
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6
Abraham's firstborn, Ishmael came to be in scandalous circumstances. Tired of her pain, Sarah told Abraham to have sex with her servant (Genesis 16), Hagar, to try and conceive a child that would become theirs; that would become the promise. (series coming on Ishmael) Hagar had a child and named him Ishmael. It became clear that Ishmael would never be Sarah’s. Fast forward a score of years, some crazy stories, an angel visitation to reiterate the promise of a child, Sarah fell pregnant. Nine months later, Isaac was born. The comparison between Ishmael and Isaac proved too much for everyone, so Sarah made them leave the tribe.
Abraham had two sons whom he loved. One was exiled, and the other…
“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.” Genesis 22:2 (MSG).
Child sacrifice was a thing back in Abraham's time.
They didn’t have the technology or the science yet to tell them why sometimes their crops grew or died. They didn’t know why sometimes people got sick, or they didn’t win a war, or the animals died, or why things thrived. For them, it all came back to whether they had pleased the Gods or not. And how do you please the Gods? By giving to them. By making a sacrifice. And if things got superbad, you needed to give a super amazing sacrifice. And what is more super amazing than a child?
So when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his kid, it’s not something he had never heard of before. God was addressing a cultural practice that was well known in Abraham's day.
Just a couple of chapters before, God visited Abraham to tell him that he wanted to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And how did Abraham reply?
“[He] stood in God’s path, blocking his way and confronted him,
“Are you serious? Are you planning on getting rid of the good people right along with the bad? What if there are fifty decent people left in the city; will you lump the good with the bad and get rid of the lot? Wouldn’t you spare the city for the sake of those fifty innocents? I can’t believe you’d do that, kill off the good and the bad alike as if there were no difference between them. Doesn’t the Judge of all the Earth judge with justice?” (Gen 19:22-25).
He challenged the Divine. Bargained with him. Called him out, even.
But when asked to kill his son? After he had already lost his first son to jealousy and the desert? He set off at first light.
Hang on… This is about sacrifice, right? Abraham is acting on faith in the Divine. He's obedient which is honorable and holy. Or…
Is something else going on?
A telling line is this. After Abraham, Isaac and his servants arrived at the place of the sacrifice: “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.”” (Gen 22:5).
Did you see it? Abraham said to his servants “WE” as in he and Isaac, both of them, together, will return. He was submitting himself to the narrative of the story to serve a greater purpose.
You might think I’m splitting hairs here, but what if this story isn’t about being willing to sacrifice your children (your most beloved connection) to obey God and prove yourself faithful? What kind of God would toy with a person like that?
What if it’s about a God who would never ask us to do that in the first place?
In a day and age where our kids (or most beloved connection) are often the sacrificial lambs to our ministries, careers, and even phone time, this story couldn’t be more timely.
Are you placing the wrong things on the altar?
Go to Part 4 – The Bigger Test of Faith »
Written by Lizzy Milani
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