Abraham & Isaac

Christians recognize an admirable and crucial act of faithfulness in Abraham, when he shows that he is willing to give up his son for the will of God. We might question how a good God could have a man sacrifice his son, but the weight of our question depends on the existence of a God that is better than the one being questioned. If God does not exist, and goodness has no sustenance outside of our perspective of it, then the grounds to our judgements are hallow – not authoritative and absolute. Moreover, God has authority and power over life and death, unlike men, which means he alone has the prerogative to give and take life, and the ability to raise one from the dead. Death may not be an intrinsic good of God’s will, as life is, but instrumental in creating saints who can dwell in the presence of the Lord, “where there are pleasures forevermore" (Ps. 16:11).

We are human if we question God, but is our inquiry for discovery, or is it accusatory in nature? If it’s the former, and we are curious of what is true and right, we might learn that the reason for God’s action is never for the sake of what is evil, and we may not always perceive his divine purposes, because we do not have his unlimited understanding.

If God exists, there is a good reason for everything he does, though our reason in its present state may not perceive the perennial reasonableness in God’s actions. Yet, that does not mean we can glean nothing from what he does. Rather, we should inquire and seek and mature in understanding of the most poetic, prophetic, and profound texts ever written by men who heard, saw, and related with God. And if we are familiar with the Bible’s claims and teachings, we know that God will risk it all for one sheep, but he will not force his love upon us. He desires all to be saved, but his life saving love must be received, and what is love without trust? We who are made in Love’s image know that trust is crucial for love. Love expands in trust and collapses in distrust. “Happy are those who trust in the Lord”, for if we trust the Lord, he can make us happy (Jer. 17:7).

If we question why God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, perhaps we will find that God created a cosmic moment for Abraham’s trust to manifest itself, as an example to us, for the making of great souls. God wanted Abraham to trust him, so that he could lead and teach and redeem him, so that he might become the father of many nations. Abraham’s faith would be tested to the greatest degree if God told him to give up what is most dear to him,

Then He [God] said, “Take now 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 of which I shall tell you.” (Gen. 22:2)

Moreover, unless the word “offer” is synonymous with the word “slaughter”, perhaps, as some in the Rabbinic tradition have suggested, God’s instructions to “offer Isaac as a burnt offering” were instructions of preparation, not execution (Jackson, Hillsdale College Online Lectures, “Genesis”). Abraham was instructed to “set the stage” and wait for the play. Prepare the meal but don’t eat it.

Of course, when Abraham “stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son” (Gen. 22:10) – when he jumped on stage to enact the play -- God urgently commanded Abraham not to slay Isaac.

“Abraham, Abraham! … Do not lay your hand on the lad, 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.” (Gen. 22:12)

God may allow us to momentarily misunderstand him if it makes way for a greater understanding of who he is, and the portrayal of divine panic may indicate that Abraham misunderstood his instructions, a misunderstanding that God permitted for a moment so that something beautiful would outshine and overshadow it. God foreknows all things and his will never changes, so if God stopped Abraham from slaying his son, he never intended for Abraham to slay his son. God intended Abraham and Isaac to return to the young men waiting for them, as Abraham promised them they would, making Abraham an honest man whatever he thought would happen.

But how could Abraham be willing to do such a thing, in the first place? What did Abraham think would happen, after all? Did he think God would deny himself? Abraham had been promised that Isaac would be the father of many generations, so how could he think this sacrifice would be the end of Isaac? Abraham believed Isaac’s life would not cease forever even if it became his father’s greatest sacrifice, because Abraham also believed God kept his promises. As Hebrews tells us, “Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death” (Heb. 11:19). 

If we can trust that God has good intentions behind his commands, and also recognize that God did not want or allow Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, perhaps it is possible to see what this story is trying to show us. If God is revealing something to us through this story, what it is? Whether it be that God can be trusted or that Abraham trusted God, the face of trust is paramount to the story – it is crucial in the Bible’s main assertions.   

As a Christian, I believe Christ is the culmination of the biblical story, and so I wonder how each story in the Bible is relevant to or points to the Good News.

Nothing tests trust like sacrifice, so what should be said of Abraham’s trust in God, if he was willing to give up his beloved for him? What should be said of our trust in the one who gave up his beloved to rescue us? The resemblance of Abraham and Isaac, and the Father and Son, are so striking that one can hardly doubt the former is pointing to the latter. If Abraham was willing to sacrifice “the son he loved”, he was willing to sacrifice more than I ever have, but not more than God has sacrificed for us. Abraham loved Isaac, and Isaac represented his blessing – his legacy – his promise from God. Even if God hadn’t promised Abraham a legacy through Isaac, it would be natural for a man north of one-hundred years old to put his hope in the livelihood of his son. Abraham valued nothing more than his wife and sons, and with he and Sarah near death, how much might the miraculous son of his beloved wife mean to him? How to quantify the pain of sacrificing one’s beloved from eternity for the sake of those whose iniquities necessitated the sacrifice? And yet, Abraham was willing to give up Isaac for God’s purposes, and the Father was willing to give up his Son for the purpose of saving us. Abraham was willing to sacrifice what was most dear to him if God commands it, because he trusted God, and God was willing to sacrifice his only Son, because his justice and mercy, which are necessary grounds for trust, command it.

In an existence in which (1) death is inevitable, (2) existence beyond death is unknowable, and (3) our desires reach beyond death, the belief in life over and after death is crucial for our greatest sacrifices and deepest hopes. God promised Abraham that Isaac would be a father of many generations, so Abraham knew that this sacrifice, while seemingly unbearable, would not be the end of Isaac. Abraham believed that the God who created the physical world and the human person, could raise Isaac from the dead for the continuation of his family, and God raised Jesus from the dead so that we might believe in his everlasting family. Abraham’s trust in God’s ability to raise one from the dead made him a righteous man, and our righteousness rests in trusting in the resurrection of Jesus.

Abraham was willing to give up his son for the will of Love, and the Father gave up his only Son out of love for us.

If Abraham suggests the Father, then what might be said of Isaac since the Gospel highlights the Son? Isaac trusted Abraham so deeply that he went along with his father’s will, even to death. Many imagine Abraham binding his son to slay him, but we do not read of a struggle from Isaac, even though Isaac did not understand Abraham’s actions, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” (Gen. 22:7). While Abraham said God would provide a sacrifice, how could Isaac doubt that he was the sacrifice when Abraham lay and bound him on the alter? After this emotional and sobering incident between Abraham and Isaac, we read in Genesis that Sarah dies at one hundred and twenty-seven years old. If Sarah’s death proceeded relatively soon after the episode between Abraham and Isaac, then Isaac was in his mid to late thirties when he was offered as a sacrifice, no younger than Jesus was when his body was broken and his blood spilled for the poor and rich. And yet Isaac allows his father to bind him and even sacrifice him if it be his will, like the Son allowed himself to become a sacrifice if it be his Father’s will. Isaac was willing to give up his life because he trusted his father, and Jesus gave up his life in obedience to his Father. What trust Isaac had in Abraham to let him bind him to a sacrificial alter. What trust Jesus had in his Father to let sinners torture and kill him, for the hearts of sinners. How could we trust anyone, if not the one who suffers so that we will stop causing, fearing, and living with suffering?

Perhaps the story of Abraham and Isaac has more to say to us that we might know or imagine. At least it means to tell us we should always trust God, even if he tells us to give up what we love, because God can always be trusted. God will never will us to do what is evil -- he will never command us to carry out injustice – and he will preserve and increase what we love if we are willing to give it up to him. We lay down our life for God, for he has laid down his life for us. Our injustices cost us our souls, but the one who made us, the source of justness and mercy, has spared and secured us by suffering in our stead, so that we might trust him to love us.