Of our three scripture readings this morning the one which stands out is the near-sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. The images from this story strike the reader or listener and compel our attention. The journey on the donkey with the servants, the cut wood, the fire, knife, the altar being built. Tension builds with each verbal exchange. The author of this story prefaces it by naming it as a test of Abraham by God.
Abraham and God had a deep relationship. Beginning in the 12th chapter of Genesis we read about the calling of Abram—later renamed Abraham by God—and God's promise of blessing. The author of Genesis tells us that Abram was seventy-five years old when he heard, understood and responded to God's call to leave home and kinfolk in Haran and journey to a place God would reveal to him.
The world of the Abraham differs in almost every way from our world today. This fact helps us understand why the Bible needs to be interpreted. Why were these particular events from thousands of years ago remembered and passed on in the oral tradition? Why were they chosen to be included when the stories from the oral tradition were gathered and written down and then edited in the form received as holy scripture by the Jews. There is not one answer to these questions, but they are interesting to think about.
But the fact that our modern world differs so much from the world of Abraham also makes interpretation of the stories about him more difficult. Why would God, who had promised him blessing and offered Abraham a covenant of land and many descendants, ask him to sacrifice his son? Many modern folks think God's request is outrageous. The God of love, who offers us blessing, should never ask this!
What we have to focus on to understand this difficult story is the deep relationship between God and Abraham. One can begin with the 12th chapter of Genesis and read through the entire Abraham saga which ends with the account of Abraham's death and burial in the 25th chapter. In the stories, one sees Abraham living through all sorts of challenging situations. As he faces these challenges, he makes choices based on his belief that God can be trusted to keep God's promises.
Was Abraham a paragon of virtue—someone who kept all the rules and never did wrong? No, he wasn't, but he had a relationship with God, based on real trust, which allowed him to say to the servants in this morning's passage: “ . . .we will worship and we will return.” The quality of this relationship—a relationship of trust that led to Abraham's awe of God—also made him attentive to Isaac's question of concern about a lamb for sacrifice. Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”
But doesn't this story also show God being tested? Not by Abraham, but by all who hear or read the story generation after generation—even by us today. How clearly, how firmly do we believe in God's reliability in providing for us?
Whenever I read this story of the almost-sacrifice of Isaac, I wonder about two things. The first thing I wonder about is: am I open and trusting enough to see what God is providing? Perhaps the ram caught in the thicket was always there. In the anxiety that mixed with his trust, Abraham may have missed seeing it. How often do we miss seeing what God provides, because we become anxious about how safe and secure we are? Our worry about the outcome of a particularly fraught situation may prevent us from noticing how God is redeeming this situation.
Often it is difficult to see God's activity when we are in the midst of a situation. But we must trust that when we look back, we can indeed see how God has acted. Of course, the outcome may not be what we hoped for, but we can trust that God will be there with us. As the psalmist wrote: “But I put my trust in your mercy;/ my heart is joyful because of your saving help.”
The other thing I wonder about is what would God have done had Abraham said, “No, I won't sacrifice Isaac.” We know from the story of city of Sodom's destruction that Abraham was willing to challenge and bargain with God. “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?” Abraham called God out and bargained to save the city if only ten righteous inhabitants could be found. Being clever Abraham might have softened his “no” and said, “I will go to the mountain you show me, and there I will build an altar. My son and I will worship you with an unblemished lamb for a sacrifice, because I trust the promise of blessing you have made to me.”
Of course, we cannot know what God would have done had Abraham said either a soft or a harsh “no.”. But we can wonder about the times when we have said “no” to God. In our lives there have been times when we have not made the best choices. There are times when we forget that God offers us forgiveness and redemption of our sinfulness through Jesus' life, death and resurrection. Even in the convoluted words of the passage we heard from Paul's letters to the Romans today, we can hear clearly the promise of God's grace, “But now you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life.”
Our trust in God's steadfastness and blessing can now be based on what we know of Jesus. We believe that God became fully human in Jesus. Our being open to what God has provided—and will continue to provide—arises from our faith in Jesus. Our assurance of God's love and blessing—even when we push God away with our missteps and poor choices—arises from our faith in Jesus. Abraham had a deep, faithful relationship with God directly, and his faith was accounted to him as righteousness. We place our faith in God, because we know Jesus Christ as Lord. And for this we give thanks!
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