Reading: Genesis 22-24, Psalm 7
Test noun. 1. a procedure intended to establish the quality, performance, or reliability of something, especially before it is taken into widespread use.
Today’s reading opens on one of the most famously disturbing stories in the Bible- the sacrifice of Isaac. Let’s take a minute to place the story. God has promised a great deal to Abraham and his descendants. He has said he will reckon those descendants through Isaac, while also promising a variety of things to Abraham’s other family members. He has caused Isaac to be born by supernatural means in his parent’s old age. Abraham has a son, a peaceful place to live, and a promise of being a blessing to all the Earth down the line.
And then God throws in a monkey wrench, and in a truly horrifying way. He tells Abraham to sacrifice his son as a burnt offering. While one of my personal rules for understanding the story of the Bible is that trying to guess God’s motives is generally a bad idea, here the story comes right out and tells us: God was testing Abraham. Before dealing with the whole matter of God asking for something as awful as human sacrifice, let’s look at what this test was about.
This is the end of the story of Abraham. We have a little (fairly long, really) hinge story about finding Isaac a wife and burying Sarah, but basically the action involving Abraham is over. The test is the last thing God does, after committing to his covenant with Abraham and following through on his promise to give him a son. So what exactly is being tested? God has already decided to use Abraham and his family. He has already given everything he has promised. Why test now?
At the end of the test, God reveals his purpose: Because Abraham has not withheld his son from God, God will use his son to carry out his plan to bless all the families of the Earth. Wasn’t that always the plan, though? There is something very important here in God’s character being revealed. God will only use what has been given over to him. God respects the humans autonomy, even when they make a mess of things. God is looking for Abraham to, in a small way, undo the declaration of independence that Adam and Eve made by giving his son back to God. The test is one of obedience, Abraham putting himself, and his son, in the right place in relation to God. Everything that has happened to Abraham so far has been a preparation for this test. God does everything he plans to do with Abraham, and then he brings the test. It would hardly do to test Abraham at the beginning of the story. Based on his actions and arguments with God over the last few chapters, I think we all know how it would turn out.
The test is human sacrifice. May as well deal with this, though by paying close attention one can see that God is really opposing the very real practice that occurred in the ancient near east. It is worth noting that when God tells Abraham to do this, Abraham doesn’t have to ask, “How?” The practice of child sacrifice has appeared all over ancient human history. It was part of the culture of the nations surrounding Abraham, as we will hear about later in the story. These sacrifices were about appeasement of various gods, including a particularly nasty character called Molech who will show up later. In contrast God, the God of the Biblical story, uses a violent and evil practice but flips it on it’s head: to fail the test will leave Isaac alive, and to succeed will leave Isaac… alive. God’s concern wasn’t appeasement, but to know the condition of Abraham’s heart. In the story of the Bible, death is a consequence of fallenness. It is the outcome of the human problem. This story is a test of Abraham’s distance from the problem, not to get God something he wants.
The story itself is simple: Abraham does exactly what he is told to do. At the last minute, God stops Abraham’s hand and provides an alternative sacrifice. God is not reneging on his curse- death is still going to happen here, but not to Isaac. Much, much later in the story, this event becomes massively significant.
Following this final test, there is a kind of extended epilogue of the story of Abraham. As a wanderer he must find a place to bury Sarah when she dies. As a foreigner he must find a wife for his son from his own people to maintain his family’s autonomy and identity. Rebekah is introduced to the story as a rather strong character who makes her own choices, which will come into play in tomorrow’s reading. Finally, Abraham’s affairs are put in order. The story can move on to the next generation of this family that God has chosen to use in extraordinary ways.