THEOLOGY – 11 October 2008 The Sacrifice of Isaac – (Genesis 22:1-14) Genesis 22:2 “Then God said, ‘Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.’” I have been reading Richard Dawkins. Says Dawkins, “Abraham built an altar, put firewood upon it, and trussed Isaac up on top of the wood. His murdering knife was already in his hand when an angel dramatically intervened with the news of a last-minute change of plan:” Professor Richard Dawkins is especially interested in Abraham. On page 242 of his book, The God Delusion, Professor Dawkins refers to what he calls, “the infamous tale of the sacrificing of Isaac”. On page 265, Dawkins says, “Any modern legal system would have prosecuted Abraham for child abuse, and if he had actually carried through his plan to sacrifice Isaac, we would have convicted him of first degree murder.” There are Christians who think this story should not be in the Bible. It must be a fabricated story with no truth to it. The problem with that is, the New Testament writers believed it did take place. Hebrews 11:17-19 tell us Abraham “offered up Isaac.” Although the knife was held back, in intention Abraham did sacrifice Isaac. Knowing how abhorrent we would feel about child sacrifice ourselves, how could Abraham go ahead and do that. Even more so, how could God even ask him to do it? As Richard Dawkins suggests, in our day such people who acted on claims of hearing such commands from God would be prosecuted for murder, or attempted murder. And they would be rightly locked away for the protection of children and society. During Abraham’s time and beyond we read in the Old Testament that the custom of child-sacrifice was practised among Israel’s neighbours of the ancient world. In 2 Kings 3:26 and 27 we read that, ”when the king of Moab saw that the battle went against him, . . . he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him as a sacrifice on the city wall.” Chapter 17 and verse 31 records that people of foreign cultures “burned their children as sacrifices” to their gods.
Despite the ban by God of such practice the custom found its way into Judah under the later kings, especially under Ahaz and Manasseh. 2 Chronicles 28:3 informs us that Ahaz “sacrificed his sons in the fire, following the detestable ways of the nations that the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.” In 2 Chronicles 33:5 we read that Judah’s king, Manasseh, “sacrificed his sons in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced sorcery, divination and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritists.” So bad was Manasseh that verse 9 tells us he “led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before them.” And the strenuous condemnation by the prophets did not save the nation from finally going into Babylonian captivity due to their behaviour. But child sacrifice was widely practiced by Abraham’s neighbours so the moral difficulty we feel about Abraham sacrificing his son would not have been such a difficulty for him as it would be for us today. For instance, it is now known that it was the practice among the pagan people of the time for husbands to sire children by the handmaids of their wives if the wife was not able to produce children. So when Sarah suggested this solution to Abraham due to her being childless, Abraham sired a child by Hagar (which really didn’t work for domestic bliss Genesis 16). So with the sacrifice of Isaac. It would have meant tremendous emotional turmoil for Abraham because it would not have been such a moral dilemma. There would be no emotional turmoil for us today because it would not be something that we would ever have to consider. God could never make that kind of demand of us. Because it was normal practice among the pagan customs of Abraham’s day God could use it to test Abraham’s obedience. Abraham had been faithless on several occasions. We know he passed his wife off as his sister twice to save his skin. Once with Pharaoh (Genesis 12:10-20), and again with Abimelech, king of Gerar (Genesis 20), and God had to step in each time to save her. And despite God’s promise to give him an heir, a promise He kept (Genesis 21: 1-7), with Sarah gone beyond childbearing age Abraham conceded to Sarah’s request to sire a child for her through her handmaiden, Hagar (Genesis 16). So Abraham had his failures in his trust in his God. He was as human as the rest of us. It reminds us of a statement by Charles Spurgeon who once said, “Failure is not in falling but refusing to get up again.” That’s the way Christians see God dealing with failure. He is willing to forgive when we express contrition for our mistakes and to get up and start again (Psalm 51; 1 John 1:9). And that is what God was doing here with this test. “Some time later God tested Abraham . . .. Then God said, ‘Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” We notice the text says it was God ‘testing’ and not ‘tempting’ Abraham. To tempt is to undermine and weaken character. To test is to strengthen character. Abraham was not being compelled by a tyrant god who needed to be appeased. Abraham was now ready to sacrifice his only beloved son, because God asked him to. The Bible makes it clear this was a test of obedience. And this was only possible because the Bible makes it clear that Abraham had a special relationship with God. He was known as God’s friend (James 2:23; 2 Chronicles 20:7; Isaiah 41:8). And it was because he had a one and only son that God could also reveal through Abraham what He Himself would do in due course, and Abraham would learn what that meant to God! This was how the Apostle Paul understood about Abraham’s test when he wrote in Galatians 3:8 that God “announced the Gospel in advance to Abraham.” In this command by God, God shared with Abraham His plan for the Redemption of the world. Said Jesus in John 8:56 to the Jewish leaders of His day, “Your Father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad.” The 19th century Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, asked the question, “When did Abraham see Christ?” Then Spurgeon says, “It was worthwhile for Abraham thus to be tested to have a view of Christ” (Vol. 37:500). The story of the sacrifice of Isaac was an Old Testament prefiguration of the death of Jesus Christ. In the story of the Emmaus Road recorded in Luke 24, Jesus drew attention to the Old Testament Scriptures which prefigured His death and its meaning. Jesus would surely have included Genesis chapter 22 in that enlightening study of the Old Testament, as well as other passages such as Isaiah 53 (See Acts 8:26-35). Richard Dawkins may think unpleasant thoughts about God testing Abraham in this way, but we are told that the outcome of Abraham’s testing was one of rejoicing. He saw Jesus and His intention to bring a solution to the sin problem of the human race. Abraham’s was a severe test. Isaac was his treasured son, a unique gift from God born beyond childbearing age. But we are told in Hebrews 11:19 that had Abraham slain Isaac, “Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from the dead”. Richard Dawkins may complain about God but Abraham had no complaint against God over his testing. For Abraham, it was that arrival of complete faith in His God; the experience was worth it. Nearly 2000 years before it happened God gave Abraham a glimpse of Jesus and what He would do for humankind in his death on the cross and in his resurrection. As Jesus shared with His disciples in Luke 24, this should have been a visual aid that would have given Israel some grasp of the mystery of the story of redemption. For different reasons than Richard Dawkins would give, Abraham’s obedience and Isaac’s submission to God in this action prefigured the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ on behalf of humanity, for those who lived before as well as those who lived after the cross (Hebrews 11:39,40). In the story it is old father Abraham who manages to carry the lighter. Isaac is no toddler child – he could have resisted his father if had wanted. As has been remarked elsewhere, he is grown up enough to be loaded with all the timber needed for his sacrifice, and carry it up a mountain! The narrative doesn’t disclose all the detail of the story but one can conclude that once Abraham informed Isaac of his mission, Isaac submitted to his father’s intentions. His father’s God was his own God too! He would be obedient to his father. One can see why the Christian Church has seen in Isaac a type of Jesus. His was a unique birth, born beyond childbearing age. Isaac was the ‘only’ child. He carried his own wood and was willing to offer himself as a sacrifice – obedient to God, even to death. But it wasn’t to be. As Abraham trusted, God would provide the sacrifice (12:8), which he did (12:10-14). And again 2000 years later when His Unique, One and Only Son, would carry His own wood on which he would voluntarily be crucified. Just as Isaac was physically capable of resisting his father had he chosen to, Matthew 26:53 and 54 tells us Jesus could have called on twelve legion of angels for support against His oppressors had He chose, “but” said Jesus, “how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” It was not murder, nor martyrdom; it was the offering of God who had become one of us, as a Sacrifice for all who would accept it. The Apostle Paul says the whole human race has sinned; sin is the violation of God’s Law. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 3:23;6:23). And this makes sense of Luke 24 where we see Jesus chiding his disciples for not knowing what the Scriptures taught about Him and the suffering He was to endure. The sacrifice of Christ was no act of ‘Cosmic Child Abuse’ as some might claim; it was the planned act of God Himself, in Jesus Christ (Luke 24:25-27, 44-46; see Philippians 2:5-8). Given in type with Abraham and Isaac, it is in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus that God has reconciled us to Himself. It is our freedom to accept or reject that act of reconciliation. It is in Jesus that we find the reality of the Gospel and the solution to the world’s problems. This is what Abraham caught a glimpse of in his sacrifice of Isaac. It is described for us in John 3:16: “God so loved the world that He gave his only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”. If Richard Dawkins could get a sense of the wholeness of the Bible and see God’s side of the story, this text in Genesis chapter 22 would no longer trouble him. He might even be inspired to write, as was the hymn writer who penned the words: “The God of Abraham praise, Who reigns enthroned above, Ancient of everlasting days, And God of love.” For serious comments on the sacrifice of Isaac see links: http://www.apocalipsis.org/Abraham.htm and http://www.christian-thinktank.com/qkilisak.html
