Genesis 22 - Abraham Asked to Sacrifice Isaac

Genesis 22

A few years ago an article appeared in Moody Monthly that tells the story of a man named Eric who met a Chinese couple in Hong Kong, while traveling to China.

Eric discusses how a friend took him down a narrow alley to a second-floor flat to meet a man recently released from prison in China.
A Chinese man in his 60’s opened the door. His smile was radiant, but his back was bent almost double. He led the group to a sparsely furnished room. A Chinese woman of about the same age came in to serve tea. As she lingered, Eric couldn’t help but notice how they touched and lovingly looked at each other. His staring apparently didn’t go unnoticed, for soon they were both giggling.

“What is it?” Eric asked my friend. “Oh nothing,” he said with a smile. “They just wanted you to know it was OK—they’re newlyweds.” Eric learned they had been engaged in 1949, when the man was a student at Nanking Seminary. On the day of their wedding rehearsal, Chinese communists seized the seminary. They took the students to a hard-labor prison. For the next 30 years, the bride-to-be was allowed only one visit per year. Each time, following their brief minutes together, the man would be called to the warden’s office. “You may go home with your bride,” he said, “if you will renounce Christianity.”

Year after year, this man replied with just one word; “No.” Eric was stunned. How had he been able to stand the strain for so long, being denied his family, his marriage, and even his health? When Eric asked, the man seemed astonished at his question. He replied, “With all that Jesus has done for me, how could I betray Him?”

This story is not dissimilar to that of Abraham in Genesis 22. The Chinese couple in this story were called to endure extraordinary hardship for the service of their faith. They were asked to postpone their relationship or deny their Christian faith. They were called to demonstrate where their priorities were. And they understood that even the importance of their families paled in comparison to God.
The story of Abraham and Isaac is a disturbing and difficult one. It leads us to ask what kind of God it is that we worship. Why would God ask Abraham to kill his son, his beloved son?

This text raises many issues and questions, and it does not necessarily give us many clear answers. There is no extensive dialogue between Abraham and God or Abraham and Isaac. There is no summary of the narrative’s meaning by the author. We are simply left with the narrative itself and it has fascinated and frustrated scholars for many centuries.

With the birth of Isaac in the previous chapter and the designation of God as an enduring God, which indicates stability, security and permanence, Abraham begins the Genesis 22 narrative with a sense of calm and rightness in his relationship with God. This connection, however, does not last as God tests Abraham. The very God who had become recognized and appreciated for bringing enduring stability and security to the Jewish people was now responsible for creating extreme turmoil in Abraham’s life. Just when every trouble seemed resolved and everything was in hand, an obstacle appears that threatens to put Abraham, Sarah and the covenant back to square one.

Abraham is tested by God. He is called to sacrifice his son, Isaac. In testing, one is testing some value, quality, or attribute in that person. Whatever is being tested is stretched to its limits. Here God is intentionally testing Abraham’s faith and faithfulness by expecting him to obey in extremely difficult circumstances.

There is no doubt that Abraham would have been distraught with the prospect of sacrificing Isaac as God desired, but it is important to point out that child sacrifice would not have been as foreign to Abraham as it is to us today. The biblical prophets and the laws in Deuteronomy and Leviticus specifically condemn child sacrifice, but this reveals that the practice was common enough to be addressed. There were definitely some elements of child sacrifice in non-Christian worship practices in Abraham’s time. Abraham is thus less likely to be dumbfounded by the practice itself, but more baffled by the fact that Yahweh is calling him to perform such an act, especially in light of the covenant promises that were expected through Isaac.

It is also important to note that Abraham was not simply horrified by the prospect of ending the life of Isaac, but also with all that Isaac represented with regard to the covenant promises. Isaac was the vessel by which God’s promises were to flow to the Jewish people. If Isaac were to be killed, all Abraham’s hopes and dreams in God’s promises would have been dashed. Abraham would seemingly lose his reward for a life of obedience. This idea is reinforced by the fact that the covenant is reaffirmed after God intervenes to stop Abraham from sacrificing Isaac. God is telling Abraham that Isaac will still be God’s vessel for the covenant promises because of Abraham’s obedience.

God’s testing of Abraham brings jeopardy to the integrity of the covenant. If there is no Isaac then there is no covenant. God had specifically given Abraham his name and told him, “You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.” Later when God notified Abraham that his wife Sarah was pregnant he told him, “your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.”

Now Abraham is faced with a God who is telling him to give up this promise. To give up the hope and glory of being the patriarch of God’s people. The obstacle in this narrative is not the impending death of Abraham’s son, but rather the prospect that Abraham is giving up his role in God’s divine plan.

God is testing Abraham because he is concerned that Abraham and his descendants may be more attached to the promised blessings and benefits of their covenant than to God. Their priorities are misplaced. They may be following God because they get something out of it, rather than because God himself is worthy of being followed.
We can relate to this. Sometimes our reasons for following God are impure too.
Recently, a friend told me a story about a mission trip he went on to Tennessee. The group he went with spent a week working with a church planning a Vacation Bible school and repairing their building. While working with a particularly poor church, the group was funded by a wealthy church in a different area of the city. One evening one of the members of the wealthy church invited the group over for dinner. My friend told me that this man had the largest and most extravagant house that he had ever been in. He also had a Hummer and a Mercedes Benz, amongst other cars, parked in his garage. His wife had a 10 carat diamond ring. My friend said her left arm was noticeably stronger than her right from the carrying the extra weight. My friend, being extremely courageous, spoke up during dinner and asked the man if he felt that his Christian faith was consistent with living in such excess. The man responded with little hesitation that everything that he had was a blessing from God and that it is easy for him to see God’s greatness because he has been blessed so abundantly.

This man’s faith seemed to be based on his blessings. He worshiped God because of what God had given him, not because God himself is worthy of worship. Often our faith, especially in a wealthy nation like the U.S., can become dependent upon our blessings and not dependent upon God himself.

This is often reflected in our ministry styles as well. When I first became passionate for my faith in college I made a regular habit of practicing cold-turkey evangelism. I would walk up to people on campus and begin talking with them about Christianity and how they needed Christ in their life. But I did not focus on God, or on his goodness, or even our daily need for him. I focused on heaven. I focused on the rewards associated with the Christian life.

God desires faith in him alone. He desires that we grow in a relationship with him because he is God, not because some day we will end up in heaven. Would you be a Christian if not for the rewards? Would you be faithful if not for the promise of eternal life? Is not God himself, and a relationship with him valuable enough in itself for us to be faithful?

This is the essence of the narrative of Abraham and Isaac. God is testing Abraham’s faith. He desires to know whether Abraham will be obedient to him even when God takes away his promise to make Abraham the patriarch of His people. God’s purpose is to see what Abraham is willing to give up.

Thomas Mann eloquently captured the significance of this. “God demands that Abraham kill his only son; within the context of the cycle, God demands that Abraham kill the promises God has made, and thus return the world to its state at the end of the primitive cycle. Of course, son and promises cannot be separated, but the weight of meaning lies in the fact that Isaac is a gift who embodies God’s promise of blessing, land, and nationhood. The test is one of obedience and trust. In essence, it is a test of Abraham’s relationship with Yahweh. It asks whether Abraham’s trust is really in God, and not simply in what God has promised.”
This test allows the patriarch to demonstrate to himself, to Isaac, to the world, but most of all to God that his faith is not driven by what he will receive out of it but by his commitment to God. God and God alone motivates his faith – he is willing to give up all he stands to gain, all he loves, all he hopes for.
Even though the text suggests that the testing of Abraham was for God’s benefit so that he could know that Abraham indeed feared him, there is also an important benefit for Abraham. The testing allows God to see Abraham’s faith, but it also provides Abraham, himself with an opportunity to solidify his faith in his own heart. A self-reflection or at least a gut-check on his motives. After all, Abraham had a three day walk to consider his options. Abraham’s obedience was not a knee-jerk reaction that was the result of an impulse or a lack of consideration. Abraham thought it out. He had processed the ramifications of his choice to obey God and sacrifice Isaac, and still decided to go through with it.

Tests of our faith not only demonstrate to God our faithfulness, but they strengthen us. We need to be poked and prodded in order to be stronger in our faith. Many times extreme hardship brings about superior obedience. This is what happened with Abraham.

Take an example of Arabian horses. Arabian horses go through rigorous training in the deserts of the Middle East. The trainers require absolute obedience from the horses, and test them to see if they are completely trained. The final test is almost beyond the endurance of any living thing. The trainers force the horses to do without water for many days. Then he turns them loose and of course they start running toward the water, but just as they get to the edge, ready to plunge in and drink, the trainer blows his whistle. The horses who have been completely trained and who have learned perfect obedience, stop. They turn around and come pacing back to the trainer. They stand there quivering, wanting water, but they wait in perfect obedience. When the trainer is sure that he has their obedience he gives them a signal to go back to drink.

Now this may be severe but when you are on the trackless desert of Arabia and your life is entrusted to a horse, you had better have a trained obedient horse.

This is similar to what God did with Abraham. He desired his absolute obedience and gave him a severe test in order to ensure that he had it. The result was a man who was amazingly obedient to God himself and nothing else. He was not in it for the reward but for the God.

The tests and trials of our lives help us to center our priorities. They help to mold us into people who are reliant on God alone. They help us to grow closer to people that God intends us to be.

The fact that Abraham never actually performed the act is meaningless. Abraham was clearly willing and ready when God stepped in to stop his actions. God never intended for Abraham to kill Isaac, he was simply testing his faith. In the end God provides Abraham with a ram to be sacrificed. Abraham is obedient to God for the sake of God himself, and then is rewarded for his obedience.

The obedience that Abraham models in this passage is difficult for us to comprehend. Our culture gives us the sense that we deserve certain things and that we are entitled to rewards if we behave in a certain way. We feel entitled to our incomes, to our standard of living, to cutting someone off in the turn lane. We are misled into believing that we work the hardest and deserve all these things. Such a secular mentality carries over into our Christian faiths. We feel entitled to certain blessings or rewards because we have been faithful. We are tempted to grown angry with God when things do not go our way or when we are placed in a particularly difficult situation. Our affection for God is dependent on our life conditions. If things are going well, we choose to be close to God. If things are not going well, we choose to distance ourselves from God.

It is hard to think of a worse situation than to be called to sacrifice your own son, and in the face of such a decision, Abraham is obedient to God’s call. Perhaps he was so confident in God’s goodness that he knew God would not allow Isaac’s death, but he must have at least been wondering as he raised his knife to cut Isaac. Regardless, Abraham was obedient to God and willing to give up all the benefits of being a follower of God, simply for the right to continue to be close to him. We are called to do the same.

We are called not to relish in our blessings and allow our faith to waiver as they come and go. . . But to focus on God’s goodness and it alone. God tests to identify his people, to discern who is serious about faith and to know in whose lives he will be fully God. Are we willing to follow God if there is nothing in it for us? Would we lose our faith if God asked us to give up eternal life in heaven?

God desires to be our all in all. He wants us to desire him and not the benefits that we may receive.