This story reveals of how God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the promised son, as burnt offering. Abraham obeyed but then God intervened and stopped him, providing him with a ram instead. Abraham went back with Isaac.
This story certainly is one of the most critical important stories and it became one of the cornerstones of the New Testament. It is also one of the most difficult one to understand, due to ethical consideration of the command.
Soren Kierkegaard dedicated his book Fear and Trembling to analyse this ethical dilemma from Hegelian perspective and concluded that God is above universal ethics. In that book, I also learned that the story is not that simple, imagining the horror and terrifying account from Isaac’s point of view, and oh, also from Sarah’s POV.
I can’t read this chapter unless I see it from the lens of the New Testament.
This story is the shadow of God’s provision to sacrifice his Son on the cross, as offering to redeem and restore us. The text left some cues:
– Isaac, your only son -> John 3:16, his only begotten son
– ram caught by its horns –> the ram was strong enough to break free but willingly lay down his life
– promise of his descendants to be blessed, because of his obedience –> salvation by grace through faith, through obedience of Christ (kenosis).
– on the mountain, He will provide – Jehovah Jireh, later on, on the Skull Hill, He would provide the Lamb of God
The text mentioned that Abraham reasoned with Isaac that God will provide the lamb instead, which happened. Hebrew’s writer took note that Abraham believed that God was able to raise Isaac from the dead – hence Abraham did not cross the ethic problem because of his faith.
Faith is a mystery. What really happened that moment in Abraham’s mind, we might not know. One thing, Abraham somehow reasoned, that God will solve his problem as he trusted God. Faith is the best reasoning.
Here is the take away: Life is often complicated, life is often confusing, life is often disappointing, life is often heavy, take a cue from Abraham – surely God will solve my problems for He cares for me. I don’t need to know how and when he will do it.
In the next pericope, the writer showed Nahor’s family tree, as a clue of preparation of Isaac’s future’s wife.
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