The Aqedah Story – Bruno Tomadon
The Aqedah Story – Bruno Tomadon
God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham obeys. Surely this is an example of the archaic morality of the Old Testament. Does this not show that God is capricious and malicious? Is Abraham’s obedience not comparable to the behaviour of those who have committed atrocities and claimed they were only “following orders”?
Putting the case like this exerts some persuasiveness, except that this is not what happened. Yes, God did command Abraham to sacrifice his son and Abraham did comply. However, if this is all the evidence that is used to summarily convict God and Abraham, then at best we have a misreading of the text and at worst a prejudicial reading.
The author of this story, and it is a story, tells us so much more about the relationship between God and Abraham. As an inerrantist I believe that this story is true historical narrative, but even without this belief the story of God and Abraham is accessible.
We need to go right back to the beginning … to the call of Abram.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. (Genesis 12:1-2)
God began his relationship with Abram with a purpose. God intended to bless Abram and moreover to make Abram a blessing to others. Abram’s blessing was to father a nation and as we find out later this nation was meant to be blessing to the other nations. Each promise was later ratified with a covenant. Abram begins his journey with God’s promise that he is going to do good to him. This opening to the story of God and Abraham is the key that explicates all that follows.
Abram just like the rest of us does not find faith and trust easy when faced with the difficult realities of life. We see that God patiently teaches him in spite of his failures. Abram gets Sarai, his wife, who also happens to be his half-sister to lie in order to protect him. He is afraid of being killed because his wife is beautiful. God uses the pagans to rebuke Abraham and demonstrates that he is able to save both him and his wife. Twice this happens and God is gracious with him.
Even though God had promised that Abram’s offspring will inherit the land, Sarai is unable to conceive. So together they decide to help God along and Ishmael is born of Sarai’s maid-servant. God, however, intends to show him that he does not need help and promises him that Sarai, herself, will have a child. He confirms his promise with a covenant and changes their names to reflect his promise to them. Abram is 99 and Sarai is 90 at the time of this covenant, but in spite of the formidable evidence against them having a child Abraham places his trust in God. Their son Isaac brings them joyful laughter well after the time they should have been able to have children together.
We catch a glimpse of the friendship between God and Abraham when God gives Abraham the opportunity to intercede for Sodom and Gomorrah. God begins by revealing his plans to Abraham to destroy the cities of Sodom. We see a similar attitude in Jesus, much later in history, when he says to his disciples, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. “(John 15:15) Abraham cognisant that he speaking to God and that he is “but dust and ashes” tests the limits of that friendship and finds that God is merciful. God agrees to save the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah if only five righteous people are found there.
Only after all these things and for the sake of brevity I have not considered every recorded event, can we consider the unfinished sacrifice of Isaac. The narrator shows no subtlety at this point as he opens this part of the story with “After these things God tested Abraham … “(Genesis 22:1)
Abraham on the other hand does not know that this is a test. However, there is nothing in Abraham’s experience, nor in the reader’s that shows God to be capricious or malicious. God had made promises and faithfully kept them despite the failings of Abraham’s faith. God had covenanted with him that through Isaac the nations of the earth will be blessed. He had known the goodness of God and the joy of hope fulfilled in the birth of Isaac. So even though he did not understand this strange and painful command, he had trusted God to do the impossible before – surely he could do so again.
The New Testament writer to the Hebrews understands this and explains that:
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. (Hebrews 11:17-19)
God stopped Abraham from plunging the sacrificial knife into Isaac and provided a ram for the burnt offering instead.
As a result of the “Aqedah”, the binding of Isaac, God ratifies his covenant with Abraham and confirms it with an oath that through him the nations will be blessed. Abraham displays his loyalty and trust in God by not withholding his own son. The Aqedah foreshadows another scene at the pivot point of history when God the Father gives His only Son as a sacrifice to ratify a new covenant to bless all the nations on the earth once and for all.
The reason why so many people do not have a problem with God’s test of Abraham is that they read it within the unfolding story of God and Abraham. To be sure, those of us who also believe in the inerrancy of Scripture read it as a true story. As a true story it speaks poignantly to our own journey of faith amidst the sometimes inexorable situations of life. Nevertheless, it is not necessary to adhere to the inerrancy of Scripture, in order to appreciate, the point of the story.
Bibliography
Lionel, W. (2010). The two covenants with Abraham – part 2 (Genesis 15, 17 and 22). Retrieved 2 7, 2010, from Forget the Channel: http://bit.ly/92akDV
Windsor, L. (2010). The two covenants with Abraham – Part 1 (Genesis 12). Retrieved 2 7, 2010, from Forget the Channel: http://bit.ly/92akDV
Wright, C. (2007). Knowing God the Father Through the Old Testament. Oxford: Lion Hudson.
Scott Doty
on February 23rd, 2010
Just a quick note: I can’t imagine this not being a traumatic experience for Isaac?
Bruno Tomadon
on February 23rd, 2010
I’m sure it was traumatic for Isaac. Some commentators believe Isaac was a young man, not a little boy, in which case he willingly submitted to being sacrificed.
Regardless, Isaac also believed in God’s faithfulness as evidenced later when his wife Rebecca was unable to conceive. Isaac prayed and Rebecca conceived. He also knew about the circumstances of his birth and that he was the child through whom God would establish his covenant.