Stephen F. Whaley
Genesis 22.1 - 18
June 28, 2008
A Note to the Reader: Sermons are best received when they are delivered audibly and from the pulpit, because they are written with their ultimate delivery in mind. With this in mind please be merciful in the critique of the writing style and grammatical errors.
There are some passages in the bible that at first glance seem rather to test our faith, as opposed to encouraging it.
Today’s reading from Genesis concerning Abraham’s binding of Isaac, is not only just one of those texts,
But I would say for many people it is the hardest of all texts in Holy Scriptureè
To accept, to learn from,
It is probably for some the most difficult to refer to as the Word of God.
Because of its content, because of what God asks Abraham to do it seems so unapproachable.
How do we study it, how do we learn from this horrible request from God? Can we really call this the Word of God?
When God commands Abraham, ( )
Many people are repulsed, pushed away because it is so contrary to what we think we know about God.
How do we approach this story that seems to act so against our humanity?
A story that seems to act against our natural instincts as parents? //
A few years ago, in another church, I was working with some lay leaders on putting together Wednesday a night program for our Kindergarten through 5th Grade. In our discussion we thought it would be a great idea to walk the kids through the nave of the church each week to show them the Stained-glass windows, and to read to them the bible stories that each of those windows depicted. We had taken black and white pictures of the windows and created coloring books based on the windows.
We thought this would be a fun activity
Until the first night we decided to go in chronological order with the first Old Testament window which was the “Sacrifice of Isaac.”
I am going to parse words here and say that today’s reading form Genesis is often referred to as the Sacrifice of Isaac. That’s a bit of a misnomer because Isaac is not actually sacrificed. It would be more appropriate to refer to it as Abraham’s test of faith, the binding of Isaac…
Or for those who are uncomfortable with this story, we might call it God’s terrible command.
But there I was standing before the classes, retelling this story. Trying to convey the meaning of this “terrible” (terrifying) story.
They asked questions like, “Who is Abraham? Who is Isaac? Did Abraham love Isaac? What is a sacrifice?
I told them how Abraham’s name originally was Abram (which meant high father)
When Abram was growing up he didn’t know God.
Lived in a land called Ur and when he became a man he married his wife named Sarai.
Abram and Sarai didn’t have any children and they were getting old…
And one day God spoke to Abram and made a deal with him. ( )
Go away from your country, your family, your father’s house, leave all the past behind.
And I will bless you. So Abram did what the Lord commanded…and God blessed him.
Now Abram had many ups and downs, good moments, and bad…but through it all God had been true to his promise to bless him. Abram had land and cattle, servants, but he lacked one thing, he still didn’t have any children.
God saw that this made his friend Abram sad, so he told Abram to look at the sky and to count the stars, if he could. And he promised Abram that he would have as many children and grandchildren as there are stars in the sky. And Abram believed God.
God changed his name.
Abram (high father)èAbraham (the father of many nations)
And even though they were in their old age, God gave Abraham and Sarah a son, and they named him Isaac (laughter). (because Sarah laughed when she heard she would have a child in her old age.
And they loved Isaac—they raised him and they taught him to know the Lord to follow the Lord.//
As I told the story (The children seemed to be able to maintain the paradox that God could still be good, merciful, and benevolent, despite asking Abraham to do this egregious thing.)
The way we attempt to understand this text is like those children.
To begin to ask questions rather than judge the story as too primitive or cruel.
This is where our story picks up today.
God calls on Abraham once again saying ( )
Just as God had called on Abram (the high father) // to set out and give up his country, his kindred, his father’s house, give up all that is in the past. So now, God commands Abraham (the father of many nations) to set out to Mount Moriah and give up his son, to give up all the lands promised him, to give all the descendents promised, to give up the future.
You recall the gospel when Jesus said, “do not think I have come to bring peace…but a sword…”
For I have come to set a man against his father…Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it."
It must be terribly confusing to Abraham…God has promised him descendants (God’s never broken his covenant)
Abraham has been as faithful as he can be to God, and God has continually fulfilled his promises to Abraham…given riches beyond measure…the greatest of which was to give him a son.
Isaac is Abraham’s hope and guarantee of God’s promises fulfilled—and here he is commanded to give him up. //
And as he always has done Abraham obeys // he rises early in the morning, saddles the donkey, brought servants (though he doesn’t put them to work—how could he stand by and watch his servants work while his mind spins), he cut the wood for the burnt offering
and sets out for the place where God shows him. After 3 days journey from Beer-sheba he lifts his eyes to see the place.
You can tell there is conflict in Abraham, // though he is quick to obey God…
There are two intimations in the story that tell me something else is going on
Abraham is waiting for the other shoe to fall…he’s waiting for something else to happen.
The first is when he says to his servants…( ) Abraham is waiting for God to do something else.
The second is the conversation he has with Isaac. (the Father of Many Nations) ( )
Isaac breaks the silence of their walk.
“Father, where is the lamb for the offering?”
Isaac is a good son…he knows the law…he knows the customs…he knows what God requires in a sacrifice…the wood…the fire…the offering
When they’re walking up the mount, Isaac says, Father, where is the lamb for the offering?
Can you hear Jesus in the garden “Father, let this cup pass from me?” Father, a sacrifice is needed, Let this cup pass from me, but not my will but thy will be done.
When Abraham the father of many nations lays the wood on the back of his son, Isaac
Can you see the Father of all the nations laying the wood of the cross on the back of his Son.//
( ) Together they had walked up together, reached the place of sacrifice, Abraham built the altar bound Isaac, and took the knife…
The first story concludes with the angel saying, ( )
The second story concludes with ( )
Rabbinical scholars teach us that this story of Isaac’s binding is told in the ancient world specifically to teach to the Hebrew nation that they are not to offer up human sacrifice as was the custom of Baal and other gods and religions in the ancient world. This is true, and even today there should be no confusion that God does not demand his people to offer up human sacrifice.
But this story is about more than human blood sacrifice.
It is a story about what humans are willing to sacrifice in order to know God, and it is a story about what God is willing to sacrifice in order to know humans.
Abraham walked three days from Beer-Sheba to Moriah to sacrifice all he hoped for. // Moriah is the name of the hill God showed Abraham. The Book of Chronicles tells us that this is the location of the Temple of Solomon.
If you were to go to Jerusalem to see the temple mount…you would see Moriah where Isaac was bound and just outside the walls you would see a little hill called Calvary were the Church of the Holy Sepulcher stands over the places of Jesus’ death and burial.
These two hills tell the story of what God asks of us and what God provides for us. He asks us for our lives our past, present, and future; and in return gives us a new life.
Gives lives free of eternal concerns, lives filled with faith and hope and love.
He never asked of us what he asked from Abraham, once was enough, and Abraham’s faith in God was strong enough to get the point across to you and me.
So the test of our faith is can we believe that God has revealed something good about himself despite the contrary details of this story? Or will we choose to worship the God we have created in our minds—who knows no pain—who knows no sadness—and who demands little from us?
God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you." So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. Then Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you." Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, "Father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." He said, "The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Abraham said, "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.
When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place "The LORD will provide"; as it is said to this day, "On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided."
The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, ‘By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.’ So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham lived at Beer-sheba.
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him
may not perish but may have eternal life.
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. 2I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’*
If you have comments or clarifying questions please contact me via email at fr.stephensfa@sbcglobal.net
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