This last Thursday I had the
unique opportunity to take one of the most personally impactful stories I’ve
ever studied in the bible and teach it to my youth group. For almost four years
now I have been helping lead the junior highers at our youth group and it has
been an incredible experience. This lesson, however, has a particularly special
place in my heart. Getting to turn around and share it with others is
incredible. So while you, whoever you are, may not get to hear my shaky voice
or see the tears in my eyes, you can still read what it is I had to say this
last Thursday. I hope you enjoy, and even more importantly, I hope you
encounter God somewhere in these paragraphs.
The Dilemma
I once read a book in which the
author and youth ministries leader mentioned that he frequently encourages his
students to “under no circumstances read their bibles”. He goes on to say that
he is speaking “with tongue planted firmly in cheek”, but that he says this to
students for two specific reasons. First, because it never fails to catch their
attention and make them ask why. Second, and most importantly, because the
bible is confusing. It is difficult to read, and even more difficult to
properly understand. Written by numerous authors in numerous time periods and
unfamiliar cultures, through various writing forms, some expositional, some
poetic and so on, it is one of the most complex texts that we have available to
us.
While he
and I both believe people of all ages should read their bibles, it is
interesting to consider that maybe we should think twice before throwing some
of the most confusing stories ever recorded at young kids without first
equipping them to handle those stories well. Take for example the story of Noah
and the Ark. A story most children learn early in life, whether in church or
otherwise, it is one of the most morally challenging parts of the bible I’ve
ever had to wrestle with. So how are the youth of today supposed to handle
difficult scriptures? The bible is filled with examples like this, and if
everybody else is anything like me, then they will handle it best by just not
really thinking about it. It’s easier to simply acknowledge that it happened,
and then quickly turn the page to happier, easier parts of scripture.
One such narrative
that I personally remember struggling long and hard with was the story of
Abraham and Isaac. It takes place in Genesis 22 with God calling out to Abraham
who, after living a long life so far of devotion and faithfulness towards God,
has no idea what is about to unfold. Commanding him to do the unthinkable, God
says to Abraham “Take your son, your only son, whom you love – Isaac – and go
to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain
I will show you” (v 2). If you’re anything like me then it’s right about here
that you begin to get uncomfortable. You’re sure that God has a pretty good
reason for this, you just hope nobody ever asks you to explain it. And if we’re
being honest, it doesn’t seem to fit with the image of a gentle, loving, kind
God that we have in our heads. In fact if we spend too much time thinking about
it we may even be tempted to start thinking things like “what kind of God would
do something like that?" or even “how can this God be good?”. This kind of
heretical thinking is strictly forbidden and will not be tolerated in any
church environment. Just swallow the child sacrifice pill and forget about it.
Or at least
that’s what many church kids grow up thinking. And it’s an understandable
conundrum. We sit kids down and tell them that our God is good and he loves
everybody so much more than any of us can understand. But a long time ago He
told a man who had lived an incredibly faithful life, to go kill his son. But
it’s okay because Abraham passed the test, so God told him he didn’t have to
kill his son after all.
What? Who
in their right mind is going to accept that? The idea that a supposedly loving
God would demand the sacrifice of a child simply for the sake of testing a
man’s loyalty seems wrong, and if we’re honest with ourselves most of us would
even say sickening. So what’s really going on here?
Building a foundation
First and
foremost, if we’re going to discuss the mysterious parts of this story it is
first necessary to cement in our minds those things which are not mysterious.
Namely, who is God and what is the context of the story we are discussing?
As
Christians we affirm that scripture is truth and that it is the complete
revelation of God. All necessary knowledge pertaining to life and spirituality
on this earth are revealed through scripture, including those parts of God
which we can understand. His character for example. It is essential that we
start by clearly stating who God is, and for that we turn to our ultimate
source of truth: scripture.
Hebrews 1:1-4
“1 In the past God spoke to our
ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in
these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all
things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of
his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had
provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in
heaven. 4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited
is superior to theirs”
The son,
Jesus Christ, is our perfect representation of his (God’s) being. Jesus came,
humbled himself, and served selflessly (Philippians 2) before ultimately giving
himself over to death in order to save us. He loves without end or exception.
That is who God is. The same God who we read about in Genesis 22. We absolutely must accept this truth on the most
fundamental level before we can move forward. In understanding these things,
however, we should be further motivated to seek clarification with respect to stories
like Abraham and Isaac in order to understand how those stories line up with
these truths. Because they do.
Finding the Deeper
Beauty.
This
particular story is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful depictions of
God’s nature, but to understand it, and any other bit of scripture for that
matter, we have to understand its context. Abraham lived in a world very
different than the one we live in. In his day and age the world was riddled
with evils that stemmed from people’s worship of other “gods”. This is not
entirely unlike today’s world, save for the methods of worshipping false gods,
but that’s a sermon for another day.
The gods of
Abraham’s world went by many different names, but were very similar to each
other in character. They were dark, demanding, and cruel. Worshipping and
following the gods of that day and age often meant submitting and giving up
whatever was asked of you by these self-seeking powers. Many times this meant
children.
In
Abraham’s mind child sacrifice would not have been the shock it is to us. God’s
command in verse 2 to sacrifice his son would have been devastating, yes, but
not really surprising. We cannot even begin to imagine what Abraham must have
felt hearing God tell him this, but we can imagine him hanging his head in
somber submission to what should never have surprised him at all. Perhaps he
even saw it coming and so felt a knot tighten in his stomach as his greatest fear
is ultimately realized: this god, to whom he had devoted his life, was just
like all the rest.
And so he
obeys. Abraham takes Isaac up on a mountain in the region of Moriah. There he
built an altar and bound his son to it. The situation is unspeakable. His only
son, whom he loved so dearly, lay before him and the God he had served so
faithfully was commanding him to slaughter the boy like a lamb.
Often times I think we allow our familiarity with this story to stop us from feeling its full impact. So imagine for a moment that you are in Abraham's shoes. Imagine, with heavy heart, closing your eyes and wiping his palms on your side. You open your eyes again and there in front of you lays your son. Your child. Tied down, looking up at you. You take a deep breath, raise your shaky hands high above your head, your hands which could not possibly be holding the knife any tighter...and then God intervenes.
Perhaps it is a difficult scenario to internalize. For those of us who don't have children we struggle to understand what Abraham must have felt, and so we seem all the more distant from this tale. But the significance of what happens next is far greater. Abraham, is interrupted by an angel sent by God. Here is what happened:
Often times I think we allow our familiarity with this story to stop us from feeling its full impact. So imagine for a moment that you are in Abraham's shoes. Imagine, with heavy heart, closing your eyes and wiping his palms on your side. You open your eyes again and there in front of you lays your son. Your child. Tied down, looking up at you. You take a deep breath, raise your shaky hands high above your head, your hands which could not possibly be holding the knife any tighter...and then God intervenes.
Perhaps it is a difficult scenario to internalize. For those of us who don't have children we struggle to understand what Abraham must have felt, and so we seem all the more distant from this tale. But the significance of what happens next is far greater. Abraham, is interrupted by an angel sent by God. Here is what happened:
“Here I am,” he replied.
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you
have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
“Abraham
looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over
and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So
Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said ‘on
the mountain of the Lord it will be provided’” (v. 11-14)
A test. It
was just a test. God comes through in the end and we can all rest easy. But
there is something else. An interesting piece of context here that I failed to
recognize time and time again growing up. Abraham, after sacrificing the ram,
named the place “The Lord Will Provide”. Why didn’t he call it “The Lord
Provided”, or even “The Lord Provides”? Instead the language here speaks of an
event that is yet to come. A small but important detail.
Let’s
adjust perspectives here and look at the events that just unfolded from a
different point of view: Isaac’s. An only child, Isaac went with his father to
make a sacrifice to God. He climbs the mountain beside him carrying the
wood on which, unbeknownst to him, he would soon be sacrificed. At some point,
however, we have to assume Isaac discovered the truth. Whether Abraham
explained during the journey, or he just pieced it together as the day
unfolded, he would eventually come to know that he is to be the sacrifice. This
is significant because he was not a toddler or a small child. Isaac, while
young, was still fully capable of putting up a real fight in order to save his
own life. Yet there is no record of Isaac having fought, argued, tried to
escape, complained, or even having said so much as a single word in protest. His
life was going to come to an end at the hands of his father.
And so
Isaac, his father’s only son, carries up a mountain the wood on which he would
ultimately die, and submits to his fathers will by becoming a sacrifice. Sound
familiar?
Part of me has always wondered whether Abraham, in trying to sacrifice his son,
really failed his test. What if God was really asking him “what kind of god do
you think I am?” and Abraham, in his actions, responded “the same as all the
others”. But that speculation is not clear, and neither is it important, so for
now I digress.
What is
very clear, on the other hand, is that God was revealing himself in the moment
to Abraham (and one can only imagine to Isaac as well), and through scripture
to us. His message is this: I am different. God is making a clear statement
that whatever all those other false gods are, He is not. Our God, the only God,
the one who yearns to restore his creation in order to share in His perfect
love, that God would never force Abraham to carry through with this. He would
never force anyone to give up their son, their beloved son, as a sacrifice for
His own sake…
…but that is EXACTLY what He will do for us. Recall now what
it was that Abraham called the place where he built the altar. “The Lord Will
Provide”. And provide he did, in that very place. Many, many years later,
outside of the city of Jerusalem, which was built in that same region of
Moriah, we find a humbled servant ascending to the place where he will be
killed on the very piece of wood he carries on his back. Loved dearly by his
father, Jesus Christ would willingly be offered up as a sacrifice for all of
us.
Application
I hope the beauty will strike
you the way it did me. That the lightbulb would click on and the radiance of
God’s glory would fill your heart with joy. The story of Abraham and Isaac was
one of the most difficult pieces of scripture I’ve ever had to wrestle with,
and has since become one of the most important pieces of scripture that I cling
to. It has taught me more about my God, my Savior, and how to approach His
truth in scripture. I pray it does the same for you. I pray that you would come
to know God more deeply, and that “the exact representation of His being” would
be constantly on the forefront of your mind, remembering that scripture is
Christocentric because, when all is said and done, Jesus Christ is the point.