[This was first posted August 7, 2012; the updated commentary here is from the Sinaite’s perspective.—Admin1.]
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What else could we possibly add to everything that has already been written about the test of Abraham’s faith except to focus, for a change, on the would-be-sacrificed promised heir? And specifically the ordeal he might have gone through?
Isaac/Yitzak is not to be considered a “sacrificial lamb” (‘human sacrifice’ he might have become, but lamb, he definitely was not). No ifs and buts about it, he was to be offered as an actual human sacrifice.
What??? Isn’t human sacrifice an abomination to the God of the TNK!? So why does He require it from the first of Israel’s Patriarchs from whom would issue a special line of people yet to be formed into the nation of Israel? Why nip the bud in the 2nd generation? Precisely . . . surely Abraham must have thought the same.
Already, many questions crop up, for starters:
- What was the purpose of ‘offering’ a ‘firstborn’?
- Isaac is the first of the 2nd generation that was supposed to perpetuate the chosen line.
- Was Abraham sooooooo certain it was only a test and therefore goes through the motions just to show his faith in this God who is now requiring him to give up a promised son?
- Did Sarah know about this at all and what could she have thought as the only unfertile woman in her old age, in her generation, in her culture, who miraculously gave birth to a son; was her faith in Abraham’s God as strong and logical as husband’s?
- And what about Isaac, what was he thinking all the while, for according to the text, he did not know until . . .well . . .until he was being placed on the altar as THE sacrifice?
Let us remember that at this time the Torah had not yet been given and no Tabernacle existed where ‘offerings’ were required for different reasons (read Leviticus and Numbers for details). So what would have been the purpose this early? The pagan cultures were all into ‘sacrifices’ and particularly the sacrifice of innocent babies and virgins to appease their gods. The God of Israel hated all of these ignorant offerings and that is why He would straighten it all out in the Torah at the proper time with the chosen custodians of His detailed instructions, if only to both accommodate their tendency for offering but regulate it and eventually redirect it when the Temple itself would be taken out of Jerusalem.
But before we lose the focus on the specific topic here — let’s go back to the timing of the required ‘human offering’ of Isaac—
- pre-Sinai Revelation
- and pre-Torah
- and pre-Sanctuary and pre-Levitical priesthood times.
Picture Isaac, not a small innocent child as usually depicted, but according to accepted chronology, he was already 37 years old at this time.
Genesis/Bereshith 22
[Translation is Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses]
Image from biblestudynpt.wordpress.com
Here I am.
2 He said:
Pray take your son, your only-one, whom you love, Yitzhak, and go-you-forth to the land of Moriyya/Seeing, and offer him up there as an offering-up upon one of the mountains that I will tell you of.3 Avraham started-early in the morning,
he saddled his donkey, he took his two serving-lads with him and Yitzhak his son, he split wood for the offering-up and arose and went to the place that God had told him of. 4 On the third day Avraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.5 Avraham said to his lads:
You stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad wish to go yonder,we wish to bow down and then return to you.
6 Avraham took the wood for the offering-up,
he placed them upon Yitzhak his son, in his hand he took the fire and the knife. Thus the two of them went together.
The wording here is “offering-up” while the Artscroll [AS] merely says “offering.”
For now, without consulting outside sources except the text, the very word used and the place Abraham was directed to go for the offering tells us it’s up on a mountain in the region of Moriah.
Later on throughout the TNK, God speaks in anger about His people seeking other gods and sacrificing on elevated areas so the practice of going up to mountain tops must have been common. But there must be more to the word use of “elevation” than the simple height of an actual mountain. In Abraham’s case, he is now being required to offer to YHWH: Pray take your son, your only-one, whom you love . . . think about it, that is indeed an ‘elevated’ offering to the utmost, the supreme sacrifice to be asked of any father.
As for Isaac, to be worthy of being elevated as an offering must mean that Isaac was spiritually fit, uncorrupted, a ‘clean’ offering at age 37; credit him and his parents for that. . . unless that was not a requirement and we are reading back into the text something that is not even hinted at. We do have to shed our ‘Christian baggage’ when we go back to the Hebrew Scriptures with fresh reading lenses and a clean ‘slate and state’ of mind.
We would expect that Abraham who bargained for mercy upon the righteous in Sodom to likewise bargain for Isaac’s life, but strangely he does not, he simply obeys. Hint, hint!
To echo Job’s words, “the Lord giveth. . . . “
Some commentaries point out that this is because Abraham had heard the promises enough and he knew his God enough at this point to just trust and obey.
Easy for him to figure that out, but what about poor Isaac?
7 Yitzhak said to Avraham his father, he said: Father! He said: Here I am, my son. He said:Here are the fire and the wood,
but where is the lamb for the offering-up?8 Avraham said:
God will see-for-himself to the lamb for the offering-up, my son. Thus the two of them went together.9 They came to the place that God had told him of;
there Avraham built the slaughter-site and arranged the wood and bound Yitzhak his son and placed him on the slaughter-site atop the wood.
Whoa! Isaac thinks, Isaac asks, Isaac allows himself to be bound and lain on the altar . . . a young man watching his 137+old father do all this? By the time Abraham takes hold of a knife, Isaac has figured out what’s going on, but where is his instinctive sense of self-preservation?
Isaac is a second generation receiver of Abraham’s promises from their family’s God; presumably his faith is not built up to the level of the faith of his father; isn’t he being too acquiescent here?
If there’s a real hero in this scenario, wouldn’t we agree it’s Isaac? And yet Abraham always gets the acclamation just because he passed the ‘trust test’.
10 And Avraham stretched out his hand, he took the knife to slay his son.11 But YHVH’S messenger called to him from heaven
and said: Avraham! Avraham! He said:Here I am.
12 He said:
Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, do not do anything to him! For now I know that you are in awe of God— you have not withheld your son, your only-one, from me.13 Avraham lifted up his eyes and saw:
here, a ram was caught behind in the thicket by its horns! Avraham went, he took the ram and offered it up as an offering-up in place of his son.14 Avraham called the name of that place: YHVH Sees.
As the saying is today: On YHVH’S mountain (it) is seen.
For more background on the name ‘YHWH Yireh’, please check outwww.myredeemerlives.com/namesofgod/yhwh-jireh.html where ‘yireh‘ is further explained as ‘forsee’ . . . The Lord sees, the Lord provides, the Lord will provide.
Abraham has experienced enough in his faith journey and knows the God who speaks to him constantly, so that he is expected to pass such an extreme test . . . okay, but what about Isaac? How could he have been prepared for this? Not even Abraham anticipated such an unusual divine command. . . unless Abraham knew all along that YHWH hates human sacrifice and there is just no way He would be pleased with the offering of Isaac. Did he assure Isaac there is nothing to be afraid of? The text does not indicate so.
All throughout TNK it is reiterated how YHWH hates the way of the nations sacrificing their children and virgin daughters to their gods. We readers know that, and even without any explicit text proving it, Abraham must have been primed of it as the father of many nations and the progenitor of 2 more patriarchs from whom Israel will descend.
15 Now YHVH’S messenger called to Avraham a second time from heaven16 and said:
By myself I swear —YHVH’S utterance— indeed, because you have done this thing, have not withheld your son, your only-one,17 indeed, I will bless you, bless you,
I will make your seed many, yes, many, like the stars of the heavens and like the sand that is on the shore of the sea; your seed shall inherit the gate of their enemies,18 all the nations of the earth shall enjoy blessing through your seed, in consequence of your hearkening to my voice.
A note from Artscroll Tanach:
“God did not say, ‘Slaughter him,’ because He did not intend for Isaac to be slaughtered, but only that he be brought up to the mountain and be prepared as an offering.
Whew! But who knew?
Mount Moriah is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
19 Avraham returned to his lads, they arose and went together to Be’er-Sheva. And Avraham stayed in Be-ersheva.Now here comes the abrupt no-big-deal transition from this excruciating account to what happens next: Vs. 20, the last verse in this chapter appears anti-climactic, like —’ OK, life’s back to normal’, there’s news about Abraham’s brother Nachor and Milkah, and their genealogy is given.
We must remember that the original writings were not divided in chapters nor numbered in verses; “The person credited with dividing the Bible into chapters is Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1207-1228. While Langton’s isn’t the only organizational scheme that was devised, it is his chapter breakdown that has survived.”
The worse part is, often as you will notice, the chapter divisions are even badly organized!
For more details, check out http://www.biblegateway.com/blog/2010/10/bible-trivia-where-did-chapter-and-verse-numbers-come-from/.
20 Now after these events it was, that it was told to Avraham, saying: Here, Milca too has borne, sons to Nahor your brother:
21 Utz his firstborn and Buz his brother, Kemuel father of
22 Aram, /and Cesed, Hazo, Pildash, Yidlaf, and Betuel.
23 Now Betuel begot Rivka.—
These eight Milca bore to Nahor, Avraham’s brother.24 And his concubine-her name was Re’uma-bore too: Tevah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maakha.
That’s it???
Yup, that’s about it!
NSB@S6K
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