Bible reading: Genesis 22:1-14.

Message.

There are a number of Bible stories which, when one starts to think about them seriously, are deeply unpleasant. Just last week Ruth told us that Junior Church had been learning about Cain and Abel – a story which ends with murder. That tale still gets told to children, but there are others which we might shy away from these days (although I certainly heard them when I was quite young). So we have David not only sleeping with Bathsheba but getting her soldier husband moved so that he will face a certain death, and we have Jael killing Sisera by hammering a tent-peg through his eye socket. We’re also picky about other stories: we love to hear about Moses crossing the Red Sea but seem unconcerned at the death of many Egyptians, we enjoy hearing of the animals going into Noah’s Ark but we’re not so keen to think of the hapless people who were drowned; we rejoice in Elijah’s victory over the pagan prophets on Mount Carmel but forget that he then killed all 450 of them. I could go on, but you’ll see what I’m getting at.

Today’s story of Abraham and Isaac must surely fall into that category of “familiar but difficult”. Most of us probably know it very well; some of us might have no trouble in accepting as “one of those things which they did in the olden days” while others might find it deeply troubling. One writer I looked up while preparing this message calls it “a nasty little tale” and has vowed never to preach on it again; another writes, “The idea that God would test a man by asking him to sacrifice his son is utterly distasteful. It is a horrific tale so far beyond comprehension that at face value it can cause a person to ask, ‘Is this really the kind of God I want to be associated with?’ A God who asks for infanticide!’” We’d probably agree with him although a Jewish writer declares this story to be “one of the richest in all human literature: an endless source for interpretation in commentary, in literature, and in art”.

Well, whatever we think of it, this is a story that we can’t ignore as it is so important and central to both Jews and Christians. The Jewish community saw (and still sees) Abraham as its father-figure; while the Christian authors of the New Testament make frequent references to him. He is no minor character in the saga, and this incident which we might regard as bizarre and cruel is seen as crucial. Indeed, directly after Abraham comes down from the mountain God speaks to him – in fact it’s the last time he does so. And what does he say? “I make a vow … that I will richly bless you. Because you did this and did not keep back your only son from me, I promise that I will give you as many descendants as there are stars in the sky or grains of sand on the seashore. They will conquer their enemies. All the nations will ask me to bless them as I have blessed your descendants –because you obeyed my command.” God could hardly have spoken more clearly!

So let’s look at the story. And the very first verse tells us that “God tested Abraham”. You might well say, “Yes, we know that; you don’t need to tell us” – especially if you’ve heard the story before. However we need to remember that we and the author are looking back at the story, so those few words tell us, “Don’t worry, things will turn out OK in the end”. We are to a degree being told in advance that the story won’t have a tragic ending. But Abraham had no such advantage: he had to hear what God was saying with no idea of how things would pan out. And what he heard was utterly appalling: that he had to take his son Isaac on a journey, one which would end up with Isaac being offered as a sacrifice on a mountain that God would show him.

Now we are dealing with a very early story in the Bible’s timeline; and we know that human sacrifice was (and would keep on being) practised in the area. We also know – as the Bible writers could not – that such sacrifices would continue well into the Christian era in places such as Mexico and Peru. But it was never part of Jewish ritual; and it is truly horrifying to even think of. God’s horrendous demand must have left Abraham shocked to the core – after all, even God acknowledged that Isaac, this son miraculously given to Sarah and Abraham in their old age – was deeply loved. It must have also left him perplexed and puzzled: for hadn’t God said that Abraham would be the father of a great nation, wasn’t that why Isaac had been born? But how could that nation come to exist if Abraham’s only legitimate scene was to be murdered? It made no sense at all.

I won’t go into the details of the story as you all know what happened; how, just as Abraham is about to plunge his knife into Isaac’s heart God cries, “Stop! Don’t do it!!”; and how Abraham sees a ram caught in a bush which he is told to sacrifice instead. With a sigh of relief (that’s an understatement) he then names the place “The Lord will provide”.

There are lots of questions we could ask about this story; I’m only going to ask two or three. The first is simply to wonder why Abraham didn’t argue with God when he was told to do this terrible deed? After all, he’d had a vigorous debate with God (so we are told) when God said he would destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah; there were also his protestations of disbelief when God said that Sarah, even in her old age, would bear a son. But in this story he is meek, submissive and silent, and we have to ask what this means. Was he so full of trust in God that he believed God would in fact provide an escape route from carrying out the murder? Or was he so terrified of God that he didn’t dare question his horrific command? We can only guess at the answer – but his reluctance to question God seems strange. It is certainly a very different attitude to his other encounters, and it is the total opposite of the questioning and even complaining we find in the Psalms. All I’d want to say to you is: yes, it’s OK to argue with God!

The second question we could ask is: did God change his mind? Did he actually want Abraham to sacrifice his son, but relented when he saw Abraham’s willingness to obey? Or was his intention all along simply to test Abraham – which is what the author of Genesis implies? Again, that’s a question we can’t answer. We know that God later in the Bible says, “I want your constant love, not your sacrifices. I would rather have my people know me than burn offerings to me” but today’s story comes from a time when Israel’s understanding of God was far more primitive. After all, many religions over the years have believed that God can be persuaded by making the right offerings.

Those two questions lead me on to another, one which is horribly pertinent to life today: should be accuse Abraham and God of child abuse? For, although Abraham did not in the end kill his son, he lied to him and caused him unimaginable psychological trauma; we might wonder if Isaac ever trusted his father again. The writer who called this story “a nasty little bit of a tale” has no doubts about this; nor has the atheist writer Richard Dawkins who wrote, “this disgraceful story is an example simultaneously of child abuse, bullying in two asymmetrical power relationships, and the first recorded use of the Nuremberg defence: ‘I was only obeying orders’. Yet it is one of the great foundational myths of all three monotheistic religions” – by which he means Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Now, it’s true to say that Dawkins simply criticises the tale rather than attempting to interpret it. But he is surely right to question it: it is truly shocking. Good parents love and nurture their children, they don’t kill them and claim that God told them to do it. That is deranged and barbaric.     

So far we’ve been stuck in the Old Testament. We might think that this story from the distant mists of history has little to do with us. But that’s not the case, for some of the questions we’ve been asking could equally be applied to Jesus. We blithely say (and love) the verse, “God so loved the world that he gave his only son” without thinking much about what it means. Equally we can quote Bible verses which say that God “did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all”. We must therefore ask if the whole salvation story, the bedrock of Christianity, is in fact one of “cosmic child abuse”. Our friend who so dislikes the story of Abraham and Isaac thinks that it is and says, “If Jesus really did ‘die for my sins’, as the familiar phrase has it, then God has some mighty explaining to do about just why his only child also stumbled up a mountain to be tortured on a Roman cross while his Father, all too much like Abraham, seemed a willing participant in the murder”.

Of course Jesus could have refused to be a victim while Isaac could not; the thrust of the Gospels is that he always desired to do his Father’s will and made a conscious decision to go to the Cross. Nevertheless there are striking parallels between the stories of Mount Moriah and Calvary, parallels which we should not ignore. The big difference is, of course, that Jesus died, Isaac did not. But both fathers, human and divine, had their hearts of love torn asunder. As a hymn we sang last week says, “How great the pain of searing loss, the Father turns his face away as wounds which mar the Chosen One bring many sons to glory”. Let’s not forget the Father’s pain in giving us salvation.

This has been a difficult, distasteful, even depressing message, both you to hear and for me to prepare – although I hope it’s made you think. But I want to finish on a more positive note. I’ve already said that, immediately after our gruesome tale, God gives Abraham the good news about the way he will bless all his descendants. His obedience and trust have reaped a reward which will spill out into the world and have eternal consequences. And the same is true of Jesus: “He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death; his death on the cross. For this reason God raised him to the highest place above and gave him the name that is greater than any other name. So, in honour of the name of Jesus all beings in heaven, on earth, and in the world below will fall on their knees, and will openly proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord”. Obedience has consequences.

I don’t know what you will take away from this message. Will it be horror and disgust, thoughtfulness and reflection, questioning or thanksgiving. It may even have changed your personal picture of God, perhaps for better, perhaps for worse. But, quite apart from Abraham, it cost God to offer up his Son Jesus – which he did, freely, out of love for the human race.