Lamb to the slaughter

Genesis 22. In which God tests Abraham. Abraham is told:

… take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering.

We are made fully aware that Isaac is Abraham’s only son and heir, and hence of the magnitude of the act required from him. (Although we are also aware that Abraham has by now been promised that he will give rise to a great nation multiple times …) Abraham obediently and unquestioningly sets off. Along the way Isaac wonders where the lamb they will sacrifice is, and Abraham tells him that God will provide. Of course this poignant interchange is ironic, since Isaac was an unexpected gift from God himself.

Once they arrive at the appointed place Abraham binds Isaac, and takes out his knife to kill him. The angel of the Lord appears and orders Abraham to desist. Abraham passes the test: “now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me”, God informs him. And God does provide – Abraham looks up and beholds a ram caught in a thicket (as Hagar looked up in the desert and saw the life-saving water), and sacrifices the animal in his son’s stead. Once again, in an interpolation from the E text the Notes say, Abraham is promised that his offspring will be as multitudinous as the stars and grains of sand.

The story illustrates Abraham’s complete trust in God, and his complete loyalty. Each time God calls on him in this chapter his answer is a simple “here I am” – ready and willing to do whatever God commands. (Compare his haggling with God over the destruction of Sodom.)The Notes say that “the practice of child sacrifice is known from the West Semitic world, usually only in times of crisis”. So it would not have been unheard of. Of course, in this case, the God in question stops the sacrifice, thereby distinguishing himself from the others.

The chapter ends with the offspring of Abraham’s brother Nahor and his wife Milcah. The daughter of Nahor’s son, Bethuel, is Rebekah, who will become the wife of Isaac.

Notes

• The “traditional Jewish designation of [the] near-sacrifice [is] Aqedah, or Binding of Isaac”. (Notes)
• The Muslims believe the one Abraham almost sacrificed was Ishmael.

See also the Wikipedia Binding of Isaac entry.

Image: The Sacrifice of Isaac, by Giovan Battista Tiepolo (1696 – 1770)

~ by tamfuwing on June 24, 2008.