†. Gen 22:1a . . Some time afterward, God put Abraham to the test.
This particular section of Scripture deals with an ancient incident known in
sacred Jewish literature as The Akedah (the binding of Isaac). The Akedah
portrays the very first human sacrifice ever performed in the Bible by
someone who is extremely important to the people of Israel.
Testing by engineers is often done to see if their inventions will perform the
tasks for which they were designed. However, I don't really think this
particular test was for God's sake; but for rather for Abraham's. We
believers all tend to think of ourselves as people of faith; but it really isn't till
our faith is put the test that we may be confident our self-evaluation is valid.
†. 1Pet 1:6-7 . . Now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through
manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith-- being much more precious
than of gold that perishes --though it be tried with fire, might be found unto
praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
When the up-coming test is over; Abraham will have gained God's own
personal testimony, as an expert witness in all aspects of faith, that
Abraham really is a man of God after all.
†. Jas 2:21-24 . .Was not Abraham our father vindicated by actions when he
offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working
together with his actions, and by actions faith was made complete? And the
Scripture was fulfilled which says; "Abraham believed God, and it was
accounted to him for righteousness. And he was called the friend of God".
You see then that a man is validated by actions, and not by faith only.
†. Gen 22:1b-2a . . He said to him: Abraham. And he answered: Here
I am. And He said: Take your son, your favored one, Isaac, whom
you love,
The Hebrew word for "favored one" is yachiyd (yaw-kheed') which means
sole. So then, Isaac wasn't just Abraham's favored son; he was also
Abraham's only son because when the old gentleman emancipated Ishmael's
mom Hagar, he automatically gave up his right to legal kinship with her
children. Abraham is still Ishmael's biological father, but on the books,
Abraham is no longer Ishmael's legal dad.
Isaac was about three to five years old when Hagar and Ishmael moved out.
Some time has gone by; and in this chapter, Isaac is now old enough to
shoulder a load of wood, and to ask an intelligent question based on
experience and observation. If Sarah's reported age at death-- 127 years -
which follows in the record after this incident, can be used, then Isaac was
37 years of age at the time of the Adedah since he was born when Sarah
was 90 (Gen 17:17). Thirty-seven is, of course, an educated guess, because
there's no way to determine the precise chronology of Gen 23:1-2.
Why did God say: whom you love? I think it's so we'd know how Abraham
felt about Isaac. There can be no doubt that he would sorely miss this boy if
ever something should happen to him.
When people truly love their kids, they will die protecting them. They'll quite
literally run into a burning building if need be and/or step in front of a bus.
Normal parents are very protective like that when they truly love their kids.
People who love their kids don't drown them to please a boy friend, don't
leave them unattended in the car and go inside a bar for a drink; don't let
them go off with strangers, and don't let them go to the mall or to the
playground all by themselves when they're little.
†. Gen 22:2b . . and go to the land of Moriah,
The word for "Moriah" is from Mowriyah (mo-ree-yaw') and/or Moriyah (mo
ree-yaw') which means: seen of Jah.
There are only two places in the entire Old Testament where the word
Moriah appears. One is here in Genesis and the other in 2Chrn 3:1.
According to tradition, Genesis' land of Moriah is the same as 2Chronicles'
mount Moriah-- the site of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem --which is
bordered by the world famous Wailing Wall. Some justification for the
tradition is found in verse 14, where Abraham named the location Adonai
yireh, from which came the expression; "On the mount of the Lord there is
vision". However, Jerusalem's temple site isn't a three day trek on foot from
Beer-sheba; nor would it have been necessary for Abraham to pack in his
own wood since Jerusalem's locale was well-forested in his day. In reality;
the precise geographic location of the land of Moriah remains to this day a
total mystery.
†. Gen 22:2c . . and offer him there as a burnt offering
Abraham's silence on this matter is puzzling because he's not above
challenging God when he thinks The Almighty might be in the wrong; e.g. he
stood up to God in the matter of Sodom back in chapter 18. God is ordering
Abraham to offer his son as a burnt offering. That means he will have to slit
Isaac's throat and then burn his body to ashes. Why isn't Abraham recoiling
and getting in God's face about this with a vehement protest? Would you kill
one of your children in a religious ritual? I seriously doubt it; that is unless
maybe you were glad to be rid of them.
The inference is quite obvious. Abraham didn't believe it wrong to sacrifice a
human being. In other words: for Abraham, human sacrifice was a non-issue
or he would have surely objected to it. On top of that, this couldn't be done
without Isaac's consent or it would become a ritual murder.
What God ordered Abraham to do is totally illegal under the terms and
conditions of Moses' covenanted law. However, since Biblical law doesn't
have ex post facto jurisdiction (Rom 4:15, Gal 3:17) then human offerings
were not yet illegal for Yhvh's people in Abraham's day.
Though God normally frowns upon sacrificing one's underage children-- e.g.
Lev 18:21, Lev 20:2-5, Deut 12:31, Deut 18:10, cf. 2Kgs 16:3, 2Kgs 17:31,
2Kgs 23:10, 2Kgs 21:6, Ps 106:34, Ezk 20:31, Ezk 23:37, Jer 7:31, Jer 19:4,
Jer 32:35 --to my knowledge He has never frowned upon sacrificing
consenting adults. Really the primary reason adult human sacrifices are
illegal under the terms and conditions of Moses' covenanted law is simply
because they aren't stipulated; and it's illegal to amend the Law to include
them. (Deut 4:2, Deut 5:29-30)
Cont.
/
This particular section of Scripture deals with an ancient incident known in
sacred Jewish literature as The Akedah (the binding of Isaac). The Akedah
portrays the very first human sacrifice ever performed in the Bible by
someone who is extremely important to the people of Israel.
Testing by engineers is often done to see if their inventions will perform the
tasks for which they were designed. However, I don't really think this
particular test was for God's sake; but for rather for Abraham's. We
believers all tend to think of ourselves as people of faith; but it really isn't till
our faith is put the test that we may be confident our self-evaluation is valid.
†. 1Pet 1:6-7 . . Now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through
manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith-- being much more precious
than of gold that perishes --though it be tried with fire, might be found unto
praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
When the up-coming test is over; Abraham will have gained God's own
personal testimony, as an expert witness in all aspects of faith, that
Abraham really is a man of God after all.
†. Jas 2:21-24 . .Was not Abraham our father vindicated by actions when he
offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working
together with his actions, and by actions faith was made complete? And the
Scripture was fulfilled which says; "Abraham believed God, and it was
accounted to him for righteousness. And he was called the friend of God".
You see then that a man is validated by actions, and not by faith only.
†. Gen 22:1b-2a . . He said to him: Abraham. And he answered: Here
I am. And He said: Take your son, your favored one, Isaac, whom
you love,
The Hebrew word for "favored one" is yachiyd (yaw-kheed') which means
sole. So then, Isaac wasn't just Abraham's favored son; he was also
Abraham's only son because when the old gentleman emancipated Ishmael's
mom Hagar, he automatically gave up his right to legal kinship with her
children. Abraham is still Ishmael's biological father, but on the books,
Abraham is no longer Ishmael's legal dad.
Isaac was about three to five years old when Hagar and Ishmael moved out.
Some time has gone by; and in this chapter, Isaac is now old enough to
shoulder a load of wood, and to ask an intelligent question based on
experience and observation. If Sarah's reported age at death-- 127 years -
which follows in the record after this incident, can be used, then Isaac was
37 years of age at the time of the Adedah since he was born when Sarah
was 90 (Gen 17:17). Thirty-seven is, of course, an educated guess, because
there's no way to determine the precise chronology of Gen 23:1-2.
Why did God say: whom you love? I think it's so we'd know how Abraham
felt about Isaac. There can be no doubt that he would sorely miss this boy if
ever something should happen to him.
When people truly love their kids, they will die protecting them. They'll quite
literally run into a burning building if need be and/or step in front of a bus.
Normal parents are very protective like that when they truly love their kids.
People who love their kids don't drown them to please a boy friend, don't
leave them unattended in the car and go inside a bar for a drink; don't let
them go off with strangers, and don't let them go to the mall or to the
playground all by themselves when they're little.
†. Gen 22:2b . . and go to the land of Moriah,
The word for "Moriah" is from Mowriyah (mo-ree-yaw') and/or Moriyah (mo
ree-yaw') which means: seen of Jah.
There are only two places in the entire Old Testament where the word
Moriah appears. One is here in Genesis and the other in 2Chrn 3:1.
According to tradition, Genesis' land of Moriah is the same as 2Chronicles'
mount Moriah-- the site of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem --which is
bordered by the world famous Wailing Wall. Some justification for the
tradition is found in verse 14, where Abraham named the location Adonai
yireh, from which came the expression; "On the mount of the Lord there is
vision". However, Jerusalem's temple site isn't a three day trek on foot from
Beer-sheba; nor would it have been necessary for Abraham to pack in his
own wood since Jerusalem's locale was well-forested in his day. In reality;
the precise geographic location of the land of Moriah remains to this day a
total mystery.
†. Gen 22:2c . . and offer him there as a burnt offering
Abraham's silence on this matter is puzzling because he's not above
challenging God when he thinks The Almighty might be in the wrong; e.g. he
stood up to God in the matter of Sodom back in chapter 18. God is ordering
Abraham to offer his son as a burnt offering. That means he will have to slit
Isaac's throat and then burn his body to ashes. Why isn't Abraham recoiling
and getting in God's face about this with a vehement protest? Would you kill
one of your children in a religious ritual? I seriously doubt it; that is unless
maybe you were glad to be rid of them.
The inference is quite obvious. Abraham didn't believe it wrong to sacrifice a
human being. In other words: for Abraham, human sacrifice was a non-issue
or he would have surely objected to it. On top of that, this couldn't be done
without Isaac's consent or it would become a ritual murder.
What God ordered Abraham to do is totally illegal under the terms and
conditions of Moses' covenanted law. However, since Biblical law doesn't
have ex post facto jurisdiction (Rom 4:15, Gal 3:17) then human offerings
were not yet illegal for Yhvh's people in Abraham's day.
Though God normally frowns upon sacrificing one's underage children-- e.g.
Lev 18:21, Lev 20:2-5, Deut 12:31, Deut 18:10, cf. 2Kgs 16:3, 2Kgs 17:31,
2Kgs 23:10, 2Kgs 21:6, Ps 106:34, Ezk 20:31, Ezk 23:37, Jer 7:31, Jer 19:4,
Jer 32:35 --to my knowledge He has never frowned upon sacrificing
consenting adults. Really the primary reason adult human sacrifices are
illegal under the terms and conditions of Moses' covenanted law is simply
because they aren't stipulated; and it's illegal to amend the Law to include
them. (Deut 4:2, Deut 5:29-30)
Cont.
/
