July 2, 2023 Sermon
Sermon title: "The Lord Will Provide"
Scripture: Genesis 22:1-14
(Other lectionary suggestions include Psalm 13, Romans 6:12-23, and Matthew 10:40-42.)
Genesis 22:1-14
The Command to Sacrifice Isaac
1After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 2He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you." 3So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. 4On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. 5Then Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you." 6Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. 7Isaac said to his father Abraham, "Father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." He said, "The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" 8Abraham said, "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together. 9When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. 11But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 12He said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." 13And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14So Abraham called that place "The Lord will provide"; as it is said to this day, "On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided."
Today's sermon was a hard one to write - and yet the issue presented is at the center of our faith. We are told that God "tested" Abraham, and that test involved whether Abraham would be willing to sacrifice his only son - the one through whom God would make Abraham "the father of a multitude".
Before we tackle that issue, we have another to address, and that is the problem of human sacrifice. Up until this story in the Hebrew Bible, many cultures, including the Hebrews, practiced human sacrifice, including the slaying of the first-born. It was an attempt to appease the gods, and the fact that this story is in our Bible is an acknowledgement that the practice existed, even among the Hebrews. The fact that Isaac was NOT sacrificed - even at the last possible moment - means that God did not want the practice to continue, certainly not by his own Chosen People.
In the past two sermons I have quoted from Dennis Prager, who has written a commentary on Genesis. I do so again today. He starts out by saying the Hebrew rendition of this story is AKEDAT YITZCHAK, which means "the binding of Isaac", NOT "the sacrifice of Isaac". Prager calls this a "misnomer", because "God soon makes it clear that He never wants human beings to be sacrificed." So, the story might be called the Sacrifice of Isaac, but it never happens! Isaac was spared at the end. Still, in MY view, it was close!
When God calls Abraham, and Abraham says, "Here am I", it's the equivalent of saying, "Yes, sir! What may I do for you today?" And why does God keep saying your ONLY son or your favorite son whom you love? Why doesn't he just say, "Isaac"? Prager says God uses these words to make it all the more difficult for Abraham to obey! Also, why does God tell Abraham to leave his present surroundings and go to another land? Probably because God wanted to make his request of Abraham all that more compelling.
Do you wonder why Abraham got up so early? Maybe he couldn't sleep. Also, maybe he wanted to be up and off before Sarah was up and knew what was happening! And there may have been a simpler reason: "In the ancient world, one who sets out on a long journey leaves at the break of dawn. Leaving later than that is a waste of daylight."
One of the issues here is that Abraham is being forced to choose between God's promises to him (Isaac would be his son through whom Abraham's line would continue) and God's demands of him. Think of the quandary Abraham must have been in as he and Isaac traveled to the place where God was leading him! Was he thinking, "How can God do this to me? I mean, he PROMISED that I would be the father of a multitude. How can I be if I kill my son before he is even married or has kids?" What was Abraham thinking? The point of the story is that he obeyed God, while putting God's promises on the back burner. Wow! Do you and I have such a faith, such a trust in God? As the story shows us, Abraham did.
When God told Abraham earlier that he was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham intervened, because he couldn't believe God would kill innocent people. Here, though, Abraham says nothing. Why? Prager says that "the command to sacrifice his son probably did not strike Abraham as unjust....because in the ancient world, child sacrifice was universally considered acceptable.....and because children were regarded as possessions of parents. So, Abraham understandably may not have perceived the command to sacrifice Isaac as morally wrong but rather as a command from the God he believed in." As I suggested earlier, Abraham must have wondered, "How could the commandment to sacrifice Isaac be reconciled with God's promise of a future nation emanating from Isaac? In not fully understanding God's ways, Abraham represented every believer who came after him." And Prager continues: "The ultimate reason Abraham did not argue with God is most likely this: His argument with God over destroying Sodom convinced him God is just and God knows what is best. Thus, after Sodom, Abraham never again argued with God."
Prager has an interesting insight. He says that part of the test of Abraham is to see if Abraham is willing to do what all other human beings were willing to do for their false gods, and that is child sacrifice. Maybe what God is saying is, "Everybody else does it, Abraham, and those gods don't exist. Are you willing to do this for me, the only real God?" And Prager argues that the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, is the ONLY book to argue against child sacrifice. For Prager, "the ultimate message of this story is that human sacrifice is morally unacceptable to God. The good God introduced to the world by the Torah abhors child sacrifice."
Not that we need any more reminding of what is to take place, but the Hebrew word used for "knife" literally means "feeder". It is a slaughtering knife, and it "feeds" people. Says Prager, the passage "underscores the reality of what is about to take place."
Isaac is probably in his early teens. He's big enough to carry the wood, and he seems to be old enough to understand what a sacrifice is.
Did you notice how Abraham "spoke gently and affectionately to Isaac"? This was because he wanted Isaac to know how much he loved him, in spite of what was about to happen. Abraham had to think that these would be their final moments together.
Did you notice how passive Isaac is? He does not resist his father. So, if Abraham gets credit for his obedience to God, we have to credit Isaac, too, for his obedience to his father. I am reminded of one of the Ten Commandments, which come later on in the book of Exodus: "Honor Thy father and Thy mother." Isaac doesn't protest, nor does he try to run away.
One more thing: the Hebrew verb for "slaughter" is the same one the Torah uses to refer to slaughtering animals for meat. Says Prager, "The Torah's language is literal and explicit so as to impress upon the reader the terrible reality of what human sacrifice is really about: slaughter."
A word about Dennis Prager from my own observation.......he's a conservative Jew ;and he tends to feel a little bit too much pride about the Torah, in my opinion. That may not be a bad thing, and maybe even is a good thing. But listen to what he says about the verse that says, "Do not raise your hand against the boy, or do anything to him." Says Prager: "Now we reach the ultimate message of this story: human sacrifice is morally unacceptable to God. The good God introduced to the world by the Torah abhors child sacrifice. This was another unique Torah contribution to human moral development. God had no interest in the sacrifice of Isaac - and has no interest in the sacrifice of any other human being. God had two interests here: to see if Abraham would pass the ultimate test of faith and to teach Abraham (and the rest of humanity) that the one true God prohibits human sacrifice. That is the essence of ethical monotheism: the one true God demands adherence to the one true morality."
Dennis Prager goes on to say that child sacrifice was fairly widespread, and he points out other places where it is condemned: Leviticus 18:21 and 20:2-3. There are also passages in Deuteronomy 12:29-31 and 18:9-10. And he says this: "If God had required Abraham to go through with the sacrifice of Isaac, biblical religion/Judaism would have been just another pagan religion, differing from other religions only by having one god rather than many. But the difference between polytheism and the Torah's monotheism is not primarily the number of gods; it is in the moral nature of the Torah's God versus all other gods. Prohibiting Abraham from sacrificing his son exemplified the triumph of ethical monotheism over paganism."
I called this sermon, "The Lord Will Provide", and in the end, the Lord DID provide. Abraham had said in an off-hand way that God would provide the sacrifice when Isaac asked where the sacrifice was. "Oh, the Lord will provide", said Abraham, hardly knowing what he said - and the Lord DID provide! Blessed be the name of the Lord! Amen.
Pastor Skip
