Genesis 22:20-24

2008.Jan.09 21:57

Children of Nahor

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Abraham’s brother Nahor had married Milcah, and Abraham was later told that they had eight sons. Uz was their first-born; Buz was next, and then there was Kemuel who became the father of Aram; their other five sons were: Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel, who became the father of Rebekah. Nahor also had another wife. Her name was Reumah, and she had four sons: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash, and Maacah.
(Genesis 22:20-24, CEV)

The amount of time spent in the Bible keeping track of families and lineages first strikes me as very high. While it’s useful to know the connections between various people in the Bible, Chesed’s relation to Abraham means nothing to me. And then I think about it a little longer and the time spent on ancestry isn’t very much. Did Chesed marry, after all? Did he have children? Who were the parents of Mrs. Chesed? Maybe it doesn’t matter sitting here in Oklahoma in 2008. But maybe it matters a great deal? After all, I like having information organized and available. Another few generations listed might have had a use I can’t imagine.

Paul reminds Titus to "avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless" (Titus 3:9, NIV) . I imagine that Jehovah has made some effort to minimize information in the Bible that could lead to such unprofitable focus. Still, the Bible does give significant focus to the family connections between people. I interpret this as at least revealing a significant value that Jehovah places on the connections between people. After all, his chosen nation, Israel, was principally defined during Biblical times (I think) by their common ancestry in Jacob.

And I’ve just realized that I have nothing more at this time to say on this point. This genealogical aside segues from the Isaac as potential, then actual, child segment of Genesis–focusing on the experiences of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar and Lot. The next few chapters have a “passing the torch” feel, following Isaac into adulthood, and through the deaths of Abraham and Sarah. Isaac himself sometimes seems to me a segue, a necessary step between the stories of Abraham/Sarah and of Jacob. Perhaps, then, one of the most significant values of this passage is a reminder that all these patriarchs and matriarchs that we read about and discuss are also members of a family, dealing with regular life. That is, they are not heroes who sprung from the ground fully formed, but, well, people.

Genesis 22:13-19

2007.Dec.30 04:44

Obedience and Blessing

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Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in the bushes. So he took the ram and sacrificed it in place of his son. Abraham named that place “The LORD Will Provide.” And even now people say, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.” The LORD’s angel called out from heaven a second time: You were willing to offer the LORD your only son, and so he makes you this solemn promise, “I will bless you and give you such a large family, that someday your descendants will be more numerous than the stars in the sky or the grains of sand along the beach. They will defeat their enemies and take over the cities where their enemies live. You have obeyed me, and so you and your descendants will be a blessing to all nations on earth.” Abraham and Isaac went back to the servants who had come with him, and they returned to Abraham’s home in Beersheba.
(Genesis 22:13-19, CEV)

I’m a guy. So I’ve daydreamed about being a super spy and saving the world. Gals probably do this too, but I figure it’s a requirement for growing up a boy in our culture. Whether it’s a positive requirement is another issue.

My daydreams, though, keep running into a problem. How does a Christian pull off super-spy? Lying seems pretty much a requirement (what exactly the ninth commandment – the no-lying one – covers is an issue I will probably delve into deeper when I get to Exodus 20). Add to that somewhat indiscriminately killing folks, and my daydreams keep running into moral issues. Is it even possible for a Christian spy to succeed or does an occupation like that require an amoral outlook on life?

Abraham’s situation is (only vaguely) similar. He has been called him to do something, that I would guess, Abraham cannot imagine being acceptable to Jehovah. Especially weird is that the Jehovah himself is the one who called Abraham to sacrifice his son. He is in a self-contradictory situation. Can there be any solution?

Yes. “The LORD will provide.”

If the only way I can see to make my daydreams work requires either sin or pain to others, they end as daydreams. However, if God gives me a clear instruction, I can follow it even if I don’t see the “way”, knowing that he will provide. Of course, I need to check what I believe I’ve heard against the Word, and, if it still appears problematic (and often even if not), I need to talk with other Christians that I trust, but having done those things, I can rely on the knowledge that Jehovah will provide.

When considering obedience in impossible situations, I often think of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. “Your Majesty,” the book of Daniel records telling Nebuchadnezzar, "we don’t need to defend ourselves. The God we worship can save us from you and your flaming furnace. But even if he doesn’t, we still won’t worship your gods and the gold statue you have set up”" (Daniel 3:16-18, CEV) .

In other words, when obeying God puts me in what I see as an impossible situation, know that:

• God can provide the means I cannot; and
• Even if he doesn’t, I should be obedient and worship him.

The reward, as it is here for Abraham, is often great blessing, but being obedient to Jehovah is an end to itself.

Genesis 22:11-12

2007.Dec.22 22:07

Test Passed

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But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
(Genesis 22:11-12, NASB)

Abraham passed the test. He showed by his actions that he had faith. This test, remember, was particular to Abraham, although Isaac showed a good deal of faith–either in Yahweh or in his father–as well, as I suppose did anyone else who knew, if there was anyone else. But what exactly was the test and how did Abraham pass?

In the simplest, the test was whether Abraham feared and honored Yahweh enough to be willing to sacrifice his own son to Yahweh. He passed the test because he actively showed that he was willing, should Yahweh ask that of him. Or, in a different sense, Yahweh was testing if Abraham was willing to obey when it would cost him an exceptionally extreme amount. And Abraham obeyed fully to the point that God told him to halt.

More abstractly, I think the test could be seen as whether Abraham was humble enough to deny his own son, his dreams for the future (remember, he’s over 100 years old), and his reasoning. Those are some pretty big things (I realize the last is not big for everyone, but for people like me who greatly value their ability to reason, accepting that God’s plan is just not going to make sense to me is a huge test of my humility). God then may be asking Abraham, “Are you willing to give me complete control?”

To an extent, most of the tests and such that we go through could be interpreted as God asking if we are willing to give him control, to acknowledge that he is God and I am not; indeed, to explicitly release my claim on godhood. Abraham does so twice in this test, first by acknowledging that Yahweh–not Abraham–can provide a solution to the contradictory notion that he is expected to sacrifice the son from which God has promised to build a nation; and then again by being willing to put down the knife and accept so clearly that he is giving a sacrifice to God that was not in any way provided by Abraham.

NB: In later books of the Bible (Leviticus 20, for example), God clarifies that human sacrifice is a sin punishable by stoning. This would have been a very different story if it had happened after Yahweh gave the Law to Israel. Even in this situation, God ultimately makes clear his position that humans should not be sacrificed, which sort of makes Christ’s sacrifice even more amazing (if that’s possible).

Genesis 22:3-10

2007.Dec.21 02:07

Obedience by Step

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So Abraham got up early the next morning and chopped wood for the fire. He put a saddle on his donkey and left with Isaac and two servants for the place where God had told him to go. Three days later Abraham looked off in the distance and saw the place. He told his servants, “Stay here with the donkey, while my son and I go over there to worship. We will come back.” Abraham put the wood on Isaac’s shoulder, but he carried the hot coals and the knife. As the two of them walked along, Isaac said, “Father, we have the coals and the wood, but where is the lamb for the sacrifice?” “My son,” Abraham answered, “God will provide the lamb.” The two of them walked on, and when they reached the place that God had told him about, Abraham built an altar and placed the wood on it. Next, he tied up his son and put him on the wood. He then took the knife and got ready to kill his son.
(Genesis 22:3-10, CEV)

“Faith without works,” James reminds us, "is dead" (James 2:26, NASB) . I’m not in the mood to focus on Abraham’s faith. Of course he had faith. He’d already sent off a son and a (former?) lover on the basis of God promising to take care of them. So, now he’s going to sacrifice one. Yay, he has faith. Okay, so what? I’m not sure it’s of any value to read this passage and just say, “Abraham had faith”.

After reading Mark 4 a few days ago, I had these thoughts:

Consistently have faith and be obedient. The farmer didn’t understand how the seed grew, but he had faith that it would and therefore did the work required of him, preparing, planting, fertilizing and harvesting. It requires consistency. Those who let their reception of God’s word be choked by cares of the world, those who spring up quickly with no root, could have never lasted to the harvest; in the former case, they probably wouldn’t have even obeyed to the planting. Faith and obedience are inseparable in the kingdom of heaven. In many ways, they are two sides of the same. But with such faith, the return can be incredible.

Here, Abraham has faith, but it is his obedience which makes that faith matter. He could have had faith that Yahweh could raise or rescue Isaac and not actually acted at all toward that end. Instead, he had faith, and then through that faith, acted in obedience. "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son" (Hebrews 1:17, NASB) .

This thought reminds me of an article by Joel Spolsky entitled “Fire and Motion”. The article talks about applying the fire and motion military strategy to software development. In his conclusion, Spolsky states simply, “you have to move forward every day”. I think that’s an important part of pursuing righteousness, of becoming more obedient. You simply aren’t going to get saved and be super-obedient person. Actually, you’re not going to be there 50 years later. And that can get discouraging. I don’t know Abraham’s frame of mind, but if I were in his shoes, I would not be thinking about being atop the mountain; I’d focus on getting there. Abraham starts by obeying, he starts by moving. Ultimately, Abraham has obeyed enough that he finds himself at the point of actually sacrificing his son. Fortunately, as it will turn out, Yahweh has no intention of Abraham carrying through with the act.

Often Yahweh asks people to do things we never think we could do. But if we’ll obey him in the first step, then the second, then the third…

Genesis 22:2

2007.Dec.18 03:32

Your Only Son

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He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”
(Genesis 22:2, NASB)

According to Wikipedia, some Islamic traditions hold that it was Ishmael, not Isaac, that God asked Abraham to sacrifice. I mention this because Yahweh specifically calls Abraham to sacrifice his “only son”. Assuming this chapter is chronologically placed (which seems likely, since the son named is Isaac), Abraham has two sons at this point. This could be a translation issue, but every translation I checked has the “only son” language.

There are a couple of important points about the only son business as illustrative of God’s plan. It is perhaps cliche, but quite relevant, to remember that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16, NASB) , and that Yahweh, in addition to testing Abraham’s faith, may also have been giving the Israelites a reference story for better understanding Christ’s sacrifice later on. In that illustration, making a point of the only child (or, in these cases, son specifically) being sacrificed is relevant, even if not technically accurate.

Second, Yahweh’s intent was for Abraham to have only one son at this time. I suppose it may be that God permitted Abraham and Sarah to send away Hagar and Ishmael particularly to regain this intent. A more interesting possibility to me though is that Abraham had already–from Abraham’s point of view–had to sacrifice one son. Now, he has to sacrifice the second. So, maybe I should ponder the reflection of this story not only in the Messiah but also in humanity’s original murder. In that situation, Eve and Adam lost one of their two sons when Cain murdered Abel, and then lost Cain as well. "Sin pays off with death," (Romans 6:23, CEV) Paul reminds us. One aspect of death is separation. At this point, Ishmael was dead to Abraham as Cain was dead to Adam; they were separated indefinitely, and that separation directly followed sin.

Jumping to another point sans segue, God is aware of the sacrifice, in both the cases of Ishmael and Isaac. Sarah’s reaction to the anticipated sacrifice of Isaac–if she even knew–is not recorded, so I am focusing of Abraham’s reactions. When Sarah asked Abraham to send away Hagar and Ishmael, "The matter distressed [him] greatly" (Genesis 21:11, NASB) . This should have been just as distressing, and Yahweh is aware of this reality. He knows that Isaac is now in many ways Abraham’s only child, and he acknowledges Abraham’s love of his son. God, in regards to both of Abraham’s sons is not unaware of what he is asking.

Genesis 22:1

2007.Dec.03 03:02

The Test

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I’m going to start this entry not by quoting the principal passage–as I am accustomed–but with another passage. It will make sense later.

The LORD had not spoken to Samuel before, and Samuel did not recognize the voice. When the LORD called out his name for the third time, Samuel went to Eli again and said, “Here I am. What do you want?” Eli finally realized that it was the LORD who was speaking to Samuel.
(1 Samuel 3:7-8, CEV)

Yahweh had twice before that night awoken Samuel. Each time, Samuel assumed it was Eli, the priest, calling him. He did not realize that the voice was that of Yahweh, because God “had not spoken to [him] before.” Fortunately, Yahweh began speaking to Samuel when someone else, Eli, was around who could help Samuel figure out what was going on.

I bring this up because recognizing God’s voice is required for understanding personally specific commands.

Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called. “Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.”
(Genesis 22:1, NLT)

Abraham doesn’t have to wonder whose voice he’s hearing, because he knows God’s voice. And Abraham responds.

In this passage, God is testing Abraham’s faith, by asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. There’s a lot that will go on with that, but if Abraham didn’t know the voice of Yahweh or didn’t respond, the test would have never gone anywhere.

I’ve heard a lot about learning to recognize God’s voice. It boils down to 1) read the Bible, 2) pray (stopping to listen at times), and 3) having good relationships with other Christians who are willing to tell you when something you think is from God is not Biblically sound. You have to know God’s voice, the kind of things he says, and you have to listen to him, or your faith can’t get very far.