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Tedd Pullano
Ogden 07-02-2017
I'm not sure we are fully equipped to understand this passage. A majority of people who have grown up in the Western world have a rational, reasonable, orderly world mindset and we like things to be tidied up. We like the good guy to win, the bad guy to get his just reward: we like issues to make sense and be easily explained. We in the western world like to know why and how. We like everything to be explained. Unfortunately, the book we have in front of us, especially the Old Testament, was not written in the west – it was written in the east. And while I am not the cultural expert in these matters, I do know that the mindset in the time and place the Old Testament was written was a different than we are used to here and now. And so that creates a huge struggle for us with the Old Testament. The Old Testament, and this passage in particular, are difficult to read because they are not neat and tidy. This passage will not be boiled down to a simple lesson we can walk away with.
Genesis 22:1-18
22After 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.”
15The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, 16and said, “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies, 18and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Faithful
Every time I read this passage, I hope it reads differently – but it never does. This is an incredibly difficult passage. It actually raises more questions than it answers. Questions that we must struggle with like: Did God actually test Abraham? Did God just tell Abraham to kill his son? Can God do that? Is that the God I believe in? Did Abraham agree to kill his son? What was Abraham thinking? Why did Abraham,who has argued with God before (Sodom and Gomorrah), why did he not push back against God here? What would I have done had I been in Abraham’s position? What about Isaac – what were the consequences to Isaac – was he scarred for life? Some of these questions have answers, some don't. Some of the answers are ones we may not like. That is why the United Methodist Church put that warning on their website for all ministers: don’t read this passage unless you have to for a series you are doing. But, while I respect the Methodist church and their warning, I believe that idea does not give you credit as believers and sells God short as well. You see, as difficult as it is, I love this passage. I love the provocative nature of it and the hard questions it leaves us with. I love it because it makes me think and it makes me rethink my faith – particularly where there are hard questions. And for me that thinking and rethinking always makes my faith stronger.
One of the things I had to rethink was around God and testing. You see, I don't like to believe that God tests us – that bothers me and I find it disturbing. I resist this idea because testing typically involves pain and difficulty, and I don't want to believe God does that to us. But, the witness of this text is that God does test: in verse 1 it says: “After these things God tested Abraham.” That's pretty clear – God tested Abraham. God challenged Abraham’s faith and trust in God – in an extraordinarily difficult and painful way. And it worked out well for everyone in this case. Abraham passed the test; and then God reaffirmed God’s intention to bless the whole world through Abraham. As a recipient of that blessing, I’m very glad for that. Nice work Abraham – and thank you.
But, don't get me wrong, even though I am glad for the blessing and that it worked out well, I'm still troubled by what happened. I’m more at peace with it now, I believe that I need to trust in the plan and goodness of God more,but I'm still troubled that God tested by asking him to kill his son. That, to me, seems unreasonable. Am I alone in thinking that? Do any of you agree with me? Does a God of love do that? And what about Abraham? Abraham is one of the heroes of the Bible – held up by the apostle Paul and other writers of the New Testament as a giant – “the father of faith” they call Abraham. Abraham is held up as the father of faith – the one we should copy and use as an example. But what did he agree to do here? He agreed to kill his son. I find that disturbing. I hope that to some degree you do too, because it is disturbing.
But, as disturbing as it is, as painful as it is to read this story and some of these difficulties, this story is in here – our sacred book. The writers of the Old Testament, the folks who continued to tell this story, could have left it out or stopped telling it. But they left it in there. So it has meaning and value and it demands to be wrestled with and it demands discussion. I believe one of the most beautiful and important parts or benefits of this passage is what happens in that wrestling – in the discussion. I believe it is in that wrestling that our faith grows and is transformed. When we argue with God and argue with the text, when we debate and discuss it, when we listen carefully to what God says in response, we learn and grow and often find the truth – with God’s help. God’s Word is a living thing and asks to be interacted with.
And that is what I did this week – I didn't really solve the problems I have with this text – but in my struggle and conversation with the text I learned couple of things and my faith grew. I learned that God is God and I am not. I often get confused about that. In the Psalms we hear God say: “my ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts”. Well sometimes I forget that and think that I know best and that what I think is right. And that's just not true. It felt good this week to be reminded: God is God and I am not.
I also learned that God is big – bigger than me and bigger than you and bigger than the church and bigger than we understand. I like knowing that. I like knowing that there is a God out there who is more powerful than I am and knows more than I do and is in charge. Even when it doesn’t make sense. Right now, I need that in my life. How big so God? So big.
I learned that God provides. Again, it’s right there in the text, in verses 8 and 14. God will provide and God does provide. As I reflect on my life I see so many times when this has been true. God provides.
I learned, or perhaps was reminded, that our God is a God who is in relationship with us. I love how in this passage God is at the beginning, the middle and the end. He tests Abraham, but walks with him and talks with him – and stops him lovingly and then rewards him. Through their relationship, Abraham grew and God learned a bit. I like to think that each of us have that opportunity at our disposal – that we too can be in relationship with God and we too can talk with him and grow with him and he will be there for us in the trials and the tests. Sisters and brothers, God wants to be in relationship with us and that relationship is central to our soul’s well being.
And finally I learned from this difficult and challenging passage that perhaps our job, our goal is not to completely understand and define God. I believe our job is to be faithful to God – to trust in him and be faithful to him. We don't need to understand and explain him – even though we may want to. God always has and always will resist that attempt on our part to fully understand and explain him. Remember when Moses kept asking God what his name was? That was an attempt by Moses to nail God down – to box God in, because if you knew someone’s name, you knew all about them. So God gave Moses a vague name that is confusing and hard to understand. God will not be boxed in or nailed down. That is not our job. We need to be faithful servants of his and let him do what he needs to do. We need to be in relationship with God, to talk to him, to listen to him, to worship him and ultimately to trust in his love and be faithful to him. I believe our greatest task is to put our trust in God and live our lives from that place of faithfulness.
And when we do so, we can live with the difficult questions, the difficult circumstances knowing that God is walking with us and that as the kids say: “God has this.” When I place my trust fully in God as Abraham did in this extraordinary passage, I can live a more joyful and peaceful and fulfilled life when I live from that place of faithfulness. That is good news. Trust and Obey, because there’s no other way. Thanks be to God. Amen.