Take now 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 of which I shall tell you.
[Genesis 22:2]
What’s most striking to you about this request God makes of Abraham?
For some, like renowned atheist Richard Dawkins, it is the request itself. In his book, The God Delusion, he writes: “By the standards of modern morality, this disgraceful story is an example simultaneously of child abuse, bullying in two asymmetrical power relationships, and the first recorded use of the Nuremberg defence: ‘I was only obeying orders.’”[1]
For others, maybe not unlike yourself, it is the fact that Isaac is Abraham’s son. If God had asked Abraham to sacrifice the fourth son of his least-favorite servant, his heart might have struggled but not nearly as much. Like when we hear of someone else’s son or daughter catching the flu, our instinct is a mix of compassion with relief that it is not our child dealing with the inconvenience and sickness.
Maybe you’ll go so far as to say that the most shocking part about the request is simply the details surrounding it. You might know your Bible and know that Abraham and Sarah had been waiting years, decades even, for this son. It is not simply their one-and-only but also their promised one-and-only for which they have waited a long time. This isn’t a couple like the Duggars, of reality-TV fame, that had dozens of children. This would be like the couple that tried and tried to have a child, endured the pain of fertility treatments, and exhausted every option known to man, and then unexpectedly God finally comes through with a miracle!
From the request in general to Abraham being Isaac’s father to the fact that Isaac was an only child, somewhere in there you most certainly find this request shocking. But, ironically enough, it isn’t in any of these things where my shock resides. Look a little closer and you’ll see my biggest challenge with this request from God. It’s in the simple phrase, “whom you love.”
The request is from God, our Creator, so if anyone can ask a request of His creation of any sort, it would be Him. It’s not just the fact that Isaac was Abraham’s only son, but that God knew Abraham loved him that knots my stomach and wrenches my heart as I read this. God knew of Abraham’s love for Isaac, and yet He still asked Abraham to sacrifice him.
Before you think Abraham’s love for his son is just a given fact because all parents possess this for their children, have you not read of the hellish things parents are willing to do to their children out of spite and evil? It’s not uncommon now or was it then for a child to be sacrificed on the altar of a greater love and allegiance. But it was always someone else’s child. Someone else’s sacrifice. Someone else’s “god” that requested this. Not our God. Not Abraham’s God.
So why did our God ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac knowing full-and-well that Abraham loved him? Thankfully, God tells us in verse 1 of this passage: to “test” Abraham and his faith in Him. That word, “test,” means “to prove.” This wasn’t simply a test in school that Abraham would either pass or fail. It was a test that would prove the level of his faith.
Did God need this test to prove Abraham’s level of faith? Of course not. God is omniscient and all-knowing. So who was this testing and proving of his faith for?
Abraham himself? Sure.
Isaac lying upon the altar? Absolutely.
Abraham’s wife, Sarah, back home? Most definitely.
And what about those of us who read of his story now? It only stands to reason that this testing of Abraham’s faith was for all involved that day and for all who would ever read this story. The question God put to the test that day was this—was Abraham’s faith in God greater than his love for his only and promised son, Isaac?
And we know how this story ends: God stops Abraham from killing Isaac after the knife is raised to do so, God provides a lamb to be the sacrifice, and Abraham and Isaac go back home having a greater faith in God and His provision than they had before.
That is a long way of getting back to my greatest surprise at that phrase in vs. 2, “whom you love.” God knew who it was that Abraham loved and it was no accident that God chose that very thing to prove Abraham’s faith in Him.
Did you know God asks the same of us at times in our lives as well? He asks us to sacrifice or, as in Abraham’s case, be willing to sacrifice the whom and what we love on behalf of our love for Him. Don’t take my word for it, look what Jesus told His disciples one day in Luke 14:26: "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.”
That word “hate” simply means “to love less.” And, as you can see, this doesn’t look like an actual “sacrifice” upon an altar like Isaac was tied upon. Sometimes this looks like an older couple walking through a serious health ailment of one or the other—a consequence of our world’s brokenness that God is using for His glory as a test of your faith along the journey of difficulty.
For others, it might be the sacrifice of a job, a career, or a meaningful possession that through diverse circumstances is removed from your life. For my family and I, it was a sacrifice of moving my children further from their grandparents because we knew it was the calling of God upon our lives. For Christian missionaries around the world, like those I just visited in the Dominican, this is the question they must answer—is my faith in God greater than the love I have for my extended family and friends back in the states?
In the end, here’s why I think Abraham was willing to respond correctly and, in his reason, I think we can all find encouragement to respond the same way. After all the history Abraham had had along his faith journey with God, God’s heart of love and promise-keeping had been revealed to him. This is what unbelievers like Richard Dawkins miss in this story.
Abraham knew God’s heart and therefore when God asked Abraham to sacrifice the one whom he loved, he was willing to do so. Why? Because God knew and was interested in Abraham enough to know that he truly loved Isaac. And a God who is willing to love and care for him that much, Abraham believed was a God worth trusting.
If Abraham can do this, certainly we can as well when God asks us to sacrifice the whom and what we love. He knows the sacrifice He is asking of you, and He does not take it lightly (Luke 18:29-30).
Trust God’s heart knowing that He knows yours.
The LORD [is] good, A stronghold in the day of trouble;
And He knows those who trust in Him.
[Nahum 1:7]
“Why does everyone I love have to go away?
Because if they didn’t, we would never learn anything new.”
[from Amazon’s LOTR: The Rings of Power]
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