If you're a Christian whose read the Bible or grown up in the church, you know the story of Abraham and Isaac. You've been taught it in Sunday School or heard a sermon preached with illustrations. For many, it's one of the more troubling passages of scripture. This passage understandably can be hard for many to reconcile with their view of a loving God.
Genesis 22: 1 - 14
"Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
2 Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”
3 Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7 Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”
“Here I am,” he replied.
12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”
13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
On one hand, you have a God who condemns sacrifice, especially child sacrifice, on multiple accounts throughout the Old Testament, most notably to the Israelites before they enter the Promise Land: "When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire...Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you." (Deut 18:9-12).
God condemns human and child sacrifice in the strongest terms: They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind." When the Israelites did engage in it in later texts, they faced capital punishment or divine judgment from God, even being driven from the promise land.
But then, you read the passage on Abraham and Isaac and it seems to run totally contrary to all the other passages where God condemns human sacrifice. How can God even ask Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his own child? And Abraham's own obedience to this can seem more shocking - what kind of parent would even think of sacrificing their child? Isn't this a contradiction of the Bible? Certainly, most societies would not sacrifice their own children, although exceptions exist. But in terms of absolute good versus evil, it's wrong - morally, ethically, and absolutely.
At this point, Abraham has already had to give up Ishmael. Now God's asking him to give up the only child he has left? His one and only son? The question that resonates within everyone's mind is this: what kind of God would ask such a thing?
