Ge. 22: Don't kill me, dad.

Numb is how I felt reading through most of chapter 22.

I wonder if that's how Abraham must have felt as he acted out chapter 22.

OK, picture this, Abraham has his son for...oh, probably a few years. This is the son for whom Abraham has waited 10 decades. God calls down to him, saying, "Take your son - your only son - you know, the son you love...(oh...forget Ishmael), and go up to Moriah, and sacrifice him as a burnt offering..."

Wow, so...not only does Abraham have to give up his only son (who he loves), he's got to offer him as a sacrifice. Not just a sacrifice...a burnt offering. Don't want to imagine setting fire to my son.

Abraham doesn't argue...doesn't question...could it be that he's finally understanding this covenant thing? God just worked in an amazing way in the previous chapter to reinforce Abraham's faith. Still, I don't imagine Abraham got much sleep that night.

The next morning, he and Isaac and two servants set out for the mountains. On the third day of traveling to this place, God revealed the place where He would have Abraham sacrifice Isaac. He tells his two servants that they will go up, worship, and return. I imagine they didn't probably buy it. I wonder what that three day journey was like. I'm sure the silence was deafening. It would be hard to listen to Isaac talk about whatever kids talked about back then...full of life and curiosity and energy, and knowing that he as a father would have to sacrifice his son. He leaves the servants behind and he and Isaac continue onward.

Isaac notices as they near the spot, Abraham has the fire and the knife...Isaac is hauling the wood...no lamb.

"Dad..."

"Yes, my son?"

"We have the fire and the wood. Where's the lamb?"

What a heartbreaking exchange to read.

Abraham answers out of either faith, or to protect Isaac from fear, "God will provide." God has always provided for Abraham, but I wonder how convicted Abraham sounded. Did he declare those words, or did he sort of choke them out?

Abraham got as far as raising the knife over his trembling son before an Angel of the Lord put a stop to the process. "Now I know that you fear God, because you would not even withhold your son." My first reaction is "What a cruel God to make Abraham go through this horrible thing." I can't imagine going through this, and I don't really understand. Did Abraham really need to get to this extreme? Did he begin to take for granted who Isaac was, and what he meant to the world? Did he forget what all he went through before he was granted his wife's son? I don't know. I imagine that I assign attributes to God that are kind of watered-down by the society in which I live, even in my own faith, that God is this soft, touchy-feely emotional being without any hardline. Like camping, God is intense!

Anyway, God provided a ram that got caught by its horns in the thicket. And Abraham sacrificed that as a burnt offering, instead of his son. I'm not sure exactly how that was a sacrifice, unless it came out of his own flock somehow, or it was there, and he could have kept it...but it was either the ram or his son...I 'unno. I'm sure I'm not the first person to ask this question, but it makes me wonder. Ooh, it really makes me wonder...

And Abraham called that place The Lord will Provide. Places were named pretty obviously 4.7 billion years ago.

The angel calls out again, and says that because Abraham was willing to go through with this, God will surely bless Abraham and make his descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and the sand on the shore, and that his descendents will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and bless all nations. Not much different than what was promised previously in chapter 15. Except for the whole taking over enemies' cities thing.

So Abraham goes back and lives in Beersheba.

As a footnote, Abraham finds out that his long lost brother Nahor has some kids: Uz, Buz, Kemuel, Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, and Bethuel. Bethuel became the father of Rebekah. Nahor's concubine had some sons, as well...Tebah, Galham, Tahash, and Maacah. Neat.