Doing something impossible appears to be part of the plan of God. It is hard to believe that Abraham who was almost 100 years old and Sarai who had already passed her age of child bearing having their own son, Isaac. Again, it is hard to understand them living to raise and care Isaac into adulthood. Isaac, who inherited the promise of the covenant, lived a semi-nomadic life in Canaan like Abraham. The most celebrated episode in the life of Abraham (the father of faith) is the biding of Isaac, the son whom he loved. All three major religions; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam hail this episode as the ultimate expression of the faith and relationship of Abraham with God. God said, “Go get Isaac, your son, the one you dearly love! Take him to the land of Moriah and I will show you a mountain where you must sacrifice him to me on the fires of an altar….” (Gen 22:2ff).
The call to offer his son Isaac can be considered as a part of his journey of faith. In this journey of faith, the true purpose is not articulated and its destination is not known. Offering Isaac appears to be one of the climaxes in the faith and life of Abraham. After all, Abraham was too happy to watch his son Isaac growing up into a man as most of the caring fathers. But then God tested him with this type of extremely difficult task. This is hard to understand! Why would God ask Abraham to do this since He Himself gave Isaac to Abraham and Sarai in his advanced age in order to bless and multiply his generation?
However, Abraham who had learned to trust and obey God, even when he did not understand it, obeyed God by taking Isaac and two servants for the burnt offering. On the third day, spotting the place from afar, he told the servants, “The boy and I will go up there. We will worship and we will return to you.” This indicates that Abraham believed that Isaac would survive when he said. “We will return to you.” He knew that Isaac was not going to die. It was Isaac who was not sure what would happen since there was no sheep for the burnt offering except wood for the fire. Abraham’s statement, “God will provide the sheep for the burnt offering, my son” can be considered as one of the important elements in the faith of Abraham.
However old Isaac would have been, he supposed to be in the age of reasoning. When we consider their inner thoughts, the question could be; “Would Isaac simply lie on the altar atop the wood bound, as his father tried to slice his neck?” In the story Isaac appeared to be silent. Perhaps Abraham believed that Isaac really belonged to God. It was a belief stated in the book of Exodus, “the first issue of every womb among the Israelites is mine.” Most of the Biblical interpretations suggest that the offering of Isaac was a test for the faith of Abraham. Even the text of Genesis noted that God put Abraham to the test. Most of all it can be that Abraham trusted God. The faith of Abraham would have inspired the faith of Isaac to be willing to sacrifice his life for God.
Nevertheless, at the last moment, Isaac was saved from death and Abraham saw a male sheep and sacrificed it instead. The willingness of Isaac to give his life for God in silence is a powerful model for our journey of faith with God. The martyred Jewish priest Eliezer stated on his deathbed that Jews should be like Isaac; willing to sacrifice themselves for God. He said, “O children of Abraham, die nobly of your religion.”
— Fr. Niranjan Rodrigo, Ph.D.
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