By James Riley Strange, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of New Testament, Samford University
Our Provider
Genesis 22:1–14
This passage is one of the Bible’s best known and one of its most troubling. Teachers should prepare to deal with questions such as why God would tell Abraham to kill his son, why God would want such obedience, why Abraham would obey and why Sarah is absent and silent. The passage defies easy interpretation and simple answers. It is to be dealt with over a lifetime as we contemplate and pray about our own obedience to a loving God. Today’s lesson also avoids easy answers. Instead, it gives a series of notes that open up the passage to our prayerful questions. May God provide them.
Our faith will often be tested. (1–2)
The opening recalls the first time we met Abram in 12:1. There and here, God uses identical Hebrew idioms for “Go” (“Go, go you”) and similar language for “to the land I will show you” and “on one of the mountains that I will show you.” Because the phrase “your son” is sufficient to identify Isaac, the redundant “your only son, Isaac, whom you love” increases the suffering of the reader. It also is inaccurate, for Abraham has an older son, Ishmael. God may be reminding Abraham that he drove out the boy and his mother, the slave Hagar (Gen. 21:9–21). But God also may be reminding Abraham of His promise about that son: “Do not be distressed because of the boy” (Gen. 21:12). The reader also remembers a promise that Abraham didn’t hear: “Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is” (Gen. 21:17). If God saved one son, maybe He will save the other.
Trust God to provide what we need. (3–10)
Early Christians noticed the phrase “on the third day” and read this story as prefiguring Jesus. In verse 4 the narration slows, again increasing the reader’s suffering. We can read, “we will come back to you,” in verse 5 either as a lie or as a statement of faith. Laying the wood on the boy’s back is a macabre parody of what Abraham will do in verse 9, and the boy’s question in verse 7 is agonizing irony: the victim asks why there is no victim. The innocence of the question will cause some Jewish and Christian readers to interpret Isaac as a child in this story. Verse 8 is as ambiguous as 5: is Abraham lying to the boy or stating his faith in God? Verse 10 may supply the answer: “And he took the knife to kill his son” shows that he intends to carry out God’s command.
God provides what we need when we need it. (11–14)
In verses 11 and 12, the “angel” (Hebrew: “messenger”) speaks like God. This is common in stories of the patriarchs and matriarchs of the faith. The King James Version renders “the Lord will provide” as “Jehovah Jireh.” Literally it means “Yahweh will see.” We do not know this place name from any other writing. We also don’t know where this Mount Moriah stood. “On the mount of the Lord” suggests the author is thinking of the site of the temple in Jerusalem.
Verses 12 and 16 indicate that the author presents Abraham’s actions as pious. Abraham’s behaviors, however, contrast with his distress about Ishmael (21:11–12) and his willingness to bargain with God not to kill innocent residents of Sodom (18:22–33). The story of Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac therefore should be read in the context of the larger story of Abraham and Sarah, their relationship with God and their willingness elsewhere to talk to God when they are suffering in anguish. May we follow that example.
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