The Abraham Story Part 22: Abraham Surrenders Isaac
Notes
Transcript
Abraham Surrenders Isaac
Abraham Surrenders Isaac
Still in that test moment the Genesis 3 place
4 On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance.
5 Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.”
6 Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.
7 Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
8 Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.
9 Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
10 Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
12 He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
13 Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.
14 Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, “In the mount of the Lord it will be provided.”
And Avraham took the wood of the going up offering, and he placed upon Yitskhaq, his son, and he took in his hand the fire, and the Knife.
This is an interesting word here מַאֲכֶ֫לֶת Knife. Probably means like butcher knife or destruction knife,
The root work acl is the word for eat or food. so this knife is the eater
There are only one maybe two places where this is used other than here.
29 When he entered his house, he picked up a knife, took hold of his concubine, cut her into twelve pieces, limb by limb, and then sent her throughout the territory of Israel.
You can read this and you will see its another Gen 3 motif passage
14 There is a generation whose teeth are swords, whose fangs are knives, devouring the oppressed from the land and the needy from among mankind.
This is a little different
4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.” 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac. In his hand he took the fire and the knife, and the two of them walked on together.
7 Then Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, “My father.”
And he replied, “Here I am, my son.”
Isaac said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Then the two of them walked on together.
9 When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.
11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!”
He replied, “Here I am.”
12 Then he said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.” 13 Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide, so today it is said, “It will be provided on the Lord’s mountain.”
He took the food in the form of taking the knife.
"And the two of them, the two went together as one."
So there's three little moments here.
First is, Avraham sees the place, and he just knows it's the place. We're not told how he knows, he just knows.
Second there's a speech here in the middle. And this speech is, this is a great example of what the Jewish Hebrew Bible scholar Robert Alter, he calls it "the biblical art of reticence." Biblical authors will often phrase things intentionally, just quickly and ambiguously, and it leaves multiple interpretations open. And you have to keep reading to kind of close down the options to figure out what's the most likely interpretation.
So let's think about Avraham's words here. "We will go there, we will worship, we will return to you." We will return.
So this could be evidence of his trust that whatever death is up there on the mountain, that Yahweh has the ability to bring life out of non-life. He's done it before with this boy, he could do it again. That's one possibility.
The other possibility is less charitable to Avraham. And it's just, you know, he doesn't want them to be suspicious. So, "We'll return." He knows that, likely, only one will be returning, but he's trying to throw them off the scent, so to speak. How do you know?
You just gotta keep reading.
The Hebrew word "wood." In English, we have the word "wood," but then we have the word "tree." In some forms of British English, maybe American English too, you can say, you can point to a group of trees and call it woods. in British English you can say "the wood."
the woods is a collection of trees, a whole bunch of trees.
In Hebrew, it's just the same word. So you can call a forest a piece of wood or an individual tree, it's just all an ‘etz, an ‘etz.
The ‘etz of knowing good and bad, the ‘etz of life.
Avraham took the ‘etz, he took the tree for the offering, and he placed the tree upon Yitskhaq, his son. And he took fire, and he took he food, that is, the knife.
We're going through the desert on our way to the hilltop, and there's gonna be also a tree up on top of that hill. But think of the way we're interacting with Genesis 3. In Genesis 3, the taking of the tree and of the food shows a lack of trust, right? It's breaking, violating the divine word. Here, his taking of the tree and of the food/knife, is his obedience and trust.
You see how it's inverted.
And it's precisely in his trust and obedience that the two become one.
You see that? So in this case, not husband and wife or not brother and brother, but father and son. They go together as one, in unity.
Verse 7, "And Yitskhaq said to Avraham, his father, he said, 'My father.' And Avraham said, 'Hinneni, my son.'" Remember what God said? Avraham, hinneni.
Yitskhaq says, "Father." "Hinneni, my son." "Yitskhaq said, 'You know what? I see some fire, I see the tree, it's on my back. But where's the sheep for the ‘olah, The going up offering?' And Avraham said, 'Elohim will,'" and it's our word for "see." In most English translations, it gets translated as Elohim will provide, God will provide.
I think the English wordplay that can get us there "is to see to it." It means I'll make it happen, he'll make it happen. But in Hebrew it's just, "Yahweh will see it" is what he says. He'll see to it. So "'Elohim will see to it, that is, the sheep for the going up offering, my son.' And the two went together as one."
This is, one, it's a very intimate little dialogue, but it's very clear the dialogue is just raising the tension.
So we, the reader, have knowledge that Avraham doesn't know. Now Avraham has knowledge that Yitskhaq doesn't seem to know. And so Avraham's response to Yitskhaq, you know, tells us more than it tells Yitskhaq.
'Cause as far as Avraham knows, Yitskhaq is the sheep. That's the whole point.
"And so they went to that place which Elohim had told him. And Avraham built the altar, and he arranged the wood, and he bound up Yitskhaq, his son."
This verb, "bound up," it's the Hebrew verb "‘aqad." And in Jewish tradition, and actually still today, any reference, when Jewish people reference the story, they call it the Aqedah, which is the noun form of this verb, which means binding. So in Christian tradition, this story is often called the sacrifice of Isaac. In Jewish tradition, the story is called the binding of Isaac, or the akedah.
And I've always found that interesting, 'cause Isaac doesn't get sacrificed, but the substitute gets sacrificed in his place, which is, but anyway.
"So he arranged the wood, he bound up Yitskhaq, his son, and he placed him on the altar, on top of the wood." Do you feel like the story's really slowing down here? It's very clearly, I mean, these authors are capable of summarizing decades in a sentence. And we're spending a short paragraph just on this thing right here.
"And Avraham sent out his hand.
He sent out his hand, and he took of the food, eater, knife, to slay his son," note, the narrative's just, it's building every second before your eyes.
"And the messenger of Yahweh called to him from the skies, saying, 'Avraham, Avraham!' And he said, 'Hinneni! Look, it's me.'" It's exactly the dialogue at the beginning. "And he said, 'Don't send out your hand toward the young one. Don't do anything to him, because now I know, I know that you are one who fears Elohim, and you didn't withhold your son, your one and only son, from me.'"
So we can all relax.
just pay attention to the design, everything's leading you up to the moment of crisis. And just like what happened with Hagar and Yishmael, the messenger of Yahweh calls and delivers the life of the young one when you thought it was all gonna go terribly bad.
Sending out the hand. Don't send out the hand.
It's a unique phrase,
22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”
the first time it appeared is right at the moment when Adam and Eve are banished from Eden, Genesis chapter 3. "Yahweh Elohim said, 'Look, the human has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, and now, so that he won't reach out his hand,'" it's the same phrase in Hebrew, "'Send out his hand and take from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.' So Yahweh sent him out of the garden."
So here, the sending out of the hand, now that we violated the divine command, taking from the tree of life would result in something that humans don't wanna know, which is to be immortal in a morally corrupt state.
That, you know, the word "hell" isn't introduced in the Bible yet, but that would, in God's estimation, be a form of terrible non-existence existence. And so God prevents the reaching out of the hand.
But notice, the reaching out of the hand is about taking from the tree, and this is the inversion, because she, what caused this whole mess?
Taking from the tree with the hand. And so notice how this is all inverted here in our story.
Avraham's sending out of the hand is actually his choosing not to eat from the tree of knowing good and bad. God said, "Don't do this thing," and they did that thing. Now God says, "Do this thing," and so he does the thing.
And so even though the imagery of what direction the hand is supposed to be going is turned inside out, this is, he's passing the test in this very moment by sending out and then not sending out his hand.
Isn't that an amazing use of that little phrase right there?
Here's a theological black hole that we'll never get to the bottom of. "Now I know that you fear Elohim." Now, remember the fear of God from a couple chapters ago, when Avraham was in Gerar, and he said, "Yeah, you know why I lied about my wife? It's 'cause I knew that nobody fears God around here."
And this is right after you learned that Abimelech and his servants were totally afraid of God after.
And so in that story, Avraham's lack of a fear of the Lord is what motivated his cowardice.
He's passed the test.
He is now a yǝrē’ ’ĕlōhîm a god fearer
this is exact phrase is only used in Ecc 7:18
18 It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them.
1 There was a man in the country of Uz named Job. He was a man of complete integrity, who feared God and turned away from evil.
We've got Avraham and this image of the knife with his son.
And it's precisely his willingness to surrender his son over to death. But who is the author of life and death, the controller of life and death? It's God. And so he's surrendering his son over to death, trusting that God will somehow, I mean, what else could it be but an act of ultimate surrender and trust? And so this is equated with the fear of the Lord. Think of the book of Proverbs, it's just gonna develop this in all kinds of significant ways.
So this is trusting that God has knowledge of what is good and what is not good, that it's far superior to mine. And so I can come up with my schemes for how to generate good, but in this story, that always results in pain and hurt people. And so this act of fearing and trusting God's knowledge of good and bad, that's what this whole story is about.
The fear of the Lord.
Let’s not follow Alice down that rabbit whole.
13 Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide, so today it is said, “It will be provided on the Lord’s mountain.”
"Avraham lifted his eyes," verse 13, "and he saw.
And look, a ram, far away over there, caught in the bramble by its horns.
And Avraham went and he took the ram, and he made it go up as a going up offering in the place, takhat, or as a substitute for his son."
The tree bush has the thing that will give life to his son when his son was given over to death. See how this is all coming? The words "life" and "death" aren't even used here, but they don't need to, 'cause it's what the story is about, this kid was about to die. And so, in the tree is life that's offered in the place of the seed.
And so, verse 14, "Avraham called the name of the place Yahweh Will See." Remember, it is the mountain of Moriah, by the way. Why is it called the Mountain of Seeing? Well, Avraham called the name of the place "Yahweh Will See."
And you know, dear reader, dear Israelite reader, living centuries and centuries and centuries after this took place, do you know why still today, we say, "On the mountain of Yahweh, it will be provided"? On the mountain of Yahweh, still today, it is being seen to by Yahweh.
Like, dear reader, if you're not tuned in yet, let me just tell you, this is what that altar in Jerusalem, and what we do there every morning and evening, and what we think that means. This is our place of surrender. The temple where Heaven meets Earth, the altar where we surrender over to God, that's what this is all about, dear reader, it's about this. And God, in his mercy, has given us these substitute animals to surrender over to him, instead of us having to crawl up on that altar and having to carry the burden and the cost for all of the pain and sin and evil that we contributed to.
On the mountain of Yahweh, Yahweh sees to it that there is a substitute for the sins of his people.
Which helps build the idea of substitutionary atonement, this is not the class for a discussion on the different views on atonement.
https://youtu.be/MIW8lFawfP8 - 3 Minute Theology 3.2: What is the Substitutionary Atonement?
So you can already see, this story is a rich, rich resource for every later part of the Bible.
In the book of Isaiah, this image right here of an Israelite who will be faithful to Yahweh and surrender their own lives for the sins of the people, this is what all of the suffering servant poems are exploring, is commentary on this theme right here. And then of course in the gospels, they're just all over this. The Passover meal, you have Barabbas, or Barabbas, whose name means The Son of the Father, and he is the substitute, the swapping of substitutes, the guilty for the innocent.
It's all ways of exploring the same theme.
15 Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn,” this is the Lord’s declaration: “Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your only son, 17 I will indeed bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the city gates of their enemies. 18 And all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring because you have obeyed my command.”
19 Abraham went back to his young men, and they got up and went together to Beer-sheba. And Abraham settled in Beer-sheba.
But you know, this was a test, this was about a public demonstration of Avraham's faithfulness, and that's what is being registered right here.
So yes, it's a wonderful, it's the question you're supposed to ask, and then keep reading and thinking about it.
The messenger of Yahweh calls out a second time from the skies and says, and essentially this is like a greatest hits from all of the speeches and promises of Yahweh, starting in chapter 12 up till this moment, it's just copy and paste, except for a couple little tweaks.
So you could call it, it's the remix, it's the blessings remix. "I swear an oath." Hmm. Think. God's chosen one just surrendered everything on the high place, and God responds by saying, covenant, oath. You got the flood on the brain, Noah and his sacrifice, "I swear an oath by myself," utterance of Yahweh, "on account of the fact that you did this thing. You did not withhold your son, your only one. I will certainly bless you, and I will certainly multiply your seed like the stars of the skies, like the sand on the edge of the sea. And," new little twist, "your seed will inherit the gates of even their enemies." Remember Genesis 14, Melchizedek's blessing, Yahweh is the one who delivers your enemies into your hands. So there will be land that becomes your possession, then there will be places where people will resist, and you will inherit even the land of your enemies.
"And all the nations of the land will find blessing in your seed." So now, you see the transition? It's almost like Avraham's time on the stage is done, and now this overcoming of the enemy, and this blessing to the nations, it will happen through the future seed.
"On the heel of the fact that you listened to my voice." Did you get that? "You listened to my voice," whose voice has he been listening to? Right, and that's that whole motif. When you don't listen to God's voice, you end up hurting yourself and other people.
"On the heel of the fact," this is a very odd phrase, like it's strange in Hebrew too, not common.
All our English translations just kind of translate it similar to this, "On account of the fact," or "Because of the fact." But it is the word "heel." Heel.
Have I heard about future seed and heels before?
So on the heel of the fact. So when Adam and Eve failed their test at the tree, because of the voice of the tester, they're exiled, and the land is cursed, the ground is cursed. Adam and Eve are never cursed, the ground and the snake are cursed.
And the man and the woman are informed of the tragic consequences of their decision.
But what we do learn is that there will be a seed from the woman who is going to have conflict with the seed of the snake. There's gonna be enemies, there's gonna be people who will resist the purposes of God, but there will come a seed, and the snake's going to do all he can to take you out, take out that seed by striking the heel.
But ultimately, God's chosen seed will strike the head of the snake. So on the heel.
15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.
So you know, it's just one little word, the only time it occurred before now was in Genesis 3, and my hunch is that this is just a little seasoning to tell the reader that he just gave the snake a wound. He just did a little snake stomp when he chose not to listen to anyone else's voice but the voice of God.
You don't need a snake in the grass anymore, or in the tree, 'cause what the snake is is just this, this voice that tells you like, "Yeah, you don't need to trust. You know, you could have your own plan, or your own idea." And that's just in the background now, on the heel. "And so Avraham returned to his young men. They arose, they went together as one, and they go back to the Well of Seven," and they dwell there in peace and harmony, and probably had a feast and communed in the presence of God.
Blessing for the Next Generation
Blessing for the Next Generation
Bibliography
Bibliography
https://bibleproject.com/classroom/abraham
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Josephus, Flavius, and William Whiston. The Works of Josephus: Complete and Unabridged. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1987.
Richard N. Longenecker, “The Melchizedek Argument of Hebrews: A Study in the Development and Circumstantial Expression of New Testament Thought,” in Unity and Diversity in New Testament Theology: Essays in Honor of George E. Ladd (ed. Robert Guelich, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978), 161.
https://bible.org/article/melchizedek-covenantal-figure-biblical-theology-eschatological-royal-priesthood#P8_421
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Paul J. Kobelski, Melchizedek and Melchiresa (CBQMS 10; Washington DC: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1981), 126-7.
https://bible.ca/manuscripts/Septuagint-LXX-Shem-was-Melchizedek-Masoretic-chronology-Messiah-Jesus-Christ-priesthood.htm
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