The Sacrifice of Isaac - Meanings, Significance, and Contexts - Essay Example

The Sacrifice of Isaac: Meanings, Significance, and Contexts I. Introduction The story of Abraham’s devotion to God and willingness to sacrifice his only son in obedience to God is perhaps one of the most-often retold passages of the Old Testament. Several Christian churches have attributed the authorship of the Book of Genesis to Moses (Keathley 6). The Book of the Genesis is one of the first five books of the Old Testament that are collectively referred to as the Pentateuch meaning “five books” or the books of the law because they contain the laws and instruction of God through Moses (Keathley 6). The Book of the Genesis is also known as the first book of the Torah or laws that God gave to his people in Israel (Carson 3). The following are some of the key passages of the Genesis pertaining to the sacrifice to Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac for God: Genesis 22:2 “Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” Genesis 22:7-8 “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. Genesis 22:12 “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.” It is interesting to note that a similar passage exists in the Muslim holy book, The Koran. Further, Muslims celebrate the feast of Id al-Adha, the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice, “the holiest and grandest festival of the Muslim calendar” (Jones 3). The Feast of Sacrifice “lasts for four days and commemorates Ibrahim’s (Abraham’s) obedience to God in all things, even to sacrifice his own son Ishmael if such was required” (Jones 3). Thus, instead of Abraham and Isaac, the Muslim version of the sacrifice involved Ibrahim (the Muslim version of Abraham) and Ishmael, the half-brother of Isaac. As in the Christian Old Testament, “God intervened at the moment of Ibrahim’s sacrifice” providing an animal for the sacrifice so that Ishmael may live (Jones 3). This work attempts to review the multiple meanings, significance, and contexts of the sacrifice. The author believes that understanding the multiples involved will allow us to have a better understanding of the Christian faith. At the same time, a deeper understanding of the multiples involved will most likely allow us to have a better understanding of Muslims and their faith. II. Context in the Biblical Narrative The Old Testament tells us that Abraham was the name given by God to Abram, son of Terah, who lived several generations after Noah’s Ark and the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:27 and 17:5). God appointed Abraham to be “a father of many nations” (Genesis 17: 5) and gave him the “whole land of Canaan” as an “everlasting possession” for Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 17: 8). Abraham’s wife was Sarah whose name earlier was Sarai (Genesis 16: 1, 15). However, Sarah had asked Abraham to sleep with Hagar, an Egyptian maidservant, so Sarah “can build a family through her” because God had kept Sarah from having children. Sarah even took Hagar to be Abraham’s wife (Genesis 16:3). However, when Hagar became pregnant, Sarah despised Hagar as Hagar also despised Sarah (Genesis 16:4-5). Nevertheless, an angel of the Lord asked Hagar to submit to Sarah and instructed Hagar to name the child “Ishmael” (Genesis 16:11). The angel of the Lord also prophesied that Ishmael’s “hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers” (Genesis 16:12). Abraham was eighty-six when Hagar bore him Ishmael (Genesis 16:16). In renaming Sarai as Sarah, God promised a son for Abraham through Sarah and God said that Sarah will become “the mother of nations” and that “kings of peoples will come from her” (Genesis 17: 15-16). God, on Abraham’s petition that Ishmael live under God’s blessings, replied that He will surely bless Ishmael will make him the father of twelve rulers and that He will make Ishmael into a great nation (Genesis 17: 20). However, God also said that it is through Isaac, a child that will come from Sarah, that His covenant will be established (Genesis 17:21). Immediately after Abraham’s conversation with God, Abraham had Ishmael and all male members of his household, including those bought from a foreigner, circumcised as “God told him” (Genesis 17:23-27). The circumcision was a sign of a covenant that the whole land of Canaan is an “everlasting possession” for Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 17: 7-14). When Isaac was weaned, Sarah saw that Hagar was mocking and asked that Abraham get rid of Hagar and Ishmael, saying that the slave woman’s son “will never share in the inheritance” with Isaac (Genesis 21: 8-10). God said to Abraham to listen to whatever Sarah tells him but that he should not worry because God will make Ishmael into a nation because Ishmael is Abraham’s offspring although it will be through Isaac that Abraham’s offspring will be reckoned (Genesis 21: 11-13). Abraham sent away Hagar and Ishmael and they wandered in the desert of Beersheba. Along the way, however, God continued to assist Hagar and Ishmael, conversed with Hagar, and assured Hagar that He will make Ishmael a great nation (Genesis 21: 15-19). We are further told that God has been with Ishmael who lived in the desert and who became a great archer and Hagar got a wife for him from Egypt while Ishmael was living in the Desert of Paran (Genesis 21: 21). Despite giving Abraham and his descendants an “everlasting possession”, God decided nevertheless to test Abraham and it is within the setting we have narrated that Abraham’s faith was tested. On passing the test, God concluded that Abraham feared him because he had not withheld Isaac from Him (Genesis 22: 12). Because Abraham was obedient, God swore to him that Abraham’s descendants “will take possession of the cities of their enemies” and that through Abraham’s offspring “all nations on earth will be blessed” (Genesis 22: 15-18). III. Meanings and Significance of the Sacrifice of Isaac The earliest religious ritual in almost all religion is sacrifice and in the Old Testament, the first sacrifice recorded in the bible was that of Cain and Abel, referring to Genesis Chapter 4 (International Bible Society G22). In Genesis Chapter 4, the Old Testament tells us that Cain “brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord” but Abel “brought fat portions from some of the first born of his flock” (Genesis 4: 4). The Old Testament tells us that the Lord was pleased with the sacrifices of Abel but not of Cain and pointed out to Cain, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?” The Old Testament did not explain what wrong Cain had done on this matter but we can surmise that while Abel had been sacrificing the best for God, Cain had not done been or he had not been sacrificing the best. Thus, for God, for a sacrifice to be acceptable, the sacrifice must be the sacrifice of the best, not of the ordinary, and of the insignificant. In Genesis Chapter 4, the sacrifice was called an “offering” and not a “sacrifice”. In Genesis Chapter 8, Noah built an altar to the Lord and sacrificed burnt clean animals and clean birds (Genesis Chapter 8: 20). The Lord was pleased because the sacrifice involved clean animals and clean birds and not simply animals and birds. Another mention of offering or sacrifice in Genesis is in the case of Jacob. The Old Testament narrated that Jacob had been regularly offering sacrifices to the Lord (Genesis Chapter 31 and 46). It seems that this characteristic of Jacob, more than anything else, endeared Jacob to God. While Jacob had many faults, he had loved God. For one, Jacob can be rightfully accused of deceiving and defrauding Esau of his birthright (Genesis 26: 36). However, it seems that based on Jacob’s habitual practice of the ritual sacrifices, Jacob loved God more than Esau loved God and it was the trait that mattered most for God. Jacob later asked Esau’s forgiveness in Genesis Chapter 33. Genesis Chapter 35 tells us that God asked Jacob later to change his name from “Jacob” to “Israel” (Genesis 35: 9). In the passages I have selected from Book of Genesis, it is clear that the Lord as portrayed by the Book of Genesis, is a jealous and demanding God. God expects from his servant the highest loyalty. God’s servants must ready to put God above the rest and above anything else. The Lord expects His servants to be ready to sacrifice everything and the most valuable in the world for Him. A servant of God must be willing to sacrifice, as necessary or required, the thing that is most important for him or for her. In the case of Abraham, the most precious was his son, the one who is to inherit Abraham’s birthright. The whole of the Old and New Testaments attests, however, that the relationship between God and man is not one-sided. In the same way that God demands our willingness to sacrifice the most precious as required and as needed, God has shown that His love for man is just as much. God was willing and did sacrifice his only Jesus as the sacrificial lamb to demonstrate to man His love for man with a command from Jesus men must love each other as He has loved man (John 15: 12). Jesus even said that the command for man to love each other as He has loved them is a new command (John 13:34). In turn, the love of Jesus and Jesus’ entire life is best viewed within the context of the passages from the Book of Genesis that I have quoted. However, I must stress that in the same way that God requires us to be capable of sacrificing that most valuable for the love of God, God has also shown through the life of Jesus that His love for men is as equally as great as His requirement on the love men must have for Him. Although both the Muslim and Christian traditions have an Abraham (Ibrahim for Muslim) sacrificing his only son (Ishmael in the case of Muslims but Isaac in the case of Christians), the Christian tradition followed up the event with God sacrificing His own son with a new instruction that men must love each other as He has loved men. It does not seem that there is a similar instruction in the Islamic faith. IV. Word Study: Sacrifice Let us see how the word “sacrifice” is understood in the Old Testament. According to Garner, sacrifice in the Old Testament context, “involves the offering of valued possessions to god (and in doing probably making them holy)---it is usually conducted as an act of worship or adoration” (3). In the Old Testament, “animals or objects may be set apart of consecrated and offered” to God (4). Although sacrifice is contained throughout the Old Testament, the Book of Leviticus contains the “exhaustive detail on the nature, scope and procedure for various sacrifices” (Garner 5). Further, Garner said that “the primary difference between Old Testament sacrifice (representing the “old covenant” with God), and the New Testament (the “new covenant”), may be summarily expressed by Hebrews (4:15-5:10) which treats Christ’s ministry and sacrifice as superseding all other sacrifices, including those throughout the Old Testament” (5-6). According to Garner, sacrifice in the Old Testament can involve not only one but instead several attitudes or fundamental acts (6-13). There are at least five attitudes or fundamental acts that may be involved in sacrifice1. First, sacrifice can be executed as an unconditional obedience to God’s specific command. This is the category in which the passages that I have quoted belong. Abraham was following God’s command when he prepared Isaac to be sacrificed. Second, sacrifices can offered out of holy fear. According to Garner, this is the category of the sacrifice in Genesis Chapter 31 where Jacob executed the sacrifice out “in the name of the Fear of his Father Isaac” (7). Third, according to Garner, sacrifices can be done out of desperation (7). For Garner, the sacrifice in Exodus 5: 8 belongs to this category. Fourth, according to Garner, sacrifices can be done out of celebration, rejoicing, worship, and/or thankfulness and enumerates several examples of these in Exodus 12: 26-27, Deuteronomy 27:7, Ezra 3:2, Psalm 27:6, Psalm 54:6, Jonah 2:9, and Deuteronomy 12:11 (8-9). Fifth, according to Garner, sacrifices can be made for love and honor and/or reverence (10). According to Garner, this why King David insisted on a sacrifice that will cost him in 2 Samuel 24: 24 even though Araunah offered to give to King David for free a threshing floor that King David intended to transformed into an altar where burnt offerings can be sacrificed (2 Samuel 24: 24). Meanwhile, the Harvestime International Institute identified several types of sacrifices in the Old Testament. According to the Harvestime International Institute, sacrifices may be in the form of a burnt offering, meal offering, peace offering, sin offering, and trespass offering (59). In contrast, the International Bible Society said that some sacrifices “expressed thanks, some were intended to ask for forgiveness for wrong-doing, some were called “peace offerings” and so on (G22). According to the International Bible Society, “these sacrifices were meant to be a response of love and obedience to God, rather than an attempt to stop him from being angry, or even ‘to keep on the right side of God’” (G22). The International Bible Society continued that sacrifices in the Old Testament were “a special way God had provided for his people to come to him, particularly when they had done wrong” (G22). It must be emphasized, however, that God values obedience more highly compared to sacrifice. As mentioned in I Samuel 15:22, “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams”. Garner recognized that this was pointed out but, unfortunately, interpreted the passage to mean that one attitude that can be involved in sacrifice is “perseverance and blessing to others” and “extreme actins” (10-11). Further, to Garner’s enumeration of acts related to sacrifice, we can add that sacrifices can be done for fellowships or communion with God, as a form of devotion, as a form of expression of man’s love for God. Garner seems to have missed that 2 Samuel 24:25 specifically mentioned that sacrifices are sometimes done for fellowship offerings with God. We can also make another qualification on the importance that the Old Testament places on sacrifice. Micah 6: 6-8 implied that “to walk justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly” with God is more important than the burnt offering of calves a year old, more pleasing than thousands of rams, and more wonderful in God’s sight than ten thousand rivers of oil. Yet, at the same time, sacrifice is an important theme in the Old and New Testaments. Among the most important emphasis of Old Testament are acceptable sacrifices and sacrifices that please God. In contrast, one of the emphases of the New Testament is God’s sacrifice of His son, Jesus Christ, in making man aware of His love for man as well as Jesus’ command for men to love one another as He has love them by sacrificing himself and God the Father sacrificing his only Son for man’s sake. Meanwhile, a word that deserves a closer look is the meaning of who can be classified as the first-born son. In the context of our passages, the first born can be Ishmael or Isaac. Ishmael was born first but eventually it was Isaac who was reckoned as the first born if not the only son of Abraham. Their case is similar with the case of Jacob and Esau. Esau was the first born but eventually the inheritance went to Jacob. These are important subject matters but they will probably need several pages of discussion that will be longer than the current plan of this writer. V. Literary Context of the Passage The passages that we are analyzing constitute a story within the overall story of Book of Genesis. On one hand, we can classify the story represented by the passages as one of the series of stories on the origin of Israel as a nation. However, we can also interpret the passages as one of the links between the Old and New Testament. As pointed out earlier, we can justifiably argue that while one of themes of the Old Testament has been the sacrifices or offering that men have made for God, the central theme of the New Testament is God’s offering for man---His only Son Jesus Christ. In addition, related to sacrifice, God or Jesus’ command is for men to love one another as Christ has loved men: willing to sacrifice his life for that love. The theme of Abraham’s attempted sacrifice of Isaac constitutes a theme that contributes to the unity between the Old and the New Testaments. The fact that the theme of sacrifice is one important heritage of the Old Testament to both Islam and Christianity indicates the importance of the theme of sacrifice in the Old Testament. The passages have changing subjects because it is a dialogue between God and Abraham. At the same time, the overriding theme in the passages is obedience, willingness to sacrifice, and the meaning of sacrifice itself. Sacrifice is only sacrifice when the object of sacrifice is of high value. Sacrifice is one that is done out of love and/or obedience for the Lord. Sacrifice is also done out of trust. God loves man and His commandments are good. In his willingness to sacrifice Isaac for the love of God even as Abraham loved Isaac, Abraham probably has that deep trust for God: all will end well. Meanwhile, according to Lawlord, the literary structure of the passages related to the sacrifice of Abraham in the Book of Genesis follows this structure (20): Prologue Genesis 22:1 Act I Ordeal/Crisis Genesis 22: 2-10 Scene 1 Genesis 22: 2-5 Scene 2 Genesis 22: 6-10 Act II: Resolution Genesis 22:11-18 Scene 1: Genesis 22: 11-14 Scene 2: Genesis 22: 15-18 Epilogue Genesis 22:19 VI. Dating the Passage Based on the timeline of the International Bible Society, Abraham lived approximately between 1800 B.C. to 1400 B.C. On another page of the same book of the International Bible Society, the International Bible Society estimated Abraham’s approximate existence between 2000 B.C. to 1825 B.C. In the estimate of the International Bible Society, Abraham’s existence was within the middle bronze age. According to the International Bible Society, they used dating system that utilized the work of archaeologists combined with scientific ways of dating their discoveries. VII. Commentaries Because of the profound significance of the passage not only for the Judaist, Christian and Muslim worlds, it is not a surprise that several biblical commentaries on the passages have been offered from all walks of faith. For Prival, for instance, the biblical story was meant to emphasize that God do not wish that children be sacrificed for him because it was a belief in those times that sacrifices will please the gods as Israel at that time (although Israel had not yet existed) is populated by people of several faiths. According to Prival, “in ancient times, people would make sacrifices to their gods in order to keep the gods happy” (54). At the same time, Prival pointed out that the story is not the best way to teach unquestioning obedience to God especially as newer interpretations of the meaning of the passages have been developed (54). Prival posed the question why Abraham did not argue with God on why Isaac had to be sacrificed (55). Prival said that a possible explanation is that the Book of Genesis was written by several authors (55). According to Prival, there were three authors involved in the Book of Genesis. One author use the name “Yahweh” for God and this was the tradition of people who settled in the South or Judah (Prival 55). Another author used the word “Elohim” and this was the tradition of people in the North or Israel (55). Lastly, there is another author known as the priestly author (55). The three authorship was merged by an editor who tried to blend together the stories from different traditions (55). One of the authors though of Abraham as a courageous person who would even argued with Yahweh himself to protect innocent people. Another author was more concerned on presenting Abraham’s blind obedience to God (55). Prival appears to imply that how the Book of Genesis was written was influenced by who among the authors were adopted or emphasized by the editor of the Book of Genesis who consolidated three authorship under one work (Prival 55). On the same passages, Fleming argued that Abraham “was no doubt shocked when God told him to sacrifice Isaac” (19). God’s command “tested not only his obedience but his faith, because once Isaac was dead, God could no longer fulfill his covenant promise of giving Isaac a multitude of descendants” (Fleming 19). According to Fleming, “nevertheless, Abraham obeyed, believing that God would provide the solution to this difficulty, even if meant raising the sacrificed son back to life” (19). Fleming said that the testing of Abraham to sacrifice Isaac “proved that obedience was the way to blessing” as “He assured Abraham a multitude of descendants through Isaac” (19). Lawlord highlighted that Abraham received an “emphatic enunciation of blessing” that will result “in his ‘only son’ being multiplied into descendants that would number ‘as the stars of heavens and the sand which is on the seashore’” because of his willingness to obey God’s commands (20). VIII. Conclusion In conclusion, our foregoing discussion indicates that a set of biblical passages has meanings over and beyond the meanings they convey within a biblical chapter. Further, the passages can have significance even beyond a particular faith. For instance, in the case of the passages related to God’s command to sacrifice Isaac, the passages have significance not only to Israel’s history but also for Judaist, Christian, and Islamic faiths. Work Cited Carson, Ken. Genesis. Oregon, United States of America: Grace Institute for Biblical Leadership, 2008. Fleming, Don. Bridgeway Bible Commentary. Brisbane: Bridge Publications. Garner, Gary. Attitude to Sacrifices in the Old Testament: Accounting for the Differences. Queensland: Bible College of Queensland, 2003. Harvestime International Institute. Basic Bible Survey One Old Testament. Florida: Harvestime International Institute. Hillmer, Mark. “The Book of Genesis in the Qur’an”. Word & World 14.2 (1994), 195-203. International Bible Society. The Holy Bible. New International Version. New Jersey: International Bible Society, 1983. Jones, Catherine Cartwright. Id al-Adha: Sacrifice and Henna Traditions. Ohio: TapDancing Lizard LLC, 2001. Keathley, J. Hampton III. Concise Old Testament Survey. Biblical Studies Foundation, 1998. Lawlor, John. The Test of Abraham. Grace Theological Journal 1.1 (1980): 19-35. Prival, Michael. Learning Bible Today: From Creation to the Conquest of Canaan. Michigan: International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism, 2007. Read More