"What Does God Require?"
Sermon Presented June 26, 2005
Genesis 22:1-14
Several weeks before preaching a sermon, I decide what text to use by reading all of the lectionary texts for the day and then choosing one that seems right. Sometimes the choice is easy, but other times it's most difficult. Today's choice was a most difficult one. In fact, I can't believe I am preaching on it! I don't even like to read it! But I decided to give it a whirl because you may have problems with it too, and we can explore it together!
When I read this text several weeks ago, I thought of the parents who sacrificed their children by sending them to Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch. Now I know there's no similarity between a trustworthy God and an untrustworthy Jackson, but I can't understand Abraham's willingness to follow a directive that appears will lead to the death of his child by his own hands.
Now that I'm already in deep trouble, let me give you some background for the text. If you have been here for the past few Sundays, you will know what is happening, but let me refresh your memory. Abraham's wife Sara birthed Isaac in their old age, and God promised that Isaac would be the father of a great nation. Abraham has already sent his older son Ishmael and Ishmael's mother Hagar into the desert, so it's Isaac on whom the hopes and the promise are riding! Isaac is now a youth.
Genesis 22:1-14 (read text)
I'm sure you can understand why I don't like the text. My mind wants to scream: "Abraham, you must be crazy! God wouldn't ask anything of the sort. Check yourself into the nearest psychiatric hospital until these thoughts subside." Then I wondered why this story is even in the Bible. It's obvious from the text that Abraham didn't misunderstand, so my next question is why God would ask such a thing. After avoiding this text for half a century, I decided to try to understand how a loving God could give such a command. I checked several commentaries and other writings and hopefully I can now say something that will not only help with your understanding, but will also help you to live your life more faithfully. So, here goes!
The first verse says that God tested Abraham. Therefore we readers know something that is hidden from Abraham. If Abraham heard the words: "This is a test. This is only a test. Should this be an actual emergency…" he could have acted without the anguish and pain he experienced. But only God and the readers know this is a test. Abraham doesn't have a clue. God wants to test Abraham's faithfulness, and believes the test is essential if God is to move into the future with him.
Now if this is a test, then God wants to know something! This isn't a game. God genuinely doesn't know how strong Abraham's faith is and decides to find out. We can't understand this text if we don't understand the test. And we can only understand the test if we see it as a genuine movement from God's initiating it in verse 2 "take your only son, Isaac" to the resolution in verse 12 with God's words "Now I know." Through this test, God determines that Abraham trusts and obeys the giver and doesn't just cherish and covet the gift. God learns something from the test!
Now if you are of the opinion that God knows everything - past, present and future - this thought will blow your theology. Because if God knew, why would God put both father and son through a trauma that would land most of us in psychiatric treatment for months or years? If we are to believe the message of the story, we must believe that God was truly testing Abraham and didn't know what Abraham would do.
God's promise was that through Isaac, Abraham's descendants would be named. Abraham was to be the father of a mighty nation and Isaac was the link to that nation. That was God's promise! Abraham had heard the promise many times! But now God commands Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice to God. If he obeys that command, it follows that there will be no descendants. The much-delayed birth process for this elderly couple will have been for nothing. Abraham trusted the promise and now God is threatening it. Can the same God who promises and gives life also command death?
In this text, Abraham hears an unthinkable command from God: "Take the gift you hoped for so long, the sign of your faith, the source of your laughter - and give it up!" I am amazed by Abraham's response! The text doesn't say that he pleads or questions or gets angry with God. It's obvious that there is a mutual trust between Abraham and God, for the text says that Abraham acts in obedience to God's command and leaves early the next morning on a three day journey that is to end with the sacrifice of his son. I'll bet he didn't tell Sarah the purpose of the trip!
I don't know of any religious groups today that practice child sacrifice, but this wasn't an uncommon practice in the Ancient Near Eastern countries. Some religions then believed their gods required child sacrifices, so this idea wasn't foreign to Abraham except that the command came from his God. I'm sure that during the three days of travel Abraham struggled mightily with what lay before him.
When they reach the designated spot, Abraham tells his servants to stay with the donkey while he and Isaac go on ahead to worship. He also says: "we will come back to you." Does he believe a miracle will occur or is this a deceptive statement?
Now Isaac is no dummy and wonders where the lamb for sacrifice is. Abraham assures him that God will provide the offering. Isaac trusts his father as Abraham trusts God.
The test comes to the brink of death. The altar is built, Isaac is bound and laid on the altar and the knife is raised ready to strike when God halts the proceedings. God gives a new command and a sacrifice becomes visible to Abraham. Through tears of joy and relief, Abraham and Isaac worship God and God reaffirms the covenant in the wake of Abraham's faithfulness.
The great divide between God's opening command and our sense of how God should act are never connected in the story. We experience a vast distance between who God is and our limited understanding of God. This means that the life of faith will be one of testing because we will frequently be called to act without full understanding.
This is a story of faith - not dissimilar to the ones we read last week in the newspaper about the healing of the girl with rabies or the discovery of the child who was lost in the mountains. Faith was woven into the very fabric of these stories of the parents, doctors, healthcare workers, rescuers, and prayer warriors as they acted on the small amounts of faith that they possessed. These people confronted God continually with what they understood of God and the lives of both children were saved. The faith of all of those involved was tested.
There are times when God seems to be acting against God's promise. Faith is like that. Faith is a commitment to God that entails courage and risk. As we try to discern the difference between faith and fanaticism, we need to remember how the story ends. The God that we know doesn't require such sacrifices.
This story leads us to two disclosures of God. At the beginning God is the tester and at the end God is the provider. These two statements about God frame the story.
The obvious question is: Does God really test this way? The premise of the story is that God does! The test occurs in a faith in which God insists on undivided loyalty. Our testing comes when it is seductively attractive to find an easier, less demanding alternative to God's commands.
In our rational sophistication, we find the notion of testing primitive. But this isn't just a concept of the ancient Hebrew Scriptures. Jesus tells us to pray, "Lead us not into temptation." This model prayer spoken by Jesus asks that God not put us in a testing situation where we are forced to choose, decide or risk for our confession of faith. This prayer speaks a fear that we will fail the test.
The early church understood that there were times of testing. One dimension of that testing - then and now - is the temptation to accommodate the world, to yield to the pressures that lead to a compromised faith. The testings make clear the deep conflict between the purposes of God and the purposes of our culture. We don't want to decide between the two. This narrative asserts that we must decide whether or not we will obey God.
The second issue here is that God provides. This statement can also be problematic. To believe that God provides requires as much faith as that of God testing. It affirms that God is the source of life. It's a confession that the ram didn't appear by accident or good fortune. It asserts that the same God who tested Abraham is the one who graciously resolved the test. In our world, the claim that God alone provides is almost as scandalous as the claim that God tests.
When we pray the Lord's Prayer, we not only ask God to save us from testing, we also pray for God's provision. That prayer acknowledges that God is the source of provision and thus we pray for daily bread.
I like the concept of a God who provides better than the one of the God who tests. The provider God is easier to accept. But we can't choose between these attributes of God. Both are in our text. Abraham can't explain but he knows beyond his ability to understand that God will find a way to bring life in this command of death. That is at the heart of his anguished faith.
In our contemporary world, we are called to sacrifice and to believe that God will provide a way of escape. Civil rights workers went South in the 60's knowing that they might be killed - and some were. Pastors who stand up to what they believe are injustices may lose their pastorates. Politicians who proclaim what is right in a climate of hatred and self-interests risk political death. Ordinary people lose financial security when they sell stock and mutual funds or quit jobs that go against their ideas of what is right concerning proper care of the environment, justice or health issues. If we listen closely enough we will find that God still asks us to sacrifice and when that call comes, we are to believe that God will provide.
The apostle Paul states in his letter to the Church at Corinth, "God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing will also provide the way out, so that you may be able to endure it" (I Corinthians 10:13). Paul is speaking of Abraham's God who both tests and provides.
This text will always conjure up questions, no matter where you are on your faith journey. When we live life in relationship with God and people, there will always be testing. Let us pray that we will be faithful - as God is faithful!
