Jaime, Cersei, and Isaac

Genesis 20-22. Well Abraham does it again, folks. The same thing he did decades ago. He lied to a ruler about his wife out of fear. (It’s always the same sins that creep up on us, like we are all born with specific weak areas.) Abraham decides to move in this chapter, possibly because living near the ruins of Sodom and Gomorrah was bumming him out, and ended up in Gerar where Abimelech was king. Abimelech took Sarah for his own because he thought she was Abraham’s sister. God came to Abimelech in a dream and said, “You’re as good as dead, buddy. She’s married, but since you did this with a clear conscience, I kept you from sinning against me by not letting you touch her.” At this point, it was vital that Isaac’s parentage not be in question, first because God’s promise would be doubted, and second, because Jesus was to come from this line.

God told Abimelech to return Sarah and Abimelech did. Abimelech called Abraham in. Abraham basically said, “Well, I looked at your nasty kingdom full of hoodlums and figured there was no fear of God here, so they would kill me and take my wife. Also, she’s my half sister by our father. Ever since God caused me to wander from my father’s house, this has been our policy in these situations.” The usual excuses and blame-shifting are present. Abraham blames God here, complaining that God caused him to “wander.” The particular word for “wander” used here is never used by the Bible in a good way. It’s akin to a drunk guy staggering around. Abimelech then brought gifts to Abraham and Sarah, showing that he’s the bigger person in this situation. Last time Abraham was offered gifts by a pagan king, Abraham didn’t accept them. But now that Abraham realizes he’s not the good guy in this situation, he allows Abimelech to make the grand gesture.

Hilariously, Abimelech addresses Sarah and says, “Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver.” Nice one, Abimelech.( Since Abraham and Sarah are half-sibling lovers, and I’m me, I like to imagine they look like the Game of Thrones twins. Wildly inaccurate, I know, but it makes me happy.) After that, Sarah finally bore Isaac, 25 years after he was promised. Abraham sent Ishmael and Hagar away, at Sarah’s behest and with God’s permission. Ishmael became an archer and married an Egyptian woman. Then comes Abraham’s big test. I love this story, and I feel like it’s misunderstood a lot. An atheist praised the New Testament Jesus to me, but then followed it up with, “But the Old Testament God was a douchebag. He told Abraham to kill his own son and then said, ‘Why are you doing that?’” The problem is that Christian have been emphasizing the least important thing in this story: Abraham’s faith. The point God is making and what this tells us about God is the important part.

 God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, whom he loved. This is the first mention of love in the Bible. Note: Isaac wasn’t unwilling in this whole thing. The Bible twice says he and his father “went together,” which meant literally that they “went in agreement.” While there is no stated age, Isaac carried the wood for the sacrifice up the mountain, implying that he almost certainly was not a small child. Isaac is referred to as a “lad,” a word which, in the original language, could refer to a young male from infancy until the point he was married. Several Jewish commentators estimate that Isaac was in his 30s. Anyway, Abraham was over 100 and Isaac probably could have escaped at any point during the trip, if he’d wanted to. Isaac should be commended for faith and obedience too.

I feel like this chapter says more about God than it does about Abraham. Sure, Abraham showed his faith and growth, but God already knew Abraham’s heart. This test was to show Abraham something. First, it must have been personally freeing for Abraham to know how much he feared God and to know that God knew the level of his faith too. But the most important thing coming out of this chapter is that God is totally different from every other god out there. If you haven’t watched “The Gods Aren’t Angry” by Rob Bell, you should. It’s my favorite thing he’s done. It’s on DVD. If you’re willing, stop reading right now, because I’m about to ruin it. If not, here are the cliffnotes.

Bell points out that in ancient days, it was not out of the ordinary to sacrifice a child to the gods. This was by far NOT the only time this was done in the ancient world. In the ancient days, people thought the gods provided good fortune, and if they were angry or displeased, your whole family and society was doomed. People had no understanding of science and had little control over whether there would be food or health. So they sacrificed animals. And if things still didn’t go perfectly, well, there was gold, castration, mutilation, sacrifice of virgins, and then, finally, sacrifice of their sons, which were their future and all they had left to give. People lived in constant fear of consequences for not being good enough (much like we do, when we strive for perfection to deliver us from shame).

Abraham didn’t seem shocked at God’s request. He went about it like it was business as usual, even though some of his words to Isaac imply that Abraham suspected there was going to be some sort of twist (he said “God will provide the sacrifice”), because he knew God pretty well by then. Unless he meant that God had provided Isaac… People get so upset that God would ask Abraham to kill his child to prove his faith. But God didn’t, you guys. Did you miss that part? It’s the other gods that did. It’s that society that did. God was making a point that he was a new kind of God, not subject to the religious norms of the day. You were going to know  where you stood with this God, so you wouldn’t have to live in fear. This God was going to provide all the sacrifices, all the ways to reconciliation, and all the sons. Since this point was made, you don’t see God making the same request later in the Bible. We’ve seen several times in Genesis God pointing out that he’s a God of grace, and Jesus hasn’t even shown up yet. There’s no displeased God in heaven keeping score, breathing down your neck. There’s one waiting with the sacrifice.