Holy Hormones Bible Study: Teaching — not Entertainment
GOD & ABRAHAM & ISAAC: HONEST QUESTIONS — 1st OF 4
Proposition 1: The Akedah was Abraham’s idea, not God’s
The prologue
Unless something else arises, this will be the fourth post of a two part series, which will actually end with a seventh installment, about the Akedah (Abraham’s offering of Isaac, Genesis 22:1–12). Confused? This is because some very interesting comments related to the initial posts require attention.
A number of interesting remarks concerning the morality of God, and the historical veracity of the text, have appeared on the Medium platform. They can’t be ignored and can be generally grouped into the following four propositions.
1. The idea of sacrificing Isaac was not from God, Who abhors child sacrifices, but came from Abraham, himself, who was seeking a way to express his faith and mistakenly thought this would prove it and please God.
2. The episode was NOT a literal event that Abraham experienced, but a dream that he had. It was common for God to communicate through dreams (aka: visions of the night).
3. Common sense dictates that the One saying, “I am the Lord,” would not profane His own Name by looking like He is Molech’s twin as He commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.
4. God was contradicting the common cultural understanding, at the time, of a real god. He was showing Abraham His (God’s) true nature.
The elephant in the room for all Christians is the perfectly valid, honest, question, “If you have or had a son and you believe God asked you to kill him for the sake of testing your dedication, would you automatically do it without hesitation as the story indicates?”
What to expect in this series of four articles
The items listed above will be discussed individually in order; each having its own post.
This is the Word of God, so there will be no skimping. That may mean that some posts may have more than one part because of attention span constraints.
The perfectly valid, honest, question will be addressed with Proposition 4, but you will notice the answer will be developed through all the articles like the processing of an old-fashioned black-&-white snapshot.
It will become evident that Elohim is the Hero — not the Villain.
Yehovah did not choose “A Great man of God.” He chose a disobedient and fearful man, who avoided confrontation, and made that man great.
Proposition 1: It was Abraham’s idea
This is a classical example of, “Paying attention is better than thinking. You may miss something important.”
While it is true that Yehovah abhors child sacrifices, one of His Characteristics is that He is Immutable — He Never Changes. His personal Name, יהוה, is a term of endearment to Judaism. I’m told by my Hebrew consultants that, to them, The Name, HaShem, means, “He exists. He is the covenant keeping God Who delights in keeping His Promises; Promises He is not compelled to make. He is the One Who comes down. He is the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow.”
His Name is not, Yehovah Arav, The Lord Who delights in Ambush.
Paying attention to the Narrative, it can be seen that things had happened in Abraham’s life since Yehovah picked him, Abram, out. It is dangerous to put words into God’s Mouth, but it seems that He was showing the difference between Abram and Abraham.
Whom did Elohim call that day?
Whom did Elohim call that day?
It was Abraham, not Abram.
At some time along their Journey together Abram became Abram with the Spirit of God, ה (a breath, “hey”), included, i.e. Abraham. (‘Breathed into,’ or ‘breathed upon,’ I don’t know.) The transformation (G3339 — metamorphoō, Romans 12:2) wasn’t instant, as will be seen later, in Proposition 4, but by that time the pattern of the metamorphism will have been noticed. It is recommended that you re-read from Genesis 11:26, through Genesis 17:15 to Genesis 22:1–12 to see the progress. (The key is in Stephen’s Address in Acts 7.)
What went on in Genesis 22:1–2?
By definition, every word God speaks is true, but sometimes it appears that the Holy Spirit contradicts Himself. The best advice I’ve heard about that is, “Keep on reading. Things will become clearer.” To that should be added, “Pay attention to what you are reading.” The Holy Spirit went to the trouble to have it written, and Yehovah gives heed to His own words — as is written in Psalm 12:6–7 || The words of the Lord are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times. You shall keep (H8104) them, O Lord, You shall preserve them from this generation forever.
H8104 — šāmar, a verb of continuous action that never stops = to keep, guard, observe, give heed, to keep, retain, treasure up (in memory), to preserve, to protect, as a watchman.
God presents paradoxes, not contradictions.
There are things we mere Mortals must hold in tension until Yehovah slots everything into place because He says what He means and means what He says. (Others may disagree with me.)
As I read Genesis 22:1–2, in every one of the 63 English translations in Bible Gateway it is God Who initiates the interaction, NOT Abraham. Also, in the post, DOES GOD SAY, ‘PLEASE’? it is shown in endless boring detail that Abraham was given no option. God is up to something that does not become evident until later. (Actually Hebrews 11:17–19.)
It is granted that the Saint who made this statement on Medium probably had the best intentions, but it is the duty of every Saint to study why the Holy Spirit chooses any word, and it’s position in the Scripture — not give Him advice on a better way to say it. The technical term for that is eisegesis. Otherwise known as, creating a god in our own image. Allegory is a license to invent.
Unless there is something I have missed, this proposition that it was all about Abraham’s intentions is not sound because it was ignored that God, not Abraham, initiated the event.
Conclusion to date
While there is written evidence to show that it was NOT Abraham’s idea, the perfectly valid, honest, question “Why would God trigger such an incident?” has not yet been answered. But it is written in Isaiah 55:8–9, That His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor our ways His ways. And, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways, And His thoughts higher than our thoughts.
Let’s keep on reading and start to pay attention to the Logic (Logos) of His thoughts, NOT ours. God keeps His Promises. It will all slot into place.
The forgoing evidence has not been presented to convince any reader but to allow a personal decision to be made. There is much more to know about this subject. Perhaps you’ll pay another visit, sometime.
All Glory to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
(We all have a plank in our eye. It’s bigger than we think.)
