“God tested Abraham.” (Genesis 22:1-14)
So what do you think? Was Abraham being faithful when he “reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son”? Did he pass the test?
The usual interpretation is yes. He proved that he feared God. He proved his faithfulness. Abraham passed the test.
Not The Usual Interpretation
But I’m not so sure. I struggle with this story. What about you? I don’t think I’m the only one. I can’t make sense of it. I cannot resolve it for you or myself. I don’t think it’s as simple as hearing and obeying the voice of God. It never is. After all, more than one murder defendant has said they heard the voice of God tell them to kill another – and no one believes that. The juries don’t. I don’t. Do you?
I wonder if Abraham failed the test and that’s why the angel intervened at the last minute to stop the killing. Despite my struggle with this story or maybe because of that struggle, I still think the story has a profound and urgent lesson for us today.
Several years ago I asked my friend Rabbi Joe about this story. “How do you all make sense of it?” I asked. “What do you do with it?” He said, “I ignore it. That’s not who God is.”
Then he went on to talk about midrashim, the stories and commentaries that rabbis throughout the centuries have written in an attempt to understand, explain, and resolve this text. Apparently, Judaism struggles with it as much as do you and I.
Let me add one thing here. I refuse to accept the worn out and heretical argument that there are two different Gods, an Old Testament God of law and violence and a New Testament God of grace and peace. I hope you will refuse that as well. The God of Abraham is also the God of Jesus is also the God of you and me.
I agree with Rabbi Joe, that’s not who God is, but it sure seems to be who we are as people. The late Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain said, “We are never more willing to kill than when we do so in the name of God.”
Abraham’s Certitude
That’s not faithfulness. That’s certitude. What if Abraham is acting out of certitude and not faithfulness? There’s a fine line between the two. And sometimes we use God to give credibility to our certitude.
Certitude is my subjective absolute conviction about something. There is no self-reflection, no conversation with others, and certainly no consideration that I might be mistaken or wrong. There is only one way, my way. I know more and better than anyone else. If I think it or believe it then that settles it. Certitude closes my eyes, ears, and heart.
I wonder if certitude is why Abraham never objects, questions, or argues with God. Can you imagine keeping quiet in that situation? How can Abraham who negotiated with God on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah not speak up on behalf of his own son, his only son Isaac, whom he loves?
Isn’t it interesting that Abraham never told Sarah about what God had told him to do? Do you think she might have had something to say about that? Do you think she would have shared his certitude? Offered to pack his lunch and help him get ready? Maybe Abraham didn’t want to hear what Sarah would’ve had to say. Certitude usually only wants to hear its own voice.
I can easily imagine that on the way home Abraham said to Isaac, “Let’s just keep this between us. What happened on the mountain stays on the mountain. There’s no need to tell your mom about what happened up there.”
Neither did Abraham tell the two young men he took with him. Instead, he lied to them about his plan. “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” Maybe he was lying to himself too. Maybe that’s a way we keep our certitude.
And it’s no surprise that Abraham didn’t tell Isaac. To speak it out loud would have called everything into question. Silence and secrecy are the co-conspirators of certitude.
I don’t say any of this as a judgment or criticism of Abraham, but in recognition that I too have my certitudes. Maybe you do too. What are the certitudes you and I are living with today?
Our Certitude
What if the real test of Abraham, isn’t whether he would sacrifice his son Isaac, but whether he will sacrifice his certitude? What would it be like and take for you and me to sacrifice and let go of our certitudes? Here’s why I think that mattress.
Every day we see and live with the consequences of certitude, our own or another’s. It seems to me that certitude is a primary cause of death, injustice, and violence in our lives and world today – whether in our personal relationships or our national and global ones.
With certitude we bomb the world to pieces absolutely convinced that we are making peace. In our certitude we say that some lives matter more than others, some are welcome and others are not, some have dignity but others don’t. Certitude polarizes our politics. It prefers monologues to dialogue. It speaks but doesn’t listen. It’s at the heart of our judgments about and ridicule of others.
Certitude leaves us isolated and without need of others. Certitude hardens our heart and narrows our vision. It disconnects us from something larger than and beyond ourselves.
Maybe that angelic intervention on the mountain saved not only Isaac but also Abraham from Abraham’s certitude. Maybe we all need to be saved from our certitude.
Did you know that after the near sacrifice of Isaac holy scripture never records God as having spoken to Abraham again?
Faithfulness Without Certitude
Maybe Abraham left his certitude on the mountain that day. What if that was the beginning Abraham’s faith?
Faithfulness without certitude. What do you think? Can you do that? And what would that look like in your life.
Faithfulness without certitude. It just might give God something to work with. We just might discover, as did Abraham, that “the Lord will provide.”
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Image Credit: By Anonymous (Meister 1) – Hochschul- und Landesbibliothek Fulda, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Faithfulness without certitude. What do you think? Can you do that? And what would that look like in your life.Faithfulness without certitude. It just might give God something to work with. We just might discover, as did Abraham, that “the Lord will provide.
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