GENESIS 22, or, "In a Bind"

God puts Abraham through the ultimate test by commanding him to sacrifice his own son. Plus: Genealogy!



I assume most of you know this story, but just in case, here's a recap: God had been making a big deal about the birth of Isaac for a long time, and finally, in the last chapter, he delivered the goods. Abraham and Sarah, even though they are both in old age, had their son; not just any son, a son who would go on to father God's great nation.

After all that fanfare, Abraham finds himself here, in chapter 22, being asked by God to take Isaac up to a mountain and sacrifice him. Unquestioningly, Abraham does as God commands. He ties Isaac up and just as he is about to thrust a knife into him, an angel tells him to stop, explaining that God now knows for certain that Abraham is a true believer, and that Isaac doesn't need to be harmed.

Then, somewhat incongruously, we learn about the lineage of Abraham's cousins.

What does this story mean? Obviously, there's the lesson of faith - that your belief in God should be so strong that you should be willing to kill your own offspring for him. Barbaric, yes, but we should also keep in mind that God doesn't actually allow Abraham to kill Isaac. One illustrious Jewish scholar, Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz, Britain's Chief Rabbi of the early 20th century, wrote about how in that time, child sacrifice was actually quite common and that "in that age, it was astounding that Abraham's God should have interposed to prevent the sacrifice, not that He should have asked for it... Unlike the cruel heathen deities, it was the spiritual surrender alone that God required." Thus proving God superior and more compassionate to other gods.

Also of note is how some have drawn parallels between the binding of Isaac and the crucifixion of Christ, which was particularly interesting for me to learn after I observed in the previous entry that the story of Jesus' birth and Isaac's birth had some telling similarities. I'll let Wikipedia take it away:

"The majority of Christian Biblical commentators hold this whole episode to be an archetype of the way that God works; this event is seen as foreshadowing God's plan to have his own Son, Jesus, die on the cross as a substitute for humanity, much like the ram God provided for Abraham. And Abraham's willingness to give up his own son Isaac is seen, in this view, as foreshadowing the willingness of God the Father to sacrifice his Son; also contrasted is Isaac's submission in the whole ordeal with Christ's, the two choosing to lay down their own lives in order for the will of God to be accomplished, as no struggle is mentioned in the Genesis account. Indeed, both stories portray the participants carrying the wood for their own sacrifice up a mountain."

Since we've weighed in on the Jews and Christians, it's only fair to get the Muslim interpretation of this chapter as well. Many Muslim traditions hold that God doesn't tell Abraham to sacrifice Isaac at all, but Ismael. Ishmael, you'll remember, is Abraham's other son through his maidservant Hagar. He is also the figure Muslims trace their heritage back to. Though the Biblical text specifically uses the name "Isaac", God does also say, "your only son". Muslims use this phrase to interpret the text as saying that these events occurred before the birth of Isaac, back when Ismael was Abraham's "only son", and somewhere along the way the name "Ishmael" in the Biblical text started to be replaced by the name "Isaac".

There have been many interesting interpretations of Genesis 22, and I urge anyone reading this to check out this transcript of an interview with author Bruce Feiler by Krista Tippett on her radio show "Speaking of Faith". He offers many excellent insights into how Genesis 22 has been read throughout the centuries by different people of different faiths.

Pop Culture References to Gen 22: The first verse of Bob Dylan's song "Highway 61 Revisited" deals with the Binding of Isaac.

Oh God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son"
Abe says, "Man, you must be puttin' me on"
God say, "No." Abe say, "What?"
God say, "You can do what you want Abe, but
The next time you see me comin' you better run"
Well Abe says, "Where do you want this killin' done?"
God says, "Out on Highway 61."

GENESIS 21, or, "Who you laughing at?"

Abraham's son Isaac is born, Hagar and Ishamel are sent away, there's some kind of contention over a well

After chapters and chapters of GPAASASBAASWSBTWTOTBC, Sarah finally gives birth to hers and Abraham's son Isaac; the name "Isaac" coming about because it means "to laugh" and Sarah laughed at God when He told her that she was going to have a son at such an old age. She laughs some more after giving birth, still incredulous about the whole thing. She was a jolly old gal.

You know, Mary wasn't this skeptical when she was told she was going to have a baby even though she were a virgin. Sarah was no Mary, I'll tell you that. And now that I think about it, that's an interesting point: the major event in both the Old and the New Testament is a miraculous, prophesized birth. AND in the Old Testament, the miracle of the birth is that the woman is too old, and in the New Testament, the miracle is that the woman is a virgin, which is a little like saying she was too young. Am I stretching this out too much? It's interesting nonetheless.

Abraham circumcises Isaac, the babe grows, and once he is weaned Abraham throws a party. At the festivities, Ishmael, Abraham's son through his maidservant Hagar starts making fun of Isaac, so Sarah wants Ishmael and Hagar sent away for good. But who could blame the kid? Obviously he's jealous that Isaac is getting all the attention.

If you remember, Sarah tried to pull this crap in Genesis 16 as well. Sarah is not a fan of Hagar and Ishmael. Abraham is conflicted, God tells him to do as Sarah says, that Ismael will be taken care of and a great nation will come of him as well as Isaac.

Hagar and Ishmael are kicked out, and God follows through on his promise, miraculously giving Ishmael water when he was about to die of thirst. After, Ishamel grew up to be an archer, and they both ended up in Egypt where Ishmael found a wife.

Back at Abraham's camp, ol' Abimelech, the ruler introduced in the previous chapter approaches Abraham. Now that Abimelech knows that God is on Abraham's side, he wants Abraham to swear that he'll deal fairly him. Abraham swears that he will, and then complains to Abimelech that a well of his was taken over by the ruler's servants. Abimelech is all like, "Why are you blaming me? Why didn't you tell me about this before?" And then Abraham is all like, "Well, I'm telling you about it now!". And then Abimelech is all, "What do you want me to do about it?", and Abraham is like, "Fine! Fine! Forget about it! I'll just dig another well!"

And he did.

By the way, the most interesting thing to note about this chapter is that Abraham is the father of both Judaism and Islam. Jews trace their ancestry back to Isaac, and Muslims trace theirs back to Ishmael. So even though the two sides are still fighting to this day, we should remember that it is essentially a sibling rivalry. Isaac and Ishmael didn't get along much, just like Israel and Palestine, but Genesis 21 teaches us that God has blessed both nations.

God on NPR: Here's a except from Krista Tippett's interview with author Bruce Feiler, who has some great insights into the story of Abraham and how it effects religion today.

BF: And Sarah says to Abraham, 'Kick Ishmael out into the desert.' And he clearly doesn't want to. Ishmael is his first son. He's been looking for a son for 90 years at that point. And what happens is God says it's okay, that he too will become a great nation. And so Ishmael is kicked out into the desert. But unlike a lot of people — figures in the Bible — he never leaves Abraham's realm of love and paternity, and he never leaves the sphere of God's blessing. And what is interesting is how the text seems to be bending over backwards to create a sort of balance.

Ishmael goes out into the desert, but his mother, Hagar, is much more elevated. Isaac gets the land, but through the malice of his mother. Hagar is the only person, male or female, in the Hebrew Bible to ever speak and name God directly. And God promises Abraham that he will have many generations — Isaac and Jacob — but He promises the same to Hagar, which means Hagar is, in effect, a female patriarch. And this balance, I think, is stunning because the split — when this story comes along, the split among the religions is still thousands of years in the future, and yet the text seems to understand that all of these people are related to one another, that there will be violence, but there also is peace.

I mean the thing that I hold onto here — one of the last things I did, as you know, is I went to Hebron, one of the bloodiest cities on the planet, the epicenter of Muslim-Jewish conflict. I drove south on this sniper road where the Israelis and Palestinians shoot at one another, before arriving at the Tomb of the Patriarchs. It's this giant building that looks like a cross between a gymnasium and a castle. The last time I had been there, there were 10,000 Jews dancing in the festival. Today, it was empty, so dangerous that four soldiers with helmets and machine guns had to escort me inside — four.

And I go to this little tiny room between Abraham and Sarah's tomb. All three faiths agree this is where they're buried. There's a ramshackle synagogue there with a chandelier hanging down with half the bulbs out, and it's there that Abraham, at 175, dies. And in one of the most haunting and overlooked passages in the Hebrew Bible, Genesis 25:9, his sons Ishmael and Isaac, rivals since before they were born, estranged since childhood, leaders of opposing nations, come, stand side by side, and bury their father. Abraham achieves in death what he could never achieve in life, this moment of reconciliation. A hopeful side-by-side flicker of possibility when they're not rivals or warriors; Jews, Christians, or Muslims. They are brothers.