NOTES for Gen 22:1-24
The event that we call the sacrifice of Isaac is known in Hebrew as the Akedah. This word literally means “binding”—and indeed, the sacrifice itself never took place: Isaac was only bound and laid upon the altar. God stopped Abraham, and no killing occurred. Killing is precisely what it would have been: today hardly anyone can doubt God’s attitude toward human sacrifice, for the Bible speaks about it unequivocally.
What, then, happened to Abraham? Traditionally, the event is interpreted as a kind of test of Abraham: of his faithfulness to God, his trust in Him, and his readiness to do whatever God might demand. All this would make sense were it not for one crucial point: why would God test Abraham’s readiness to do something that in God’s eyes constitutes the double sin of apostasy and murder?
It was apostasy because in those days human sacrifices were offered only to the gods beneath the earth, the gods of the lower world, the rulers of the realm of shadows; and it was murder for an obvious reason: by definition, God has no need of human sacrifices, so from His point of view this was simply murder and nothing more. What, then, are we to make of the voice Abraham heard? If it was not God, then who was it? And where was God if the voice was not His?
In the biblical account of the Akedah, God is not named: He is simply God, and the word used in the text to designate God was not used in Abraham’s time. We are clearly dealing with a retold story, retold, judging by the features of the text, by someone from a priestly milieu. In that milieu (and indeed throughout the pre-exilic period), believers in Yahweh did not distinguish between God’s will and what He permits in the way that we do today—at least not in terminology. If God allowed Abraham to hear the voice, then the voice was from Him.
What might Abraham himself have thought? He knew that his God was El Shaddai, God of might, as He had called Himself during the second of Abraham’s theophanies described in Genesis. Ancient people were more inclined to seek the source of power in the lower world beneath the earth than in the upper world in heaven. What if Abraham’s God was the ruler of the lower world? Then He might demand a human sacrifice... but what, then, of the promises connected with Isaac? What of the covenant made with God?
A trial by absurdity is the most terrible kind, because absurdity paralyzes the soul—and a paralyzed soul is far more terrible than a paralyzed body. Yet Abraham still retains his trust in his God. When Isaac asks about the lamb, he answers: God will provide Himself a lamb. And God truly does provide it, freeing Abraham’s soul from the power of the force that He had permitted to take hold of it.
He praises Abraham—for his faithfulness. For not turning back, for not retreating. Even while under the power of the dark force that God had permitted, Abraham understands that there is no way back for him. Behind him there is no salvation from the evil absurdity in which he finds himself. To be saved, he must move only forward, toward God. Abraham moves forward—and truly encounters God, who receives him, frees him from the power of darkness, and praises him for his faithfulness.