Jewish tradition calls this story the "Binding of Isaac." God calls Abraham, and Abraham responds, "Hineni," or "Here I am." God tests Abraham by directing him to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, upon an altar. Note that God is specific, saying "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love. . . " Hagar, the Egyptian slave woman, and Ishmael, his son by Hagar, have been sent into the desert, and Abraham probably thinks they are dead by now. He is not aware of God's compassion in saving them both by sending an angel to show Hagar where there is water. In their story, we are even told that Ishmael will be an expert at the bow and arrow, will marry an Egyptian woman and father a nation himself. God does not tell Abraham all this. As far as Abraham is concerned, Isaac is his only son.

Later, when Sarah dies, Abraham will buy a plot of land with a cave on it from the Hittites, in which to bury her. This cave will also be the burial place for Abraham, Isaac, Rebekkah, Jacob, Leah, and Rachel, as time goes on. When Abraham dies and Isaac brings his body to the cave to bury it, he and Ishmael will be reunited. We are not told what kind of reunion this will be, but obviously God's promise has held true, and Isaac has proof that God did not abandon Ishmael in the wilderness to die. Sadly, it does not look like Abraham was ever told that Ishmael survived.

Ironically, before God changed Abraham's name from Abram, exalted father, to Abraham, father of multitudes, a mysterious priest named Melchizadek, whose name means, literally, King of Righteousness, offers up bread and wine to God, and blesses Abram, who gives Melchizadek one tenth of all he has. This is even before Ishmael is born. From this unbloody sacrifice, we are plunged into an emotional maelstrom, where God demands a blood sacrifice of Abraham, with whom he has just made a covenant. It feels like a giant step backwards.

What kind of god would demand the sacrifice of one's child? If this is a test of whether or not Abraham is willing to part with his first born son in order to prove his dedication for God, then has he not already met this requirement when he allowed the exile of Hagar, the slave girl from Egypt, and his first born son by her, Ishmael?

Taking this in the context in which it is offered, we must remember that in Abraham's day child sacrifice was not uncommon. In fact, references are made over and over again in what we call the "Old Testament" to Ba'al and Molech, two gods to whom people sacrificed their children by making them "pass through the fire." What a horrible prospect!

This story, then, is a step up from that savagery. Not only does God prevent Abraham from doing what he was told to do, but God provides a sacrifice as a substitute, in the form of a ram, caught in the bushes.

There is an amazing lack of dialogue between Abraham and Isaac. He loads wood on Isaac's back, but carries the knife and the fire himself, as if to prevent Isaac from hurting himself. When Isaac asks about the animal to be sacrificed, Abraham simply tells him "God will provide," or in the literal Hebrew, "God will see." We are not told whether or not Abraham is at the point of weeping because he cannot bring himself to tell his son that he must be the sacrifice, nor are we told whether or not Isaac suspects, and obediently goes with his father, because it is his duty. Rabbinical tradition has Isaac going in full knowledge that he will be the sacrifice, thus being obedient to God, himself. We are not told how old Isaac is when this sacrifice is being demanded. Was he a trusting child, or an adolescent who loved his father, and was willing to die to obey God? We are also not told what Sarah thinks of all this, or if she even knows. Can you imagine what she would have said? Isaac is her only son!

What might have been socially acceptable, and even religious practice, in Abraham's day, would not be accepted today. Only by God's intervention was Abraham prevented from killing his only son, the son God had promised him in his old age.

Some questions still remain. Would God have punished Abraham if he had said, "No, I won't sacrifice my son, that would be evil!"? Did Abraham obey with the thought that, if God could miraculously produce one son from aged parents, perhaps He would perform another miracle and produce another? Paul's letter to the Hebrews suggests that Abraham "considered the fact that God is able even to raise someone from the dead - and figuratively speaking, he did receive him back."

While I think Paul was making a point to the Hebrews of his day, I sincerely doubt Abraham was thinking in those terms, since resurrection is not mentioned in Genesis at all. With all due respect to Paul, I am more inclined to believe that Abraham trusted that God had made a promise to give him offspring, and would fulfill that promise, either by preventing his sacrifice and substituting another victim, or by providing him with another heir.

What would you do if God asked you to do something inherently evil, such as killing someone you love? To me, that is rather like asking if God could make a boulder too big for Him to lift. If God is inherently good, then evil is foreign to His nature.

In the commentaries, one of the scholars suggests that Abraham only thought he heard God's voice telling him to sacrifice his son, and fully intended to carry out that requirement because other people around him were doing the same in answer to their gods' demands. That characterization is almost as bothersome as the thought that God would demand human sacrifice. Somehow I find it difficult to think of Abraham as an aged schizophrenic.

I can only think that God's intent was to test Abraham's dedication and faith, but that God fully intended to prevent the actual sacrifice, because God would never accept that kind of sacrifice--in other words, God demanded this of Abraham to make a point, and a very important one, that other people were worshipping gods that required human sacrifice, but this was not acceptable to the God with whom Abraham made his covenant.

God sent his angel--in Hebrew the word is pronounced malach and means "messenger"--to prevent Isaac's death, and as He did so, he provided a substitute for Isaac: A ram. This was the beginning of sacrificing animals to the God of Abraham. It was also the beginning of the shofar, the trumpet made from a ram's horn, which is still blown today at Yom Kippur.

Since the Diaspora and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, in 70 C. E., blood sacrifice as done in the Pentateuch is no longer performed. There have been minor ceremonies, by the Hassidim, in which a live chicken is waved over people's heads, but the bloody altar and the veil dividing the high priest from the rest of the people is gone.

The only people related to the Jewish people today who engage in any kind of blood sacrifice are the Samaritans. There are still a few left. On Yom Kippur they actually go up on their holy mountain dressed in white and slaughter sheep and goats to expiate their sins.

In last week's Gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus said, "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and a those who lose their life for my sake will find it." Abraham has demonstrated this devotion to God by being willing to obey God, even though he was not certain of the outcome.

Jesus never asked his disciples to kill any relatives. He did ask them to leave everything and follow him. I think that is part of the distinction between Abraham's test, and what Jesus has asked us to do.

It was customary long ago to sacrifice a lamb or kid--a baby goat--to a god. We know a ram is simply a fully grown male sheep. This is a foretaste of what happened when Jesus, the Lamb of God, offered Himself as a living sacrifice to cleanse the sins of the people of the world. As Christians, we believe that the sacrifice of Jesus was the last blood sacrifice we will ever need. Again God provided the sacrifice, because, as God has said numerous times, "I require obedience, not sacrifice."

Now we offer bread and wine, as Melchizadek once did, and in some sense we may not understand, it is also the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was sacrificed for us, resurrected, and who lives and reigns as the true King of Righteousness.

Amen