This Is Who We Are: Binding of Isaac (MPLS)

Genesis 21:1-3; 22:1-14

The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him.

After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt-offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt-offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.”

Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering?” Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt-offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt-offering instead of his son.

So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

John 1:29

The next day he saw Jesus coming towards him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

Growing up I had one of those Fisher-Price turntables. If you are of my vintage or have children of my vintage you know what I’m talking about. It was brown and looked like a briefcase when you closed it up. It was awesome. In heavy rotation were some Star Wars books on vinyl, my uncle’s power punk band from Decatur, Georgia called The Lines that I had a ’45 of, and these pretty dramatic, borderline creepy, bible story records that my grandma gave me.

Thanks to the power of the internet I was able to find the album art from my uncle’s band, from 1982 (pictured below). So rock and roll. 

I also stumbled across a recording of bible stories I used to listen to. I used to listen to this to fall asleep most evenings, can you believe that? You’re all like, it explains sooo much.

I remember hearing these stories, this one about Abraham and Isaac in particular, over and over. The sound effects and the drama. Oh-my, it takes me back. But I don’t really remember being troubled by the story.

But now I am. Now it makes me uncomfortable. I don’t like this story. Maybe it’s because I’m a father. Maybe it’s because I don’t like the idea of God setting up little tests. Maybe it’s because kids, whether mine or anyone else’s, shouldn’t be used as pawns. 

This moment is a big part of the entire Abraham story. And Abraham is kind of a big deal right? I mean this is the person, this is the family through whom God promises to bless the whole world. God’s going to use Abraham to do something significant. It is going to be through Abraham that God’s going to make a people with purpose. And here God seems to be messing with it. God seems willing to risk it all to make sure that Abraham is really the guy?

I don’t know. I don’t like it. And I’m an Old Testament kind of guy. I love these ancient stories. They’re interesting and complex and messy and oh so very human. But come on?

“Take your son, your only son whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him up as an entirely burned offering there on one of the mountains that I will show you.”

It just doesn’t feel right, it doesn’t feel like God.

I have to believe that was how Abraham was feeling. He doesn’t say much here. He’s pretty quiet on the hike up the mountain, but imagine what must be running through his head. First God told him to pick up and move his whole household from Mesopotamia to Canaan. Then God promises Abraham he will be the father of a great nation. Abraham has a son with one of his servants, Ishmael. He has to send that son away. Then he has another son, Isaac, with his wife, Sarah. This is the one they’d been waiting for. This was the promised child. Then God says, just kidding, offer this child, the one you love, Isaac, to be as a burnt offering.

What’s a guy supposed to do? He has no good options. Sacrifice his son? Terrible idea. 

Disobey a direct order from God? Also not likely to end well. So Abraham just moves forward. He goes to the mountain that God promised to show him. He goes hoping for something else. Praying for something else. Longing and expecting God to be faithful, for God to be true to who God has always been to Abraham. Abraham goes believing that God will provide. He believes that life and not death will be what God delivers. Because what other choice does he have? The alternative is horrifying.

And there’s something there. Something almost beautiful. Even though I don’t like this and find the story really hard, there’s something really accurate about human existence wrapped up in this story. Because we so often find ourselves stuck between two terrible options. Decisions are seldom clear cut and easy to make. There is so often a deep incongruity between what we thought we knew and how things are playing out. It’s challenging and frustrating. But that’s where life happens. That’s where faith happens.

In between. Between what is and what might yet be. 

God will provide. The Lord will provide. It’s almost a mantra, a refrain for Abraham as he walks. It’s a refrain grounded in past experiences, past promises that have been fulfilled and future expectations. God will provide. It’s who he knows God to be and it’s who Abraham is challenging God to remain. 

Abraham trusts that God will be faithful to him, that God will be who God said God would be. Forever.

And God does. Over and over again. God provides. Maybe not always a way out but a way through. God provides a pathway through the trying and challenging and uncertain times. God provides the strength, the patience, the support to move through this life. 

In Jesus, God becomes the way. Jesus the lamb of God, is God’s way through death into life forever. Jesus is God’s great demonstration of God’s faithfulness to God’s promises. God will provide. 

So even though there will be moments where it feels like we’re being tested. Moments that feel like we have only two terrible options from which to choose, God will be faithful. We can demand that God be who God promises to be. We can join the great cloud of witnesses from across time and space and proclaim that God has provided, is providing, and will provide again and again so that you and I and all of God’s creatures can live into the fullness of God’s promises. Amen.