Abraham the Good Man

A rethinking of the binding of Isaac

Was Abraham a good man?

Isaac wondered this about his father as they walked down the mountain. He had always looked up to his father, but now, things felt different. I mean, this is the man who had just almost killed Isaac. The knife was in the air, the fire at the ready. Isaac was to be the sacrifice in worship to this God that had commanded his father to kill him.  Isaac didn't know how to feel about a father who would offer his flesh and blood on an altar to God… a god that stopped the sacrifice in the end and provided a ram to kill and burn in Isaac's place. Did this act of worship mean his father was a good man, willing to obey God at any price? Is this what it meant to be righteous?

***

As Abraham raised the knife, he knew in his heart that there was no other way. This is what God required, what had been asked of him. His son, his only son, the son he loved, Isaac, had been asked for as sacrifice. Who was he to deny God? Abraham, the humble servant of God. After all that God had done for him, how could he say no? How could he argue? How could he disobey God?

Abraham knew all this and was resigned in his being to this act of death to Isaac. It's not that he wanted to kill Isaac; far from it! This was his son, his only son, his beloved son. This was the promised child, the one who Abraham had longed for, his heir. Abraham didn't want to kill Isaac, but this was the only way to appease God. And if Abraham didn't obey God, then the promise, the inheritance, the blessing would be taken from him.

Abraham was desperate to hang onto that blessing. It was his future, his legacy. Without it, he was nothing special. Without it, he was simply a wandering nomad with no purpose or place in the world. Without that blessing, Abraham was bereft. So, you must see that Abraham had to sacrifice Isaac. Without the sacrifice demanded of by God, Abraham would lose that blessing, the blessing he had worked so hard to keep.

Abraham, the righteous: that is who he was, was he not? Everything he had done was to keep that blessing that made him righteous. When Sarah had insisted he had sex with her servant Hagar, wasn't it so that they could have a child to pass the blessing onto… indeed a child to fulfill the blessing for them? So what if Hagar hadn't wanted to. This was for the good of the family, the lineage. And while Ishmael had been a wonderful child, when Isaac came along, hadn't they sent Hagar and Ishmael away so that Isaac could have his inheritance (after all, he was the full-blooded child!)? Again, nothing against Hagar or the child Ishmael, but this was for the sake of Abraham's blessing, the fulfillment!

Abraham knew how to survive, to do what had to be done. Hadn't he had to lie in Egypt, telling everyone that Sarah (Sarai at the time) was his sister and not his wife? I mean, Abraham couldn't risk getting killed. He was destined for a blessing. Even then, he knew it, for God had spoken to him. God had called him out of Ur and promised Abraham that his name would become great. Abraham had to stay alive for that, didn't he? This was important; after all, it is what God wanted.

And now, God wanted Isaac. Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his son, his only son, the son he loved, Isaac, because that's what God wanted. Again, what choice did he have? How else was he going to hold onto the blessing?

***

The test wasn't going as planned. God knew it. Abraham wasn't supposed to be on the verge of killing his son, his only son, the son he loved, Isaac. This wasn't why God choose to teat Abraham. But God now knew that Abraham feared God and would not hold back his son, his only son from God.

What a shame.

God had hoped that having a miracle child would have changed Abraham in his old age. For most of his life, Abraham had been holding onto the promise of a blessing. He had been chasing it, lying, going to war, bargaining, and even rape, all so he could make the promise come true. God's head shook with a semi-regret. Maybe Abraham wasn't the right person to be called righteous. After all, he was selfish. He was narrow-sighted and fixated on having a great name. Abraham wasn't exactly the paradigm of virtue. God wondered what this was going to do to Isaac. Would Isaac think that God had actually wanted his blood? Would Isaac believe that at a moment's notice, God could ask for the most precious, the most loved person in Isaac's life as a burnt sacrifice? God hoped not.

***

The messenger got there just in time. "Abraham!" the messenger boomed as loud as angelically possible. He had to shout to make sure Abraham heard and stopped. Isaac couldn't die. There was nothing good that would come of that. The messenger delivered the announcement, "Don't kill the boy! I know now that you won't hold anything back from me because you fear me."

Abraham heaved out a deep breath. The messenger wondered if Abraham was worried about the blessing, the promise that seemed to always be on his mind. But that wasn't the messenger's problem. The message had been delivered, the ram had been placed in the bush, and Isaac was spared from a slaughter that Abraham willingly would have gone through with.

***

When they arrived home, Abraham and Isaac's relationship was different. Abraham was self-righteous about the whole thing and defended himself when Sarah found out about it. Isaac kept quiet and gave his father a wide birth. Things we never quite the same after that trip.