Sacrifice

In the Bible, this is the first time that love is mentioned by name: “Take now 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 I shall point out to you.” Love is given a name in the moment of sacrifice, at the moment in which we face the terrifying possibility of loss. Suffering is the moment when love appears. The supreme moment of love converges with the supreme moment of sacrifice.

Love and suffering are intimately linked. Without sacrifice or suffering, there can be no true love. Isn’t this why Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

We know that several times God promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great people. And now he is asked to offer his only legitimate son—the only link with that promised future—as a holocaust to God. It just did not make any sense at all.

But Abraham had committed himself by covenant to be obedient to the Lord and had consecrated his son Isaac to the Lord by circumcision. The Lord put his servant’s faith and loyalty to the supreme test, thereby instructing Abraham, Isaac and their descendants as to the kind of total consecration the Lord’s covenant requires. The test also foreshadowed the perfect consecration in sacrifice that another offspring of Abraham would undergo in order to wholly consecrate Abraham and his spiritual descendants (i.e. all of us) to God and to fulfil the covenant promises.

Abraham is told to take “his only son, Isaac, whom you love” and to offer him as a burnt offering (holocaust) on a mountain in the land of Moriah. We see Abraham accepting God’s injunction without a word of protest. This is clearly intended to be another example of his tremendous faith and trust in God’s word.

Rising early in the morning, he saddled his donkey and took Isaac together with two of his young men. And, before setting out, he also cut some wood for the sacrifice. It was on the third day of travelling that Abraham saw the place of sacrifice in the distance. He told the young men to remain behind with the donkey, while Abraham and Isaac went to the mountain to worship.

He then laid the wood for the sacrifice on the shoulders of his son, while he himself carried the fire and the knife and then they proceeded to the place of sacrifice. As they walked, Isaac spoke to his father. “We have the fire and the wood but where is the lamb for the offering?” Abraham replied that God himself would provide the sacrificial lamb.

On reaching the place of sacrifice, Abraham built an altar and put the wood on it. He bound his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. The future Lamb of God would be sacrificed on wood also.

Just as Abraham raised his knife to kill his son, an angel from heaven called him by name. Speaking in the name of God 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.”

Abraham then saw a ram caught in a nearby thicket by its horns. He took the ram and sacrificed it instead of his son. And Abraham called the place “The Lord will provide”, a reference to the answer Abraham gave to his son earlier on about providing a lamb for the sacrifice. It became a proverbial saying: “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” This saying was particularly meaningful if the “mount” was to be identified with the hill of Zion on which the Temple was later built.

There then comes a solemn blessing from the Lord: Because Abraham was ready to sacrifice his only son, he will be especially blessed.

We need to reflect on the extent of our faith and trust in God. Are we ready to give God anything he asks for, knowing that whatever he asks is for our good? In my life now, what would I find it most difficult to give up if God asked me?