Genesis 22:1-14, Matthew 10:40-42
The Rev. David Hall
What is your favorite Bible verse? Your favorite Bible story?
There’s Noah and the Ark, Daniel in the Lion’s Den, and Jesus walking on the water just to name a few. MY favorite STORY is the Parable of the Prodigal Son or as it is better called – The Parable of the Loving Father. No matter how far I stray, God is always waiting to take me back.
I have several favorite verses. I tend to go for the unusual ones. Psalm 131 verse 1 has some good advice, “Do not be concerned with things too hard to understand.” Then there is Proverbs 6:25 which warns us to avoid anyone who tries to captivate us with their flattering tongue or fluttering eyelashes. Did you know you can find a verse in the Bible about every part of the body? You will find verses about the elbow in Job and Ezekiel.
But, if we were to go around the Church this morning and ask everyone’s favorite part of the Bible – I would be surprised if anyone chose our reading from Genesis. God commands Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac. How can a loving God ask such a thing of a faithful servant like Abraham? What happened to “Though Shalt not Murder?” This just does not fit with our usual Bible stories.
This is one of those stories that has been debated for centuries by Christians and Jews and even Muslims who have a different version in the Koran – but with the same basic story line. In Judaism, this passage from Torah is called in Hebrew “The Akedah” which means “binding” – since Abraham did just that before putting Isaac “on the altar, on top of the wood.”
And it is important for us to remember that by this time in the book of Genesis – Abram has already been chosen by God to be the Father of the Israelites. In Genesis chapter 12 God blesses Abram, commands him to go to what will be the Promised Land and declares in chapter 12 verses 2 and 3
“I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing…. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
And that is just the beginning of the story. Abram with his wife Sarai and his nephew, Lot, leave their family and property in Haran to go to Canaan. That’s a journey of 400 miles or roughly the distance between Montgomery and Charlotte North Carolina. And let’s not forget that Abram is 75 years old when they start this journey.
Along the way, a famine forces them to take a detour and go to Egypt before heading back some years later to the Promised Land. And it is as far as it sounds – the 400 miles becomes a journey of over 1000 miles. Abram follows God faithfully and God promises His blessings again and again.
In Genesis chapter 17 God changes Abram’s and Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah which means literally “father and mother of many nations.” How much more blessed can you be?
But there is another side to our story this morning. This is actually the 10th time on this thousand mile journey that God will test Abraham in these 10 chapters of Genesis. I won’t go into the first 9 but by the time we reach chapter 22 and this 10th test, I wouldn’t blame Abraham if he had asked – How much more!
And why sacrifice his only son, Isaac, whom he loved and whose name in Hebrew means pue joy. Isaac was a gift from God to Abraham and Sarah and so why would God take him away?
Fortunately, we know the end of the story but Abraham and Isaac did not. And as I said earlier, Biblical scholars have debated the meaning of this passage for generations. Certainly we see the faith of Abraham and Isaac.
Some have suggested this is a lesson about righteousness and how even the mind of God can be changed.
Still other theologians have said this is a prophesy of Jesus’s death on the cross when God gave his only son for the whole world.
But I like the interpretation of the Jewish rabbis and Christian scholars who remind us that all of scripture is first and foremost about God and God’s relationship with us. So when we read the Akedah, we need to remember that everything God does is about love.
And we can understand this story of Abraham and Isaac in the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is a celebration of the Jewish New Year and the start of the High Holy Days in the Jewish calendar. It is a festival when the ram’s horn is blown and you eat sliced apples dipped in honey symbolizing the hope for a sweet, fruitful, and prosperous new year. And of course all faithful Jews go to synagogue during Rosh Hashanah to worship God and to give thanks.
On the 2nd day of the festival, The Akedah – this passage we hear today from Genesis – is read during morning prayers. It is read to give thanks for God’s amazing love for us through Abraham, Sarah and Isaac. It is read in this time of celebration to remind God’s people that God is always with us – that God is always constant and faithful – and that God is always the God who loves us and calls us His Chosen People. And so we celebrate.
I am certain that Abraham and Isaac remembered that day in the land of Moriah and told the story to the their children and grandchildren. It was the day when The Lord provided everything that was needed. And so is today and will be again tomorrow. Today we hear a great story of the Bible about Abraham, Isaac, and God’s love. Maybe it can be one of our favorites.
Amen