Tuesday, December 5, 2006

By Faith... Abraham - Part II, Part 66 of 79

TEXT: "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac" (Hebrews 11:17).

IDEA: God tested Abraham in a way that was culturally relevant for Abraham.

PURPOSE: To help listeners appreciate why Abraham did not object to what God asked him to do.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews, in 11:17, wrote, "By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac his son as a sacrifice."

Would YOU do what Abraham was prepared to do?

Would you think that Abraham was emotionally distraught by what God asked him to do? It was as hard on him to sacrifice his son as it would be for us.

Our question is why Abraham would go along with God's mandate. Why didn't he raise some hard objections about the matter of human sacrifice?

I. The command to sacrifice his son would not have been as shocking to Abraham as it is to us.

Abraham didn't have a fully developed understanding of God. Why would God not ask this of him?

In the Canaanite world view, the god who provided fertility (El) was also entitled to demand a portion of what had been produced. This was expressed in the sacrifice of animals and grain and even children (John Walton, Genesis, p 510ff.).

Texts from the ancient world describe the ritual of child sacrifice as a means of ensuring continued fertility.

The biblical prophets and the laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy expressly forbade the practice, but that also implied that it continued to occur. Why else condemn something that wasn't happening?

Abraham's compliant willingness to do what God asked not only reflects his faith, but it also suggests that human sacrifice was part of his worldview.

However emotionally pained he must have been, Abraham is not dumbfounded by God's command. It was culturally logical.

II. The command was baffling only in the light of the covenant promises God had made to him.

It was God's promise and not God's request that provided the tension and also the stability to Abraham. It was inconceivable that God would ask him to perform an act that would have been contrary to what God had said He would do.