Does God Command Child Abuse When He Tells Abraham to Sacrifice Isaac?

[Michie]

One of the most famous and dramatic scenes in the entire Bible comes in Genesis 22 when God tells Abraham to take his son Isaac and sacrifice him in the land of Moriah. For Christians and non-Christians alike, the passage can feel challenging and perplexing. How could an all-loving God command a father to kill his innocent son? And what’s to stop God doing the same thing again in the future? To answer these questions, we need to look more carefully at what’s going on in the biblical text.



A Willing Victim

The first thing to notice about the sacrificing of Isaac—also known as the Aqedah, or “binding”—is that Isaac is old enough to consent to what’s going on. Jewish tradition holds that he was in his 20s or 30s at the time, and this is supported in the text of Genesis. For one thing, the same Hebrew word that’s used to describe Abraham’s servants (“young men” in the RSV) is also used to refer to Isaac (“lad” in the RSV).

Additionally, there’s the important detail in the narrative that Isaac is the one who carries the wood for the sacrifice: “And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it on Isaac his son” (Gen 22:6). Given that the quantity of wood would have been considerable, Isaac must have been a strapping young man by this point. And it makes sense that Abraham would lay the wood on his son, since Abraham was well over a hundred years-old by this point (see Gen 21:5)! Isaac could easily have resisted and overpowered his elderly father if he so chose.

Continued below.

“Father, Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit” — Lk 23:46 - St. Paul Center

The Ascension of Jesus is one of the more confusing—and neglected—mysteries of our Catholic Christian faith. Most of us know that it commemorates Christ leaving earth and returning to heaven forty days after Easter.

stpaulcenter.com

 

[RDKirk]

edited

We get the answer in Hebrews.

Abraham placed his faith on God's promise that there would be a nation from Abraham through, specifically, Isaac. Therefore, Abraham did not expect to escape sacrificing Isaac, but he did have faith that in some way, God would still bring forth a nation from Abraham through Isaac...probably, as given in Hebrews, by resurrecting Isaac.

 

[Michie]

In their book A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament, John Bergsma and Brant Pitre unpack the striking parallels between Moriah and Calvary:

This typological reading provides a powerful explanation for the otherwise inexplicable and unique occurrence of the God of Israel appearing to command human sacrifice. Seen in the full light of the New Testament and living tradition, we discover that God does not desire the death of Isaac but does desire for Abraham and Isaac to enact within salvation history the kind of self-sacrificial donation that God himself, as a Trinity of persons, will carry out in order to bring about the salvation of mankind. Because Abraham the father and Isaac the son are both willing to submit to the test, they win for themselves arguably the most solemn oath of blessing from God in the entire Old Testament (Gen 22:15-18) and become models of faith even for the New Covenant. (ch 6, “The Sacrifice of Isaac and the Passion of Christ”)

Genesis 22 is not condoning human sacrifice; it’s condemning it. For while the passage underscores the value of being prepared to offer everything to God, it also emphatically affirms that God does not desire Isaac’s physical death. Nor does God desire the spiritual death of any of His children—and in this respect Genesis 22 stands as a poignant foreshadowing of the astounding lengths that God will go to at Calvary in order to save His people from their sins.

All of this helps highlight the fact that the sacrifice of Isaac is a unique event in salvation history. Of the 100+ billion human beings who have walked this planet, only one has received the kind of command given to Abraham. It was, moreover, a singular event which will never be repeated, especially now that we have been given the Scriptures and the teachings of the Church through the definitive revelation of God’s Son (see Heb 1:1-2).

We should remember, too, that the command to sacrifice Isaac was only ever given as a test (see Gen 22:1). God never had any intention of letting Isaac die, and the Old Testament as a whole offers a strong rebuke to the practice of child sacrifice which was so commonplace in the ancient world (see Dt 18:9-13; 2 Kgs 17:15-17; Ps 106:34-39; Wis 12:3-7; Ez 20:30-32).

Was it immoral for God to command Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, even when He knew the sacrifice wouldn’t be carried out? No, it wasn’t immoral, so long as God had a morally sufficient reason for giving the command. As the author of both life and history, God could give the command without violating His perfect justice or goodness.

God knew ahead of time that Isaac would be a willing victim and that Abraham would continue to trust in the promises He had received. But He gave the command so that Abraham’s faith might grow by being tested, and so that Abraham’s descendants would receive a powerful and prophetic illustration of the sacrifice which God Himself intended to make when he offered up His only beloved Son for the salvation of the world.

Continued below.

“Father, Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit” — Lk 23:46 - St. Paul Center

The Ascension of Jesus is one of the more confusing—and neglected—mysteries of our Catholic Christian faith. Most of us know that it commemorates Christ leaving earth and returning to heaven forty days after Easter.

stpaulcenter.com

 

[RDKirk]

do you notice how carefully worded that is?

if issac was never killed then he was certainly not ressurected in Jesus, or himself, 3200 years ago

I don't understand what you mean by that.

Abraham believed in God's promise for a nation through Isaac, so according to Hebrews, Abraham believed God would resurrect Isaac.

We know Isaac was not, however, sacrificed when Abraham went far enough to demonstrate his faith in God's promise.

 

[Bob Crowley]

My old pastor thought God was embarassed by His own request. It was right out of keeping with His character. Child sacrifice was the sort of thing the Canaanites were doing for their God Molech, and for the God who was to become Christ in the flesh, this was an abomination.

Although Christ offered Himself for the human race centuries later, that was for a divine reason - the salvation of the human race. God's request to Abraham had no salvific value - it was merely a test.

He also thought Isaac was traumatised by the experience. He didn't do much - even when he needed a wife, Abraham sent a servant to do the job.

Abraham gets a lot of press, and Isaac's son Jacob also get's a lions share of Scriptural history, but Isaac's story is covered in about two chapters of Genesis, including the business of Jacob and Esau's hasty parting.