Tag: Genesis 22

Abraham. Abraham!

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Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
Genesis 22:1 (NASB)

When God first called out to Abraham in Genesis 22, the text seems to show that Abraham responds immediately. He doesn’t know what God is about to say, but from Genesis 12 to now, God’s call has led to something positive. Blessing after blessing.

But the next time God calls Abraham, God says Abraham’s name twice.

But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
Genesis 22:11 (NASB)

The text doesn’t explain it, but maybe God’s command to sacrifice Isaac is heavy to Abraham.

I can see Abraham not wanting to listen to God again after this. Would you? So maybe God has to say it twice.

God will Reveal

Posted on by jovial_cynic
Fun fact: “Jehovah Jireh” in Genesis 22 does not mean “God my Provider,” despite what that ear-worm of a song says.

In Hebrew, it’s יְהוָה יִרְאֶה, which is rendered YHWH Yireh. Yireh means “to see” or “to make seen,” from the root word ra’ah (see).

It is better understood as “God will reveal and make known,” not “God will provide.”

Abraham’s Thoughts

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When we read about Abraham heading up the mountain to sacrifice his son, we aren’t given clues about Abraham’s internal thoughts, unlike when he pleads for Sodom and Gomorrah and when he pleads for Ishmael.

Abraham is silent.

I find this remarkable, not because of what it says about Abraham or about the text, but because of what it does to the reader.

With Abraham’s silence, you are forced to read it through your own experiences. The feelings that bubble up aren’t Abraham’s.

They are yours.

Do you see piousness and unquestioning obedience?

Do you see silent tears and brokenness? Hopelessness?

Do you see smoldering anger at the unfairness and injustice of it?

You are projecting. And perhaps you are supposed to.

I once heard that Torah is a mirror. What you see in it is a reflection of who you are. It reveals you.

But also, perhaps it asks you to feel and wonder. And learn.

The Special Altar

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Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
Genesis 22:9 (NASB)

The rabbis point out that the word for “altar” here is in the definitive form. It is not an altar (as some translations render it), but it is the altar. The word “built” also means “re-built,” using the same stones.

According to rabbinical tradition, this is a specific and special altar, upon which Adam, Abel, and Noah have all sacrificed. And it points forward to the Temple.

God Reveals

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Abraham said, “God will [a]provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.
Genesis 22:8 (NASB)

[a] Lit: see

Most translations say “God will provide” when Abraham answers Isaac regarding the sacrifice.

But in fact, the Hebrew word is יִרְאֶה־ (yireh), which means “to see.” Interestingly, this can also be used to mean “to reveal,” as in “to make seen.” This is an important word.

If you go back to Genesis 1, the text repeats the phrase “God SAW that it was good.” It’s this same word. The first instance is LIGHT.

Perhaps the correct understanding is not that God saw it for the first time, but that God REVEALED to us what was good. It’s a lesson.

When we get back to Genesis 22, the phrase isn’t merely “God will provide” or “God will see” the lamb, but that God will REVEAL the lamb to us.

This is followed by “and the two of them walked on together.”

Together

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The word “together” is יַחַד (yakhad) in Hebrew. In Scripture, it carries a deep meaning beyond simply “adjacent.” It’s not like two spoons in a drawer.

It means UNITED. It’s where we get the Gospel concept of “in one accord.”

It means no division. No hierarchy. As ONE.

Yakhad appears in five verses in Genesis, three of which are about Abraham, his son, and his young men, or servants. They act in UNITY.

And Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.
Genesis 22:6 (NASB)

Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.
Genesis 22:8 (NASB)

So Abraham returned to his young men, and they got up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham lived in Beersheba.
Genesis 22:19 (NASB)

The Midrash suggests that Isaac’s obedience and willingness is critical to the story, because you can’t be both yakhad and coerced.

There is no unity of purpose when one party is forcing the other party into submission. And given that Abraham is over 100 years old at this point, it seems unlikely that he could overpower his son to restrain him.

Yakhad is the only way this story moves forward.

But the teaching about yakhad isn’t only found in the positive uses here in Genesis 22. When we read the word in Psalm 133, we’re given an important clue.

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to live together in unity!
Psalm 133:1 (NASB)

Yakhad is linked to “good.” This is the same good as from the Tree of Knowledge of “good” and “evil.”

If yakhad is good (joy and blessings), the opposite of yakhad is evil (misery and suffering). With that in mind, the other usages of yakhad in Genesis give us a clear teaching.

And the land could not support both of them while living together, for their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together.
Genesis 13:6 (NASB)

For their possessions had become too great for them to live together, and the land where they resided could not support them because of their livestock.
Genesis 36:7 (NASB)

The opposite of yakhad is linked to too much wealth. Too many possessions.

It’s no wonder, then, that Jesus would teach that “it is easier for a camel to squeeze through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.”

You can’t have yakhad with one another or with God when you’re clinging to all of your stuff.

The Wood of Atonement

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And Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.
Genesis 22:6 (NASB)

In Genesis 22:6, the Hebrew word describing “the wood” is עֲצֵי (aztay), which is literally the phrase “the wood of.” Here, it’s linked to the burnt offering. A sacrifice.

This phrase only appears one other time in Genesis. It’s in Genesis 6, contained in the instructions for building the ark.

Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with compartments, and cover it inside and out with pitch.
Genesis 6:14 (NASB)

Do you remember the purpose of the ark? It’s being built to preserve humanity. To save Noah and his family.

God tells Noah to “pitch it with pitch,” and the words here are words that also mean “ransom” and “atonement.” These are theological words linked to salvation.

Surely, you can hear the scripture echo…

The Fire of God

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And Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.
Genesis 22:6 (NASB)

Fire is dangereous. It burns. It destroys. But when you look carefully at scripture, it is also a symbol of where God dwells.

The first time we see this Hebrew word אֵשׁ (esh), or fire, it’s when God passes between the pieces of the sacrifice before Abraham. It’s there that we first learn that God reveals himself in the flame.

Now it came about, when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, a smoking oven and a flaming torch appeared which passed between these pieces.
Genesis 15:17 (NASB)

The next time we see it, God rains down fire and brimstone from heaven onto the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. When Lot’s wife looked back at the destruction of the city, we wonder: did she see God in the ensuing pillar of fire? Is this why she died?

Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of heaven.
Genesis 19:24 (NASB)

After Genesis, the next time we see the esh, it’s in the Burning Bush, where God meets Moses.

Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not being consumed.
Exodus 3:2 (NASB)

So in this passage in Genesis 22, with the fire in his hand, we read that Abraham walks with his son. Together.

Perhaps we’re meant to understand that God is there, too.

God Laughing with Joy

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One teaching in the Midrash breaks down Genesis 22:2 as though it’s a conversation between God and Abraham, like this

God: Please take your son.
Abraham: Which son? I have two!
God: Your only son.
Abraham: But each son is the only son of their mother!
God: The one you love.
Abraham: But I love both of them!
God: Isaac <– LAUGHS!

We know that Isaac means “to laugh” or “to make laugh” in Hebrew. If we view God as being one who experiences our joy and hope, as well as our pain and difficulties, perhaps this can be read to teach us that God experienced the joy of Abraham’s love for BOTH of his sons. God saying “Isaac” in this conversation could also point to God’s joy.

This may be a lesson. Love others well, regardless of their journeys.

Conversation with God

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Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.”
Genesis 22:2 (NASB)

Genesis 22:2 is written in a strange way. The rabbis suggest that it is written like a slowly unfolding conversation, with an implied back-and-forth between God and Abraham.

The Midrash breaks it down like this:

God: Please take your son.
Abraham: Which son? I have two!
God: I mean your only son.
Abraham: But each son is the only son of their mother!
God: I mean the one you love.
Abraham: But I love both of them!
God: I mean Isaac.

And they point out that this narrowing of focus from broad to specific is nearly identical to the way God calls Abraham back in Genesis 12:

Now the Lord said to Abram,

“Go from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you.
Genesis 12:1 (NASB)

“From your country… from your relatives… from your father’s house.”

Genesis 12 is referred to as the לֶךְ־לְךָ (Lech-Lecha) in Hebrew. This is the “Go!” instruction that kicks off Abraham’s amazing journey.

Further linking the two passages, “Lech-Lecha” shows up only twice in the Torah: Genesis 12, and again here in Genesis 22.

In some ways, both stories are BEGINNINGS. Not that anything resets, or starts over, but perhaps this kicks off a repeated theme that God will make all things new.

Or perhaps they are telling the same story: Leave everything – your known past and your expected future.