The Scripture reading for this Sunday is Genesis 22:1-19.

This may be the most difficult text to read in the Old Testament, and maybe even in all of Scripture. It makes us raise uncomfortable questions about God. It scares us. Maybe it even disgusts us. “How could God command such a thing?” many people wonder, “Who does that!?” If you have felt (or feel) uncomfortable with this text in any way (or disgusted, or angry, or scared by it) you are not alone.

When Cheryl and I lived in northern New Brunswick for a little more than a year before moving to Grand Rapids for seminary, she worked for the local newspaper in the town we lived in. In a conversation with her boss, she found out that his mother was a Christian and read to him from the bible when he was young. However, Cheryl’s boss recalled that when he heard Genesis 22 – the story where God commands Abraham to sacrifice “his son, his only son, whom he loved, Isaac” – he came to the conclusion that there is no way he could believe in that God. He was disgusted that God could command something as heinous as child sacrifice, and the fact that God stopped Abraham before he sacrificed Isaac didn’t make a difference. He simply couldn’t believe in that God.

Scott Hoezee, the director of the Center for Excellence in Preaching at Calvin Theological Seminary, wrote this in a commentary about Genesis 22:1-19: “Indeed, as Old Testament scholar Ellen Davis has noted, the Bible takes a great risk putting a story like this one so near the beginning of Scripture. If, naturally enough, you were to begin reading Scripture in Genesis 1, you would go a scant twenty-one chapters before encountering this story, replete with its potentially off-putting portrait of a God who commands so horrid a thing as child sacrifice. So why would the Bible run the risk of offending readers with a story so grim as to tempt them to close this book and never open it again? Perhaps because we need early on to learn something about the nature of God's faithfulness and the salvation God brings through his grace.” (Center for Excellence in Preaching – ‘Preaching This Week’ Archives)

I invite you to take some time to wrestle with this text this week. Notice that the author doesn’t answer any of our questions (Why did God do this? How could he command such a thing!?) and that Abraham doesn’t ask any – not even when God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son. Instead, the key theme that ties this text to its surrounding context is the notion that God’s covenant promise is threatened – this time by Himself.

Take some time this week with this text because it is a challenging text. It challenges us to be faithful, to trust, and to look for God’s faithfulness when it seems to be missing. As Abraham promised Isaac in verse 8, “God Himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering,” He did, only after Abraham was mere moments from sacrificing his son. And God again provided a lamb on that mountain years later when He sacrificed His only Son for our salvation. Salvation had to be paid for in blood. A sacrifice was needed. Jesus was that sacrifice, not Isaac.