The tying of Isaac: the whole-hearted trust between Abraham and Isaac, comes from heaven

I’m going to talk about this wonderful great text which, nonetheless, has done so much harm. (Genesis 22, 1-18)

I remember when I was young, having taken spirituality classes where we spoke of a God who could ask us to sacrifice things we held dear. “Look at Abraham, he took his beloved son, and set off to sacrifice him, so it could happen to you too, if God asks for what you hold most dear, give it to him without hesitation!” So I found this text from Genesis more or less normal, “because it was God who said it.” But actually, we are constantly asking ourselves: “Am I giving enough? Am I being greedy? Am I giving my time?” It’s as if our relationship with God reveals our guilt: we blame ourselves for not having done enough, for not having done more. So, this Old Testament text has caused harm, because it places God as if he were an enemy to our happiness.

Abraham was one hundred years old when little Isaac was born. Sarah, scarcely younger when the angels said to her, “Next year and you will have a child” So this child that they couldn’t have is going to come, God gives him to them. Sarah will conceive and little Isaac will be born, he is a gift from God, the promise of the future.

And now God says to Abraham: “Take your son, your only son, whom you love - you are going to the mountains and you will sacrifice him there as a burnt offering” Abraham could have said to God, “I did not ask anything of you, you gave him to me. Would you take away the joy in our hearts, the light of our lives? You gave him to us and now you’re taking him back?” But Abraham has always trusted God when faced with impossible situations. As the Scripture says, “He took the wood and put it on his son,” The Fathers of the Church will say, “Just as Jesus carried his cross.” And he heads to Mount Moriah, which means, “God will take care of it.” Little Isaac walks alongside his dad, “They walked together,” and the child asked the question. “The fire and the wood are here, we have a knife, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering” Oh! Abraham’s reply, “God himself will take care of the lamb for the sacrifice” God will take care of it...we are already at the foot of the cross, in Jerusalem, “God will take care of the sacrifice”

So we arrive at the place where Abraham takes his child and binds him. Our Jewish brothers do not call it “Abraham’s sacrifice,” they call it “The binding of Isaac.” Isaac allowed himself to be bound. The surprising thing about this text is that little Isaac allows himself to be bound, he allows himself to be bound although he doesn't know why. But what he does know, when he looks into his father’s eyes, is that he feels loved. He feels so loved that the person who is his father cannot do him harm. And Abraham sees in the eyes of his child, this look of trust, this abandon and he is shaken by it, he is starting to change. Before, Isaac was his child, but it was almost as if Abraham was his owner and now, he sees the look of love on this child’s face, this child who has this whole-hearted trust within him. He has never seen this light in his eyes, this light of God. Abraham discovers that this child loves him and he too starts to love him. Both of them are changed. Before, it was as if their relationship was the same as everybody else's, ‘These are my kids, they’re mine, I made them.” But at that moment, both of them discover this joy coming from God.

Little Isaac is the one who feels loved unconditionally. What is a son? What is a daughter? They are not simply someone you have given life to, they are the people who reflect a whole-hearted trust on their face. Jesus would say, “If you do not become like little children once more, you will not be able to see what you call the Kingdom of God.” Abraham is like his son, he receives this goodness from God, and it is his son who made him see it as he was on the altar. He sees something that comes from heaven, this intense trust. And Abraham feels within him the ability to love, which means that they are both at the same level.

What does this important text mean? It means that when it comes to our representations of Him, God says, “You make me suffer, you think that I am the judge who keeps a list of your sins, who monitors you, and who holds you to account. You have ideas about me and I don’t know how to rid you of these.” Why do we have this idea of God that he could ask everything of us, take everything from us, that he makes us prove ourselves to see if we can hold up?

God says, “How can I rid you of these ideas you have about me? I do not know how to free you from these false images. You see me as someone who is monitoring you, who will ask you impossible things. Well, if you see me like that, then that’s the role I’ll play, I will behave like the person you dress me as, so I will be someone cruel, “Take your son, your only son, and give him to me as a burnt offering.”

God is subject to the way we represent him. But at the moment when Abraham is about to cut Isaac’s throat, God says, “Stop! Stop! Do not lay a hand on the child. Don’t do anything to him! You made me play this role. Do you see that now? But No! Do not harm your child, whom you love. You looked at me and said, God always asks more. You have to give this, you have to give that” There is this fear of God and even though we tell him we love him, in the end, we aren’t comfortable with him. So God is obliged to play the role, until the moment when...”No, do not harm the child!”

But No! God is not someone who forces us. He cannot harm us. God is the most intimate, the most loving, continuously.

Roger Robert
25th February 2018
 

French to English translation by Debbie Garrick and Cécile Simon