Abraham & Isaac - how should we treat young people?

 Genesis 22: 1-14

    

As the “spare Granny” of two teenagers, I have been following news stories about “our children” with a mixture of interest and horror – and perhaps you have done the same.

How much time should your people spend on social media? I heard a young man interviewed who said he spent 14 hours a day on his phone… when does that leave time for talking to other people, or developing his own thoughts and ideas?

How do we help children and young people who are subject to abuse? There have been terrible recent stories about the lack of curiosity among medical staff or social workers about children’s injuries. One commentator said “no-one was losing sleep over what was happening in this child’s life”.

As followers of Jesus Christ, what do we have to offer into society’s discussion of how to treat young people?

 

 

Let’s look closely at the story of Abraham, being told by God to sacrifice Isaac.

Perhaps we’ve heard it so often we have lost sight of how awful it sounds on first hearing.

We are told that God tests Abraham “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”

 

The fact that we know that this story ends with Isaac saved and a ram being offered as the sacrifice instead shouldn’t blind us to what a terrible episode this is.

 

There was a time when child sacrifice would have been considered relatively acceptable, particularly as a way of getting a god’s attention, or bending that god to your own will. It was practised in Babylon, in Canaan and in Israel.

 

In the book of Judges we read the story of Jepthah, a warrior against the Ammonites who promised God:

“If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.”

 

The first “thing” out of his house on his victorious return was his only child, a daughter, who (the story goes) gives up her life willingly, telling her father he must honour his vow. The story teaches us the danger of making a rash vow, and is another story attacking the principle of sacrificing a child. But the fact that both stories are in our Hebrew scriptures says something about the level of acceptability the practice might have had at some time.

 

Abram was promised by God that he would be the father of many nations (Abraham) – and God told him to travel from his home in Haran to the land of Canaan.

On the way, he kept meeting God, God kept promising to bless Abraham and his children: and finally a son was born, Isaac – to Abraham and Sarah.

But in this part of the story, God tells Abraham to take that precious, God-given, child  - who is the hope for the nation God has promised Abraham – and kill him.

 

We are told that God tests Abraham.

What is the test?  Does God intend Abraham to mindlessly follow his command – or after all “these things” is Abraham meant to know better, and question God?

 

Abraham has shown that he is ready to question God about other things: when God offers Abraham a covenant (in Ch 15), Abraham asks “What can you give me seeing that I am childless?”.

 

When God promises that Sarah will have a son (in ch 17), Abraham laughs “Can a son be born to a man who is 100 years old? If only Ishmael may enjoy your special favour?”.

When God is about to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (in Ch18) Abraham queries why innocent and guilty must perish together, which is why Lot is spared.

 

As Abraham’s relationship with God has developed, Abraham has learned to trust God, but he also sometimes questions what God is about to do. But not this time!

 

A number of years ago my friend Kate asked “What are you preaching about this Sunday?” – it was this reading from Genesis. She was appalled as I outlined the story and asked “What sort of God wants a child to be sacrificed?”. I tried to explain that there are some scholars who think the story is told in Genesis precisely to stop the practice of child sacrifice – but I could tell Kate wasn’t convinced.

“But what were Abraham and Sarah thinking?”.

What a good question!

Looking at the passage the answer has to be we don’t know what Abraham and Sarah were thinking..

 

we’re not told what Abraham is thinking – and Sarah doesn’t even appear in this story.

Way back in Chapter 12 when God appeared to Abram and said “Go from your country to the land I shall show you” – Abram just went – be obeyed God.

 

Now, in chapter 22, God says “take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him as a burnt offering”. There’s the same command “go” again.

 

And Abraham just sets out early the next day unquestioningly does what God has told him to do.

Only at the last moment – as the knife is at Isaac’s throat – does the angel of God call out and stop Abraham.

 

So why doesn’t Abraham question God when God tells him to sacrifice his only son Isaac, whom he loves?

We can’t know the answer to that…but we might notice that when Isaac is bound in the woodpile and Abraham’s knife is raised, it is not the Lord God who speaks to stop Abraham, but the angel, the messenger of the Lord who calls out and stops the sacrifice. The other thing we might notice as we read on to chapter 25 and the death of Abraham is that God never speaks directly to Abraham again.

 

God tests Abraham – but could it be that Abraham fails the test – because he fails to question God when he is told to sacrifice Isaac – something that God never wanted to happen… After all that his growing relationship with God had shown him, Abraham almost falls at the last hurdle and destroys his own son and his future family, though God sends an angel to step in and save Isaac.

 

Returning to our issues of how best to support young people in our day – maybe we, like Abraham are being tested – to ask, to question, to engage and relate, not seek easy or dismissive answers.

 

Jesus shocked the people of his day with his attitude to children.

The societal norms were that really children did not count as people until they were adults. But Jesus honoured children in a way which was counter-cultural.

He welcomed them, he never turned them away, and he even tells his followers to be more like children, in order to enter the kingdom of God.

 

Being like children reminds us that we do not belong to a hierarchy, in the sight of God, for we are all God’s children. All of us are worthy of love and respect; all of us can dare to claim the promise that God loves each one – however small we are and however much we feel uncertain, and however much we fail.

 

I pray we will learn to listen to the young people we meet, to take the time to engage with them, to share and show our belief that they are precious in God’s sight.

And may we learn from them more about our own place in God’s kingdom.

To God’s praise and glory. Amen.