Abraham and Isaac

[aball1035]

We all know the story about how God told Abraham to kill Isaac as a test of faith. God never intended for the act to be carried out, as He sent an angel to stop the killing.

But that leaves me with a few questions.

1. Why did God tell Abraham to do something essentially sinful (even if He stopped it)? Couldn’t He have asked for something equally as challenging but not sinful?
2. Wouldn’t Abraham have thought this was a vision from the devil, and not of God?
3. If somebody asks me whether God would ever ask us to do something sinful, what should we say? If we say “no, that contradicts Himself”, they could just point to this story. If we say “Yes”, wouldn’t that me that God does after all, contradict Himself?

 

[Vico]

We all know the story about how God told Abraham to kill Isaac as a test of faith. God never intended for the act to be carried out, as He sent an angel to stop the killing.

But that leaves me with a few questions.

1. Why did God tell Abraham to do something essentially sinful (even if He stopped it)? Couldn’t He have asked for something equally as challenging but not sinful?
2. Wouldn’t Abraham have thought this was a vision from the devil, and not of God?
3. If somebody asks me whether God would ever ask us to do something sinful, what should we say? If we say “no, that contradicts Himself”, they could just point to this story. If we say “Yes”, wouldn’t that me that God does after all, contradict Himself?

It would be sinful to not obey God. God has power over life and death.

John 10
4 And when he hath let out his own sheep, he goeth before them: and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. 5 But a stranger they follow not, but fly from him, because they know not the voice of strangers

We must always do the will of God when it is certainly known.

 

[Stephen_says]

I think it’s important to note how early in our history this event took place.

God had not revealed the abhorrence of human sacrifices to our ancestors yet, and this was the occasion when he did just that.

In that point in history, all manners of gods were being worshiped by the pagans, and human sacrifice was supposedly common (I am not a historian, but I’ve heard Fr. Larry Richards say so, so it must be true ).

I do not think it would be out of the ordinary for Abraham to think, “Well, all the other gods are asking for this, so why wouldn’t mine?”

But then God completely subverts the dominant paradigm by saying “DO NOT sacrifice YOUR son to prove YOUR love for me. Rather, I will sacrifice MY son to prove MY love for you.”

 

[spiderweb]

My thoughts on this is identical to the OP and is something that I am also currently struggling with.

God is all Good and Holy. He cannot command something which is intrinsically evil regardless of whether it is “known” to be evil, because this is a contradiction to the Nature of God.

God commands something because it IS good. His commanding of it doesn’t make it good.

 

[Vico]

I think it’s important to note how early in our history this event took place.

God had not revealed the abhorrence of human sacrifices to our ancestors yet, and this was the occasion when he did just that.

In that point in history, all manners of gods were being worshiped by the pagans, and human sacrifice was supposedly common (I am not a historian, but I’ve heard Fr. Larry Richards say so, so it must be true ).

I do not think it would be out of the ordinary for Abraham to think, “Well, all the other gods are asking for this, so why wouldn’t mine?”

But then God completely subverts the dominant paradigm by saying “DO NOT sacrifice YOUR son to prove YOUR love for me. Rather, I will sacrifice MY son to prove MY love for you.”

Israel kept falling into idolatry until about the sixth century B.C. after the Babylonian captivity. After Solomon died in 931 B.C, the united Israel split into Israel and Judah. Israel continued in idolatry until in 722 B.C. when they fell captive to the Assyrians. Judah fell, eventually, to the Babylonians in 586 B.C.

 

[spiderweb]

I asked this question to CA staff apologist. This is the answer that I received. Perhaps it will help you. I haven’t had time to read all the links yet, but wanted to make it available here.

How can a good God command a moral evil (Abraham/Isaac)? Because this is a very difficult subject to explain in the short context of an email, the information listed below should prove helpful.

The following is an excellent article on moral absolutes:

ewtn.com/library/THEOLOGY/FR92202.htm

Why God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac: thecatholicyearoffaith.com/why-did-god-ask-abraham-to-sacrifice-isaac/

Further reading: newtheologicalmovement.blogspot.com/2012/03/if-god-knows-all-things-why-did-he-put.html

A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scriptures:

§ 153a 22:1–19 The Sacrifice of Isaac—By his command to sacrifice Isaac God Almighty proclaimed his absolute dominion over the lives of men who are the work of his hands. By the revocation of the order he manifested that he did not wish this dominion to be acknowledged by the actual sacrifice of human life. The double lesson was necessary as the Canaanites offered such sacrifices to their gods. On later idolatrous human sacrifice in Israel cf. Sutcliffe, The OT and the Future Life, 175 f. The command was a severe test of Abraham’s obedience and also of his faith, since God had promised him posterity through Isaac. The Church has always seen in the sacrifice of Isaac a figure of the Eternal Father delivering his Incarnate Son to the Sacrifice of Calvary, Rom 8:32.

§ b 1. ‘God made trial of Abraham’. 2. ‘into the land of the Amorites’, so the Syr.; MT ‘of Moriah’. In 2 Par 3:1 the place is identified with the temple mount at Jerusalem, but this does not settle the original form of name. 3. ‘in the morning’. 4. The distance from Beersheba to Jerusalem is 45 m. in a straight line, a journey which would be completed within 3 days. 5. Omit ‘with speed’. 5. Like Caiaphas Abraham uttered an unconscious prophecy. St Ambrose: ‘prophetavit quod ignorabat’, PL 14, 447. 13. In the royal cemetery at Ur dating from late in the 4th millennium b.c. were found two elaborately decorated figures of goats standing on their hind legs, each ‘with a silver bond, apparently a chain, round his front fetlocks attaching him to the branches of a tree’. The two were supports for some lost object, possibly a tabletop. They are not caught by the horns and there is no apparent connection of symbolism with the story of Abraham. ‘The “heraldic” composition of two animals facing each other and reared up on their hind legs against a bush of tree is a commonplace of Sumerian art at this period’. See C. L. Woolley, Ur Excavations II (1934) 264–6 and plates 87–90. 14. ‘The Lord provideth’, as in 8. Hence the proverb ‘In the mountain the Lord will provide’ for the needs of his suppliants. 17. The gates stand by synecdoche for the fortified towns, and so the power of their enemies as in Mt 16:18. 18. See on 12:3.[1]

Source: [1] Sutcliffe, E. F. (1953). Genesis. In B. Orchard & E. F. Sutcliffe (Eds.), A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture (p. 196). Toronto;New York;Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson.

Haydock Commentary:

Ver. 1. God tempted, &c. God tempteth no man to evil, James 1:13. But by trial and experiment, maketh known to the world and to ourselves, what we are; as here by this trial the singular faith and obedience of Abraham was made manifest. Ch.[2] [1] Haydock, G. L. (1859). Haydock’s Catholic Bible Commentary (Ge 22:1). New York: Edward Dunigan and Brother.

God bless you!

Peggy Frye

Staff Apologist

Catholic Answers