Y
yesukristus
Guest
I came across this interpretation of the story of Abraham sacrificing his son, and would like your opinion of it (traditionalist, liberal, what have you):
If we read the story of Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac as if it were a newspaper account – as most are likely to do – then we will imagine a voice coming from heaven telling Abraham – ‘Kill your son’. However, when I tell a story of my relationship with God, I often say, ‘And God said to me’, but I do not mean a voice sounded in the room where I was, I mean that on reflection that is what I understand God has said to me. When I speak like this, I am sharing an experience of my faith, I am not writing a story for the newspaper and the intention is not to tell you something about me, but to help you hear God in your own life – for the God I walk with is the God you walk with. Likewise, when we read the story of Abraham and Isaac, we are listening to a story Abraham told of his relationship with God – and, more importantly, how he grew in understanding through those happenings.
Yesterday, I was talking about this to a young man under instruction to be received into the Catholic Faith and I asked him, ‘If you had a dream that God was asking you to kill your mother, would you do it?’ He answered, ‘Of course not. I would know it is not God because he does not ask such things.’ Even though not yet a Christian, he knows that because many others have lived with God and told their stories and from those stories we learn what God is like. However, Abraham did not know what God was like, because, as far as we know, he was the first person God had ever spoken to. He obviously felt that God was asking something of him, but as there was no one to ask, he looked at the customs of the Canaanites amongst whom he lived and he saw that when they worshiped their god, killed a child in sacrifice. So, Abraham decided that was the way to do things and took his son Isaac to Mount Moriah to do the same. However, God stopped him, told him that he appreciated and the devotion of Abraham and added – ‘but not that way!’ And from that time onwards, human sacrifice has never been acceptable as a way of worshiping God. From that time also, a set of standards of acceptable behavior began to be built up, standards which have been improved on by succeeding generations as the received this heritage and tried to live it.
If we read the story of Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac as if it were a newspaper account – as most are likely to do – then we will imagine a voice coming from heaven telling Abraham – ‘Kill your son’. However, when I tell a story of my relationship with God, I often say, ‘And God said to me’, but I do not mean a voice sounded in the room where I was, I mean that on reflection that is what I understand God has said to me. When I speak like this, I am sharing an experience of my faith, I am not writing a story for the newspaper and the intention is not to tell you something about me, but to help you hear God in your own life – for the God I walk with is the God you walk with. Likewise, when we read the story of Abraham and Isaac, we are listening to a story Abraham told of his relationship with God – and, more importantly, how he grew in understanding through those happenings.
Yesterday, I was talking about this to a young man under instruction to be received into the Catholic Faith and I asked him, ‘If you had a dream that God was asking you to kill your mother, would you do it?’ He answered, ‘Of course not. I would know it is not God because he does not ask such things.’ Even though not yet a Christian, he knows that because many others have lived with God and told their stories and from those stories we learn what God is like. However, Abraham did not know what God was like, because, as far as we know, he was the first person God had ever spoken to. He obviously felt that God was asking something of him, but as there was no one to ask, he looked at the customs of the Canaanites amongst whom he lived and he saw that when they worshiped their god, killed a child in sacrifice. So, Abraham decided that was the way to do things and took his son Isaac to Mount Moriah to do the same. However, God stopped him, told him that he appreciated and the devotion of Abraham and added – ‘but not that way!’ And from that time onwards, human sacrifice has never been acceptable as a way of worshiping God. From that time also, a set of standards of acceptable behavior began to be built up, standards which have been improved on by succeeding generations as the received this heritage and tried to live it.
