"The Binding of Issac" Gen 21 &22

"After the creation story we heard last week, the story moves quickly along through the drama of the first sibling rivalry between Cain and Abel, to the earth’s population booming and trying to come together to become like gods and build a tower to heaven, to the flood and Noah’s family and the animals floating in the ark, to the reality that violence can never stop violence, and so God commits to another path and offers the rainbow as a sign of that promise. And then we meet Abram, whom God calls to leave his family and familiar surroundings and go out into a new-to-him land. Abram and Sarai pack up and go, trusting God to guide them and to provide what they most want: children. It’s a long journey through foreign lands, different tribes and towns and difficulties and adventures, but through it all two things are constant: God promises to make their descendants more numerous than the stars, and also Abraham and Sarah have no children. Today we hear about that promise finally being fulfilled, when Sarah and Abraham were in their 90s! 
 
A couple of years after their son Isaac is born, however, jealousy flared between Sarah and the slavegirl Hagar, who had previously borne a son to Abraham, named Ishmael. Sarah and Abraham sent Hagar and Ishmael away, throwing them out of the house to fend for themselves in the desert. When their food and water ran out, Hagar left Ishmael alone and travelled on until she couldn’t see or hear him, so she would not have to see him die. Both of them cried out, and God heard them and opened Hagar’s eyes to see a well, providing just what they needed to go on, so that Ishmael too would carry his part of God’s promise to his father Abraham, to be a great nation." 
I am reading today from the Contemporary English Bible as we hear the first few verses of Genesis chapter 21, and then continue in chapter 22.[1]
Let us hear how the Spirit is speaking to her church.
 
The Lord was attentive to Sarah just as he had said, and the Lord carried out just what he had promised her. 2 She became pregnant and gave birth to a son for Abraham when he was old, at the very time God had told him. 3 Abraham named his son—the one Sarah bore him—Isaac.
 
After these events, God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!”
Abraham answered, “I’m here.”
2 God said, “Take your son, your only son whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him up as an entirely burned offering there on one of the mountains that I will show you.” 3 Abraham got up early in the morning, harnessed his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, together with his son Isaac. He split the wood for the entirely burned offering, set out, and went to the place God had described to him.
4 On the third day, Abraham looked up and saw the place at a distance.5 Abraham said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will walk up there, worship, and then come back to you.”
6 Abraham took the wood for the entirely burned offering and laid it on his son Isaac. He took the fire and the knife in his hand, and the two of them walked on together. 7 Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father?”
Abraham said, “I’m here, my son.”
Isaac said, “Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the entirely burned offering?”
8 Abraham said, “The lamb for the entirely burned offering? God will see to it,[a] my son.” The two of them walked on together.
9 They arrived at the place God had described to him. Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He tied up his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to kill his son as a sacrifice. 11 But the Lord’s messenger called out to Abraham from heaven, “Abraham? Abraham?”
Abraham said, “I’m here.”
12 The messenger said, “Don’t stretch out your hand against the young man, and don’t do anything to him. I now know that you revere God and didn’t hold back your son, your only son, from me.” 13 Abraham looked up and saw a single ram[b] caught by its horns in the dense underbrush. Abraham went over, took the ram, and offered it as an entirely burned offering instead of his son. 14 Abraham named that place “the Lord sees.”[c] That is the reason people today say, “On this mountain the Lord is seen.”
This is the word of our Lord. 
Thanks be to God.
 
This is such an incredibly complex and hard story. Full stop. 
For one so fraught with emotion, we get nothing of the thoughts or emotions of Abraham or Isaac. What was going through their heads during that hike? At what point did Isaac figure how what was happening? When he was bound? When he asked where the sacrifice was? Before they started their journey? Was Abraham actually going to go thru with the sacrifice? Was he actually even faithful? His knife was up, but he was rescued by God’s angels before we know if the knife fell forward into Isaac or dropped limply to his side unable to do what God asked. 
I have largely ignored this passage. It’s too messy. I’m not touching that one. But I found out that this story, the binding of Isaac, is read at Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year and there is a depth of insight from our Jewish siblings that has kicked out the walls and the box for which I held this passage in. It’s become a little more dimensional. Or in the least has helped me ask better questions. 
We are told in the beginning of chapter 21 that the Lord was attentive to Sarah and she bore the child  God promised. I love the intimacy of that phrase, God “was attentive to” Sarah. God paid attention to her. Sarah delivers the child who is named Isaac which is translated as laughter, remember how Sarah laughed when she was told she would have a baby at 90? And then our lectionary jumps to the beginning of chapter 22, which reads, “After these events, God tested Abraham.” After what events? We talked a little about this during our Bible study, but something seems to have happened between chapter 21 and 22, “some events” that causes God to need to test Abraham.
And so we journey with father and son to the mountain. That intimacy I loved between God and Sarah, I see that thread in this journey as well between Abraham and Isaac. This is something I never paid attention to before. The phrase Abraham says to God, when God calls on him is, Hinneni. Here I am.God said to him, “Abraham!”
Abraham answered, “Here am I.” It’s more than just a “present.” Hinneni is a radical presence. It means I’m ready to do the thing you’re about to ask before really knowing what you’re volunteering for. It’s a connection to who is doing the calling. 
So when God calls Abraham, and Abraham responds “Hinneni” Abraham is fully present and willing to do what God calls him to do.
 
 
6 Abraham took the wood for the entirely burned offering and laid it on his son Isaac. He took the fire and the knife in his hand, and the two of them walked on together. 7 Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father?”
Abraham said, “I’m here, my son.” 
Isaac said, “Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the entirely burned offering?”
8 Abraham said, “The lamb for the entirely burned offering? God will see to it,[a] my son.” The two of them walked on together.
 
Two times in these 3 verses, it says, “the two of them walked on together.” The two of them walked Yadaw. In oneness. And though the text is absent of words from Abraham and Isaac about the situation they find themselves in, the Hebrew is very clear they are in this together. Yadaw. Abraham has not separated from Isaac. Yadaw. There is in this crucible together. 
Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father?”
Abraham said, “I’m here, my son.” 
My father? Hinneni, Abraham responds.
 
Just as Abraham was fully present and committed to God, Abraham is fully present and committed to Isaac. That was surprising to me. That a person like Abraham a biblical hero would be equally committed to both in his presence. And those commitments are in tension with one another. But it humanizes the story and Abraham, too. That I can relate to. That simple phrase, “Hinneni” tells us Abraham is radically present to his son. Fully committed to his son. 
 
And that I can relate to. To be fully committed to my faith, and to be fully committed to someone. There are a myriad of stories both biblical and present day that would have us choose one over the other. It could be argued, Jesus chose his commitment to people over his commitment to the institution. We can look at our churches and how they have excluded people we love, whether it’s around LGBTQ+ identity and ordination and marriage, or if it’s the long history of segregation and racism, or even as simple as accessibility for those who have disabilities. This text doesn’t really resolve that tension, but it shows that Abraham stayed fully present to both God and his child. And that’s something.
 
As Abraham’s hand is raised with knife over his son, the angels call, “Abraham, Abraham” and Abraham answers for the third time in this passage, “Hinneni.” 
“Don’t stretch out your hand against the young man, and don’t do anything to him. I now know that you revere God and didn’t hold back your son, your only son, from me.”
 
Despite doctrines we profess about the omniscience of God, the all knowingness of God, this verse offers a counter to that. “I now know.” That God put Abraham to a test and didn’t really know what Abraham would do. 
We actually don’t know if Abraham was faithful. As the podcasters in Bibleworm say, “If it was a game a chicken, God flinched first” and stopped Abraham from having to choose. 
But there is a way in which God has changed in this passage. As Rev. Dr. Bobby Williamson says: This is a text about God coming to understand in a different way what it means to be in a covenented relationship with certain people versus God reigning sovereign. Everything is different now. God could have destroyed. God could have allowed Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, but the covenant would be null and void. What we see in this passage is a God who has yielded sovereignty to blessing. 
 
It means we have a God who is both sovereign and deeply gracious to us. At the end of the day, God’s graciousness wins out. [2] God chooses us. And that is indeed a good word.
 
In the name of the creator, redeemer, and sustainer. Amen.

​-Rev. Tricia Dillon Thomas


[1] Teri Peterson.

[2] Bibleworm podcast for Gen 21 and 22