The Meaning of Abraham's Failed Sacrifice of Isaac

From "This Is My Body" with John Hamer from Centre Place Toronto.

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[russellmillar]

Judging by Abe's reaction when God told him to kill his son, it must have been common place to sacrifice children.

[calanm]

The language of committing the first born to the Lord (human and animal) is thought to point back to giving that via sacrifice, particularly in times of severe distress (famine, conquest etc). The idea of a substitute (replace with a material offering or sacrifice) obviously became appealing, and the prohibitions appear in the text to remove this from God’s character.
(Reminds me a little of how in evangelical churches today the apex is being a young family with kids, but Paul says not to marry unless you are so “weak” you’d explode with lust 😂, cos the end is coming any day soon and kids will just slow down your proselytising …. Bible makers today can’t get away with writing that out, so we become collectively theologically blind to it through church culture).
But to survive you do what you can .. and if the mystical folks who speak with the unseen controller of fate tell you he really likes xyz and it would show him your true devotion, who are you to argue?
The fact I thought like that until lockdown now scares me - I had no excuse other than conditioning: but lockdown & Youtube finally opened my eyes 😊. Heck, I don’t even need a storm deity to explain extreme weather, and they don’t even keep hailstones in a cupboard!

[aprylvanryn]

How sure are we that the ending of that story hasn't been changed to reflect the changing beliefs of the people at the time? Maybe the original has Abe carve up little Isaac and burn him, and God is pleased. To me that feels more in line with the God of the OT

[darrellmarshall-ujlc]

Why then did He sacrifice the Son of Man?

[SolracCAP]

The Canaanites sacrificed their children to their gods. Carthaginians, descendants of Canaanites, were also known for child sacrifice. Perhaps the story of Isaac's near sacrifice was a direct reaction against this practice, showing the superiority and mercy of the God of Israel.

[MrAmeengr]

Which is a real test ? Sacrificing the only child ( Ismael) or the second son ( Isaac)( peace be upon them all )

[wailinburnin]

I would argue the reason that the story of Abraham and Isaac kept making the cut as the story progressed through edits of sacred text, has nothing to do with god or mystical anything. It is simply a justification story for not engaging in human sacrifice of any kind. It basically allows everyone in and outside of that particular culture to say: “These people do not perform or recognize any power in human sacrifice.” And, this has been vitally important, human sacrifice was occurring all over the place, it was rampant, ubiquitous, perhaps the easiest and most effective way to enforce compliance by a priest class in any culture. This story is the very reason why the Greek intelligencia embraced the mythology of these Canaanites and furthered the development in their Age, of what has grown into the religions of “The People of the Book.”

[endofdaysprophet]

This was to test the REASON of Abrahams faith. Was he only faithful because of the rewards???

[GregNewYork]

God doesn't need any human or animal sacrifices, all He needs is your true faith.

[brandonfredrickaldwych]

This is quite off the mark.

God was showing Abraham the end goal of his promise to him. God promised Abraham his "seed" will be as numerous as the stars and he will b father to many nations.

Now, God did not reveal how he was going to save mankind from Adam's sin but they knew God will do something and it will involve a seed, a son, a savior, a blessed one. This was spoken in Genesis 3:15. This is the main reason why they kept their bloodlines intact from Adam to Noah, then from Noah to Abraham.

Abraham was chosen by God to be the bearer of that promised seed. Abraham was God's personal friend. The end goal of Abraham bloodline is for that promised seed, the messiah to be come through.

And God will sacrifice his own son to save mankind through Abraham's seed. Abraham's sacrificing of Isaac happened in Mount Moriah, where the Temple was later built. Abraham knew God was not going to go through with the sacrifice of Isaac. Isaac was going to serve a much bigger purpose in God's purposes.

And God showed Abraham what his promise was ultimately going to culminate to. God sacrificing his own son to save all of mankind.

[LSheWolf]

No! ACTUALLY, it's about Abraham sacrificing his son just like how God sacrificed his son but a lamb instead. Yeah, it took me a few years to figure that one out. But this guy got it all wrong

[HearTruth]

itś a foreshadowing of how God sent to us His Son Jesus Christ. read what Abraham said before a Ram was caught in the thicket.. Gen 22:1-19 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself (a sacrifice)

[dmsdad]

Interesting Isaac doesn't come down, off the hill with Abraham. Abraham goes down to his young servants/slaves.
Then we see parallels of Isaac's life to his father, Abraham.
There is talk that Abraham DID sacrifice Isaac but an author patches Isaac's adulthood in to connect Abraham to Jacob in the coming chapters

[foreignwarren]

It can be interpreted in any way that suits you.... that is the problem 😂

[crimson]

Indeed. The story is a polemic argument employed in the composition of the Septuagint to distance second temple Judaism from its predecessors and the cultural norms of the peoples of the region and, in my opinion, either to ensure population growth and stability since child rearing was a rather rough endeavor among the leity at that point in history OR, and this is a fringe theory which I find rather intriguing and convincing and to which I ascribe, because of the Ptolemeic influence and installation of a new state, heavily based on Plato's Republic and with influence of Alexander the Great's idyllic world-building aspirations, wherein child/human sacrifice is a naughty no-no because, to the Greeks, such a practice is disgustingly abhorrent.

For a greater, in-depth explanation of this Ptolemeic synthetic religion installation theory, check out Gram Pong's live presentation on the Aeon Byte channel titled "The Origins & Evolution of Judaism."

[sananselmospacescienceodys]

Killing animals to please God. That's sick.

[timamyett]

God said he was testing Abraham....I'll believe God and ignore you!

[m.arikanashina]

he doesnt know anything and so many ppl listen to him.. it was abraham and ismail..

[HB-scwu]

Not true. The man who sacrifice his daughter after she welcomed hom from the war dusagrees with you. Yall just interprete the bible to suit your narrative