Why does abraham kill his son

Exodus 11—12; 14—15 The Passover. Exodus 16 The Israelites in the Wilderness. Exodus 19—20; 24; 31—34; Deuteronomy 4—7 Moses on Mount Sinai. Numbers 21 Moses and the Brass Serpent. Deuteronomy 10; 31; 34; Joshua 1; 3—6; 10—11; 21; 24 Joshua the Prophet. Joshua 2; 6 Rahab and the Spies. Judges 4—5 Deborah the Prophetess. Judges 6—7 The Army of Gideon. Ruth 1—4 Ruth and Naomi. Jonah 1—4 Jonah the Prophet.

Isaiah 6—7; 9; 53—54 Isaiah the Prophet. Jeremiah 1—52 Jeremiah the Prophet. Daniel 1 Daniel and His Friends. Daniel 1; 3 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Esther 2—5; 7—9 Queen Esther. Malachi 1; 3 Malachi the Prophet. Nehemiah 1—2; 4; 6 Nehemiah. This illustrates, in an extreme way, the danger of an overly literalistic reading of a passage: 'Good biblical character X did Y, so I should also do Y! In this short article I will not give 'the answer', but hopefully provide ways that will help us to read and use it as part of scripture.

We start from the basic interpretative principle that we need to begin with the original meaning of the passage, including cultural and biblical context. One element of this is understanding the cultural context of the time. We recoil, rightly, from any suggestion of killing a child, considering it child abuse of the worst kind.

However, in the cultures of the time child sacrifice was far from unknown. These were cultures where many children died as infants, and where famine or disease could lead to the death of an entire family. Moreover, often the family unit was more important than we would recognise, with our strong focus on the individual. Imagine a situation where your family faces death by famine. The only hope is to pray to the gods for help.

To demonstrate your sincerity you sacrifice to them the most precious thing that you have: one of your children. Therefore, Abraham would not have had the automatic repulsion that we would have. However, this does not mean that the command was easy. Note the wording in verse 2: 'your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac'. The four phrases build up the relationship and therefore the horrendously difficult nature of what Abraham is told to do.

This story is arguably the climax of the Abraham stories in Genesis These stories start with God's speech to Abraham which contains both the difficult command to leave his land, and the amazing promise that he will receive descendants, land, and blessing for himself and others Gen.

This is certainly the case with our next point—prophetic reenactment. The story of Abraham and Isaac takes on a larger significance when you place it in the context of prophetic reenactment. Throughout the Bible, God asked prophets to reenact in miniature things that he would do on a larger scale. The acts themselves seem strange until you see them as an acted out allegory.

Then you start asking different questions. When we read Genesis 22, we may think, "How could God have required this? Just as God called the prophet Hosea to act the part of God in marrying a prostitute Hosea 1 and told Ezekiel to lie on his side for over a year to symbolize the siege of Jerusalem Ezekiel 4 , so God asked Abraham to play the part of God in the sacrifice of his own son. The entire Bible points to Jesus, and this is especially true of Genesis This passage is like a lock.

Jesus is the key that unlocks it for us. Think about the parallels between this story and the story of Jesus. Both sons carry the wood that is to be the instrument of their deaths on their backs Genesis , John In both cases, the father leads the son, and the son follows obediently toward his own death Genesis , Matthew What do all these parallels mean?

Abraham and Isaac point beyond themselves to the Messiah. This story is a parable of the greater redemption God would someday accomplish through one of their descendants, Jesus. An exchange happens in Genesis 22, the ram in place of Isaac. This points to the greater exchange that happens at the cross, the Son of God in place of us. In Jesus, God brings his own promised Son into death and through it.

Just like Isaac, God spares humanity because he takes the cross on himself. How could Abraham agree? This seems more like parental neglect than faithful obedience.

If Isaac represents Jesus in the story, then Abraham stands in for God. On the grounds of this sacrifice, Paul pronounces one of the strongest messages of hope and consolation in all of Scripture,. After all, God is still requiring the death of a son, only this time it's his own!

Why does death have to be involved at all? Why such violence? Why did there have to be a sacrifice? To answer these questions, we need to ponder the entire biblical story. In the beginning, God made a good world and created beings in his image to rule it with him Genesis He offered humanity richness of life because it was a life with him, the source of all life.

But there was a condition: that if humanity turned away from him, they would die because nothing can live away from God. Yet that is exactly what they chose.

God didn't introduce death into the equation; humanity did. He is life, and we have chosen to live by our own standards. The Hebrew Scriptures wrestle with the question of how death will be resolved.