Sacrifices that live

Movies and portraits of this incident have often focused intensely on that one anxious moment in which Abraham's raised hand is but a millisecond away from plunging the knife into Isaac's body, being restrained only by an act of God. That scene in isolation misses the longer and larger story of the relationships between a father and his son, between each of them and God and among God and all persons affected by the earlier covenant between God and Abraham that was fulfilled in Israel and in Christ. It also misses Abraham's belief that Isaac's physical death could not be God's last word (Heb. 11:17-19).

That famous mountaintop "snapshot" is only part of the Scriptural "video" that runs before and after it, even continuing today. Some overlooked Biblical brush strokes and camera angles may clarify the total picture.

The broader theme of this Scripture is not blind obedience to an all-powerful God. It involves Abraham's personal history with the God of Promises (2 Cor. 1:19-20) and Encouragement (2 Cor. 1:3-5), who had already demonstrated himself to be completely trustworthy, while Abraham had demonstrated himself to be - well, less so.

We also see how God revealed to Abraham an interpretation of this experience that enabled him to endure it. With his son on the altar, the fire ready to be lit and the knife close by, God gave Abraham insight into the meaning of "living sacrifice" that reaches far into the New Testament, insight that would be meaningless if Isaac were killed (Rom. 12:1-21).

Abraham's history with God had already included many "unbelievable" but fulfilled promises - that he would have many descendents and bless the entire world (Gen. 12:2); that God would give him the land of Canaan (Gen. 12:7); that he and his elderly wife would have a son (Gen. 18:10-14); that this son, Isaac, would be God's means of blessing the world (Gen 18:12), etc. It was not as though this command to sacrifice Isaac was based on blind faith. Abraham had been "God's friend" for many years (James 2:23) and might well have suspected that "something was up" when God gave this particular command. Abraham must have thought, "Surely there must be more than the untimely and tortuous death of my innocent boy;" indeed, there was.

In addition to his personal history with God, Abraham twice indicates that the result of this sacrifice will not be Isaac's death. He tells his servants that both of them will return from the mountain (Gen. 22:5) and assures an anxious Isaac that "God will provide himself the lamb." (That particular word order is significant: see Gen. 22:8 in the KJV/RSV/ML/RBV, et. al.).

So what are the new "brush strokes and camera angels" to understanding this passage- Let's see. We have a father and son, a lamb, a call to sacrifice unto death, the son's obedience, the father's expectation of resurrection and a "living sacrifice." Well, well. We thought Easter was over, didn't we-