OUR HEBREW

FATHERS

Faithfulness Under Trial

IN THIS LECTURE:

1. Relationships with People, Angels and God.

2. Abraham’s Ultimate Test.

3. The Binding of Isaac.

Relationships with People, Angels, God

Abram became Abraham, and God promised him many descendants. When Abram heard God’s promise of fruitfulness, he did not understand how it would come to pass. Could he even imagine a son coming from the womb of Sarai, his wife, who by that time was well past child-bearing age?

Yet Abraham was not the only one in the family to receive a new name. Sarai would now be known as Sarah, and God promised that she would bear Abraham a son and become “[a mother of] nations” and of “kings of peoples” – an amazing promise! (Gen. 17:16)

Abraham already had a son, Ishmael, by Sarah’s maidservant Hagar. Why then would Sarah need to become a mother as well? When Abraham laughed at God’s promise, he made his own proposal to God that made more sense: “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” (Gen. 17:18)

God received this request and promised to bless Ishmael (Gen. 17:20) but still insisted that Sarah would have a son of her own to carry on the covenant. But both Abraham and Sarah had their doubts!

In Gen. 18, an encounter took place between Abraham, Sarah, and three visitors, hosted as guests in Abraham’s tent. This occurred by the famed oaks of Mamre. Abraham saw the travelers from afar, quickly approached them, begged them to accept the hospitality of his tent, and they agreed.

“Abraham Serving the Three Angels” by Rembrandt, 1646.

Abraham requested that Sarah bake cakes to feed their guests. He then ran to the herd, chose a calf, and delegated a servant to prepare it. He brought the food before his guests, serving them and catering to their every need (Gen. 18:6-8). But these were not ordinary travelers. They asked about Sarah, because they had a special message.

The text seems to say that one of the visitors then told Abraham that Sarah would already have a son at his next visit in a year’s time. Sarah laughed to herself in disbelief upon hearing these words, a reaction parallel to Abraham’s. Then the LORD (YHWH) asked Abraham –perhaps as or through one of the messengers – why his wife had laughed. (Gen. 18:9-12).

ר האף אמר יהוה אל־אברהם למה זה צחקה שרה לאמ ויאמנם אלד ואני זקנתי׃

“Then the LORD said to Abraham: Why did Sarah laugh, saying: Shall I in truth bear a child, old as I am?” (Gen. 18:13)

“Abraham Serving the Three Angels” by Rembrandt, 1646.

היפלא מיהוה דבר למועד אשוב אליך כעת חיה ולשרה בן׃

“Is anything too wondrous for the LORD? I will return to you at the same season next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” (Gen. 18:14)

א כי צחקת׃ אמר ל א צחקתי כי יראה וי ר ל ותכחש שרה לאמ

“Sarah denied [it], saying: I did not laugh; for she was frightened. But he replied: You did laugh.” (Gen. 18:15)

God asserted that his promise would surely come true. A son would be born, to be called Isaac יצחק (Yitschak), which in Hebrew means “he laughs” (Gen. 17:19).

God’s choice of Isaac did not negate his love nor care for Ishmael ישמעאל (Yishmael),whose name means “God hears.” God stated that because of Abraham’s request Ishmael would also be blessed. He too would become a great nation and father twelve princes (Gen. 17:20).

Abraham escorts his guests on their way, once again demonstrating deep hospitality. We then read about God questioning himself as to whether he should keep secrets from Abraham, given the glorious and extraordinary future of this man. (Gen. 18:16-19)

“Abraham and the Angels” by Aert de Gelder, 1646.

ויהוה אמר המכסה אני מאברהם שה׃ אשר אני ע

“Now the LORD had said: Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do.” (Gen. 18:17)

ואברהם היו יהיה לגוי גדול ל גויי הארץ׃ ועצום ונברכו בו כ

“Since Abraham is to become a great and populous nation and all the nations of the earth are to be blessed in him.” (Gen. 18:18)

כי ידעתיו למען אשר יצוה את־בניו ואת־ביתו אחריו ושמרו

דרך יהוה לעשות צדקה ומשפט למען הביא יהוה

על־אברהם את אשר־דבר עליו׃

“For I have singled him out, that he may instruct his children and his posterity to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is just and right, in order that the LORD may bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.” (Gen. 18:19)

As the three visitors were departing (or possibly earlier), Abraham apparently understood that they were not ordinary men but rather heavenly visitors. Having heard of the potential judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham appealed to God’s justice and asked him not to destroy the upright together with the wicked. What entailed is a fascinating dialogue that later became one of the foundational texts for the notion of a minyan in Judaism – a quorum of ten men for successful communal prayer. (Gen. 18:23-33)

“Abraham and Three Angels" by Gustave Doré, 1866.

חללה לך מעשת כדבר הזה להמית צדיק עם־רשע והיה א יעשה משפט׃ כצדיק כרשע חללה לך השפט כל־הארץ ל

“Far be it from you to do such a thing, to bring death upon the innocent as well as the guilty, so that innocent and guilty fare alike. Far be it from you! Shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly?” (Gen. 18:25)

In Hebrew, the phrase translated as “far it be from you” is חללה לך (chalilahlecha). The meaning is something like, “May it never be!” The simple meaning of this phrase is that the one who pronounces these words believes that something is really not a good idea to do. In this context, the meaning would be something like Abraham saying: “Don’t do it! It is so out of character for you!”

ם חמשים צדיקם בתוך העיר אמר יהוה אם־אמצא בסד ויאמר הנה־נא ונשאתי לכל־המקום בעבורם׃ ויען אברהם וי

כי עפר ואפר׃ ני ואנ הואלתי לדבר אל־אד

"And the LORD answered: If I find within the city of Sodom fifty innocent ones, I will forgive the whole place for their sake. Abraham spoke up, saying: Here I venture to speak to my lord, I who am but dust and ashes.” (Gen. 18:26-27)

אולי יחסרון חמשים הצדיקם חמשה התשחית

בחמשה את־כל־העיר א אשחית אמר ל וי

אם־אמצא שם ארבעים וחמשה׃

“What if the fifty innocent should lack five? Will you destroy the whole city for want of the five? And he answered: I will not destroy if I find forty-five there.” (Gen. 18:28)

As Abraham realizes the gravity of the situation (after all he is arguing with the Supreme Judge of the whole earth), he acknowledges his essential connection to Adam. The phrase כי עפר ואפר אנ (anochi afar va-efer)is translated as “I am dust and ashes.”

“The Testing of Abraham's Faith" by Gustave Doré, 1866.

This statement establishes a clear connection to the origins of humanity in Gen. 2:7. There the sentence וייצר יהוה אלהים

מן־האדמהאת־האדם עפר may be translated as: “And the LORD God formed man from the עפר(afar) dust of the earth.” Abraham, like Noah before him and several other Biblical figures, is portrayed as typologically connected to Adam, the first human. “The Testing of Abraham's Faith"

by Gustave Doré, 1866.

Readers of this text should notice that Abraham's demand is not for the guilty to be destroyed and the innocent spared, but rather that the LORD would spare the entire city for the sake of the upright who live within it – a point made more explicit in verse 26. The underlying concept here is the assertion that a just or upright minority can bring deliverance to the greater community.

Gen. 19 then deals largely with the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, as foretold by the three heavenly visitors hosted by Abraham.

Just as in the account of the judgment against wicked humanity in the story of Noah (Gen. 8:1), here God is said to “remember” or “be mindful” of people with whom he has a relationship. Here he spares Abraham’s nephew Lot and his family from the fire raining down on Sodom and Gomorrah.

קר אל־המקום אשר־עמד שם את־פני וישכם אברהם בברה ועל־כל־פני ארץ הככר וירא ם ועמ יהוה׃ וישקף על־פני סד

ר הכבשן׃ ר הארץ כקיט והנה עלה קיט

“Next morning, Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood before the LORD. And looking down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, he saw the smoke of the land rising like the smoke of a kiln.” (Gen. 19:27-28)

“The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah" by John Martin, 1852.

ויהי בשחת אלהים את־ערי ר אלהים הככר ויזכ

את־אברהם וישלח את־לוט ך מתוך ההפכה בהפ

את־הערים אשר־ישב בהן לוט׃

“Thus it was, that when God destroyed the cities of the plain and annihilated the cities where Lot dwelt, he was mindful of Abraham and removed Lot from the midst of the upheaval.” (Gen. 19:29)

The Book of Genesis includes several stories depicting Abraham’s interactions with other people living in the land of Canaan, which God had promised to his offspring. We see that in general he sought peace with them and even interceded on their behalf.

One story connects Abraham with Abimelech, a notable ruler of Gerarin the land of the Philistines. This king had an experience in which God actually told him that Abraham was a prophet. (Gen. 20)

Abimelech apparently sensed that Abraham would become great and powerful. He thought strategically and wanted assurance that if and when the time came for Abraham to show good will toward him, he would do so. In accordance with his good nature, Abraham agreed to this local alliance. He promised that he would always deal honestly and kindly with Abimelech and his descendants. (Gen. 21:22-24)

Abraham took seven fully grown sheep and asked Abimelech, probably in a public ceremony, to accept them as proof that it was indeed Abraham who had dug the well, thus confirming his ownership. Abimelech agreed to the ceremony, and the two swore a covenant (berit). From this point on Abraham was able to live among the Philistines for a very long time. The text says that he invoked the name of YHWH, the Everlasting God, and offered a sacrifice in that place, called Beer-Sheba. (Gen. 21:25-34)

The modern city of Beersheva is built in the general vicinity of this same place where the ceremony involving the seven sheep took place. In Hebrew, באר (beer) means “a well” and שבע (sheva) means “seven”.

Interestingly, in Hebrew the word for oath is שבעה(shevuah), of the same root as “seven.” Therefore, the meaning of Beer Sheva could mean “the well of seven [sacrifices]” or more likely “the well of an oath.”

Abraham’s Ultimate

Test

Abraham was no stranger to challenges, but everything he had gone through up to this point only prepared him for the ultimate challenge that his God would ask of him –offering up his son Isaac.

God had already tested Abraham’s faith even to the point of anguish and failure to grasp the reasoning in God’s mind. Yet it is here, in Gen. 22, that the ultimate test of Abraham’s trust is revealed.

ויהי אחר הדברים האלה והאלהים נסה אמר אמר אליו אברהם וי את־אברהם וי

הנני׃

“Some time afterward, God put Abraham to the test. He said to him: Abraham. And he answered: Here I am.” (Gen. 22:1)

Abraham was willing and ready to immediately answer God’s call. After all, he was God’s servant. This story would come to epitomize the determination of every true Israelite to serve his God, no matter what the circumstances.

Indeed, this faithful service to God is the ultimate reason for Israel’s existence. The difficulty of this tenth and final test (based on the tradition of the sages) lay not only in Abraham’s love for his son Isaac, but also in the promises that God had given Abraham in connection with him. If Isaac were to die, those promises could never be fulfilled. What is Abraham to make of his God’s words?

“Abraham's and Isaac" by Anthony van Dyck, 1617.

אמר קח־נא את־בנך ויאת־יחידך אשר־אהבת

את־יצחק ולך־לך ריה והעלהו אל־ארץ המ

לה על אחד שם לעמר אליך׃ ההרים אשר א

“And he said: Take your son, your only one, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the heights that I will point out to you.” (Gen. 22:2)

The order of the Hebrew is as follows: "your son, your only one, the one whom you love, Isaac.” This word order seems to convey increasing emotional intensity. The expression “go to” לך-לך(lech lecha) previously occurred in Gen. 12:1, in the context of God calling Abram to leave his family behind and follow him to the a land. The style of this language is quite decisive.

God tells Abraham to trust him, to go and offer his son “on one of the heights that I will point out to you.” This parallels the command to trust and go “to the land that I will show you” (Gen. 12:1). All these stories in the Torah form a coherent narrative of the faith and trust relationship between Israel and God.

To our surprise God tells Abraham to offer his “only son”. Of course, Isaac was not the only son of Abraham. What about Ishmael?“Abraham and Isaac” Charles

Foster Bible, 1897.

Ishmael was also Abraham’s son, and acknowledged by God as such. Yet here Abraham is told to take his son, the only son, that he loves, and the text specifies Isaac. Why?

While God also blessed Ishmael because he was Abraham’s son, it was Isaac who was the visual sign of God’s amazing promises to Abraham. He was the miracle child born by God’s hand. Moreover, Ishmael had been sent away to live separately.

The giving of Isaac to Abraham amidst most improbable circumstances produced in Abraham (along with prophetic statements about Isaac) an exceptional love and hope for this son born from Sarah. Isaac was most special to him.

Will the “child of laughter” now turn into the “child of sadness?” Were Abraham and his family simply part of some crude heavenly experiment? Abraham did not know, but he trusted the God who had led him for years.

So early the next morning, Abraham saddled his animal of burden and took his two servants and his son Isaac. He split the wood for the burnt offering, and set out on a journey to the place that God had told him about (Gen. 22:3).

Isaac was singled out as having the greatest value of anything in Abraham’s life. Now this Hebrew faced his greatest test – to give up the son he loved, the one he had hoped and longed for in obedience for so long.

Yet it was not just the actual giving up of someone so dear to him that was difficult for Abraham. Abram had become Abraham because he had passed similar tests before. But this time the justice, the faithfulness and very goodness of Abraham’s God, and even his reputation, was at stake. What would happen to God’s promises if Isaac were to die?

את־עיניואברהם וישאביום השלישי ק׃את־המקוםוירא מרח

“On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place from afar.” (Gen. 22:4)

The journey to the mountain of God’s choosing ריה המ (ha-moriah) “Mt. Moriah” took three days. The third day must have been the most difficult. For a while, the father saw the place where he needed to offer his son Isaac. Slowly they drew closer and closer to the spot where Isaac would apparently end his life.

According to an old tradition, about a thousand years later this very high place had become the threshing floor of Araunahthe Jebusite. King David bought the threshing floor and built an altar to the Lord there so that “the plague be held back from the people” (2 Sam. 24:18-21). After David’s death, his son King Solomon built a glorious temple on the same mountaintop.

We read in 2 Chr. 3:1: “Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah…”

The temple Solomon built was later destroyed in war. Zerubbabel restored it, and King Herod later expanded and greatly improved it. The significance of the place of Abraham’s trial did not end then; it continued through many historical events and persists until today.

The Binding of Isaac

“Isaac bears the wood for his sacrifice" by James Tissot, ca. 1896-1902. את־עציאברהם ויקח

לה וישם על־יצחקהעאת־האשבידו ויקחבנו

וילכו ואת־המאכתשניהם יחדו׃

"Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and put it on his son Isaac. He himself took the firestone and the knife; and the two walked off together.” (Gen. 22:6)

אמר יצחק אמר אל־אברהםוי אביו ויאמר הנה האש אמר הנני בני וי אבי וי

אמר לה׃ וי והעצים ואיה השה לעלה יראה־לואלהיםאברהם השה לע

בני וילכו שניהם יחדו

“Then Isaac said to his father Abraham: My father! And he answered: Yes, my son. And he said: Here are the firestone and the wood; but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said: God will see to the lamb for His burnt offering, my son. And the two of them walked on together.” (Gen. 22:6-8)

The text emphasizes the pain Abraham must have experienced when Isaac uttered the word אבי(avi) “My father!” Since the ancient text does not have punctuation marks, we must practice reading original Hebrew very slowly and with imagination, in order to feel, together with Abraham, the pain of Isaac’s address. This pain and sensitivity from an old father is epitomized in his immediate and tender response: הנני בני (hineni beni) “Here am I, my son.”

Isaac asked his father a question. Abraham’s response continues with a firm, consistent and mind-boggling faith that earned him his fame. Reflecting the structure of Hebrew language, the text literally says: השהיראה־לואלהים “God will see for him the lamb” or even “God will see for himself the lamb.” Both the father and the son were bound by an enormous challenge of faith. The phrase וילכו שניהם יחדו “and the two of them walked on together” highlights their unity.

While nothing in the text indicates the age of Isaac, it seems he could have been anywhere from a teenager to a grown adult. Either way, he appears to be a willing participant, together with Abraham, in the apparent sacrifice that his God has demanded.

As we have read before, wherever the great men of God went they built altars consecrating new places to the worship of their God. This is no exception. What is different here is the intensity and difficulty of God’s demand.

או אל־המקום אשר ויבאמר־לו האלהים ויבן שם ך אברהם את־המזבח ויער

ד את־יצחק את־העצים ויעקתו על־המזבח בנו וישם א

ממעל לעצים׃

“They arrived at the place of which God had told him. Abraham built an altar there; he laid out the wood; he bound his son Isaac; he laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.” (Gen. 22:9)

ויקחאת־ידווישלח אברהם ׃ את־בנולשחטאת־המאכלת

“And Abraham picked up the knife to slay his son.” (Gen. 22:10)

The first part of the sentence is missing in many translations all together. את־ידווישלח אברהם (va-yishlach Avraham et yado) – literally it means something like “and Abraham sent out his hand.” Like a good cliffhanger movie the frame freezes for a moment. This may not be the best moment to pause the lecture but there is more to come next time.