Lenten Service (2), 2008

THE BINDING OF ISAAC

Dear Friends in Christ, grace to you and peace…..           

       Abraham went to the land of Moriah.  So where is Moriah, and how do you get there?   When in doubt, get on the internet. So I went  to Mapquest.  I typed in my home address, then Moriah for a destination, and hit “get directions.”  I got a message saying “Maquest found multiple destinations with this name. ”  Well, I should have known I’d have better luck with books than on the computer.  My next move was to look for Moriah in that book called One hundred places to see before you die.  Moriah isn’t one of them.  Then I looked it up in that travel guide called Lonely Planet. You know, the one that specializes in funky, low budget tourism. Of course my edition is an old one, out of print. But my copy of  Lonely Planet  does note  Moriah, and here’s what it says:  “steep climbs, no roads, no water, no firewood.  Hotels not rated.  Unforgettable worth a journey to avoid.  If you must go, get an experienced guide.”  Someone like Abraham.
            Abraham and his son Isaac walked to Moriah.  It took them three days from Bear-sheba.  They didn’t have Triple A back then, so they took two servants with them in case they needed help along the way.   Their all-terrain vehicle was a donkey, loaded up with water, food, and plenty of firewood.  They were going to need that wood when they got to Moriah, and not just to build a campfire. They were going to make an offering—a burnt offering, a sacrifice to God.  So they needed wood.  The party of four set off early in the morning.  They would put some miles behind them before the sun could scorch the desert.   
            On the way to Moriah, Abraham has plenty of time to contemplate the horrible thing he is about to do.  The unthinkable thing God has told him to do.  Yes, he knew it was God, he’d heard that voice before and there was no mistaking it.  It was the same voice that spoke to him so many years ago, called him to leave his home, and go to a land God would show him. That same voice that promised him descendants, as many as the stars of the sky.  And it was that same voice that said his wife Sarah would bear a son in their old age.  Never mind the fact that Sarah was well past her child-bearing years. And Abraham, at the ripe old age of one hundred, was none too frisky himself.  Sarah laughed at the promise, but God said, “is anything too hard for the Lord?”   God kept the promise (although he took his sweet time) and the child was born.  They named him Isaac, which means, “he laughs.”  So great was their joy!   Yes, Abraham knew God’s voice. So when God called his name, Abraham said, “Here I am.”    
           And then God said , “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I shall show you.”  Of course Abraham knew the neighbors were doing it—sacrificing human life to appease their gods.  But Abraham believed  his God was different. A God of mercy and promise and life.  Not a god of cruelty and death.  Yes Abraham knew his God was not like the others.  But God’s voice is unmistakable, and now God commands Abraham to slay Isaac.  But wait, what about God’s promise to make a great nation of Abraham and Sarah’s offspring, and to bless all nations through them?   How can the promises ever be fulfilled, if Abraham sacrifices Isaac?  How can Abraham and Sara face life without their son of laughter, Isaac, for whom they waited so long… without Isaac, whom they love so much?                 
           The story says, up front, that “God tested Abraham.”  God never intended for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.  It was a test of his faith: was there anything Abraham loved more than God?  Would Abraham obey God no matter what?  We who hear, or read this story, are told “this is a test.”  But Abraham is not told.  He goes to Moriah, and there he is tested at the very point where he is least able to bear it.  Moriah is where you come face to face with the loss of that very thing you cannot bear to lose.  A loved one.  Your health.  Your  vocation.  Whatever it is that you think you can’t live without.  For Abraham, it was Isaac.  If you have been  tried at the very point where you can least bear it, then my friend, you have been to Moriah.  It’s not so much a place, as an experience. And part of the experience is not knowing why.        
            Abraham doesn’t  know.  He can only say, “Here I am.” Here I am, caught in the crossfire between God’s command and God’s promise.  Like those reports we hear on the news, when soldiers or civilians are killed by accident, by the people on their side, the people who were supposed to protect them.  The polite phrase for this is  “friendly fire,” and friendly fire is just as lethal as enemy fire.  God is on Abraham’s side, but God’s command strikes Abraham’s heart.  If such things happen in Moriah, no wonder nobody wants to go there. That’s why in the Lord’s prayer we pray, “do not put us to the test,” or “save us from the time of trial.”  And yet, when Abraham is tested, he says, “Here I am.”   
        Abraham keeps walking, his eyes on the barren ground.  On the third day of the journey he looks up and sees the mountain where the sacrifice will take place. Then Abraham tells his two servants, “’Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.’” We will come back.  Last time I counted, “we” meant at least two people.  Is the old man deceiving his servants, because he doesn’t want witnesses to the sacrifice of Isaac?  Or does Abraham hope that Isaac will be spared?   
        The story doesn’t say. But Abraham loads the fire wood on Isaac’s back, and he himself carries the fire and the knife.  They climb the steep path alone.  For the first time in the story, Isaac speaks: “Father,” he says.  Abraham says, “Here I am, my son.”  And Isaac asks, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”  Where indeed!  And Abraham says, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”  We don’t know if Abraham really thinks he must go through with this, and slay Isaac, or if he hopes God will intervene.  He might be crazy, he might be faithful, maybe both.
         Now Abraham piles up stones for an altar.  He arranges the wood on top. He binds Isaac—ties him hand and foot--and places the boy on the wood.  I wonder if Isaac thought his father was a madman, or a holy man.  Abraham takes the knife in his hand.  He grips the blade and raises it high, steel glinting in the sun.  Suddenly an angel of the Lord calls out from heaven, “Abraham, Abraham!” And Abraham says “Here I am.”  The angel says, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”  Then Abraham looks up and sees a ram, its horns caught in a thicket.  Abraham takes the ram and offers it to God as a burnt offering, instead of his son.  
             Isaac is spared. Abraham is delivered from his trial. Relief, what blessed relief!  To mark this deliverance, Abraham will name that spot in the land of Moriah, where he  built the altar. Naming it will fix it in memory for all time to come.  The name of that place must be well chosen.  You’d think he would call the place, “Abraham had faith.”  Or perhaps “Abraham was tested here.”  Or how about  “Abraham rocks.”  But no, he does not name the place after himself.  Instead he calls that place “The Lord will provide.”  On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.
         Because Moriah is more than a place of testing. It is a place of blessing, where God provides.  In that place where you think you cannot survive, much less believe, God provides for you especially there.  Strengthens and comforts you.  Delivers you from evil.  Calls you to faith.   In the words of a hymn we will sing shortly, hear God’s promise:  “I will be with you, your troubles to bless, and sanctify to you your deepest distress.”
          In our darkest moments when God’s promises are stretched to the breaking point, we may wonder if God is friend or foe.  But God provides, and renews the promises--there at the very place where the promises have been under attack.  Yes, Moriah is the place where God renews the promises.   God tells Abraham: “By myself  I have sworn: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is on the seashore. …and by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” 
        That promise came true in Jesus, who was one of the descendants of Isaac.  Long ago on Moriah, Abraham did not have to give up his son, because that was going to be God’s work in Jesus, God’s work and no one else’s.  For God so loved the world that he gave his son, his only son, whom he loved.  Yes Jesus, has been to Moriah. Oh, to be sure, the place names do vary.  At Gethsemane  Jesus, facing his own death, prayed, “if it be possible, take this cup from me.  And yet not my will Father, but yours be done.”   Then there was that hill outside the city, the place of execution was called Golgotha. When Jesus carried the cross up that hill, there was no substitute sacrifice.  On the cross, Jesus bore the sin of the world.  He cried out “My God my God, why have you forsaken me?”  His cry was answered three days later, when Jesus arose and broke the grip of death.  He now provides for us the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.  All God’s promises find their Yes in him.  Even in Moriah.  Yes, there of all places, God has provided the lamb.