Teaching Abraham: An Alternative, Maybe Subversive, Way
I teach a "life group" at the church I attend (careful choice of words; it is not "my" church, and we don't call the classes "Sunday School" any more). We follow a study manual, that I still call a "quarterly." I therefore date myself.
The class is adult women of varying ages, some married, widowed, divorced, and never married. I think the American church as a whole wants to ignore women--especially unattached ones--once they get past 50 even though the church depends on them for various programs. But that is a post for another day.
The point of this post is that we follow a quarterly and I rotate teaching with two other women. This particular study book is about Genesis, a book I have some, let's say, different views about, which would probably keep me from ever being hired by a conservative church. Two weeks ago it was my turn and I had to teach on Noah. I was not enthused about that, but I did it as a focus on the text rather than an allegorization of elements of the story. "Teach the text" is always the best advice and a strength of mine. And before I went to study for next week, I thought "I bet I get Abraham sacrificing Isaac." Guess what? I wanted to teach that one less than I wanted to teach Noah.
So, this post is going to be an ongoing discussion of that--let's just admit it--disturbing story. First, I'm going to come clean with my class and tell them the story is disturbing, and if they don't think it is, they should reread until they do.
My approach is going to say that there are four basic interpretations: the secular/atheist one, the Islamic one, the Jewish one, and the Christian one. The first dismisses it or mocks it, such as the meme I saw on the Internet about how "your Christian father wants to sacrifice you if he hears a voice telling him to." What nonsense. The story of Abraham is an anomaly; no one else is ever told to do anything like it, and all the rest of Scripture is so adamantly against child sacrifice that the story of Abraham stands out as just plain weird. The Mesopotamians sacrificed their children to hateful, terroristic gods; we sacrifice our children to convenience.
The Islamic approach is that Abraham was really Ishmael, since Ishmael (the progenitor of the Arabs) is really the important one in the story. OK.
The Jewish approach is more difficult to explain. It is not universal or monolithic or consistent. From a conservative point of view, it is about the continuation of the family of Abraham and a test of his faith. OK, so far, so good. Even better, I think, is the conclusion of some scholars that this was a sign to not ever do this again; that child sacrifice is evil and not something God's people through Abraham would do.
I agree with that. I embrace that. This is the reason: Abraham is in many ways at this point still a pagan. Still a Mesopotamian. Look at Abraham's life: his ethics and habits are not what his descendants will do or be expected to do. He lies about his wife, twice. He's married to his half-sister, too. He takes a concubine. So, when God tells him to sacrifice his son, he just goes with it. No argument. No debate, and this is the man who negotiated with God about Sodom and Gomorrah. Why? Because the culture he came from did this. Sacrificing the first born child was an accepted practice.
And when the angel stops him, the message is, "We aren't gong to do things this way, Abraham." The Lord will provide a different way. That primarily means the cross, in the future, but it means more, I think, in Abraham's presence. And never again (and never before) is this concept even hinted at.
In a sense, I think Abraham's journey is the journey from a paganistic culture to a transformed way of thinking. He fails most of the time. This was one of the times where he followed the commandment, but I wonder why he didn't say, "Why?" I would have liked the story more. He didn't say "Why" because his mind still was in the "child sacrifice is necessary" mode. But more on that later.
The Christian view of the story is based on the New Testament passages about Abraham in Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews.
Addendum on October 27. I gave short shrift to the Christian view here. I will put on my list of books to write "The Gospel According to Abraham." (I have three other ideas to follow up my "The Gospel According to Lazarus." There is a great deal about Abraham in the New Testament, good and bad so to speak, and he is a foundational character to the whole Scripture.
The class is adult women of varying ages, some married, widowed, divorced, and never married. I think the American church as a whole wants to ignore women--especially unattached ones--once they get past 50 even though the church depends on them for various programs. But that is a post for another day.
The point of this post is that we follow a quarterly and I rotate teaching with two other women. This particular study book is about Genesis, a book I have some, let's say, different views about, which would probably keep me from ever being hired by a conservative church. Two weeks ago it was my turn and I had to teach on Noah. I was not enthused about that, but I did it as a focus on the text rather than an allegorization of elements of the story. "Teach the text" is always the best advice and a strength of mine. And before I went to study for next week, I thought "I bet I get Abraham sacrificing Isaac." Guess what? I wanted to teach that one less than I wanted to teach Noah.
So, this post is going to be an ongoing discussion of that--let's just admit it--disturbing story. First, I'm going to come clean with my class and tell them the story is disturbing, and if they don't think it is, they should reread until they do.
My approach is going to say that there are four basic interpretations: the secular/atheist one, the Islamic one, the Jewish one, and the Christian one. The first dismisses it or mocks it, such as the meme I saw on the Internet about how "your Christian father wants to sacrifice you if he hears a voice telling him to." What nonsense. The story of Abraham is an anomaly; no one else is ever told to do anything like it, and all the rest of Scripture is so adamantly against child sacrifice that the story of Abraham stands out as just plain weird. The Mesopotamians sacrificed their children to hateful, terroristic gods; we sacrifice our children to convenience.
The Islamic approach is that Abraham was really Ishmael, since Ishmael (the progenitor of the Arabs) is really the important one in the story. OK.
The Jewish approach is more difficult to explain. It is not universal or monolithic or consistent. From a conservative point of view, it is about the continuation of the family of Abraham and a test of his faith. OK, so far, so good. Even better, I think, is the conclusion of some scholars that this was a sign to not ever do this again; that child sacrifice is evil and not something God's people through Abraham would do.
I agree with that. I embrace that. This is the reason: Abraham is in many ways at this point still a pagan. Still a Mesopotamian. Look at Abraham's life: his ethics and habits are not what his descendants will do or be expected to do. He lies about his wife, twice. He's married to his half-sister, too. He takes a concubine. So, when God tells him to sacrifice his son, he just goes with it. No argument. No debate, and this is the man who negotiated with God about Sodom and Gomorrah. Why? Because the culture he came from did this. Sacrificing the first born child was an accepted practice.
And when the angel stops him, the message is, "We aren't gong to do things this way, Abraham." The Lord will provide a different way. That primarily means the cross, in the future, but it means more, I think, in Abraham's presence. And never again (and never before) is this concept even hinted at.
In a sense, I think Abraham's journey is the journey from a paganistic culture to a transformed way of thinking. He fails most of the time. This was one of the times where he followed the commandment, but I wonder why he didn't say, "Why?" I would have liked the story more. He didn't say "Why" because his mind still was in the "child sacrifice is necessary" mode. But more on that later.
The Christian view of the story is based on the New Testament passages about Abraham in Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews.
Addendum on October 27. I gave short shrift to the Christian view here. I will put on my list of books to write "The Gospel According to Abraham." (I have three other ideas to follow up my "The Gospel According to Lazarus." There is a great deal about Abraham in the New Testament, good and bad so to speak, and he is a foundational character to the whole Scripture.
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