SACRIFICING ISAAC If the star of Abraham had so twinkled in the heaven of the Spirit that was because of his faith that lifted him up above events. Gifts motivated him to thank God more and more, without ever clinging to them, and the afflictions justified him before all. He experienced all along his years as a foreigner, a series of continuous conquests; and now, having rejoiced together with his wife Sarah at the birth of Isaac, the son of promise, whom they received in their old age, an exalted divine gift, God asks Abraham to offer the beloved boy as a burnt offering of love. Yet, despite the great harshness of that temptation, Abraham and Isaac were glorified, to become a living portrait of the redeeming work of God, through the sacrifice of the Cross, and the proclamation of the resurrection of the Messiah. 1- God tests Abraham 1-2. 2- Isaac on the way 3-8. 3- Setting the altar and offering the sacrifice 9-14. 4- Renewal of the divine promise 15-19. 5- The family of Nahor 20-24. 1- GOD TESTS ABRAHAM If the Church treasures the Feast of ‘Maundy Thursday’ or the ‘Thursday of the Covenant,’ in which it remembers how our Lord Christ offered His self-sacrifice to His disciples; the Church did not find a more perfect living portrait of the work of the cross, on which God, the Father, offers His Son as redemption of the world, than Abraham’s offering of his son to the Lord. That is why the ‘Fraction’ of the Liturgy of the Maundy Thursday deals with the sacrifice of Isaac. The ages will see in this work of faith a living and an exalted example that reveals the sacrifice of Christ the Lord. The Scripture says: “It came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, ‘Abraham! ‘ and he said, ‘Here I am.’ And He said, ‘Take now 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 of which I shall tell you” (Gen. 22: 1, 2). God’s testing of Abraham, does not imply His not knowing his heart, as He is aware of all our inner secrets. Yet he allowed for that test in order to justify him before all, and to proclaim his hidden piety of faith, to make out of him a living example for all. And as St. Augustine says: [Abraham has been tested by offering his beloved son Isaac to proclaim his piety of obedience, not to God, but to the world. Not every temptation is meant as a reproof, but it could be as a commendation1.] Origen believes that that temptation revealed the depths and hidden thoughts of Abraham, concerning his belief in the resurrection, saying: [By Spirit, the apostle Paul, most probably knew the emotions and thoughts of Abraham, proclaiming them by saying: “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called,’ accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead” (Hebrew 11:17-19). The apostle provided us with the thoughts of that man of faith concerning Isaac; and that was the first time that faith in resurrection was revealed, demonstrated in Abraham’s hope in the resurrection of Isaac2.] Thus the 1 City of God 16:32. 2 In Gen. hom 8:1. 4 temptation revealed the heart of Abraham, the Patriarch, as a man who believed in resurrection from the dead. If Abraham went through the severest temptation that could happen to an old man, that is offering his beloved only begotten son, as a burnt offering, by his own hands, yet he enjoyed, amid that temptation, the visualization of the Lord Christ risen up from the dead, through a particular sign, that filled his heart with joy, according to the words of the Lord Himself: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). Thus, if he, by faith set forth with his son to the altar, he came back from the temptation carrying Isaac as though risen up from the dead, a symbol of the slain Christ the Lord risen from the dead. The Scripture starts to tell about that temptation, saying: “It came to pass after these things” (Gen. 22:1), as though God did not allow Abraham to be tested, except after appearing to him at the terebinths of Mamre, confirming his promise concerning Isaac. And after he made a covenant with Abimelech, revealing to him how He granted him prestige and respect even before kings. In other words, God prepared him in different ways, and as the apostle says: “But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). He prepared his heart, his thought, and his whole life to receive the temptation. He accompanied and supported him as well, during the temptation in a secret way. Therefore, before, during, and after every temptation, God Himself will support us, in order to realize His goal in us, if we accept His work in our lives. Why did God ask Abraham to offer his son as a burnt offering, when the Mosaic Law was going to forbid human sacrifices? The heathens used to offer their firstborns as sacrifices to their idols. Yet these practices were not done out of love, as much as out of despair in the hearts of those who offered them, wishing for forgiveness of their sins, for whatever price. Besides wishing to please their blood-thirsty gods! But God requested from his friend Abraham that offer, in order to reveal to believers how much Abraham loves Him, being ready to offer Him the dearest thing he possess. At the same time, as God presented a ram to be sacrificed instead of Isaac, He proclaimed His refusal of human sacrifices, not because of any lack of love for God on the part of believers, but in appreciation of man. God does not stand human sacrifices, as He is a lover of mankind, wishing for their life and not for their doom, presenting His Only-Begotten Son to redeem them, He who, even though becoming Man, yet He is the Only One on whom death cannot reign, nor corruption can approach! St. Augustine says: [Abraham never believed that God would accept a human sacrifice. Yet, once he heard the divine command for offering his son Isaac, he instantly obeyed. Abraham was worthy of commendation, as he surly believed that after offering his son as a burnt sacrifice, he would eventually be risen up, according to God’s saying, when Abraham did not intend to abide to his wife’s wish to send the bondmaid and her son away: “In Isaac your seed shall be called” (Gen. 21:12)... That is why, as the father was holding fast, since the beginning, to the promise of what is to be realized through that son, whom God commanded to be slain, he never doubted that he, whom he was never hoping for, would be risen up after being offered as a burnt offering1.] In other words, Abraham realized the difference between offering his son as a sacrifice, and the human sacrifices that were offered to the idols. He believed 1 City of God 16:32. 5 that God, who gave him Isaac, from Sarah’s womb that was like stones, and counted his birth to be like rising from the dead, is capable of raising him after offering him as a burnt offering. But the pagans were offering their firstborns to please their bloodthirsty idols; offering them without hope. Finally, Abraham was commanded to offer his son as a burnt offering on the land of ‘Moriah,’ on one of the mountains that God would tell him. Some believe that the mountain on which Abraham built the altar to offer his son, was the threshing floor of ‘Araunah the Jebusite’ (2 Samuel 24:24; 1 Chronicles 21:24); namely on the location where the temple was built, where sacrifices were continually offered, in anticipation of the unique sacrifice of the Lamb of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. In the Samaritan tradition, the land of Moriah, is located within the region of Mount Gerzim, north of Jerusalem. Fr. Caesarius of Arles says that Jerome, the Priest, confirmed during his encounters with Jewish elders, that the Lord Christ was crucified on the same location, where Isaac was to be offered as a burnt sacrifice1. As to the word ‘Moriah,’ it means ‘God is seeing, or setting,’ as God set the ram for the burnt offering; and probably also means ‘God is instructing,’ as He instructed us on the practical love through the sacrifice of His Only-Begotten Son. 2- ISAAC ON THE WAY “So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him” (Gen. 22:3). Although the divine command that Abraham heard, seemed contradictory to God’s previous promises, he obediently arose to follow it. He rose “early in the morning” without hesitation, discussion, nor doubt in God’s promises. Abraham was amazing in his obedience, the same way his young son was amazing in his submission to his father. Abraham hastened to do according to the divine command, with Isaac, not raising any objection. St. John Chrysostom comments on how Abraham refrained from consulting his wife Sarah concerning that issue, saying: [Abraham, not knowing what would happen, and deciding to offer his son according to God’s command, refrained from telling his wife what was going on... That teaches us to keep our works of love, even from those dear to us, unless it is absolutely necessary2.] St. Ambrose comments on the positive role of Isaac, in his obedience to his father in the Lord, saying: [Isaac feared God, and having been truly Abraham’s son, he submitted to his father, even to the limit of death; so also Joseph, despite seeing in a dream the sun, the moon, and the stars, bowed down to him, he also submitted completely to his father (Genesis 37:12)3.] Thus, as Abraham was obedient to God, in exalted love, He gave him Isaac, also obedient with true love, as though God rewarded Abraham in his son, before granting him the eternal reward. It is amazing, how Abraham split the wood in the early morning, before going on his way, to avoid anything that could keep him from executing the command of God. If that wood referred to the cross on which the real Isaac would be lifted up, splitting it by the hands of Abraham before going on his way, this refers to the proclamations of God the Father, concerning the cross, through the symbols and 1 Ser. 83:5. 2 In 1 Tim hom 14. 3 Duties of the Clergy 1:17. 6 prophecies of the Old Testament, before being carried by the Lord Christ, then lifted up on it as a burnt offering! God revealed the mystery of the cross in various ways, but the eyes of many were blinded to behold it. “Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off” (Gen 22: 4). Abraham did not go for just one or two days, but for three days, before seeing the place from afar off. And as said by Origen, that the third day refers to the resurrection of the Lord Christ, as though Abraham had entered with the Lord into the tomb, after sharing His passions, until the light of His resurrection shone on the dawn of Sunday (the third day), when “he lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off.’ His eyes were previously relatively lowered down and humbled; the enemy probably fought and tempted him by thoughts of Sarah, whom he left back in the tent unaware of his departure nor intentions; and probably also by his emotions toward his beloved son. Nevertheless, he did not stop his walking for three days; as though he is like the children of Israel, who were commanded by God to go three days journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord (Exodus 5:3); as no sacrifice is to be accepted outside the circle of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, on the third day, Abraham, by some way or another, saw the sign of the resurrection, so he lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. What is that place, but the Lord Christ Himself, in whom Abraham sees his son Isaac, raised from the dead, with and also by Him! We have already spoken of the mystery of the three days1, through which we enjoy, not the sacrifice of Isaac, but that of Christ the Lord risen from the dead. St. Clement of Alexandria believes that these three days, that are proper for us to go through, in order to see the place afar off, are nothing but: looking forward to good things, good desires of the soul, and its comprehension of spiritual things. It is as though the soul is not able to behold the mystery of the sacrifice of the cross, unless it looks to the good things, lusts for them, and understands them. The One to help opening the eyes to behold these mysteries is the Lord Christ Himself, the Teacher, raised from the dead2.] Thus, amid the temptation, and the pressures of pains and worries, Abraham’s soul got comforted by the opening of his inner insight, on the third day, to behold the mystery of the Crucified, risen from the dead; then he rejoiced to see the day of the Lord (John 8:56). The furnace of temptation was transformed into heavenly dew, through the revelation of the crucified Christ risen from the dead, before the insight of Abraham, the Patriarch. “Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey, the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you” (Gen. 22:5) Fr. Caesarius says: [The two young men whom Abraham ordered to stay with the donkey, refer to the Jewish people, who could not go up to the place of the sacrifice, having rejected faith in Christ. The donkey refers to the Jewish Synagogue, and the ram, caught in a thicket by its horns, probably refers to the Lord; as Christ was caught in the thicket by horns, as He was raised and nailed on the cross3.] The two young men saw Isaac, and the wood being split by Abraham, yet they could not set forth to where Isaac was to be offered as a sacrifice, as though they are the Jewish people, who saw the Lord according to the flesh, and saw the cross, yet were not able to realize its power. And as the apostle said: “We preach Christ .٣٨ – 1 سفر الخروج، ١٩٨١ ، ص ٣٦ 2 Stromata 5:11. 3 Ser. 84:3. 7 crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:23, 25). The two young men stayed with the donkey, and did not set forth with Abraham and Isaac to behold the mystery of God; that is how everyone who is bound to the earthly thought, and live on account of his belly and lusts of his body, would be as though staying with the donkey, unable to set forth to know the spiritual mystery of God, that raises him to the heavenly. “So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together” (Gen. 22:6). Isaac was a young man, probably 25 years old, so Abraham laid the wood on him; then the two of them went to the place revealed by God. And as said by Fr. Caesarius: [When Isaac carried the wood of the burnt offering, he was a symbol of the Lord Christ who carried the cross to the place of His passion. This mystery was previously proclaimed by the prophets, as for example... “and the government will be upon His shoulder” (Isaiah 9:6). The government of Christ was upon His shoulder, carrying the cross in an amazing humility. It is not unfitting to refer to the cross as Christ’s government, as by it He had overcome the devil, and called the whole world to know Christ and to enjoy His grace1.] St. Augustine says: [Isaac carried the wood of his burnt offering to the place he would be sacrificed, as Christ carried His cross2.] As to saying: “The two of them went together,” this refers to the fact that this sacrifice is that of Abraham as well as of Isaac. Abraham offered his only-begotten son through exalted love; while the son offered himself through complete obedience; so the sacrifice was counted as from both of them together. On a similar level, we say that the sacrifice of the Lord Christ is that of God the Father, who offered His Son for our redemption; and it is the sacrifice of the Son, who obeyed even to death, death of the cross... This is the sacrifice of love, offered by God the Father, in His Son, the Only-Begotten. That is confirmed by Christ the Lord Himself saying: “For God so loved the world that He gave His Only-Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). And the apostle Paul also says: He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?!” (Romans 8:32). And as the Lord Christ, in His crucifixion, offered the sacrifice of God the Father in His Son, He likewise offered His own sacrifice, as it is said: “Who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20); “As Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (Ephesians 5:2); and “Just as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it” (Eph. 5:25). If saying, “The two of them went together,” refers to God the Father and God the Son, setting forth together to offer the sacrifice of the cross: the Father offering it through His man-loving will, and the Son through His practical obedience; this phrase also refers to God and the Church setting forth together toward the cross: God proclaims His love for mankind, by offering His Son as redemption for the sake of humanity; and the Church proclaims her love for God the Father, through her delivered Head; thus God the Father smells in the sacrifice of the cross, an aroma of pleasure; that is the sacrifice of the Church that also gives her life through her union 1 City of God 16:32. 2 City of God 84:5. 8 with Christ Jesus who delivered His life! As Isaac walked with Abraham toward the altar, the son started to address his father: “‘My father!’ and Abraham said, ‘Here I am my son.’ Isaac said: ‘Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?’ ” (Gen. 22:7.) And as Origen says: [At this moment, in the word of the son “My father!” embodies the severest situation of that experience. Imagine to what extent does the voice of the son to be slain tear out the heart of his father! Yet Abraham’s steadfast faith did not keep him from saying tenderly: “Here I am my son!”1] With faith in God who is able to rise from the dead, Abraham said: “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering” (Gen. 22:8). Abraham saw the true Lamb, “Jesus Christ,” to be offered, not as a ransom for Isaac alone but for the whole world. In his saying, “God will provide,” Abraham proclaimed his complete trust in God’s salvation plan, that is not the work of man but a divine ordainment. God, alone, would provide, by His own exalted means. 3- SETTING THE ALTAR AND OFFERING THE SACRIFICE Everything was set: Abraham came to the place of which God had told him, the altar was built, the wood carried by Isaac was placed in order, Isaac was bound by his father’s hands, and laid on the altar upon the wood, and Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. Everything was going on in an atmosphere of inner calm: Abraham believing that God would never forsake His promises, and Isaac, in obedience submits to being slain. It was only few moments for the slaying to take place and the burnt offering to be offered. It was counted for Abraham, that he actually offered his son, as he was hastening in doing his task without fear; His offering was accepted, even if it was not literally finished. And as St. Ambrose says: [The father had actually offered his son; as God does not seek blood, but exalted obedience2.] Isaac, on his part, was counted a son of obedience, having faithfully accepted the cross. And as St. Jerome says: [Isaac, in his readiness to die, had carried the cross of the Gospel before the Gospel came3.] In the crucial moment and amid complete quiet, the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said: “Abraham, Abraham!... Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from Me” (Gen. 22:11-12) Saying, “Now I know,” as said by St. Augustine, does not mean that God did not know beforehand the heart of Abraham, but He wished to reveal to Abraham himself his own inner depths of heart4. Thus, Abraham was revealed to himself as a lover of God, and to all generations, it became revealed that he had not been attached to worldly life. Abraham saw a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. He took it and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. It was a symbol of Christ the Lord who was raised on the cross, and nailed with His outstretched hands, for the sake of the salvation of the world. Abraham called the name of the place “The Lord will provide,” namely, ‘The Lord will see for Himself.’ Thus God appeared to Abraham at the location of the 1 In Gen. hom 8. 2 On Belief of Resur. 2:98. 3 Ep. 66:7. 4 On Ps. 44. 9 sacrifice; as in it, God was reconciled with man, and we got the right to see Him as children who have a place in the bosom of God the Father. Through the sacrifice, the Holy Spirit will lift us up, and set forth with us toward the divine bosom, to enjoy a divine vision, not on a level of worldly insight, but beholding the union with God and eternally enjoying the fellowship of His glories. Thus, the altar in the Church of the New Testament has come to represent heaven itself, the place where God encounters man in the slain Son. 4- RENEWAL OF THE DIVINE PROMISE Through the sacrifice, Abraham enjoyed beholding the Lord, as well as the renewal of the promise in a way that surpassed the previous times: (1) Origen believes that the previous promises, have been tending more to confirm Abraham’s fatherhood of the people of circumcision, while not disregarding his spiritual fatherhood for all believers of all nations and peoples; But, here, the promise highlights his spiritual fatherhood, saying: [It was fitting for him to become a father of “those who are of faith” (Galatians 3:9), and to enter the inheritance through the passion and resurrection of Christ... The first promise concerned the first people, when the “Divine Voice” was on the earth; the Scripture saying: “He brought him outside and said, ‘Look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them,’ and He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be’ ” (Gen. 15:9). In the renewal of the promise, on the other hand, the Scripture reveals that the voice came from heaven (Gen. 22:11). The first came from the earth, while the second came from heaven. Is not there a symbol, as expressed by the apostle: “The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:47)? The promise concerning the people of faith comes from heaven, while that concerning the other people (the Jews), is from earth1.] (2) When the divine promise concerned more the inheritance of earth, the voice came from the earth, and it concerned the eternal inheritance of the people of the New Testament. The voice came from heaven, and was also confirmed by a divine oath, something that strongly moved the emotions of the apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 6:17). (3) In confirming His promise to us, God is also confirming our commitment to renewing our covenant with Him, as Origen2 says. As the believer enters with God into a covenant in the waters of baptism, by which he denies Satan and all his evil work, and proclaims his acceptance of God and His redeeming works, his true fellowship in the Church, and his anticipation of eternal life. He renews daily that covenant through continuous repentance, saying in the prayer of the first hour: “Let us start well,” counting every morning a new start of a deeper life with God, his Savior. God having renewed His promises to Abraham, the later returned to his young men and they rose and returned together to Beersheba, where he dwelt. If Beersheba, as we said before, refers to the waters of baptism and to the work of the Holy Spirit in and through it, Abraham having offered the sacrifice and enjoyed the divine promises, he set forth to his two young men, as though to his body, submitted to him with all his energies and capacities, to settle down all his days by the water of baptism, recalling the work of divine sonship, and responding to the work of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is not just a rite to be practiced at the beginning of the road, then to come to an end, but it is rather a life lived by the believer all his days on earth; He enters into the water to 1 In Gen. hom 9:1. 2 In Gen. hom 9:2. 10 encounter with the Lord Christ, the buried and resurrected from the dead, to live all his days by the Holy Spirit, enjoying that life, as though dwelling in Beersheba with Abraham, namely in the waters of baptism. When we are captivated by sin, we sit down as though by the rivers of Babylon, to weep as we remember Zion, with our tongues, we are not able to sing the songs and praises of Zion (Psalm 137). But, having received faith in the sacrifice of the true Isaac, and having enjoyed the new divine promise, we are going to dwell in Beersheba by the waters of baptism, together with our young men, to praise the Lord with our hearts as well as with our tongues. The two young men, finally setting forth to Beersheba, together with Abraham and Isaac, probably refer to the return of the Jews, at the end of times, to the belief in Christ the Lord, Whose sacrifice they could not understand before, to approach, at the end of times the waters of baptism, and to accept Him Whom they have denied. 5- THE FAMILY OF NAHOR The Scripture mentioned the children born to Nahor, the brother of Abraham from his wife Milcah, in order to reveal the relationship of Rebecca to her husband Isaac. Her father, having been the nephew of Abraham, she was the daughter of his cousin. If the Scripture cared for the men of faith and for their genealogies, it likewise cares for the women of faith and their genealogies, and their roles in the history of salvation.
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