Isaac - the son of the promise.

As we return to our look at some of the best-known, and most important, of the characters from the Tanakh (the Jewish Scriptures; the Old Testament in the Christian Bible), we turn to Yitzchak (Isaac). Avraham, you may recall, was promised by El Shaddai, that he would be the father of a mighty nation, whose numbers would be as the stars of the sky - and that at a time when there was none of the light pollution to which most of us are subjected, and that hide the majority of stars from our sight. All very well - except for the fact that, at that time, Avraham and his wife, Sara, were childless! It is difficult to be the progenitor of a nation if one doesn't have even one child with which to start!

Avraham did what many of us try to do - he decided (or, to be more accurate, Sara suggested, and he acquiesced!) to give God a helping hand. In what was culturally acceptable at the time, Sara gave him her handmaid to bear a child on Sara's behalf. Hagar, the maid, did bear a son to Avraham - a boy who was named Ishmael, and from whom the Arab peoples are descended. 

Some fourteen years later, El Shaddai appeared to Avraham, and assured him that, in the following spring, Sara would bear a son. At this time, Avraham was 100 years old, and his wife was ten years younger. She was, to put it mildly, sceptical! "I am old, and so is my lord; am I to have pleasure again?" (Gen. 18:12). Well, who could blame her?! However, "... with God everything is possible." (Matt. 19:26) and, in the spring, Sara did, indeed, give birth to the boy who was named Yitzchak.

The most important part of the story of Yitzchak is, surely, the command of God, to Avraham, to sacrifice this son of the promise. Not only was the command given, but it was given in such a way as to, metaphorically, "twist the knife"! "Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Yitz’chak; and go to the land of Moriyah. There you are to offer him as a burnt offering on a mountain that I will point out to you." (Gen.22:2). Not just your son, Avraham, but your only son! Not just your only son, but the son whom you love! And in case there is still any doubt, his name is Yitzchak.

This is an episode with which the Jewish world has wrestled. How could a loving God ask any human father to sacrifice his own son? One key to understanding this event is to recognise the way in which what are called "types" (or "foreshadows") are used in the Tanakh to point us to events that would take place in future time. 

Avraham and Yitzchak set off to climb Mount Moriah

Early the next morning, and having made the appropriate preparations, Avraham sets out, with Yitzchak and two servants, on a three-day journey to the land of Moriyah - possibly the treeless ranges of Sinai down near Kadesh.  When they arrived at the foot of the mountain, Avraham and Yitzchak set off up the mountain, leaving the servants behind. As they climbed, Yitzchak asked: "I see the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" His father immediately answered "'God will provide Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son'; and they both went on together."

On the mountain, a stone altar is constructed; the wood is laid out; and Yitzchak is bound and placed on the wood. It is worth remembering that Yitzchak, by this time, was a young man so, while we consider Avraham's obedience, we must also note that Yitzchak was willing to be bound and offered.  Avraham slowly takes the knife, placing it at Yitzchak's throat, ready to make the fatal cut. It is only at this point that El Shaddai intervenes by sending "... the angel of YHWH ..." (often identified as the Son)  to stop him from sacrificing his son. “Avraham? Avraham!” He answered, “Here I am.” He said, “Don’t lay your hand on the boy! Don’t do anything to him! For now I know that you are a man who fears God, because you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” (Gen.22:11-12).

Avraham looks behind him, and there is a ram, caught in a thicket. He takes the ram, and sacrifices it instead of Yitzchak.

In the next post, we shall look at this concept of "types". I shall try not to have you wait for too long!!!

Abraham - the father of the faithful.

As we move on in our monthly look at the Tanakh (the Hebrew Scriptures: the Old Testament in the Christian Bible), we come to one of the most significant figures in Biblical history. Over the next three (!) posts, we shall be looking at a man who was named Abram, but had that name changed, by Almighty God (El Shaddai), to Abraham (Avraham).

I am currently reading through the book of Deuteronomy in my personal devotions, and read these words a couple of days ago: "For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.  The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession." (7:6).  

The Jewish people are  often referred to as "The Chosen People". This has caused many to accuse El Shaddai of favouritism! Indeed, "chosenness"is so strongly associated with favouritism and arrogance that even some modern Jewish people reject the concept. Yet the idea of El Shaddai choosing the Hebrew people runs throughout the Tanakh. For example (emphases added):

"But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Avraham My friend.”  (Isaiah 41:8)

“You His servants, the descendants of Israel, His chosen ones, the children of Jacob.”  (I Chronicles 16:13; see also Psalm 105:6)

“For YHWH has chosen Jacob to Himself, and Israel for His peculiar treasure.”  (Psalm 135:4)

In fact, contrary to feeling smug and favoured, observant Jews are keenly aware that "chosenness" deflates any sense of significance! Indeed, those words already quoted, from the book of Deuteronomy, continue: "It was not because you were more in number than any other people that YHWH set His love upon you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples; but it is because YHWH loves you, and is keeping the oath which He swore to your fathers, that YHWH has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt." (vs.7-8; emphasis added).

Understanding El Shaddai's choosing of the descendants of Avraham, Isaac (Yitzac) , and Jacob (Yacob/Israel) is central to having a firm foundation in His providential plan! And the record starts with Abram.

In Genesis 18, we read these words of YHWH: "Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of YHWH by doing righteousness and justice, so that YHWH may bring to Abraham what He has promised him." (vs.18-19).

Only 400 years had passed since the great Flood in the time of Noah, so that the world was not yet populated by a great variety of peoples living in powerful nations. "Nations", at that time, were more like city-states, rife with paganism and polytheism. A mere four centuries after the Flood, mankind was still lost. It was still the case "... that every imagination of the thoughts of [man's] heart was only evil continually." (Gen.6:5).

El Shaddai called Abram out of one of those city-states - Ur of the Chaldees - and told him to go to a land that He would show him. The people of Ur were Moon-worshippers, but El Shaddai spoke to this one man. "Now YHWH said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves." He didn't know where this land was located, but he trusted the direction, and promise, of this One Whom he recognised as the Almighty God. He believed God, and headed for the Promised Land. Please note that this was millennia before the founding of the very Islam that lays claim to that Promised Land, today!

This,then, was the start of the Chosen People. God chose one man - and that one man chose God! We are not told if God had called any other person before Abram. We are told that Abram chose to accept God's promises, and that he put feet to faith! That, surely, is a salutory lesson to all of us!

More in a couple of nights. Do keep an eye out for the next "instalment"!