Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“After these things, God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” He said, “Here I am.” He said, “Now take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go into the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of.” Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his donkey; and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. He split the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went to the place of which God had told him.”
(Genesis 22:1-3)

A lot had happened to Abraham. He had the child of the promise. He had peace with his neighbours. His firstborn through Hagar had been sent off to make his own way with the world. And now, God was calling him. But Abraham wasn’t too busy. Abraham was listening for that voice. When God called, Abraham heeded. He was ready. He dropped everything and listened.

God does NOT tempt us (James 1:13-15). God gives us opportunities to prove to ourselves what we truly believe and what is truly possible with Him (Exodus 20:20). We need more than head knowledge to prove something to ourselves. To truly KNOW it. We need experiential knowledge. When we are ready to move beyond knowing to HAVE KNOWN as a TRUST certainty, we need to prove it. To prove to ourselves that we truly believe. To prove to ourselves that we truly trust. These are the opportunities God gives us. Not so that we pass a test and get a gold star from Him. He KNOWS how we’ll do. He’s giving us the opportunity to act out our trust in Him so that we know that we know that we know that we believe and trust the Truth. It is for our benefit for a deeper relationship.

Abraham was not given all the details. He was given all he needed to start. It was the same when God called him out of Ur (Genesis 12:1). God tells us enough to get us moving, not all the details of where we’re going. We don’t need the details if we won’t start moving. We only need the details later. At the beginning, we simply need to be willing to move where He says to move.

This was not something Abraham spent a lot of time bemoaning. He didn’t wrestle with it all night long and only in the end force himself to obey. Abraham got up early. He may even have been eager. He got ready, he brought servants (this wasn’t a secret sneaking off), and got his son – who was in his thirties at this point – and they started the journey. Abraham didn’t drag his feet when God spoke to him. When given a command, Abraham obeyed.

Why didn’t Abraham drag his feet? Why wasn’t this an ordeal? Because Abraham had spent twenty years meditating on the promise of God. God promised his descendants would flourish and that the flourishing would come through a child, born naturally to Sarah and Abraham. Isaac was that child. We see that highlighted by God when God says Abraham was to take his ‘son, your only son’. God knew Ishmael existed. But Isaac was the firstborn of the PROMISE. Isaac was the promise. Isaac was older, almost forty, but he hadn’t married or had any kids yet. Isaac was the one through whom the promise was going to be fulfilled. Isaac needed to have kids. Abraham had been thinking on this, holding to this, rehearsing this, for DECADES. He KNEW God was faithful. He KNEW God kept His promises. He KNEW that it WAS going to come to pass. Therefore, Abraham came to the only conclusion he possible could: Isaac was going to be raised from the dead after being sacrificed: “By faith, Abraham, being tested, offered up Isaac. Yes, he who had gladly received the promises was offering up his only born son, to whom it was said, “Your offspring will be accounted as from Isaac,” concluding that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Figuratively speaking, he also did receive him back from the dead” (Hebrews 11:17-19). Far from being a sad moment, Abraham was on the cusp of seeing a miracle that had never even being hinted at before. Abraham was going to see someone raised from the dead! This was Abraham’s only possible opinion because he had the promise of God of descendants through Isaac that hadn’t come about yet. This was not an ENDING he was facing. He might not have understood it. He might not have had the WHY of it. But he had God’s PROMISE about something and he REFUSED to let go of it. This was not going to be a horror. This was going to be a new way to see God’s glory and faithfulness manifested in his life.

Abraham doesn’t appear to have told Sarah about what was going on. Perhaps he knew that since she hadn’t heard God’s voice, she wouldn’t believe the same thing. It is important we don’t surround ourselves with those who will weaken our trust. It’s good to share God’s promises and fine to share His instructions, but not with those who won’t have trust in Him about it. It’s a fine line to walk. In the same way, Abraham seems to have told Isaac about this trip last – possibly in order to give the least amount of time for Isaac to ask questions. Again, Abraham was the one spoken to, not any one else. And Abraham hadn’t been given all the answers. He wisely seems to have distanced himself as much as possible from anyone that would help him question God’s command.

The sage Ramban writes: ‘AND G-D TRIED ABRAHAM. The matter of “trial,” in my opinion, is as follows: Since a man’s deeds are at his absolute free command, to perform them or not to perform them at his will, on the part of one who is tried it is called “a trial.” But on the part of the One, blessed be He, who tries the person, it is a command that the one being tested should bring forth the matter from the potential into actuality so that he may be rewarded for a good deed, not for a good thought alone. Know further that G-d trieth the righteous, for knowing that the righteous will do His will, He desires to make him even more upright, and so He commands him to undertake a test, but He does not try the wicked, who would not obey. Thus all trials in the Torah are for the good of the one who is being tried. TAKE NOW THY SON, THINE ONLY SON. Since Isaac was the son of the mistress and he alone was to be the one to carry his name, He called him Abraham’s only son. The description was for the purpose of magnifying the command, thus saying: “Take now thy only son, the beloved one, Isaac, and bring him up before Me as a burnt-offering.” AND HE CLEAVED THE WOOD FOR THE BURNT-OFFERING. This illustrates Abraham’s zeal in performing a commandment for he thought that perhaps there would be no wood in that place, and so he carried it for three days. It may be that Abraham disqualified for use as an offering any wood in which a worm is found, as is the law of the Torah, and so he took from his house sound wood for the burnt-offering. Hence it says, And he cleaved the wood for the burnt-offering.’

The sage Sforno writes: ‘נסה את אברהם, to demonstrate that Avraham’s love for G’d as well as his fear of G’d was not merely potential but actual, much as G’d’s goodness is not merely potential but actual. The purpose of man’s existence is to emulate the virtues of G’d, and by means of this “test” Avraham had an opportunity to demonstrate this. When G’d created man He had set Himself the objective of “let us make man in Our image etc.,” i.e. as much like Divine beings as is it possible for a creature to be . (Genesis 1,26)’

The sage Rav Hirsch writes: ‘V. 1. אחר הדברים. Similarly to above, Ch. 15,1 (to which refer) these words introduce a crisis, a reversal of all that went before. Abraham had already proclaimed God as א׳ עולם, Isaac had been born, the elder son sent away for his sake, ביצחק, in Isaac the seed of the future is to be carried on, and this future had already been recognised in the present, the King of the land had already concluded a treaty embracing not only Isaac himself but with his further descendants, so that Isaac’s promised future had already struck roots in the contemporary present — and now comes the behest to break up all that has happened hitherto! הָאלקים, the God, the same God Who had revealed Himself to Abraham and had made Isaac the combination of the whole aim of Abraham’s life. — נסה, related to נסע, moving on, נסח, flinging away, נשא to raise up, all three having the concept of bringing something to a further or higher position. In the same way נסה regarding physical or moral forces: to test, i.e. to give it such tasks to do which, up till now, it has not proved its ability to accomplish. Hence every test is a step forward, is a strengthening of powers which exist already but which have not yet been proved in this further or higher task. A rope which has already stood the strain of fifty pounds is put to the test as soon as it is given fifty one pounds to bear, but moral and spiritual forces are thereby strengthened and raised. Quite significantly the mark of cantillation on אברהם is a טפחא showing the immediate readiness of Abraham, as God calls to him he says הנני. V. 2. נא, please take, do take, I know full well what I am asking of you, I know how your whole inner self must struggle against it; את בנך וגו׳ it is your son I am demanding, your only one, and one to whom your whole soul clings, it is Isaac to whom the whole meaning of your life is attached. —לך לך, with such a task, calling him to isolation, attaching himself only to God, did Abraham’s life begin, with the same, but with greatly added intensity does it reach its culmination. V. 3. “He took his two lads with him, and Isaac his son”. The order is not without significance. He told Isaac as late as possible. This ויקח את שני נעריו אתו does not yet refer to the journey. Starting on the journey only follows: ויקם וילך. But before he woke Isaac up, he got his people ready and saddled the ass. He wanted to spare Isaac having to make his resolution for as long as possible and wanted to avoid being alone with him. Isaac was no longer a child, he was an independent man of 37 years of age. So that the greatness of his soul in this whole affair ranks equally with that of Abraham. Isaac had not received the behest himself, he only knew it through the mouth of his father as תשב״פ. Similarly, in the case of Adam and Eve, where Eve was included in the punishment for transgressing a prohibition which she only knew through the mouth of Adam, so here the first Jewish son is ready to sacrifice himself for a tradition which he only knew through his father. Here the seed was sown for the devotion of the later generations to the traditions of their forbears. Thus our sages ask (Sanhedrin 89b) how could Isaac believe in such a הוראת שעה (a decision in law for a special occasion I.L.), how dared he do so? And the answer they give is: היכא דמוחזק שאני, not on the strength of some convincing miracle, but on his firm conviction of the proven character of his father. Our devotion to the traditions of our forbears also rests on their characters. They were as little hierarchs as Abraham was. No tradition came from them for which they themselves, in the first place, had not made sacrifices. There are no passages in the whole Midrash which are more touching than those which place in the mouth of the son all the doubts which could well be reckoned to have made Abraham and Isaac waver on the hard road they were traversing. In those three days not much seems to have been said, but what an infinite amount must have been felt and thought. Our verse seems to indicate that Abraham first woke his people up and kept them with him, to barricade himself against being overcome by his feelings, and to have avoided being alone with Isaac.’