Fear No Fear

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

“On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place far off. Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there. We will worship, and come back to you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. He took in his hand the fire and the knife. They both went together.”
(Genesis 22:4-6)

Abraham was shown the place he was to go. Tradition says it was the place on Mount Moriah where Araunah had his threshing floor and where the Temple was built.

Abraham intended to come back down with his son. He told the servants that. No matter WHAT was about to happen on that mountain, Abraham CLEARLY knew it would not end Isaac. This is further proof that Abraham was expecting Isaac to be resurrected after the sacrifice. Abraham wasn’t crying and moaning and dreading the death of his son. Abraham was excited and looking forward to the total and complete miracle that was about to take place. He was only able to have that mindset because of the promises of God that he had been thinking on and holding to for decades now. He KNEW it was IMPOSSIBLE for God to lie. Because of those promises, Isaac was coming down off that mountain. Period. If that meant the impossibility of a resurrection, then that is what would happen. Abraham’s calm certainty points to his total trust in the words of God that he had received all those years before. He was NOT letting go of the promise.

Isaac was a grown man and strong enough to carry the wood for the sacrifice all the way up the slope. This was not a little child with no ability of their own to escape. Isaac did not have to do ANY of this, but he chose to obey and go along with his father. So far, it was no big deal, but this attitude of trust toward Abraham would permeate all his decisions on the mountain.

This whole situation was a type and shadow of Jesus’ later sacrifice. Even as Jesus carried the cross He would die on, Isaac was carrying the wood he was meant to die on.

The sage Ramban writes: ‘AND HE SAW THE PLACE AFAR OFF. He saw a cloud attached to the mountain, and through this was fulfilled the Divine assurance, which I will tell thee of. It is possible, in line with the simple meaning of Scripture, that the verse, And he saw the place afar off, means that he saw the land of Moriah for he knew that entire land [although he did not know the specific mountain].’

The sage Kli Yakar writes: ‘And he saw the place from afar. But not from up close, because he saw the radiance of the Divine Presence of the Holy One, Blessed be He, who is called “the Place of the world,” specifically from afar — a physical sight, like looking at the sun, which a person can gaze at from afar but not from up close, because the sense of sight lacks the power to look at the sun when it is close to a person. This is all the more so regarding the brilliant radiance of His Divine Presence, may He be blessed. Similarly, Moses said, Let me turn aside now and see (Exodus 3:3) — Let me turn aside now means to distance himself from the holy place and not to be close to it, all so that he would be able to see. And so too Jeremiah said, The Lord appeared to me from afar (Jeremiah 31:3), implying but not from nearby.’

The sage Steinsaltz writes: ‘Abraham started his journey in Beersheba, many hours from Jerusalem, on foot. Since he and Isaac had only one donkey and were traveling together, the journey took three days. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Abraham said to his young men: Stay here with the donkey and wait for me, and I and the lad will go there; we will prostrate ourselves, pray or sacrifice an offering, and will return to you. Abraham does not reveal his intention to sacrifice his son. Instead, he gives his attendants the impression that he and Isaac will sacrifice an offering together and then return. Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and placed it upon Isaac his son. By carrying the wood, Isaac was already participating in the sacrifice. He, Abraham, took in his hand the fire, the kindling, and the knife, and the two of them went together.‘

The sage Rav Hirsch writes: ‘And with what complete lack of pomposity, and in what simple words does Abraham announce the great deed he intends doing! “We shall just go a little up there, prostrate ourselves and come back to you.” But it is significant that, for that which he has in mind to do, he uses the term השתחויה, His attendants must have known that he intended to make a sacrifice as he had brought wood and fire with him. So that Abraham calling offering השתחויה, and that word alone in Abraham’s mouth would demolish — even if without it every page of the Jewish Word of God did not emphatically give the lie to it — all that people, entrapped by their ignorance, ascribe to “the bloodthirsty cult of offerings”, dragging the Jewish Temple and the Jewish conception of God in the dust, and babble about “the narrow-mindedness of our forefathers, who imagined that God finds joy in the smoking blood of an expiring animal, and try to obtain atonement by that”, and talk of “the progress that the חרבן בית מקדשנו has brought us inasmuch as it has freed us for all time from such bloodthirsty offerings and still more bloodthirsty ideas”. נשתחוה is what Abraham says his intention is in bringing his offering. Not the animal, he himself does he offer, his life, his forces, his eye, his breast, his hand, his foot, his whole living self does he lay symbolically by the animal on the Altar of God, ישתחוה, himself does he throw completely down before God, by his offerings. Only a Bileam lets a Baalak stand upright — התיצב על עולתך — next to his offering, for his offering is no representation of an ideal perfection which the bringer vows to try and reach, but is a slaughtered meal offered to the deity which is to have the effect of magically forcing it to favour the request of the bringer. The Jew is סומך שתי ידיו על הקרבן, lays himself with all his strength on his offering; for it is he himself which, in an offering, he gives over to the אש דת with the resolution, henceforth to let his whole being be fuel to keep the fires of godliness burning on earth.’