Fear No Fear

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

“So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba. Abraham lived at Beersheba.”
(Genesis 22:19)

As he had promised his servants, Abraham AND Isaac returned and they started their journey home.

There is no telling how this event altered the relationships involved. Did Sarah ever learn of the story? Did it change how Isaac and Abraham interacted? Was every day after this a wonderful day where they thanked God for His intervention? Where they thanked Him for His sacrifice? We will never know because it isn’t recorded.

Abraham returned back home. We don’t know if Isaac completed the journey or not. We can assume he did, following Abraham back and continuing to live in his father’s house. But the language only says Abraham lived in Beersheba. Some scholars and teachers have taken this to mean this event split the family. That Abraham lived alone in Beersheba and Isaac and his mother Sarah lived elsewhere. I don’t see evidence of that. I think we’re simply following Abraham because he was the featured player and the one whose point of view we were following through this event. I think this strengthened family ties and strengthened their relationship with God. When other events occur, I think you can point back to this event as see the sees of trust in God that were planted.

The sage Ibn Ezra writes: ‘SO ABRAHAM RETURNED. Isaac is not mentioned because he was under Abraham’s care. Those who say that Abraham slaughtered Isaac and left him on the altar and following this Isaac came to life are contradicting Scripture.’

The sage Rashi writes: ‘וישב אברהם בבאר שבע AND ABRAHAM DWELT AT BEER-SHEBA — This does not mean really dwelling there but merely staying there on his way home, because he was, as a matter of fact, living at Hebron. Twelve years before the Binding of Isaac he had left Beer-Sheba and had gone to Hebron, as it is said, (21:34) ‘‘And Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines many days”, i.e. exceeding in number the earlier days when he had resided at Hebron — altogether 26 years, as we have explained above (21:34).’

The sage Radak writes: ‘וישב אברהם, there was no need to mention that Yitzchok accompanied him. Rather it mentioned Avraham mentioned, because he was the principal. וישב אברהם בבאר שבע, the Torah did not mention for how many years Avraham lived in Beer Sheva, seeing Sarah died in Hebron’