I’ve never liked the story of Abraham and Isaac.  Not an easy confession to make publicly, but true nonetheless.  Or is it the traditional, pious interpretation that I don’t like?  I’m not sure.

But I just can’t buy the idea that God would ask Abraham to sacrifice his son – that God would ask Abraham to commit an immoral act to test his faith.  That seems wrong to me on so many levels it’s not even funny.

Leonard Sweet offers the only interpretation of this text that I can accept. Sweet asks twenty questions of the text, some of which I’ll reprint here.  These come from his excellent book Out of the Question… Into the Mystery.

1. Why didn’t Abraham argue with God about the killing of his innocent son like he did when God told Abraham about God’s intention to kill the Sodomites’ sons and daughters?
2. Why did Abraham keep the planned sacrifice a secret from those closest to him?  Why didn’t he tell Sarah, Eliezer, or Isaac about what God had ordered him to do?
3. Why did God no longer speak to Abraham after the outcome of this test was known?  God delivered the Mount Moriah test in person, but as Abraham was about to carry out the command, an angel intervened and stayed his hand.  Why didn’t God show up to intervene?  And after the conclusion of this episode, God never spoke to Abraham again.  The intimacy of their relationship was over.  Likewise, from that point on, Abraham never “speaks to God” but only “speaks about God.”
4. How did Isaac deal with the fact that his father had to be forcibly restrained from cutting his throat?  What went through Isaac’s mind as he stared at his father with a blade descending?  Abraham may not have wounded Isaac with a knife, but he wounded him nonetheless.
5. What did Abraham and Isaac talk about on their three-day journey home?  In fact, it appears more likely that Abraham returned alone to Beersheba.  Abraham climbed Mount Moriah with his son, but he arrived alone when he returned from the mountain.  And he never spoke to his son again.  Isaac never saw his father alive again – only reuniting with his brother Ishmael to bury their dead father.  Even though God gave Abraham back his son on the altar of sacrifice, Abraham never did get his son back.
6. Is it reading too much into the text to wonder why Isaac grieved for his mother when she died, but the Scriptures say nothing about his grief upon his father’s death?
7. Why did Sarah die at the end of this story?  Remember that Abraham had not previously told her anything about the purpose of his trip with Isaac to the land of Moriah.  So upon her husband’s return, did she die from shock upon hearing that her son had been spared execution?  Was she devastated that her husband would do such a thing?  It takes Rebekah to comfort Isaac after the death of his mother.  There was no sign of Abraham’s even being there to console his son.
8. Does God expect followers to commit immoral acts when commanded to do so by divine voices or holy prophets?

Sweet’s attention to detail in these questions impresses me deeply.  The whole chapter is worth re-reading in preparation for the sermon this week, and the whole book is worth reading anyway.  Sweet argues that there are really two tests taking place here: a faithfulness test (which Abraham passes) and a relationship test (which Abraham fails miserably).  After coming down from the mountain Abraham travels home (most likely alone) and lives in isolation from his most beloved for the rest of his life – including God.

If that’s what you get for passing the test, then I would want to fail.  Srsly.

I have had the experience of asking tough questions of the text during bible study and being told, “it’s like you’re tearing down everything we believe in!”  Some folks just aren’t ready for deconstruction, even when the traditional interpretation (the Absorbed Reading, if you will) seems to demand it.

And (virtually) no text cries out for a radical reinterpretation than this one.

As a pastor I plan to discuss my own struggles with this text from the pulpit.