Reading 11 | The Bible in 100 Passages

Wednesday, September 24, 2025  

Today's Scripture
Genesis 22:1–14

After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.” Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. And the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them walked on together.

When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide,” as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” (NRSVUE)

Reflection

Likely, your impulse in reading this account in Genesis is to imagine the knife. Something like a still from a movie, with a close-up of the pointy blade suspended in midair as its sheath is desperately clutched in the blanch-knuckled grip of Abraham. We’re accustomed to zeroing in on the immediate threat of the violence: the prospect of Abraham driving a knife into the tender rib cage of his young, innocent son as a living sacrifice to a demanding God.

The term by which this seminal passage is known, however, is “Aqedah” (ah-kay-DAH), the Hebrew word for “binding.” Centuries of focus through ritual, worship, scholarship, and art grapple with its meaning and significance. The Aqedah is central to the three monotheistic faiths. Judaism features this account during Rosh Hashanah to exemplify Abraham’s (and Isaac’s) radical obedience, God’s mercy, and humanity’s need for atonement. In Islam, an account with similar details is central to the festival of Eid a-Adha, the “Festival of Sacrifice.” In Christianity, parallels are drawn to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ with Abraham’s willing sacrifice to God.

Today, what are we to make of the Aqedah? I can’t help but consider that we, as a nation, stand on the flipside of its tension. Unlike Abraham, who heard the voice of God calling him to bind his precious son only to be thankfully spared at the last minute from this terror, we too often are willingly led astray by the siren songs of false idols, binding and offering up our children to violence, malice, exploitation, greed, distraction, and dehumanization with nothing to show for it but our own depravity.

Prayer

Lord, have mercy on us. As we are bound to you through Christ, help us to resist temptations to chain ourselves to false idols masked in all forms of violence, hatred, and greed. Amen.

Written by Nancy Benson-Nicol, Associate Pastor

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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