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The first question that arose from this reading came as I was reading the second verse. In that verse God says to Abraham “Take your son, your only son, Isaac.” I have read this passage several times in the past but for some reason it never dawned on me that God seems to have forgotten about Ishmael. It’s true that Ishmael and Hagar had already been sent away but it still seems strange to me that God would refer to Isaac as Abraham’s only son. In verses 12 and 13 of the twenty-first chapter God tells Abraham not to be distressed about Hagar and Ishmael because his offspring will be “reckoned” through Isaac. But then He tells Abraham that He will make Ishmael “into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”
On one hand God seems to be telling Abraham that Ishmael is no longer any of his concern but then he ends his statement by reminding Abraham that Ishmael is in fact his offspring. But then as the narrative for this passage plays out God seems to imply that Ishmael is not even Abraham’s son anymore. Perhaps in God’s sight Ishmael isn’t Abraham’s son anymore. God clearly does not want Abraham to worry about Ishmael. Maybe, by doing this, God is telling Abraham that what happens with Ishmael is in God’s hands now and that Abraham’s obligation to Ishmael is completed. Maybe at this point in Ishmael’s life, God is fulfilling the paternal role.
Verse 4 of this passage points out that Abraham saw the place where he was supposed to sacrifice Isaac on the third day of his journey. I couldn’t help but make a parallel with Christ on this. Christ was dead for three days. Abraham’s journey took three days. Now granted he wasn’t physically dead but, because he basically set about to sacrifice his son with virtually no argument there seemed to be almost an emotional deadness to Abraham. This is not to say at all that Abraham was cold and calloused and was not upset over the notion of sacrificing his son. It just seemed like there was a real lack of emotion on Abraham’s part through this narrative. Perhaps that was how he dealt with the grief and despair he was no doubt dealing with at the time.
But then on the third day, Christ overcame death and Abraham overcame his own will. The end result of these narratives, Jesus’ resurrection and Isaac’s life was spared and perhaps, at least in an emotional sense, Abraham was resurrected. Maybe this analogy is a bit of a stretch but it does seem to me that there are parallels. In all the times that I have read this in the past I never realized just how pivotal verse 8 is. In this verse Abraham responds to Isaac’s questioning of where the lamb was for sacrificing. He responds, not by saying that Isaac will be the sacrifice but that the Lord will provide the “lamb” to be sacrificed. When I read this passage in the past I always figured Abraham just didn’t want to tell Isaac that he was going to be the sacrifice. But now I see this as an act of great faith by Abraham. To be sure, Abraham’s willingness to do what God said and sacrifice his son, despite the anguish and grief that he must have suffered, was an act of great faith in itself. But what this statement showed to me was that Abraham had faith that in the end this would all make sense because God would provide whatever Abraham needed to make sense out of this. This is not to say that Abraham thought God was bluffing. I believe that Abraham was perfectly willing to sacrifice his son. I just think that Abraham had an absolute unyielding faith that as long as he always followed God’s will he would always be taken care of because God provides.
Another question arose in verse twelve when God says “Now I know that you fear God.” I couldn’t help but wonder why didn’t God know this before? God knew that Isaac and Ishmael would be made into great nations. Why wouldn’t God know about the unyielding faith of Abraham?
Verse 18 of this passage says “ and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed.” This seems in contrast to God’s earlier references to Isaac as Abraham’s only son. I can’t help but wonder if God was including Ishmael in his reference to Abraham’s “offspring.”