Life is Precious

Life is precious folks.

Its so strange how a nameless, faceless person can stop the whole world and make you realize how great a gift we've been blessed with.

God's people learned that down here today.

And they prayed.

And it was beautiful.

Pray

Hey all,
A guy just jumped out of the 7th floor window in my dorm. Please pray for him, his family, his roomate, his RA, professors, everyone involved. Pray for peace and healing for this building & campus, and that God would work through this tragedy for his glory.

Two Gimps at a Tech Game

So Kev came down for a football game & we were the gimp brothers. Great times. Tech beat FSU too.

Exa what?

So I'm in this Old testament class....and its pretty awesome. Kinda nerdy- yes. But biblical scholarship is pretty sweet. There's something about sitting down reading 5-6 books simultaneously by a bunch of brilliant thinkers of the ages like Kirkegaard, Calvin, Luther, Augustine, Paul, and so on that makes ya feel real...classic. Kinda wish I had a beard, a pipe, and an office with a sweet fireplace and many leather bound books to do this kind of stuff all the time. Anyway this is my exegesis paper for the semester. Its real great way to put the kids to sleep, but some of ya might get a kick out of it if you brew your coffee strong enough.

Abraham, Isaac, YHWH, and Human Sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible

There are few passages so fundamental yet so interestingly questionable in the whole of the Hebrew Bible as the ordeal of Isaac and Abraham in Genesis 22. Few other places in the entire Jewish Cannon provide such a seeming contradiction in divine nature, an absolute test of faith, and a radically controversial act of obedience. The lessons and theologies derived from this story have become fundamental aspects of all three Abrahamic worldviews, and therefore warrant significant probing and analysis of the text. One of the most striking elements of this passage is the fact that despite being asked to make a “more than ultimate” sacrifice, the author of the passage does not depict Abraham resenting, or even questioning, the command from God to sacrifice his son. Rather, the Patriarch’s emotions are considerably suppressed. It is the intention of this essay to probe the emotional anguish of Abraham’s test in the context of both his life, and the ancient Israelite tradition in order to show how this extreme test of Abraham’s faith sealed the covenant between God and Israel. To truly understand the magnitude and corresponding implications of the events of Genesis 22, it is essential to analyze the cultural aspects of the text in depth. In particular, it is essential to recognize the role of the firstborn.

In almost every ancient culture the firstborn son lived in a loftier position than the rest of his siblings. The firstborn son would almost always inherit a greater portion of assets upon the death of his father than the others, and was generally believed to be the proper successor to his father’s role in society. The ancient Israelites were no exception to this trend, but they did have an interesting twist when it came to the firstborn. They viewed the firstborn son as belonging not to them, but to God, and it is this concept that the firstborn son derives much his patriarchal authority and distinction from. In many places throughout the Hebrew Bible the firstborn is seen as set apart for God. In Exodus 13 God commands that, “You shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb” and later focuses the command to “Every firstborn male among your children you shall redeem” (Ex. 13:12, 14). God blunts the command even more when he says, “The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me”(Ex 22:29). So if the ancient Israelites placed a considerable importance on the firstborn son, they would probably see the most distinguished firstborn son to be the first legitimate son of their venerated Abraham, Isaac. And with the entry of Isaac, we enter the fascinating realm of Genesis 22.

The chapter begins by telling us that Abraham will be tested. While some scholars such as von Rad would say that this is a sign that the aquedah is only a test, I would tend to side with Levenson in that, “nothing in the verb used (nissa) implies that the act commanded will not be carried to completion, that Isaac will only be bound and not sacrificed on the altar” (Levenson, 126). E.A. Speiser agrees in his commentary on Genesis when he shows that in this verse: “The suspense is this shifted from viewers to actors, yet the transfer does little to relieve the tension. There is no way of assuring the father that he need have no fear about the final result; one can only suffer with him in helpless silence”(Speiser, 164). So without detracting any tension from the events to come, the author of the text reveals God’s command to 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.” (Gen 22:1-2)

There are many interesting points to be taken from these two verses that give us a better understanding of the text as a whole. The first is Abraham’s initial response to God, “Here I am.” Speiser translates this line as the single word, “Ready”. Something that should be noted here is that Abraham does not just react to stimulation, he emphatically responds to God’s calling. Speiser also notes that a modern equivalent to this statement might be, “At your service, at once” (Speiser 162). The implications here are that Abraham is, “ready to act upon a command from God and face the human consequences” (Levenson 126-127). Another noteworthy point is that God uses a very drawn out line in his command to describe Isaac. There are four different descriptors used to specify Isaac in the passage. Each displays the tender father-son relationship between Abraham to a higher degree than its predecessor, and heightens the tension of the situation in the mind of both Abraham and the reader. As Levenson puts it:

“Had the text revealed it to [Abraham] immediately… the literary effect would have been missed: Abraham is ordered not only to perform an act of radical obedience, not simply to sacrifice his own child, but to slaughter the person who now occupies the simultaneously exalted and humiliating status of the beloved son”(Levenson 128).

Speiser adds that, “Isaac was to Abraham more than a child of his old age, so fervently hoped for yet so long denied. Isaac was also, and more particularly, the only link with the far-off goal to which Abraham’s life was dedicated” (Speiser 164).

And with that Abraham, Isaac, the donkey, and two servants head out on the trail. Ironically though, Abraham does not do so immediately, but waits until the next morning. I believe this could this be a muffled sign of Abraham’s grappling with the reality that God has placed him in. It is certainly a contrast from the emphatic response to God’s original calling, and rightfully so as he is expected to slaughter his beloved son. However the text does not go into any further detail on Abraham’s emotional response to this divine command.

Even more suppressed are the next three days on the trail. Few in the modern world can imagine the emotional toil Abraham must have been experiencing for those three intermediate days. Soren Kirkegaard wrote in his book Fear and Trembling that:

“If I were to talk about [Abraham], I would first depict the pain of his trial. To that end I would like a leech suck all the dread and distress and torture out of a father’s sufferings, so that I might describe what Abraham suffered…I would remind the audience that the journey lasted three days and a good part of the fourth, yea, that these three and a half days were infinitely longer than the few thousand years which separate me from Abraham” (Kirkegaard 63-64)

What’s more, on top of knowing the gruesome reality to come, Abraham has no idea where he is going. The text is very specific when it says that God would point out the place in due time. This reality must have been unnerving, yet the reader seems to get no taste of Abraham’s inner toil at all. This is very unlike the character of Abraham to this point in the book of Genesis.

Previously in chapter 21 we can see that when Abraham was asked by Sarah to cast out Ishmael, “The matter was very distressing…on account of his son” (Gen 21:11). Here in chapter 22, the Patriarch is not only casting out his beloved son, but his only legitimate firstborn is being slaughtered, and what’s more- Abraham himself is being asked by God to make the sacrifice. Yet do we see any kind of resentment or even questioning of the justness of God on Abraham’s part? Not at all!

This is the same man who called God’s plan into question on account of Sodom and Gomorrah in chapter 18. “Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare with the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”(Gen 18:25). It is totally out of character for Abraham to appear so calm and passive in this situation. “Whereas in chapter 18, Abraham passes the test God assigns him by speaking up in protest against God’s own counsel, in chapter 22 he passes the test by obeying the divine command unquestioningly”(Levenson 129).

If we look at other figures in the bible forced into similar situations, we see that Jepthah experienced extreme anguish when he learned that his daughter needed to be sacrificed. “When he saw her, he tore his clothes, and said, “Alas my daughter! You have brought me very low; you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow” (Judges 11:35). How much more important in the mind of the ancient Israelites is the firstborn of Abraham (not to mention the patriarch of all Israel) over the unnamed daughter of Jepthah, whose own father finds her less important than a vow? And yet Jepthah tear his clothes while Abraham shows absolutely no sign of remorse! The irony is absurd.

The only possible explanation for the calm, cool, and collected way in which Abraham handles this situation is that he has complete and total faith in the goodness and justness of God. What Abraham was willing to do goes so far against the grain of societal standards, that would he have attempted to do this in the modern day, Abraham would have been labeled a madman by any logically thinking jury. As Kirkegaard put it, Abraham’s faith is, “a paradox which is capable of transforming a murder into a holy act well-pleasing to God, a paradox which gives Isaac back to Abraham, which no thought can master, because faith begins precisely there where thinking leaves off”(Kirkegaard 64).

It is precisely this faith in God’s divine purpose that later cements the covenant between God and Israel. “By myself I have sworn, says the Lord: Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of their enemies” (Gen 22:16-17). Without the Abraham’s total faith in God when all appeared to be lost, this unconditional covenant simply would not have been made.

Bibliography

Anchor Bible. Gen. 22:1-22:19. First ed. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1964.

Harper Collins Study Bible. First ed. New York: Harper Collins, 2006.

Kirkegaard, Soren. Fear and Trembling. Princeton University Press, New York 1954 (62-64).

Levenson, Jon D. The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son. Yale University Press, New Haven and London 1993 (126-129)

And......I'm Back

Sorry all- life is nuts, you know what I'm talkin about.

Anyway for the first time in quite an eon I finally have time to blog... Hoo RAH!

So this is what God's up to around me:

PRITCHARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm a small group leader in Pritchard Hall, the largest all male non military dorm this side of the Mississippi River, maybe you've heard of us. Its the biggest, smelliest, certanly most infamous dorm in the state of Virginia....and I'm absolutely in love with it. 5 or 6 years ago, nobody but freshmen lived here . They moved out as quick as they could because it sucked. This building was a Godless wasteland- a stereotypical all male college dorm. Then a few Christian guys felt God calling them to love on this place. The year after, more people came back to the Man Castle as it came to be known, then more the next year. Today we got a small group here in Pritchard that pulls from a crowd of 20 or so, and it seems like there's only going to be more upperclassmen coming in the future. There's so many guys, that we gotta split the small group to keep it small. SICK NASTY! Its been nothing but a joy to see God redeem this place and use it to bring freshmen and upperclassmen together in brotherhood over the short span I've lived here. We just launched a prayer group here in the dorm to unite all the different campus ministries involved with this building in prayer and for the last few weeks its been amazing. WE GOT A BLOG TOO, check it out- its pretty sweet.


Well that's all for today, i'll try to keep you all updated with life and such as we go on, keep nagging me to post stuff & hopefully I'll get a chance sometime laters.

PEACE!

-EO