Genesis 22 — Thoughts

My Philosophy Professor Didn’t Get This Story

This story came up in my college philosophy course. The point the professor was trying to make was that God couldn't be good if He would command Abraham to kill Isaac.

But this assessment overlooks some important facts about the characters in this story. First, God is God. He creates all life. He, therefore, has the right to take any life He chooses. Second, Isaac was a sinful human being. It was, therefore, perfectly just for God to take his life. In fact, the only reason we aren't all justly killed the moment we sin is that God wants to give us the chance to repent and be redeemed (2 Peter 3:9). And third, Abraham knew that God could resurrect Isaac if he was killed (Hebrews 11:19).

But the biggest thing my professor missed about this story is that it isn't actually about Isaac and Abraham. It's about God and all of humanity.

Like Isaac, we are all sinful and therefore worthy of death, a just punishment for our sin. But God loves us so much that He provides a substitute to replace us on the altar. In this story, it was the ram Abraham found caught in the thicket. In our story, it was God Himself, who entered Creation as Jesus to live the perfect life we couldn't live and then die the death for sin we all deserve. Because of Him, we can justly be set free from sin and death. We can be restored to a right relationship with God. We can be made new.

This story would have been even weirder if, after God provided the ram, Isaac crawled back on the altar and insisted that Abraham kill him anyway. But that's exactly what the world does when it rejects Jesus.

Have you accepted God's gift of a ram to take your place?⁠ Have you told anyone else about the ram?

(Originally written July 9, 2020)