Abraham and Isaac: True Sacrifice

The story of Abraham and Isaac is one of true sacrifice and faith.

God commanded Abraham to take his one and only son, Isaac, and sacrifice him. So Abraham took Isaac, two servants and a donkey on a 50 mile journey. Isaac, completely oblivious, thought the lamb were to be sacrificed. But instead, Abraham bound his son with ropes and placed him on the stone altar.

Just as Abraham was about to murder his child, an angel called out to Abraham and stopped him.

Okay, I am going to try and sum up the rest of this blog post without being offensive to anyone of any cultural or religious background. Recently, reading through my peers' blog posts, I (along with many others) have noticed that a lot of the responses have been very one-sided and biased accounts of biblical stories. Even though I am not a Christian, I recognize that it is very, very disrespectful to ridicule a very real religion that many people have complete faith in. And a lot of my classmates have been doing that.

Because sure, on one hand, you could say "Wow, here is yet another testament to how much God sucks." It's easy to defend that position. Here he is, not only destroying cities and wiping out humanity in the great flood, but also making a man (almost) sacrifice his one and only son. Who would do such a thing? But as a friend told me, these stories are thousands of years old and they are all open to interpretation. Are you really going to read into each story with face value? Perhaps these biblical passages are meant more for lessons and symbols, than to show the true history of Christianity? Either way, while we can all agree that killing your own son is an abhorrent act, the true message that Christians point to is the sacrifice and complete faith that Abraham had instilled in his God.

But I also consider the other side of the coin. Perhaps people blindly point to the "true sacrifice" and "complete faith" to avert attention away from the fact that God asked a faithful servant to murder his own son. Perhaps people pick and choose what is to be seen as a lesson rather than a literal recount of history so that they feel better about horrific acts that went on. Perhaps people choose to interpret things one way - the way that puts God in a glorified, merciful light - or another way - the terrible, unforgiving, humanity-destroying light - simply because they don't want to question what is in the middle and what that exactly means.

I don't know what that "middle" means, either. And I've been trying to figure it out for quite some time.

Was He not so Omniscient?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuxcUlZ7VJQ
Watch this ^^^ wtf?

First of all I thought the whole point of the Old testament was to have followers fear God because of his all-knowing power. But he supposedly had to "test" Abraham's faith in him because he did not know it himself. What the hell? I am very tired and a little worn out by ranting about Biblical stupidities. I have a lot to say about it. I could go on for hours. I still don't feel like it would have much effect. People indoctrinated so thoroughly into the "wrong" (in my opinion) side of Christianity are too ingrained in their "faith" (ignorance) to care anyway. Christians who are in it for self-righteousness or money are not worth my time. Im tired. ): This story sucked.

Abraham and Isaac

God told Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac to him. So Abraham took Isaac two servants and a donkey on the 50 mile trip to the mountain where God told him to sacrifice. Abraham took Isaac up the mountain and bound him with rope. As Abraham was about to kill Isaac for the sacrifice an angel yelled stop and that God would bless him and his family for his complete obedience. Abraham then saw a ram and sacrificed that to God instead. Total sacrifice is different to different people. To some if all they care about is say, video games, then giving up video games would be a total sacrifice to them. Giving up something you love with all your heart for someone or something is a total sacrifice.

Abraham and Isaac

The story of Abraham and Issac begins with God blessing Abraham with his only son Issac, whom he loves very much; however, God (selfishly I might add) wants to see if Abraham loves him the most. In order to do this, he orders Abraham to take Isaac to the region of Moriah so he can sacrifice him to the Lord. Abraham took Isaac, two servants and a donkey and set off on the 50 mile journey. When they arrived, Abraham ordered the servants to wait with the donkey while he and Isaac went up the mountain.  Isaac asked his father where the lamb was for the sacrifice, and Abraham answered that the Lord would provide the lamb. Saddened and confused, Abraham bound Isaac with ropes and placed him on the stone altar. Right when Abraham raised his knife to kill his son, God told him to stop and not harm the boy. He knew Abraham loved him because he hadn't hid his only son. Once Abraham looked up, he saw a ram caught in a thicket by its horns, so Abraham used the ram as his sacrifice. With this result, God blessed Abraham's family for generations. 
My favorite real-life hero is the man that threw his body over a stranger with an oncoming subway approaching so that the stranger's life would be saved. This event happened in 2007, but I still remember it to this day. The man's name is Wesley Autrey, a construction worker and Navy vet, and the story goes like this... Mr. Autrey was walking his two daughters home before heading to work (this is happening around 12:45 pm) where nearby a man about 20 years old collapsed and started convulsing on the ground. People rushed to helped him, and he managed to get up, but he tripped and fell into the subway tracks. At that time, the subways headlights were approaching, so Mr. Autrey made a split-second decision to throw his body and push the man and himself into a foot-deep space between the tracks. The train tried to break, but it was too late and five cars rolled over them before coming to a stop. Everyone was screaming, but then they heard "We're OK!" and "Tell my daughters their father is OK!". After workers got the two out, Mr. Autrey was found to only have bumps and bruises-nothing more. After the scene, Mr. Autrey said "I don’t feel like I did something spectacular; I just saw someone who needed help, I did what I felt was right.” I think this depicts true sacrifice because a man almost threw his life away (in front of his daughters!!) for a complete strangers I still get chills from the story, and I just think it is so wonderful! 


Wesley Autrey
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/03/nyregion/03life.1901.jpg

Honest Abe

Although I read the three chapters preceding the story of Abraham and Issac, I still am not sure what compelled this man to attempt to sacrifice his own son. I think God may have commanded him to, in which case any sane man would. After all, what god giveth, he may also taketh away. The morning of the sacrifice to be, Issac and Old Abe woke up, stretched and then stepped out to make their daily burnt offerings to the Lord. Then Issac starts asking all these crazy questions like, " Gee Pop, if we're going to make an offering to God and whatnot, don't you think we oughta have a calf?" to which Abraham presumably responded tearily, "Shut up kid and keep walking". The Abe bound up his one and only boy and was about to do the deed for the love of God when a voice came down from the heavens telling Abe that God was only foolin' and he didn't think anyone would go that far. For this great show of macabre willpower, Abraham gets to keep his son with the added promise of his offspring being as plentiful as the stars. Billions and billions of offspring.

Abraham and Isaac

Abraham is asked by God to sacrifice his only son. God's test, while cruel, is the ultimate one. Abraham, willing to sacrifice his only son for God, proves that he is a true follower of God and will let nothing stand in his way to spread the word. Abraham takes Isaac to the top of a mountain to sacrifice him but before he is able to kill him, God sends down a message that he should not kill him and it was only a test. An awkward relationship probably now unfolds between the two, but nonetheless they are both alive and Abraham's descendants, because he has passed this test, will be numerous and all nations will be blessed. 

 A true sacrifice would indeed be giving up someone that you loved dearly, whether it be killing them or just never being able to see them. Multiple times I have lost someone I loved and it was the worst pain I've ever felt. While I think that this would be a very cruel test to have someone endure, I understand .

Abraham and Isaac

DISCLAIMER: The story described below is quite horrific and terrifying in nature. Reader discretion is advised...

After years of trying with his wife Sarah, Abraham simply could not father a child to continue the family dynasty. Because of Abraham's strong and unwavering faith, God gave Abraham a beautiful baby boy named Isaac who Abraham raised with a deep love that any parent can understand. To test Abraham's faith, God instructed Abraham to sacrifice his son as an offering (this is where I started getting scared...). Traveling over fifty miles with Isaac and two servants, Abraham arrived at the mountain where he intended to kill his son. Going up the mountain with a confused Isaac, Abraham bound his son and laid him on the altar with a sword to kill him. Right before Abraham stabbed Isaac to death, an angel appeared commanding Abraham to stop because he had shown true loyalty to God (talk about psychological trauma?). Instead of killing Isaac, Abraham sacrificed a ram as an offering to God prompting God to promise Abraham that his descendants would be blessed for generations.

While I noted above that this story was absolutely disturbing for me as a reader, it is a message we all need to hear. To show our faith in God or to simply stay true to ourselves, we must be willing to make sacrifices despite the costs to our personal well-being. Although I wish God would have chosen another medium for his message, it is imperative that we see a broader message of faith to a cause so that we can truly understand the importance of the story. I was reading an article about the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut the other day and stumbled upon an individual who exhibited true sacrifice in defense of her passion, her beloved students. Vicki Soto was a first-grade teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School who literally threw herself in front of her students so that they wouldn't die from gunshot wounds. She fought for the innocence of those children even as she was about to die leading her to become a posthumous recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal. I know that there are many more stories just like this, but the faith of this brave teacher really stood out to me.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/newtown-teacher-vicki-soto-remembered-article-1.1221004