Jehovah Jireh

Yesterday during rest time, Anders was looking through some books. One was a Bible story book illustrated by Tomie dePaola. I had to go in the room to get something at one point and Anders asked me what was going on in the pictures of the story about Abraham sacrificing Isaac.

The story goes that God called Abraham to follow Him so that God could make a nation (Israel). Abraham is pretty old at this point, and he and his wife Sarah have no children. So God makes the barren fertile and at the age of 100, Sarah gives birth to Isaac. Then when Isaac is around age 12, God tells Abraham to take him up on a mountain and sacrifice him--his only son, the one that God is supposed to make a nation out of. Genesis says that it's a test to see if Abraham will obey God--but Abraham doesn't know that. Abraham takes Isaac up the mountain and says, "Daddy, I see the wood and the fire, but where is the lamb?" And Abraham replies, "God will provide, son." And just as Abraham raises his knife when Isaac is on the altar, God stops him and shows him a ram caught in the thicket. And then Isaac grows up and begets Jacob & Esau, and Jacob begets 12 sons who become the 12 tribes of Israel (more or less).

It's a story that shows the great level of faith that Abraham has. But it's also a very disturbing story. Even if God is only testing Abraham, and won't actually have him sacrifice Isaac, essentially Abraham is still expected to follow a God who could ask him to sacrifice his child. And in essence, it's a foreshadowing of God providing Jesus as a sacrifice for our sins. But it's not a story that's easy to read to your son; heck, it's not a story I'm comfortable reading. But it's there in the Bible, so we can't escape it--even if we could, there are plenty of other disturbing stories in there. Maybe the story is supposed to illustrate faith, but it raises questions about God for me. On some level, though, that's comforting; I'd much rather have a God I can question than one I have to take at face value.