111
Q.
Why would God ask Abraham to kill his own son?
Jim L. Robinson
Who is...
?
Jim L. Robinson
In retirement, I am enjoying the study of classical guitar.
My fantasy is to sing the lead in Man of La Mancha.A.
Both stories are allegories. That statement does not address in
any way the question of whether either is historical fact; rather,
it addresses the way each story is applied within the text. This is
pivotal to our understanding.
Also, these stories represent an Eastern worldview and the imposition of
Western logic distorts their meaning. Western logic suggests that God is unjust
in allowing Job to suffer. The logical conclusion is that we would have done it
better—that our sense of justice is superior to God’s! I’m uncomfortable with
that, but even my discomfort is an unfair imposition on the text. The Eastern
mindset would have no problem with the idea of God rolling the dice with
Satan and winning the bet. That’s just the setup.
As allegory, the story of Job does not try to locate responsibility for Job’s
suffering. Indeed, if there is a reward or punishment focus at all in the story
of Job, it is that God rewards, not good behavior, but faithfulness. And Job’s
faithfulness is more a matter of his trusting in God’s faithfulness than in com-
plying with any set of rules.
In a similar way, the story of Abraham and Isaac does not address the
issue of whether a just God would ask Abraham to sacrifi ce his own son.
Its message, instead, is that God will provide. One might build the case that
this story marks the beginning of human awareness that God does not want
human sacrifi ce; but even if that were the case, the bottom line is that God
provides even that which God requires from us humans—like a parent giving
a child money so the child can buy the parent a birthday gift.
Scriptural References
Genesis 22, 32; Job; Proverbs
Suggested Additional Source for Reading
- Hubert Locke, Searching for God in Godforsaken Times and Places: Re ections
on the Holocaust, Racism, and Death (Eerdmans, 2003).