This is a sick, sick story. God tells Abraham to murder his son and offer his flesh up as a burnt offering (a human sacrifice). What kind God would make such a request of a father? And what good father would ever consider such a thing?
If you believe that the behavior of God is, by definition, moral; then you have to twist your own understanding of morality to believe that this is a moral act. If you change references to "God" in this story to any other authority figure, it would be self-evidently evil. But somehow, because the request came from God, we have to understand it somehow as good. This is psychotic. If you can be convinced somehow that this is "good," then I imagine you can be convinced of anything.
Commentary
Skeptic's Annotated Bible
22:1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
Why is God tempting Abraham? To see if he's pious and worthy? We already know he's greedy, willing to lie for personal gain and unwilling to stand up to his wife for what he knows is right (not beating slaves and not exiling his firstborn son). Plus he's a polygamist and in an incestuous marriage. It would be surprising if he did respond in a virtuous way.
22:2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac,
Isaac isn't his only son; his firstborn son was Ishmael.
whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
WTF? Not content with burnt animal flesh any longer, God now wants to smell the burnt flesh of Abraham's son and heir? What a horrible, gruesome request! What a cruel and perverse God!
Ugh. Since the virtuous thing to do here would be to say "Hell no!", I guess that means that Abraham is going to follow God's instruction.
22:3 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
Of course.
22:4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.
22:5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
More lies from Abraham the liar.
22:6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.
22:7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
Apparently Isaac is familiar with the custom of burnt offerings, i.e., animal sacrifice.
22:8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
Isaac is unwise to trust his mendacious father.
22:9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
I wonder how Isaac is taking this at this point. "You lied to me! Father, what are you doing? How could you do this to me? Don't you love me?" etc.
22:10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
Because a voice in his head suggested this. I suppose I get it: the moral of this story is "obey God no matter what; even if he commands you do perform some heinous crime against your own family." But this is still a horrible, sick and twisted tale.
22:11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
22:12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
I guess I can see why God might doubt that Abraham is "God fearing," since he's shown no hesitation or remorse for things like lying and so on. But again, the author is forgetting that God is omniscient; if Abraham was "God fearing," God should be able to know that without giving him this test (and putting Isaac through such torment).
22:13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
Nice. Abraham slaughtered an innocent ram instead. At least God still got to smell burnt animal flesh. Again, I wonder what Isaac is thinking while he's watching his dear father carve up the ram just like he was getting ready to do to Isaac.
22:14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.
This is not a real place.
22:15 And the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,
22:16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
But he's NOT Abraham's only son!
22:17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
Didn't God already have this covenant with Abraham? Wasn't that why he changed his name from Abram already, and how Sarah got pregnant at the age of 90? Are we just reaffirming the covenant here? If so, why; and why do it in such a gruesome way?
22:18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.
22:19 So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.
22:20 And it came to pass after these things, that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold, Milcah, she hath also born children unto thy brother Nahor;
22:21 Huz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram,
22:22 And Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel.
22:23 And Bethuel begat Rebekah: these eight Milcah did bear to Nahor, Abraham's brother.
22:24 And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, she bare also Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah.
More genealogies. No problem with concubines, though. Whose concubine was she? The pronoun use is not clear here. Nahor? No particular problem with adultery, then? I guess if you just nearly made a human sacrifice of your son, adultery is the least of your concerns.
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