The swells crash against each other, as
billows threaten to fill up and
fill out the night sky. I sit and
watch as the black and
the grey overwhelm the blue and
the white. The ebb and
the flow of these growing masses
stretch out across the paths of
the infinite heavens.
Can I face them?
Will I be overtaken?
Will the darkness find a way to consume us all?
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Genesis 22
The Sacrifice of Isaac,
The Akedah,
Or
Is This Really What a Test of Faith Looks Like?
There are few words that I could use to begin any conversation or discussion of this chapter, mostly because there are already so many words in print concerning the content of this passage. Suffice to say that there are few stories in the Old Testament that are both as controversial and foundational to the Jewish and Christian perceptions of faith as when God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac upon Mount Moriah. Thus, like with similar chapters and/or stories that can be quite difficult to interpret and translate (to anyone, no matter their age), I will be selecting some quality commentary selections for the reader to peruse along with some reflection of my own, as opposed to an in-depth lesson. So, please read through what I’ve collected here and comment if you’d like to.
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Genesis 21: 8-21
Hagar & Ishmael are Cast Out Into the Wilderness
Or
Sarah Plays the Lovely Homemaker Once Again
Once again, we see the “First Family†in turmoil and tumult, greatly akin to the conflict in Genesis 16. In that chapter, we find Sarai encouraging Abram to birth a child through her handmaiden Hagar in an attempt to fulfill God’s prophecy on her terms. However, with the birth of Isaac, the subsequent, eight-day-later, celebratory ritual circumcision (known as a bris) and the weaning feast that occurred typically ate age 3 (Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible: NIV, p46), it seems that Sarah and Hagar have again entered into a conflict over who has the true place in the household. And as mothers are prone to do, the welfare of their children takes precedence in any circumstance, decent social behavior be damned.
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Isaac is Born, Fulfilling the Promises of God
Or
How to Really Begin a Never-Ending Story
With these 8 verses, the past 10 chapters of Genesis come to a culmination that Abraham and Sarah often thought would never come to pass. God has finally blessed them with the arrival of their first child, a son named Isaac. This was a birth backed by decades of prophecy declaring the event, but no actual child had yet been born to fulfill those prophecies. Sarah and Abraham had battled their individual and collective doubting during this whole process, calling God’s knowledge and their own physical ability into question.
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