ASIAN SEMINARY OF
ABRAHAM: A MAN OF FAITH OR A MAN OF COMMANDMENT?
A STUDY ON THE OPERATION OF FAITH AND OBEDIENCE IN GENESIS 22:1-19
PRESENTED TO MR ARREN BENNET LAURENCE
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR HEBREW 3
BY
PATRICK VINCENT C. TAN
25 OCTOBER 2007
ABRAHAM: A MAN OF FAITH OR A MAN OF COMMANDMENT?
A STUDY ON THE OPERATION OF FAITH AND OBEDIENCE IN GENESIS 22:1-19
Introduction
It was back in 2004 when I started pursuing my call from God. I just graduated from a prestigious college with a bachelor of science degree in architecture tucked in my belt, I had a cool and a stable work as a web developer, and the title of one of the students that is “most likely to succeed” in our class. At that same time, the call of God to really get serious with him had been growing strong. I almost literally grew up in church, and no matter how I wandered from and rebelled against my relationship with Jesus, I knew that I will always go back to him. To make the long story short, I got his confirmation that summer and got myself to Asian Seminary of Christian Ministries October of 2004. It was a promising twist of direction. Though there are oppositions from home and friends, I am affirmative that I could make it work.
Never did I know that it was during this season that God would enroll me in his school of brokenness. It was a season of stripping away things that I had put my life into. That was when God impressed to me that I needed to quit my job. Since 2002, I was successfully working as a web artist for a U.S.-based e-learning company. But when I started pursuing his call, the demands of both ministry and work had been constantly wrestling for time leaving me unfocused and stressed. My job supports my family and my ministry. It was indeed a time of disorientation. So in October 2005 as I was about to leave for
Looking back, my ordeal, like many of us who take that courageous step of faith to follow Jesus, is so much like the ordeal that Abraham went through in his faith journey with God. At many points in our faith journey with Jesus, we are asked to give up certain comforts and securities which we have since been holding on to and slowly giving Jesus the absolute authority to run our life. In Genesis 22:1-19, God placed Abraham in a position that will either make or break him as Abraham—“the father of many peoples”. God tested Abraham by asking him to offer his son Isaac as burnt offering to God. Abraham obeys God’s command but with an unexpected twist in plans, and in the end he came out victorious.
For the Christian sojourner much is to be learned and admired about this “father of faith” as we now call him. But looking deeper we are confronted by the question, “Was Abraham a man of faith or a man of commandment?”[i] “What motivated Abraham to willingly offer Isaac as a burnt offering to God—was it because of obedience or because of faith?” And this is the purpose of this paper, to discover the role and operation of Abraham’s faith and obedience in Genesis 22:1-19.
And with the findings, this paper should conclude with an answer to the following questions: (1) what does this episode say about Abraham? (2) What is to be said about the New Testament writers who paint Abraham as the father of faith? (3) What does this episode say about God? And finally, (4) what does this paper contribute to the life of the modern Christian sojourner?
Overview of Genesis 22:1-19
Genesis is the first of the five books of the Torah said to be written by Moses.[ii] Tappeiner presents the timeline between Genesis 12-50 as the era of “election and purpose” in the entire salvation history. It is where in God’s effort to restore man’s relationship with him, he chooses begins with one man, Abraham, to carry his purpose to all man. For the Israelite audience at that time, this series of narrative reveals the roots of their founding fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, from which their nation, Israel was birthed.[iii]
The account of the binding of Isaac or the Aqedah[iv] as called in the Jewish tradition in Genesis 22:1-19 has been a remarkable source of theological truths and one of the best written accounts in the Old Testament in terms of literary form and beauty.[v] Wenham presents the account as a carefully sectioned chiasm with parallel sections similar in form and structure. [vi]
Verse 1 reads, “Now it came about after these things …”[vii] (22:1). “After these things” must refer to the previous chapter wherein one will find the fulfillment of the son of promise, Isaac (21:1). And in order to secure Isaac as the heir and the bloodline from which “[Abraham’s] descendants shall be named,” God affirms Abraham’s decision to send Hagar and his Ishmael away from his house (21:12). During this time, Abraham experienced great prosperity and peace: the security of the promised seed and covenantal peace treaty with the king of
And it was “after these things” that God chooses to test Abraham saying, “Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you” (22:2). The word “take now” in Hebrew literally meant “take, please” (laqh nah), an imperative verb (laqh) followed by a word of entreaty (nah)[viii]—a rare divine imperative. Wenham suggests that God spoke to Abraham with much awareness Isaac his son was very dear to him “precluding any reading of the story that would see Abraham as callous and hard-hearted”[ix]. The costliness of command is followed by a four-fold reference “your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac” to refer to his son of promise. The command was to offer Isaac as a burnt offering, a common practice of worship in the region at that time. And God specifies the location where the sacrifice must be done, in one of the mountains in the
In the author’s literary genius he gives the reader freedom to let their imagination wander and speculate throughout by leaving certain details about the characters’ thoughts and feelings increasing the desire to know what would happen next.[x] After God spoke to Abraham the author does not tell the reader how Abraham felt or reacted towards the horrific command but in verse 3 one will see that Abraham is already preparing for the sacrifice.[xi]
“So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him” (22:3).
By the third day, Abraham only “saw the place from a distance” (22:4). And from there he instructs his servants to wait for them at the foot of the mountain as he and Isaac climb the mountain together saying, “We will worship and return to you” (22:5-6). Readers are gripped with the question, “Will they indeed return together?” From these passages (22:3-6) the author gives an indirect glimpse[xii] of a broken-hearted father in agony over the terrible task killing his only beloved son. God does not ask Abraham to offer Isaac instantly on the spot. Abraham had a period of three nights and three days to contemplate the command and perhaps to repeatedly execute the sacrifice in his mind. He had every chance and opportunity to disobey the command. It also discredits theory that Abraham obeyed out of compulsion but through a painstaking judgment over one choice over another—to turn back or move forward.[xiii]
And as the father and son walk silently up the mountain, another vivid expression of Abraham’s reticent anguish, Isaac breaks the silence.
… “My father!” And [Abraham] said, “Here I am, my son.” And he said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” (22:7).
The reader is assured that Isaac has no foreknowledge of what is about to happen. And still without revealing the grim future ahead Abraham replies, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son” (22:8). A second wave of inquiries are raised, “Will Isaac be rescued from his fate?” “Was Abraham speaking out of faith that God will indeed provide an alternative, one way or the other?” When Abraham said, “We will return to you” in verse 5, the reader is given a chance to speculate that Abraham might still choose not to carry on with the sacrifice. But when Abraham assured Isaac that God himself will provide for the sacrifice, the reader is confronted by the truth that Abraham chose to proceed on to the sacrifice no matter what the outcome will be.[xiv]
When they arrive at the spot “which God had told him” (22:9a), Abraham immediately proceeds on building the altar for the sacrifice. He then binds Isaac and lays him over the altar ready to be slain (22:9b).
And as Abraham “stretch out his hand”[xv] and takes the knife to slay his son (22:10), the angel of the Lord interrupts from heaven and forbids Abraham to continue the sacrifice saying, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me” (22:12). The objective of the test is finally revealed, to see if Abraham does fear God by choosing to obey him and not withholding his only son from God. And as Abraham again raises his eyes (cf. 22:3), he sees the provision (cf. 22:8), a ram trapped by his horns in the thicket. Abraham offers the ram in place of Isaac (22:13) and names the place, “The Lord will Provide” (22:14).[xvi]
And for the second time the angel of the Lord calls again from heaven saying,
… “By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of your enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice” (22:16-18).
The Lord again recasts his promise to Abraham: the promise of blessing, seed that is not only to become as many as the stars in sky but now to be as many “as the sand which is on the seashore,” land and blessing to the nations (22:15-18, cf. 12:1-3). This time, the promise now stands not only by God’s divine will, but by the premise that Abraham chose to obey him no matter what the cost required (22:16, 18).
Abraham returns to his young men and returns to
Abraham’s faith in the New Testament
Faith as the defining character of Abraham, “the father of faith,” is much credited to the New Testament (NT) writers who utilized Abraham’s life as a benchmark of what the faith of the early church should be. There are five instances in four NT epistles where Abraham is cited in relation to faith. Each of the three authors refers to Abraham with different intent.
In Romans, Paul writes to the Jews in
The next two citations of Abraham are found in Hebrews 11. The author of Hebrews writes to believers who are going through immense persecution and are being tempted to turn back from the faith.[xix] So the author encourages the believers to hold on to their faith like the men of faith who went before them (11:1-39). And among the prominent men and women of faith, Abraham is mentioned on two accounts. It was through faith that Abraham came out of
Abraham is also mentioned in the epistle of James. James was writing to a church who claims they had faith, but their faith cannot be seen in works (2:14). James argues that “faith without works is dead” (2:17). Saving faith should be expressed outwardly through kindness, impartiality and selflessness that the church lacked. He then refers to Abraham, as one who was justified because though he had faith, his faith “was working with his works, and as a result of works, faith was perfected” (2:22). His faith was at work when he offered Isaac on the altar.
Faith in Genesis 22:1-19
Three out of five instances attribute faith to Abraham because he believed in God’s promise of seed (Ro 4:1-25, Gal 3:6-9, Jas 2:21-23 and Heb 11:17-19). All citations are based on the account of God promising Abraham a seed from which nations would spring forth (Gen 15:1-6), and in response Abraham “believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” (15:6). “Believe” (Heb. aman) is the only instance where we find the closest word to faith in the Abraham narrative.
The Old Testament (OT) Hebrew in fact lacks a direct word for the NT “faith” (pistis).[xx] Buber distinguishes the difference of meaning between NT “faith” and OT form of faith. [xxi] The NT pistis refers to “individualistic persuasion of faith or belief in something.” [xxii] While in OT, the closest corresponding word for the noun “faith” is the Hebrew aman from which we derive “amen,” and it means “to confide in, believe, be fully persuaded, put confidence in” something.[xxiii] Buber defines OT “faith” as a relationship, a “tribal, national communal trust and fidelity that is based on covenant.” [xxiv]
And out of five instances in NT citation of Abrahamic faith, James 2:21-23 and Hebrews 11:17-18 directly refer to the narrative of Genesis 22:1-19. The Hebrews author writes that it was through faith that motivated Abraham to offer Isaac as a burnt offering to God[xxv] believing that God “is able to raise people even from the dead” (11:17-19). James writes that Abraham’s saving faith was clearly seen when he offered Isaac as a sacrifice.
However, by inspecting the narrative in Genesis 22:1-19, one is not given a direct reference to Abraham’s faith and belief. In fact, by the end of the narrative, it was Abraham’s obedience that was commended more than once. There are two noteworthy instances in the Genesis 22:1-19 that suggest Abraham’s faith at work.
In verse 5 Abraham instructs his young men to wait at the foot of the mountain and saying, “We will return to you” (22:5). In the awareness that God’s command is set, Abraham is implying, “We (I and my son) will return to you.” Wenham suggests three reasons[xxvi] why Abraham said this to his young men: (1) First, Abraham deliberately told a white lie. Isaac himself was not aware that he was going to be the burnt offering until they have gone up to the mountain. At the awareness of Abraham’s intent to offer his own son, his servants could have easily prevented him from performing the sacrifice. (2) At this point, he could be thinking of eventually disobeying God’s command. This is unlikely to happen once we get past verse 8 when Abraham affirms Isaac that “God will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.” And lastly (3), the phrase suggests a hopeful prayer, an affirmation of faith, that God will spare Isaac, even if he does not know how God will do it. Wenham does not overtly favor one reason over the other. Indeed the author of the narrative leaves the reader to speculate over Abraham’s intent. Wenham thus resolves to Abraham’s state of mind—a confused and disoriented man capable of making grammatical errors in speech.
The second instance is found in verse 8, where Abraham responds to Isaac’s innocent inquiry about the burnt offering. He responds “God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Again Wenham likens this verse to the previous one as Abraham’s expression of quiet faith, an involuntary prophecy or prayer saying “may” God provide.[xxvii] This verse strengthens the faith argument in that by saying God himself will provide for the sacrifice, Abraham provides himself no way out and shows that he is determined to carry out the sacrifice at the cost of his son.
Obedience in the Old Testament
The Hebrew shama is the direct equivalent for the word “obey”. Shama almost all throughout the OT literally means “to hear” or “to listen,” sometimes with the implication to obey what was heard.[xxviii]
Obedience in Genesis 22:1-19
In Genesis 22:1-19, it was hearing and obeying the voice of God that was highlighted rather than speculated and became the grounds for commendation later in the narrative. In verse 2, God tests Abraham by asking him to offer his beloved son Isaac as a burnt offering to him. Immediately in the next verse we find Abraham already preparing for the journey (22:3). Wenham adds that the structure of rising early in the morning, saddling the donkey, taking his young men and Isaac and chopping the wood was a series of act done one after the other signifying an immediate response to God’s command.[xxx] The instruction where to offer Isaac was of the essence. Four times in the narrative Abraham is told to do the sacrifice on the location “which God had told him” (22:2, 3, 9, 14). When it was time for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, Isaac did not react to stop his father from binding him even perhaps it already dawned to him that he was the sacrificial lamb (22:9). It was not necessary for sacrificial animals to be bound before a sacrifice. And a lad who was capable of a three days’ journey[xxxi] would have easily overpowered and escape a very old man. But by binding the hands of Isaac, the author shows Isaac’s obedience to the will of his father, a carefully-placed allusion of the same obedience of Abraham for God to take his son.[xxxii] The angel of the Lord stops the brutal sacrifice and the objective is finally revealed, the test of wholehearted obedience (22:12). What follows is a more explicit reference to hearing and obeying God’s voice. Three times Abraham’s will to “[do] this thing and not withheld [his] son” (22:12, 16) and to “obey [God’s] voice” (22:18) was commended. And the promise of blessing, seed, land and blessing to the nations that before rests only on God’s covenant with Abraham, now “transformed” and grounded on God’s will and man’s obedience[xxxiii]—“man’s will [aligned] with God’s.”[xxxiv] Wenham adds that the fulfillment of the promise could have slowed if Abraham failed the test by not obeying the command, but through his obedience, “the reward is endorsed and extended.”[xxxv]
Conclusion
One should be reminded that this paper does not aim to disprove the presence of faith in Genesis 22:1-19 but suggests that more than faith alone, Abraham obeyed the God’s command no matter what the cost is.
Much of the attribution of faith to Abraham is an NT mindset that is based on Genesis 15:6. Modern story-telling has imposed Abraham’s faith as the major motivation of his act of sacrifice Isaac as a burnt-offering. Though there are instances that might suggest that Abraham’s faith was on the works in Genesis 22:1-19, the narrator leaves the reader only to speculate the inner thoughts and feelings of Abraham.
In the end, it was Abraham’s obedience that God commended, even when both obedience and faith were present in the narrative. It was clear that the narrator’s intent was to focus on Abraham’s virtue of obedience as the central theme of this narrative, an integral part of
For the modern Christian sojourner, in spite of the strong stress on faith as the means of justification before God (Ephesians 2:8-10), he must remember that obedience must be expressed and should become an outflow of one’s faith journey with God. As the apostle James puts it, faith not expressed in goodness and love is a dead faith. And what would be a better example than what Abraham did before God’s altar. He was not only the father of faith, but a man of commandment. Someone who has more than believed acted on what he believed even if the stakes are as costly as offering his son on the altar. And because of Abraham’s obedience, he became the benchmark of wholehearted obedience in the rest of the Old and New Testaments.
“No wonder that Abraham was called ‘the father of the faithful’! No wonder that a faith so remarkable, and an obedience so complete, were counted unto him for righteousness.”[xxxvi]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
“Binding of Isaac” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binding_of_Isaac.
“Torah”. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torah.
Bagalawis, Embong. New Testament Survey: Romans to Revelation. Asian Seminary of Christian Minstries (lecuters from October 2004-March 2005).
Brown, Francis, S.R. Driver and Charles Briggs. The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew and English Lexicon with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic. Christian Copyrights Inc, 1983.
Ewell, Walter A. and Philip W. Comfort. Tyndale Bible Dictionary.
Freedman, David Noel, Allen C. Myers and Astrid. B. Beck, ed. Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible.
Hastings, Edward, ed. The Speaker’s Bible. Vol. 1.
Laurence, Arren Bennet. Hebrew 3. Asian Seminary of Christian Ministries (lectures from June-September 2007)
Moltz, Howard. “God and Abraham in the Binding of Isaac”. Journal for the study of the Old Testament. Issue 96. Trowbridge, Wiltshire: The Cromwell Press, 2001.
Owens, John Joseph. Analytical Key to the Old Testament. Volume 1.
Pfeiffer, Charles F., ed. The Wycliffe Bible Commentary.
Pick, Aaron. Dictionary of Old Testament Words for English Readers.
Spence, H.D.M. and Joseph S. Exell, ed. The Pulpit Commentary. Vol 1.
Tappeiner, Daniel. Old Testament Theology. Asian Seminary of Christian Ministries (lectures from June-September 2007)
Vine, W.E., Merrill F. Unger and William White Jr. Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words.
Wenham Gordon. World Biblical Commentary. Volume 2.
[i] Moltz, p60.
[ii] Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. “Torah”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binding_of_Isaac.
[iii] Daniel Tappeiner. Old Testament Theology. Asian Seminary of
[iv] Howard Moltz, “God and Abraham in the Binding of Isaac”. Journal for the study of the Old Testament, Issue 96 (Trowbridge, Wiltshire: The Cromwell Press, 2001), 59.
[v] Gordon Wenham. The World Biblical Commentary, Volume 2 (Dallas, Texas: Word Books 1994), 99.
[vi] First parallel is the accounts introduction and epilogue (1a and 19), second parallel is God’s monologue first by his commandment to Abraham and second by the reiteration of blessing to Abraham (1b-2, 11-18), third parallel is in verse 3 where we find Abraham response and in verse 9-10 where Abraham prepares the offering of Isaac, the last and central parallel is the Moriah scene at the food of the mountain (4-6b) and Abraham and Isaac’s journey up the mountain (6c-8). Wenham, World Biblical Commentary, 100.
[vii] Biblical references are in New American Standard Bible except otherwise mentioned.
[viii] John Joseph Owens. Analytical Key to the Old Testament. Volume 1 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1990)
[ix] Wenham, World Biblical Commentary, 104. Asian Seminary of Christian Ministry Hebrew 3 professor Arren Bennet Laurence suggests that this form of divine imperative-entreaty still demands a full and immediate obedience for the person commanded. Arren Bennet Laurence. Hebrew 3. Asian Seminary of
[x] Laurence, Hebrew 3
[xi] The Wycliffe Bible Commentary suggests Abraham obeyed the command without any sign of hesitancy and difficulty because of his strong faith in God. I feel this is very unlikely for a loving father to sacrifice his son without any form of hesitancy. Charles F. Pfeiffer, ed. The Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Press Chicago, 1971), 27.
[xii] On the next passages, the words wood for the burnt offering, knife and fire are utilized to give the same effect of grim picture of sacrifice. Wenham, World Biblical Commentary.
[xiii] Ibid., 106-107
[xiv] Wenham, WBC, 109.
[xv] An idiom commonly utilized in Old Testament narrative to alert readers of something noteworthy in the next passage.
[xvi] Laurence explains that narratives such as these are legendary in the sense that they give the reader (for this, the Israelite nation) answers to certain cultural practices such as why human sacrifice is forbidden and the origin of the saying, “The Lord will provide”.
[xvii] Embong Bagalawis. New Testament Survey: Romans to Revelation. Asian Seminary of Christian Minsitries (October 2004-March 2005).
[xviii] Ibid.
[xix] Ibid.
[xx] David Noel Freedman, Allen C. Myers, Astrid B. Beck, eds. Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (
[xxi] Ibid.
[xxii] Ibid.
[xxiii] Aaron Pick. Dictionary of Old Testament Words for English Readers (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel Publications, 1977), 33.
[xxiv] Freedman, Eerdsman, 453
[xxv] Ibid
[xxvi] Wenham. WBC. 107-109
[xxvii] Wenham, WBC.
[xxviii] Pick, Dictionary, 291. Freedman, Eerdsman. Walter A. Ewell and Philip W. Comfort. Tyndale Bible Dictionary (
[xxix] Edward Hastings ed. The Speaker’s Bible. Vol. 1 (Michigan: Baker Books House, 1971)
[xxx] Wenham, WBC.
[xxxi] H.D.M. Spence and Joseph S. Exell, ed. The Pulpit Commentary. Vol 1 (
[xxxii] Wenham, WBC, 109.
[xxxiii] Ibid, 112.
[xxxiv] Spence, Pulpit, 285.
[xxxv] Wenham, WBC, 116.
[xxxvi]
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