23 January

Abraham agrees to the request made by God since he completelely trusts him. He acknowledges the givings that he was blessed with because of God and knows that the Lord is good (because of preserving the blessed in the slaughtering of the city), therefore Abraham knows that his sacrifice can’t be the wrong decision since it is made for the Lord. I don’t think that Abraham was lying to his son in this account. I believe that what he says is a symbolism for his son. “God will provide for himself the lamb,” so the lamb could be a symbolism for the sacrifice made to the Lord and here Abraham says that God provided this sacrifice and we know from previous passages that God gave him his only son. This could mean he literally means his own son. Also, this could be false and he could be lying to his child out of pitty (how do you tell a child he is about to die?). The intention of all of this is to test whether Abraham represents the new generation of humans that form the communion with God instead of failing due to self-centered reasons. Here, God tests the priorities of Abraham and takes him to the extreme to see if he still obeys and trusts God with everything. I think part of it is coming back to the theme of taking against giving. God gave Abraham a son and now when he orders him to give him back, not complying would make Abraham “take the gift”. I think that however messed up it may sound, Abraham is praiseworthy since he is the only one that trusted God (which is the logical action) and preserved their communion. I would say God is always praiseworthy but in this certain example, I can’t see the moral goodness of his test.