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Makes me think of the Abraham story…

I’ve always wondered if Abraham somehow knew his son would live, from things like him telling Isaac “God will provide the sacrifice” and the traveling party “wait for us and we’ll return.”

And as Abraham knew God, and God violently hates child sacrifice, I have to wonder if that was also a factor.

Can you be willing to do something even if you know you’ll never have to? Can you prove it? I personally think it’s possible.

Regardless, as disturbing as it is to kill your child because God told you to, there’s no question about how blatantly evil it is to do so because another human told you to.

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Discussion

TKay 1y ago

The huge difference for me is an act of a single individual (you can him crazy if you do t believe the story) vs the collective armed force in a nation deciding to support a single human over the people.

nobody 1y ago

I think Abraham knew, and I think the context of the passage bears that out. One thing that stands out from the rip for me is that Abraham was praised as being righteous not for obedience, but for faith.

DefiantDandelion 1y ago

10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”

I think the plain reading of the text is clear. I think it’s human to put effort into explaining away the messy implications than directly wrestling with them. But I think it’s worth wrestling with. Kierkegaard’s “Fear and Trembling” is worth it in my opinion.

There is more to be said but I’ll leave it short. GM

Ben Weeks ⚡ 1y ago

I’m not keen in the god of the old testament - he seemed to chill out a bit more by the new testament though.

𝔼𝕣𝕪𝕟 𝔹𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕔𝕠 1y ago

Really interesting insights come when you realize they’re the same.

I’m going to try (again) to do a Bible study on Corny Chat soon where we study both Old and New Testament that particularly explores how the two are related. I can let you know when it begins if you’re interested.

But the BibleProject podcast has been doing a better job than I can hope to for a long time:

https://fountain.fm/show/ZOaFDMxh6ETiWUFnJfuq