Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“He said, ‘Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, September 14, 2025
by Pr. Matthias Lorimor, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: Put back in its historical context, Abraham’s near sacrifice proves to be miraculously surprising.
In contrast to the shock, horror, and baffling confusion it’s read with today, God’s command for Abraham to sacrifice his son probably wouldn’t have come as much of a shock to the audience that first heard this story. Child sacrifice was fairly common in the Ancient Near East and practiced by several cultures. It’s even attested to in the Hebrew scriptures, as when the King of Moab sacrifices his firstborn son to the Moabite god to reverse a losing battle in 2 Kings 3:26-27 (it works). Thus, Abraham may not have been all that surprised when his God told him to take his firstborn and offer him as a burnt offering (v.22). Firstborn children are what ancient gods typically expected of national leaders as a sign of loyalty. Instead, the real shock for Abraham and for this scripture’s ancient audience, is that when the time comes, the God of Israel defies what’s normal.
Just as the patriarch pulls his knife to perform the culturally accepted act of devotion, an angel appears declaring that the God Abraham has found does not want his son, only his faith. Contrary to the horrifying story so many modern readers presume it to be, when placed back in its original historical context, the story of Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac proves to be a miraculous story about how the God of Israel once defied every cultural norm to show God’s new nation a new way. And as time passed, it became a story that reminded each generation of Israelites that their God was different from all the other gods. Their God didn’t want their children, their grief, and their pain. Instead, our God is a God of unexpected grace, of expectation-defying mercy, and of faith that doesn’t take life, but gives it.
