Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.”
NL Daily Devotion for Monday, September 21, 2020
by Daniel D. Maurer, Clergy Stuff
Ah. Here we have it.
The biblical text no preacher really enjoys preaching about. Well, at least I didn’t care for it while I was still in parish ministry a decade ago. I’m assuming that if I were still out in the world I still wouldn’t like this one. single. bit.
The horror that God would actually test Abraham to sacrifice Isaac . . . it’s almost too much to conceive. For anyone with their own children, I’m sure you understand that horror. For those without, I’m sure you probably get it, too.
So what is the point, exactly, that God was trying to convey to Abraham, and, by association, to us living in the 21st century today?
I remember learning that this story had been included in Genesis as the ancient Hebrews own struggle with human sacrifice. Many of their neighbors DID practice human sacrifice. The inclusion of this story was then to show God’s own abhorrence of the practice.
Whatever the case, I still don’t like reading it today. To me, it shows that any “god” who would require a human sacrifice is in fact a demon. But that wasn’t our God in the end. And I guess that’s what counts. Right?
What’s your take on this story? Does it bother you as it does me?
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