A new lesson from Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac

This week I taught the 12-13 year-olds the Sunday school lesson about the atonement from the “Come Follow Me” manual, specifically the lesson “What can the scriptures teach me about the atonement of Jesus Christ?”

The manual suggested using the story of Abraham offering his son Isaac as a sacrifice in similitude of Christ’s sacrifice.  Now, you and I have probably been very familiar with the idea that in this story Abraham plays the part of Heavenly Father, and Isaac plays the part of Christ, symbolizing how Heavenly Father gave his Only Begotten Son as a sacrifice.

My question as I read this story was, “How does this story as a type help me have faith in Christ’s atonement?” 

In pondering it, it seems to me that Abraham’s willingness to offer his son and not withhold him teaches us about Heavenly Father’s willingness to sacrifice His Only Begotten Son for us.  Even with all the pain involved, He was willing.  And Isaac’s willingness to go along when Abraham asked him to be the sacrifice teaches us about Christ’s obedience and willingness to be sacrificed.

And knowing the sacrifice was not given grudgingly helps us know the love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ both have for us, and that gives us extra reason to trust the atonement and desire to make use of it. 

All the Blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

There is a certain phrase we hear in a certain place—“all the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” that I decided I wanted to look through Genesis and see if I could pick out all the blessings so I can know what we can expect to receive.

The usual ones we know about are the following, which are reiterated multiple times throughout Genesis to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob:

·      “this land,” meaning the land of Canaan

·      posterity as the stars in the sky

·      “In thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed” (which implies the coming of the Messiah and temple work for families)

Here are the other ones I found:

To Abraham

“I will make of thee a great nation” (Gen. 12:2)

“I will make thy name great” (Gen. 12:2)

“thou shalt be a blessing” (Gen. 12:2)

“I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee” (Gen. 12:3)

“and the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abrams wife” (Gen 12:17)

“…the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand” (Gen. 14:20)

“I am thy shield, and thy exceedingly great reward” (Gen 15:1)

“he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir” (Gen. 15:4)

“thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age” (Gen. 15:15)

“I will make my covenant between me and thee” (Gen. 17:2)

“[I] will multiply thee exceedingly” (Gen. 17:2)

“thou shalt be a father of many nations” (Gen. 17:4)

“I will make thee exceedingly fruitful” (Gen. 17:6)

“kings shall come out of thee” (Gen. 17:6)

“I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.” (Gen. 17:7)

“I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life” (Gen 18:10)

“At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son” (Gen. 18:14)

“Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do[? No.]” (Gen. 18:17)

“he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.” (Gen. 18:19)

“Also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed” (Gen. 21:12-13)

“thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies” (Gen. 22:17)

“he shall send his angel before thee” (Gen. 24:7)

To Isaac

“I will be with thee and will bless thee” (Gen. 26:3)

“I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father” (Gen. 26:3)

“I am with thee” (Gen. 26:24)

To Jacob

“the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD hath blessed” (Gen. 27:27)

“God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine” (Gen. 27:28)

“Let people serve thee, and nations bow down before thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee: cursed be everyone that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee” (Gen. 27:29)  (Note: This sounds like Messianic prophecy as well)

“thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south” (Gen. 28:14)

“I am with thee and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest; and will bring thee again into this land” (Gen. 28:15)

“I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of” (Gen. 28:15)

“I have seen all [the evil or injustice] that Laban doeth unto thee” (Gen. 31:12)

“I will surely do thee good” (Gen. 32:12)

“as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed” (Gen. 32:28) (Note: Also a Messianic prophecy)

“I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes” (Gen. 46:4)

When I read these blessings as ones promised to me, I get a greater sense of what I can look forward to and ways that I can trust the Lord.  I also see that some can be read as Messianic prophecy.  The one from Gen. 46:4 sounds like a typological reference to the condescension of God, the redemption of man, and the restoration of the gospel through descendants of Joseph.  And this doesn't even touch on what latter-day revelation has to add to what Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were promised.

What are your thoughts?

Isaac Says Rebekah is His Sister

6 ¶And Isaac dwelt in Gerar:

7 And the men of the place asked him of his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he feared to say, She is my wife; lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah; because she was fair to look upon.

8 And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out at a window, and saw, and, behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.

9 And Abimelech called Isaac, and said, Behold, of a surety she is thy wife: and how saidst thou, She is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, Lest I die for her.

10 And Abimelech said, What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.

11 And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. (Genesis 26:6-11)

I think this story gives us an interesting picture of how different Isaac and Rebekah’s morality was from the people around them in Gerar.  We may think that Isaac was just following the example of his father Abraham in Egypt by claiming his wife is his sister in order to keep from being killed.  That’s easy to say, but it may be more complicated than that.  It may be that Isaac observed that the people were so morally loose—making any excuse to justify fornication/adultery—that he worried they would think nothing of stooping to murder just so they could get Rebekah.  So he claimed to be her brother, and he lived there a long time that way.

The thing is, the longer Isaac lived there, the more people got to know who he was and what he stood for and the goodness of his character.  And the result was that when Abimelech saw Isaac sporting with Rebekah—and we have no idea what “sporting” means, but it instantly clued Abimelech in—Abimelech didn’t automatically think Isaac was doing something incestuous or ugly like that.  He knew Isaac would only have been doing what he did if Rebekah was his wife.  And he hastened to clarify this with Isaac.

Incidently, the way Abimelech “looked out at a window” and randomly saw Isaac and Rebekah seems very odd to me.  It makes it seem like Isaac and Rebekah were almost…exhibitionist about whatever they were doing.  But they don’t seem like the type that would do that.  (Can we imagine Rebekah doing something like that, the woman who covered herself with a veil when she was about to meet Isaac for the first time?)  But if they aren’t exhibitionist, then that makes Abimelech into Mr. Suspicious-Stalker-Peeping-Tom.  Who do we believe here?

Now, notice the reproach that Abimelech fires at Isaac: “What is this thou hast done unto us? one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.”  Abimelech is SO SHOCKED that Isaac lied him and said Rebekah was his sister.   He is absolutely outraged about it.   Commentators tend to dwell on this rebuke and say this shows just how low Isaac (and Abraham before him) was for their deception and their lack of trust in God.  “And look, they were justly rebuked by those rulers for their sin!” they say.  Yeah, you have to agree that Abimelech’s rebuke on the surface makes Abimelech look really good and Isaac look bad. 

But look very carefully again at Abimelech’s rebuke and you can see what he reveals about himself and his people.  “one of the people might lightly have lien with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us”   His people were so casual about who they had sex with that Abimelech was worried they might have “lightly lien” with Rebekah!  His people don’t take chastity seriously.  And at the same time it is a subtle insult against Rebekah, implying that she was the type of woman who would “lightly” sleep around with random people in Gerar just because everybody thought she was single.  We Latter-day Saints know that Isaac would trust Rebekah to be chaste.   It is Abimelech who thinks Rebekah would have exploited the situation without social expectations to keep her in line.  (Maybe Isaac wasn’t that good looking and Abimelech thought Rebekah would have jumped at the chance to sleep with someone more attractive.)   We Latter-day Saints, with our perspective on chastity as a sacred covenant, understand that Rebekah’s situation was not license for looseness, but a test of her faithfulness.

It burns me up that people think the “she’s my sister” was done out of fear, first by Abraham and then by Isaac.  Consider that we have the modern revelation in Abraham 2:22-25 to show us that when Abraham first used this line, it was at the Lord’s command.  Not only that, but we get that Abraham told Sarah of this revelation and it is implied that she agreed to do it to save him. 

Abraham and Isaac were brave.  Consider this.  Latter-day Saints have the story of Abraham 1 in which Abraham would have been sacrificed on an Egyptian altar, presumably because he would not back down from his testimony in the living God.  Can we then imagine Abraham afraid to acknowledge his marriage to Sarah as he comes into Egypt?  No!  He would have died if the Lord had not commanded him to say what he did.    Then consider Isaac.  This is the man who did not protest earlier in his life when his father was about to sacrifice him!  He is no shrinking violet, even if the text does say in Genesis 26 that he feared to say Rebekah was his wife.  I think it more likely that he was commanded as well.

Now, here’s another thought.  Was the subterfuge only for Isaac and Rebekah’s sake?  What if the Lord meant it for Abimelech’s benefit as well?  It is likely that Abimelech was not nearly as good at the beginning of his acquaintance with Isaac as his rebuke makes him look, but by the end, he had become someone who was concerned about accidentally sinning.  At the end he uses his influence with his people to ensure the safety of Isaac and Rebekah.  Better late than never.

One of the things we learn from this story is that Rebekah was faithful to Isaac, social expectations and environment to the contrary.  She’s a great example to remember today, as morals are loosening and unraveling at an alarming rate.

The doctrinal problem solved by Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac

I’ve often wondered about the story of Abraham being commanded to sacrifice Isaac. I felt like there had to be more to it. Recently it occurred to me that some of these scripture stories may have been meant to solve problems that we don’t face today. Since one of the problems of Abraham’s time was the worship of false gods and child sacrifice (such as passing children through the fire to Molech), it may be that the story of Abraham almost sacrificing Isaac was meant to show believers that the true God was a god of mercy that did not require child sacrifice. This almost made my head explode, it was so different. But it quickly began to make sense. What better way could God have demonstrated that He did not require child sacrifice than to ask one of His faithful to sacrifice his son…and then STOP IT FROM OCCURRING… and provide A SUBSTITUTE? This would demolish the argument for child sacrifice and testify of vicarious sacrifice by a Savior. It fulfills two purposes in one. Future generations could point to that as an argument for Jehovah’s mercy and love.

I hesitated to post this, since it seemed like a totally different way of looking at that story, but when I looked on the internet I found that it wasn’t so strange after all. On Wikipedia’s entry “binding of Isaac,” I ran across a whole plethora of views on it, one of which was this:

…according to Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz (Chief Rabbi of the British Empire), child sacrifice was actually "rife among the Semitic peoples," and suggests that "in that age, it was astounding that Abraham's God should have interposed to prevent the sacrifice, not that He should have asked for it." Hertz interprets the Akedah as demonstrating to the Jews that human sacrifice is abhorrent. "Unlike the cruel heathen deities, it was the spiritual surrender alone that God required." In Jeremiah 32:35, God states that the later Israelite practice of child sacrifice to the deity Molech "had [never] entered My mind that they should do this abomination." (accessed 7/14/11)