I regularly listen to Pray as you go and on Thursday 2nd July 2009 it included the reading about Abraham and Isaac (NRSV Oremus, Lots of others Biblegateway)
During the reflection on the passage they suggested that there were two alternative readings: that God was testing Abraham, or that this was the stage in history at which Abraham and the people recognised that God did not want human sacrifice and instead wanted humans to flourish.
During the reflection on the passage they suggested that there were two alternative readings: that God was testing Abraham, or that this was the stage in history at which Abraham and the people recognised that God did not want human sacrifice and instead wanted humans to flourish.
My immediate reaction was to want to argue with that - there are surely so many more interpretations than just those 2 :).
My mind started drifting and I started going into sermon mode - thinking that surely it can be a metaphor for how God asks for our obedience. Then however I stumbled across the idea that it isn't an instruction, instead it is a warning - if we love God then we cannot deny him anything - and the warning is twofold - that if we do love God then the impact on our lives will be this big, and secondly that there are things which we should deny him - that he doesn't want us to sacrifice everything - ‘I have come in order that you might have life – life in all its fullness.’ John 10:10.
I just found someone else who doesn't like limited choices. It is a great story http://maggidawn.typepad.com/maggidawn/2009/10/how-to-think-what-to-think-and-thinking-outside-the-box.html
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