Abraham and Isaac

There seems to be a tendency in some cultures to gloss over some of the troubling aspects of the scriptures. This may be appropriate for some level of maturity, but eventually it's important to work through them. The scriptures have many lessons for us, some of which we're losing out on if we fail to challenge them, or in other words, to ask the hard questions. Ultimately it seems important to have a correct understanding of the nature of scriptures, as in how much of them are historical, and whether we’re understanding the correct lessons.

One good example is the character of Abraham in the Old Testament and the story of God asking him to kill his son Isaac. It’s common to treat Abraham's willingness to do such a thing as a great example of obedience, and that’s disturbing to me.

If one of your friends told you that God told them to kill their child, how would you react? Think about that for a minute because stranger things than that occur in our society. Supposedly they occurred with Abraham.

Some of the thoughts that would go through my mind are:

• Is my friend mentally ill?
• Should I call the police?
• How do they know it’s God giving the instruction?
• Would God ask someone to do something that is morally reprehensible in any culture we currently think of as enlightened?

Note that previous to this story about Abraham, God told him he planned to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. In this case Abraham pushed back and questioned whether it was appropriate. There is no indication that he pushed back when asked to kill his son, but perhaps the story is incomplete.

Other thoughts related more directly to Abraham:

• What would God have done if Abraham disobeyed the commandment because it conflicted with his sense of right and wrong?
• Is “right”, “right” because it’s “right”, or because God says it is?
• Is the story of Abraham just a story, or is it based on something that really happened?
  • How do we know?
• Another story about Abraham indicates that his father tried to have Abraham killed and that human sacrifice was common in the culture. Perhaps the origin of the story has more to do with someone falling into the trap of repeating abuse they experienced and someone helped him escape the cycle.
• Could it be that Abraham received a false revelation and he came to his senses, or God intervened before it was too late?
• Would a perfect being use deception to make Abraham think he would have to kill his son?

There are many stories in the scriptures that seem to exist to challenge our understanding of right and wrong and I suspect this story of Abraham is one such story. Perhaps they are designed to help us mature in our ability to understand correct principles, and to use them to determine truth.