I never understood why God would tell Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. It always seemed cruel - but isn’t God supposed to be a loving father and a just ruler? How could telling a righteous man to kill his own child be fair?Â
And then you go back and read the story. Abraham, a righteous follower of God, had failed. He and Sarah couldn’t tolerate the presence of their slave Hagar since Isaac had been born. They hated her child Ishmael. (Abraham’s child too, remember. Just as much as Isaac was.) Abraham gave Hagar a death sentence - he sent her out into the desert with her son and left her to die there. To die of thirst, of heat, of exhaustion, of hunger, of fear.Â
Yet God saw Hagar. A slave, a foreigner, a mother to an illegitimate child, an imposter - those were human words for her. God looked down and said My Daughter, My Beloved, You Brave and Selfless Mother - I see you. He overturned the sentence Abraham had set and not only provided water to save the lives of Hagar and Ishmael but whispered the same promise in Hagar’s ear that He had whispered in Abraham’s. Maybe He took her to a hill and showed her the stars too. Maybe He sent a soft breeze across the desert to stir the sand and say to Hagar - your children will outnumber these. The God of living water has seen you.Â
And then God turned to Abraham and said your turn. Take your son, your beloved son, Abraham, the promise for your future, and take the life from his lungs. You had no remorse to do the same thing to Ishmael - Ishmael, your son. And Abraham felt the sun burning his face and his body faint from thirst and walking through the wilderness, and he felt the pain in his heart at the fear of losing his child. For a moment, he sees through Hagar’s eyes, squinting from the sun and sting of sand. And this time Abraham listens. This time he obeys God - and obedience comes in the form of the sun glinting off a knife, of Isaac’s terrified sobs. God does not need to say this act is justice. No words could make Abraham understand deeper than the terror and grief in his chest.Â
Mercy comes for Abraham as it came for Hagar first.   Â
Ishmael and Isaac are both spared, both protected, both children of the same promise.Â
The sacrifice was never just a test. It was not some story to confuse or contradict the character of God.
It was justice for Hagar, justice from the God who sees.                 Â
