Believers I need help understanding this becuase i dont think it's right?

Question

of course i dont have the right to say that since i'm so small compare to God, but i'm watching In the Beginning DVD. i'm on the part where God ordered Abraham to sacrifice his Son. when he was about to kill his Son, God stopped him. now i know GOd just wanted to know if Abraham would do anything he says. but isnt that kind of a harsh thing to command someone to do?

he wanted a son for a long time and then God comes and asks him to do this? even if God knew he would not allow it to happen, was it really worth all the worry and pain and stress it caused Abraham?

can somebody help me on this

Answer 1

You have to remember, It didn't cause Abraham any stress or pain. He trusted God completely.

Answer 2

You're right -- you are small compared to God.

And your (and mine) brains isn't nearly big enough to fully understand the things of God.  At best, we can only get small pieces, little bits at a time.

So what has happened is that you have made the most common mistake possible -- judging God by your terms.  You think His actions are "harsh" -- but you do not have the forsight and omnipotent knowledge to fully understand the action.  

That is what Abraham, and us, understood "by faith".  Abraham had faith that God knew what he was doing. "If God says sacrifice my son, then I need to sacrifice my son.  I don't know why; I'm sure gonna miss him.  But God, and only God, knows what good will come of it."

Abraham LIVED by faith.  That's why the bible tells us: "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness"  

So you should be seeking such faith, not questioning God's actions based on your own limited knowlegde.  Have Faith -- Trust God to do the right thing.

Answer 3

Don't worry, that's a fine question to ask.

Jesus said in the New Testament that anyone who loved their father, daughter, mother, son, whatever more than God was not worthy of Him. Isaac was becoming an idol to Abraham. God used this to get him back to his senses.

Answer 4

This is just one more example of how sick and twisted the judeo-christian concept of god is. If you want further examples, just read Job. It's impossible to distinguish the moral and ethical viewpoints of Jehovah and Satan. Both are equally vicious towards Job, only Jehovah is worse because he supposedly has a loving relationship with Job. This god is a sadistic, dysfunctional psychopath.

Answer 5

This was a test of faith. God wanted to see if Abraham's faith was so great that he would sacrifice his promised son.

This was a foreshadowing of God sacrificing his promised son for us when Jesus Christ died on the cross.

Both of these events happened on the same mountain.

Answer 6

I'm sure it did cause a lot of stress to Abraham. I know I would have been freaking out about it.

Here is something to consider though.

Hebrews 11:17-19  By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son,  (18)  even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned."  (19)  Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

Was it worth it? Consider this. God did not spare His son. Jesus was an only son. Jesus carried his own wood to the sacrifice. Jesus was alive at the end of it all. Jesus was a sin offering as well. Just like Isaac. Many things in Abraham's story foreshadowed what was to come. It got you thinking about how much of a sacrifice it is to sacrifice a son. It got me thinking how much God truly loves us to go through with that. God got the point across quite well.

God loves you. www.GodLovesTheWorld.com

Mike

Answer 7

Google "The Akadeh" ...the story of Abraham and Issac is called the Akadeh - meaning the binding - and there is a vast amount of literature and essays about it...the story seems so simple, but when it's placed up against the historical context, the text has so many rich levels that it is dealing with...I think you'll be fascinated by it...

Answer 8

God gave dominion over the creation to Adam. But Adam gave the lordship of humanity to Satan.  After that, a long process was required by justice, and by covenant law, for God to bring about redemption.  God and Abraham entered into a covenant relationship.  When Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son for God, that gave God the equal opportunity to sacrifice His son for mankind, kind of an end run around Satan's legal right to humanity.  Besides if you read the New Testiment book of Hebrews, you will see that Abraham fully assumed that God would raise Issac from death because he knew by experience that God keeps His promises and He had promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations through Issac.  That is the faith that was counted to Abraham as righteousness.

Answer 9

You have every right to question the bible and gods methods. Its cruel isn't it? to ask a man to do that? Shows that god was jealous of the love that abraham had for his son. My particular favourite story/contradiction in the bible is Jephthah's vow. That one is HARSH!

Answer 10

It wasn't exactly, like that. God told him to do that to test Abraham's faith, in him. It had to be something hard for Abraham to do. If it was something small it wouldn't be much of test for his faith in him.

Answer 11

Up to that point in the story, Abraham had been sacrififcing rams.  And not just any rams, but the prize rams, the best in the flock.  Not such a big deal, until you understand that to a nomad, ALL of his wealth is represented by that flock.  God was making the point that NOTHING is more important than God.  Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son demonstrated that he believed this, which took uncanny courage and faith.  I know if God asked me to put the knife to my son's throat, I would probably be telling him that he's a psychopath, and I'll take my chances with h**l.

The issue at hand is the covenant between God and Abraham.  A covenant is a contract, but how can you have a contract between decidedly unequal parties?  What is man's recourse if God breaks the covenant?  There is none.

To demonstrate his commitment to this covenant, God sacrificed his son, just as Abraham was asked and prepared to do.  Now it's all right for the intent to be as good as the deed if you are the inferior party in a covenant.  God forgave Abraham of the obligation to perform.  But as the superior party, God could not stay his hand at the last minute.  How would it look as if Jesus was about to die, and then "Ha ha, just kidding!"  God could not stay his hand, and Jesus had to die to demonstrate God's commitment to the covenant of Abraham.  Jesus was the Lamb of God, sacrificed to take away the sins of the world.

Kinda makes you wonder if Jesus didn't have a word and told the Father that maybe he should have stuck with sheep when dealing with Abraham. . .

Answer 12

Kierkegaard wrote a book about this.  Leonard Cohen sang a song about it too.  Basically, it's enough to make you reject the Abrahamic faiths, and the honest and right thing to do, if you listen to your conscience, is either to reject Biblical inerrancy or to abandon your faith (though not God) at this point.  There's a lot of other stuff in Scripture which is equally problematic.  For instance, at one point God tells someone to call their child "Not Wanted".

Answer 13

Yes, I know it is sick and twisted.  Stuff like that makes me question whether there is a God.  This type of story just gives atheists their ammo.  They say God was used to put fear in people to conform, and I honestly can see why people think that.  I'll say this if the God I think MAY exist asks me to do that, he can kiss my azz!  Then I will call the insane asylum and have them commit me.

Answer 14

Yes it doesn't make a lot of sense.  Aside from being quite obviously sadistic why would a God, who knows whether you will do it or not, need to put you through it?