Idiot Faith
Right. This has got to be one of the most messed up stories in the Old Testament.
Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac, I mean.
And it’s not like we have a scarcity of truly disturbing stories in the OT.
There’s David deliberately sending Uriah to be killed so he can hook up with Bathsheba.
There’s Cain killing his own brother Abel over an agricultural misunderstanding.
And that favorite for family fun, Jael inviting Sisera into her tent, tucking him in for a nap, and then driving a tent peg through his skull. Charming!
I mean, it’s just terrifying and there’s no other way around it.
Put Abraham and Isaac into a modern context.
Picture a man holding a gun to his ten-year-old son’s head, ready to pull the trigger.
There would be SWAT teams aiming laser-guided assault rifles at him from behind parked police cars, police and news helicopters buzzing overhead broadcasting the standoff live around the world, and a hostage negotiator over a bullhorn, begging the father to stand down and asking him why he would want to kill his son.
The answer?
“Because God told me to do it.” Continue reading