Would you ever have enough faith in G-d to sacrifice your child..as G-d asked Abraham to do with Isaac?

Question

Why would G-d ask that of Abraham? Especially since that was considered a pagan tradition (child sacrifice). Not too mention Isaac was not Abrahams "only child". Ishmael was born some 10 plus years before.

Having faith is important...but could anyone ever really have that much faith?

Answer 1

Nobody can say if they would have enough faith until they are in the position of being asked to do such a thing. Much of what we have so far are emotional responses and unthinking disgust. Consider the background to the whole episode.

Abraham had waited 25 years for God's miraculous promise of a child when his wife, Sara, was barren and past childbearing age anyway. Now the child had been miraculously born and was growing up nicely. God's promise to bless all nations of the earth through Isaac (and his descendants) seemed sure. Then God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Was Abraham being tested as to whether he would lose faith in God? God appeared to be denying Himself! His command appeared to contradict his promise! Is this why the more we make acts of self-surrender in faith, in obedience to God, the greater the spiritual 'fruit' results - glory to God's name? Is this why God allows us to experience disappointment in him, to break us and refine our faith?

In the Christian Greek Scriptures, the apostle Paul explains the significance of God testing Abraham's faith to that degree (Romans chapter 4). God stopped Abraham sacrificing his son because he abhors child sacrifice. He was never going to permit Abraham to do that. The episode was a prophetic picture of how God would sacrifice HIS beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to save us all. The ram caught in the thicket symbolised Christ. God provided that ram in the stead of Isaac. God provided Christ in our stead, bringing upon him the punnishment we deserve for our sins. Do we ever consider that it's OUR sins that are so disgusting that God could only redeem us from them by sacrificing His beloved Son?

God will never ask us to kill our children, but we might have to give them up or over to God, symbolically, entrusting them to him. Have we enough faith in God to trust him with the most precious things we have? Abraham had and his faith was counted to him as righteousness and that is why we today are blessed because of his faith.

Jesus said we don't need a great quantity of faith. Faith the size of a tiny mustard seed is sufficient - as long as it's faith in him and his sacrifice, not in ourselves or our works!

Answer 2

My personal view is that Prophet Abraham misunderstood. The Bible says that when he woke up he decided to sacrifice his son. Quran makes it clear that it was a dream that Abraham had for three consecutive days. On one hand, God simply wanted to test him whether Abraham loved the One True God as much as pagans loved their false gods. On the other hand, the dream meant that Abraham should let his son Ishmael go away with his mother Hagar. In other words make 'that' sacrifice. That's more of a reason to believe that Abraham had this dream before he had any other son--Ishmael was the only son at that time. Later on, when Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity and rewrote the Torah from memory, the scribes must have changed the name, since Jews are descended from Isaac and like to portray him as the 'only' legitimate son of Abraham.

Questions for Sasi:
If God had also substituted Jesus with another lamb or man, don't you think that would have been more consistent? Why would God not allow Abraham to sacrifice his son but was heartless enough to sacrifice His own?

Answer 3

Isaac was the one to whom the promise was to go through. Abraham actually had 6 other kids, Genesis 25, as well. But because the promise was for Isaac and his kids, then the other children of Abraham were not as important.
Now the deeper thought is that if God promised kids though Isaac and then told Abraham to kill Isaac, something had to give. Hebrews 11:17-19 has some rich insight into this. Abraham trusted God in that if he offered up Isaac, God would bring him back from the dead to complete the promise, either that or change His mind. This is an excellent test of faith to trust in God's promises rather than our current perspective.

Answer 4

I don't believe such an act can be termed "faith". Regarding Abraham, I'd say either the story is an allegory intended to teach some obscure truth, or the god of the Hebrews is an insecure, arrogant creature who needed some sort of reassurance that Abraham truly trusted him. Of course, if the latter is the case, god must not be all knowing, for if he were, he would not have needed such reassurances; he would have already known where Abraham stood. Furthermore, since murder was condemned by god, and the Bible clearly credits god with saying that he never tempts man to sin, I'd say it must be an allegory, or god is a liar.

Answer 5

Absolutely not.

Any god that required, requested, or even suggested that I sacrifice my child to appease him/her can bite my butt. I would gladly spend an eternity in hell before I killed my own child (barring a mercy killing type of scenario). Only a sadistic god would make that request.

Even when I was a child (raised Protestant), I found the story of Abraham and Isaac to be sickening. It doesn't matter that Jehovah stopped him before he actually killed Isaac...the fact that he would even ask Abraham to consider it is disgusting.

Answer 6

BECAUSE IT WAS TO TEST ABRAHAMS {PEACE BE UPON HIM} FAITH. WHEN ALLAH SAW THAT ABRAHAM {PBUH} WAS WILLING TO GO THROUGH WITH IT TO FOLLOW THE COMMAND OF ALLAH, BECAUSE HE LOVED ALLAH THAT MUCH HE WOULD SACRIFICE HIS SON... ALLAH SENT THE ANGELS TO STOP HIM...IT WAS JUST A FAITHFUL TEST...btw help me to understand "G-d" i have seen this before in a Muslim newspaper...why not write God as it is most respectful.

Answer 7

this is a clear example of the evil that is possible to derive from what are considered to be holy books... people have used their bibles throughout history to justify the murder, torture and hatred of scores of innocent good people... for all the good religion does some people... i really wonder if it's been worth the genocide and terrorism ....

Answer 8

Any deity who made such an inhuman demand would be a devil, not a god. There are many more proofs of that. How about Job?

Answer 9

I'd never do it.

If there WAS a god, I'd just use the rule that "all creations are sacred" and refuse to destroy one of my best creations. If that didn't work, you could always hide your kid under the bed and pretend you didn't understand the request.
.

Answer 10

No, because if God loved me and I had kids of my own, he wouldn't make me kill them. Besides, I thought the Christain god didn't like sacrifice.