Commentary on Genesis 22-34
The stories in Biblical Literacy this week are in Genesis, Chapter 22 (The Binding of Isaac), Chapter 28: 10 (Jacob’s Ladder), Chapter 32 (Jacob Wrestling with an Angel), and Chapter 34: (The Rape of Dinah).
The test that Abraham is subjected to by God has long been my most hated story in the bible. I’m sure part of the reason is that I have an only son whom I love dearly. The idea of being asked to kill him for no good reason except to appease a God who likes that kind of sacrifice is abhorrent to me. I’m sure I would have said NO, and failed the test miserably.
Lots of fathers have their sons taken from them by war and accidents and disease and crime and drugs. Can they find consolation in this story? Can they honestly say: It’s only God, testing my faith. Can they be like Job and promise: Even if He kills me and all that is mine, I’ll still remain faithful and loving to Him? I doubt it. This is different. This is the father killing his son because of some moral imperative, some vision, some voice in his head!
Is it enough to say here that ‘God’s ways are not human ways?’
There is a lot of room for discussion here. This is supposed to be the faith by which Abraham was justified (see Romans 4), long before Jesus was born, died and was raised. Maybe Abraham’s faith was such that he didn’t really believe his son would have to die. Maybe he already had certainty about the angel who would stop the knife at the last moment. Maybe he already knew what he would say afterwards to a son who surely would question and be afraid forever of his father who had him tied up like a goat to be slaughtered.
When these thoughts raise the hairs on the back of my neck, I have to shake my head and laugh at myself. Here I am, who am always preaching against taking the bible literally, TAKING IT LITERALLY! Dr. Beal’s book is not called “Biblical Literalness.” And so I have to back off and recognize that this oral tradition that got imprisoned in the Book of Genesis is consistent with an ancient idea of God. This ancient context is of a God who could demand human sacrifice and murder (see the story of Dinah), but who preferred animal sacrifice instead.
When I get caught up in all labyrinthine paths to and from this story, I feel like Jacob in Chapter 32--I am wrestling with God and am wounded. I find myself extremely grateful that we Christians can look to Jesus for new ways to think about and relate to God. Jesus is our Jacob’s ladder, leading us upward to better ideas of God that do not taint Him with our anthropomorphic addiction to violence. And maybe that’s the ultimate message of the Dinah story, too (Jacob’s reaction)—that not all conflict has to be resolved with killing and violence.
Jacob awoke from his dream and his wrestling—wounded, yes, but with a clear idea that “God is in this place.” And we, too, awake from our musings and our struggles through life with the same faith: “God is here, supporting us, urging us toward better and better solutions.”
NEXT week: pages 36-43.
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