BRAGADAYJAH 68

So Abraham made his sacrifice on Mount Moriah and discovered that God Almighty was also God the provident One, Jehovah Jireh. Isaac was spared, and Abraham was able to fulfill his promise to his servants to whom he had promised to return both he and his son Isaac, and thence to his home at Beersheba. The incident involving Abraham and his son Isaac is to be seen both historically and prefiguratively. The fact that God did order Isaac to sacrifice his only son is a historically accurate account; but its greater significance is that the story prefigured a time when God would himself not just offer, but actually sacrifice His only son upon the altar of sacrifice; for God commended His love towards us, in that when the fullness of time had come, Christ died for us. Back home, Abraham received news that his long separated brother had himself been busy and was producing children; but soon after Sarah, being 107 years old, she died. Abraham moaned her death, and once his immediate grief was over, he set about securing a fit burial place for his beloved wife. Interestingly, the chief of the land wherein Abraham and Sarah dwelt offered Abraham the free use of his own burying place to bury Sarah; but Abraham declined and insisted that he wanted to secure and pay for a perpetual burial place for himself; and after much back and forth, offer and counter offer, Abraham insisted on paying for the place and eventually the parties settled on a parcel called Machpelah near Mamre in the land of Canaan for four hundred shekels of silver, refusing the Chief’s offer to let him have it for nothing; and Abraham buried Sarah in a cave there having secured it as his own burying place in perpetuity. More.

BRAGADAYJAH 67

God told Abraham, “Now I know.” The truth is God already knew what Abraham would do. God had led and trained him; tested him and hardened him, so that after a quarter of a century, Abraham had come to know that nothing is impossible with God; that he could trust him come what may. The words, “now I know, would be better rendered now I can show; now those who come across your story will know how well I trained and prepared you; so now I can use you, I will use you as an example of faith. As a teacher, I write exams for my students. As I am preparing the tests, I know for sure those students who will pass without fail. Only I am not God. I feel sure because I know the students. I would put money on them to pass. God of course knows in a different way, not only because he knows us, but also because He knows the beginning from the end. Abraham’s show of faith was intended to be an example for us. So God says, “Now I know.” We remember Abraham’s affirmation of faith, “My son God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. Well, Abraham’s words were both prophetic and pragmatic. Prophetic, because just as he foretold, God did provide himself a lamb; and pragmatic because, Abraham knew God and was certain that God would come through for him. So God having stopped him from hurting the lad, Abraham hears a movement in a thicket and looking round, saw a ram caught by the horn in the bush; and taking hold of it, he offered up the ram for a burnt offering, in place of his son Isaac. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh, signifying up to this present time, For in the mount of the Lord, it shall be seen. Isaac was spared; Abraham was tested and proven, and God was well pleased with His man servant; so God told Abraham how much he appreciated his faithfulness and obedience and promised to bless him and his descendants, and multiply them and make them as plentiful as the stars of heaven. More

BRAGADAYJAH 66

Abraham and Isaac journeyed to the place which God had directed, and Abraham proceeded to build an altar, and having done so, he laid the wood on it, and having bound Isaac, he laid him on the wood. Then with Isaac lying on the wood on the altar, Abraham, knife in hand, raised his hand to kill his son, and would have doubtless plunged the knife into his son’s heart if God had not intervened. Reading the biblical account we note that in the telling of it, there were no breaks or pauses; no prayers; no petitions uttered; no doubts expressed, nor words of comfort to a victim son; no apology; no last minute plea to God if perhaps he would change his mind. Abraham was following God’s orders and he did not seek to question God. Up to this point, all indications are that if everything that took place from the moment God spoke to him sending him on his mission of sacrifice to the point he raised the knife to slay his son was his final test of faith and obedience, even the most cynical skeptic would have to concede that Abraham passed with flying colors and award him an A+ And indeed God was testing Abraham; for at the point of the last act to complete the play, God called upon Abraham and stopped him. “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any harm unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God; seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thy only son from me.” More

BRAGADAYJAH 65

So then, the very next morning, Abraham rose early and saddled his ass, and taking his son Isaac and two of his servants, lade his donkey with wood and started towards the destination that God directed him to. And on the third day, Abraham looked up and saw the place to which he was directing his steps afar off. Seeing his destination, Abraham told his servants to wait there, while he and his son go yonder to worship; but said Abraham, after we would have done with our worship, we will return again unto you. It is not clear how Abraham knew that he would return again with Isaac. Surely according to God’s instructions, Isaac was to have been offered as burnt offering on mount Moriah; but somehow, Abraham seemed to have anticipated what God would do, or perhaps not do. That even after he had slain his son God Almighty would have returned him alive again somehow. Whatever the insight, motivation or confidence in God, Abraham said, “We will be back!” So then Abraham took the wood and laid them upon Isaac’s back, while he himself took the fire and a knife, the instruments for the burnt offering, and they started off together. But after a while Isaac’s curiosity got the better of him. Doubtless, he had been wondering and not quite sure what the worship ritual taking place was all about. But as they neared the place, son, fire and wood, Isaac was sure that a sacrifice was being offered; but something was missing. So he said to his father, “I see the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Surely, Isaac was old enough to know the elements of a sacrifice. We know he was strong enough to carry the pile of wood; so he was certainly old enough to understand in part at least what was going on. Abraham’s reply was, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” And having answered thus, they went on together. More.

BRAGADAYJAH 64

We come now to a very crucial part of Abraham’s story, during his walk with God, a journey which we have since called a journey of faith. But if we were to look at the story fairly and impartially, and with a critical eye, we would be well justified to view Abraham’s walk so far as the walk of the faithless. Abraham was made wonderful promises by God. Promises which we aver no man in his right mind would have refused. God promised Abraham everything that any man could possibly want in his lifetime and much more. Yes, and God gave him everything as promised. Well almost everything. Abraham did not have a son, and this of course troubled him. Perhaps troubled him even more than the famines he faces; than the ten Kings he chased and had to face in battle. And then at last, when he was a hundred years old, after waiting for 25 long years, God did for him the impossible. God gave him a son, not Ishmael which he tried to preempt God and had with Hagar, his wife’s maid, but a son, the heir of promise with his very own wife Sarah. Certainly disbelief was countered by reality! Sarah’s derisive laughter turned to joyous smiles; so she could erupt in self deprecating laughter and say, “think what you like, here I am, nursing my very own baby at age 90.” And then, when things seemed to be going all Abraham’s way, again God did the unthinkable. For God did test Abraham and said, “Abraham, take now thy son, thy only son Isaac, whom thou love, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” Take the one thing that you longed, and hoped, and yearned and would die for, and burn him to ashes as a burnt offering? God, are you kidding me? What was Abraham’s response? God willing tomorrow we shall see. More

BRAGADAYJAH 63

The two brothers, Ishmael and Isaac were for all practical purposes, in truth and in fact now worlds apart. Abraham remained in Abimelech’s country, in Gerar which was fairly close to Egypt while Ishmael and her mother remained in the wilderness area, a locality which is roughly equivalent to present day Saudi Arabia, which means they were some thousand or so miles apart. It was while Abraham lodged in Gerar, which literally means, “lodging place, that King Abimelech and his top General confronted Abraham and said, “Now it is clear that your God is with you in all that you do. Now therefore, I want you to swear unto me in the name of your God, that you will not betray me; or my son, or any of my descendants; but as I have treated you well and have shown you kindness, you will do unto me and unto them likewise.” Abraham swore unto Abimelech and said, “I will; but what about the well of water that your servants have violently taken away from me?” Abimelech explained that he had no knowledge before hand of the affair as Abraham had not brought it to his attention, and stated further that he was hearing about it for the first time. To conclude the matter Abraham gave unto Abimelech a peace offering of sheep and oxen and both men made a pact that day in fulfillment of their mutual covenants. Having agreed as above stated, Abraham set apart from the rest of his flock, seven female lambs; and when Abimelech asked him why, he explained to him that the seven sheep were to be a token that by taking his hand, Abimelech was in agreement that the well was dug by and therefore belonged to Abraham. There then followed a ceremony attended to and witnessed by both sides, of naming the well which was called Beersheba, meaning they were both agreed. After the covenant at Beersheba, Abimelech and his General left the place and returned into the land of the Philistines. And Abraham planted a grove there and called upon the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God of heaven and earth. More

BRAGADAYJAH 62

Thus assured of Ishmael’s future, Abraham rose early the next morning and took bread and water and gave it to Hagar; and so Hagar departed from the house of her mistress Sarah and her master Abraham and, taking her Son Ishmael, left and went inter the wilderness of Beersheba. Being in a dry place, the water eventually ran out and Hagar, put the boy to sit under some shrubs, and sat within hailing distance thinking that at least the boy would die without the additional agony of sunstroke. But as she sat there crying, the lad was also crying; and the Lord heard their cry. Then the angel of the Lord called to Hagar and asked her why she was crying, and what was ailing her. Of course the angel already knew and was sent to bring relief; for he told Hagar “God has heard the cry of your son. Go ahead, the angel told her; lift up your son, and hold him close to you; for God will not let him die of thirst. God has a plan for him to make a great nation out of him.” And straightway her eyes were opened and she saw that there was water nearby from which she went and filled her bottle with water and gave her son to drink. Hagar’s problem was, her eyes were on water; and though water was nearby, she couldn’t see it; but once her attention and thus her eyes were drawn to God and her thoughts directwed towards God, she was able to see that which hitherto her eyes could not see. Thereafter, Ishmael continued to live in the wilderness. As he grew, God gave him the wisdom and skill to survive by hunting for and obtaining food. In course of time when he became of age, his mother procured him an Egyptian wife; so Ishmael began his God ordained heritage of nation building, there in the land of Paran. More