tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2385543751878406713.post5103872031705465225..comments2024-02-26T21:31:18.490-05:00Comments on The Wrong Monkey: Abraham And Isaac And Religion And SanitySteven Bollingerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03215202747829300924noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2385543751878406713.post-89355531788409193302014-10-01T19:30:53.723-04:002014-10-01T19:30:53.723-04:00Isaacs sacrifice was never meant to be a sacrifice...Isaacs sacrifice was never meant to be a sacrifice, and God knew this. By acting in obedience to God, Abraham displayed absolute trust in God's goodness, grace and mercy, and also showed how God was going to bring about His future plans of redemption for his people. By obeying God's command to sacrifice Isaac for the sins of the people, God's grace and mercy is displayed in the symbolic act of providing the lamb for the sacrifice at the last minute, instead of the human being. Isaacs sacrifice is meant to display the coming act of sacrificial love shown through Jesus' sacrifice and also the redemptive act of saving us from the slaughter through the provision of the lamb. It also shows that God is good and doesn't want us to die for our sins. He wants us, and He wants to be in a relationship with us. In essence, He loves us. Contextually, the Abrahamic people would have been influenced by the sacrificial acts of humans occurring in other religious cultures of their time, meaning they would have understood that human sacrifice was a necessary atonement to be in good steed with pagan gods. In contrast to this, the Abrahamic God was displaying grace and mercy to the Abrahamic people by showing them that His way of atonement is different. The redemptive analogy revealed through the story of Issac shows the sacrifice is provided for them and it is innocent, pure-hearted, divinely appointed and provided (revealed in the lamb) and not sinful, because only by the sacrifice of something pure and blameless can a human being be made pure once again. That's the entire redemptive analogy personified in the story of Abraham and Isaac. It's not just meant to be a test, as commonly thought in the Christian community, it is supposed to be the first and most powerful illustration of how God is going to redeem His people and how He plans on doing it in the future through the divinely incarnated Messiah. Erin Alexandranoreply@blogger.com