Abraham took the wood for the entirely burned offering and laid it on his son Isaac. He took the fire and the knife in his hand, and the two of them walked on together. Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father?”
Abraham said, “I’m here, my son.”
Isaac said, “Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the entirely burned offering?”
Abraham said, “The lamb for the entirely burned offering? God will see to it,my son.” The two of them walked on together.
They arrived at the place God had described to him. Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He tied up his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.
Genesis 22:6-9
Long-time Wesley Bros Comics fans know that I like to have a Halloween themed comic this time of year, and you just happened to catch me at a time I’m reading Genesis for Normal People (Enns & Byas 2019) as a morning devotional, and watching the Scream franchise in the evenings.
I watched the opening teaser of the 1996 movie Scream at a school Christmas party when I was 17. I was SO TRAUMATIZED because I hadn’t watched that kind of scary movie before, that I removed myself from the party when the title credits hit the screen, literally had nightmares for weeks after, and thought it was crazy that those kids were in their laughing at this movie that disturbed me so much. Almost 30 years later, listening to some brilliant commentary on fear and faith in the Scream franchise on one of my favorite podcasts, The Fear of God, I allowed myself to watch this old movie all the way through for the first time. And I loved it.
The Scream franchise opened a meta world where the characters in a horror movie were aware of horror movie tropes. They were cinemaphiles who knew all the rules of a good scary movie, and then believed they could subvert those tropes when they found themselves in horrific situations. Ultimately, Scream is a story of trauma, betrayal and survival.
The Akedah
For centuries, faithful Jews and Christians find the binding of Isaac to be a story of trauma and betrayal, and we have pondered on the purpose, the meaning of it, to little avail. Abraham is one old dude who has left everything to follow this God that no one else has heard about. This God has made some incredible promises to bless the childless Abraham with a dynasty of chosen people. And after that child grows under Abraham’s loving care, this God asks the unforgivable: “Take this son, who you love, and offer him up as an entirely burned offering.” Kill your son. And without a word, Abraham puts the wood to burn Isaac on his son’s back and takes him to the altar. We have all the makings for an Old Testament slasher film.
The betrayal feels multivalent. Did God betray Abraham? You’ll have to wrestle with that because the scripture is too freaking ambiguous. But Abraham absolutely betrayed his wife Sarah, who died right after this scenario, supposedly from grief that it even happened, and absolutely betrayed his son Isaac who went along all the way to the binding and the moment of murder. And what was it all for? Abraham begged for God to spare the wicked Sodom and Gomorrah…but when it comes to his own child he just goes along with it? How do we balance faithful obedience with grace, mercy and justice?
As a gay Christian, I reflect on the countless “faithful” parents who have sacrificed their queer children in the name of their God. Do they imagine themselves to be new Abrahams? Willing to betray and traumatize their offspring, and for what real purpose?
But also as a gay Christian who remained closeted for almost 40 years, I remember the times I came to the very edge of confession, of coming out, and then convincing myself that like Abraham, I was willing to go through with it, but God stopped me at the last minute so I wouldn’t upset the people I cared most about. A betrayal and trauma of myself so that I could spare the people I hoped to protect.
Abraham Had to Change
The problem with all of this is Abraham did NOT know that God would spare Isaac. The editors who included this story in Genesis had the benefit of knowing Yahweh despises child sacrifice, and yet they included this story as it is. Like the movie Scream, we can’t enter a dangerous situation and assume that we will come out safe if we just follow the rules. The world is ultimately super dangerous, and our faithful obedience does not guarantee we will be spared from terror. Abraham was absolutely prepared to slaughter his son in obedience to God, a blind and violent obedience we see repeated through history. But at the moment of trauma, Abraham was able to change his gaze from this singular purpose and see a ram caught by the horns in the dense underbrush. The Jewish Mishna suggests this ram had been there the whole time, and that the true test was Abraham’s ability to change his perception on God’s requirements (“Seeing the Ram,” myjewishlearning.com). This explanation does not let God off the hook for such a horrific test, but instead focuses on what we can do when faced with terrible choices. When testing comes your way, what will it mean for you to be faithful, all the while trusting “God will also supply a way out so that you will be able to endure it”? (1 Corinthians 10:13).
Wish I could wrap this one up with a neat bow, but like Ghostface in the Scream franchise, these questions will always creep back into our lives without quite enough resolution.