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davelarge
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 Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 1:03 pm Post subject: The sacrifice of Isaac: why? |
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Hi all
I was reading the account of Abraham's life in Genesis this week, and of course I came to the part where God asks him to sacrifice Isaac.
Abraham acts with tremendous faith and does as he is bid, but I can't help wondering why God would ask him to do this in the first place. It seems almost as if He is playing with Abraham - leading him up the garden path like that, only to send an angel to stop proceedings at the last moment.
So, why (in your opinions) did God do this?
davelarge
8-)
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jtheb
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:13 pm Post subject: |
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Tom test out Abraham's faith.
Heb says that Abraham trusted that God would raise him again andacted with total faith.
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davelarge
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:39 pm Post subject: |
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But God is omniscient. Therefore He knew that Abraham was faithful, so why go through the process?
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jtheb
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:53 pm Post subject: |
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That is getting complicated. Did Abraham know he was totally obediant?
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davelarge
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| Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 4:28 pm Post subject: |
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Ah, but God demonstrating Abraham's faith to Abraham is different from God testing Abraham's faith.
It also doesn't answer why Abraham might need the demonstration in the first place.
Perhaps I'm being too picky, but I'd really like to understand why this episode happened. Here's another possible explanation that I just thought of. Maybe God planned it so that future generations could look back to Abraham's faith, and the good results that it produced?
davelarge
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Charity
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| Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 8:08 am Post subject: |
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| davelarge wrote: | Here's another possible explanation that I just thought of. Maybe God planned it so that future generations could look back to Abraham's faith, and the good results that it produced?
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Hi Davelarge
I think that's a good possibility. 1 Corinthians 12 seems to hint at that, although it's not talking directly about Abraham. |
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jtheb
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| Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 9:48 am Post subject: |
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Life can get very complcated if one wants to know why everything happens.
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davelarge
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| Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 2:56 pm Post subject: |
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Sure... but complicated is interesting 8-)
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Sisyphus
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| Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2008 9:32 pm Post subject: |
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| davelarge wrote: | | But God is omniscient. Therefore He knew that Abraham was faithful, so why go through the process? |
Doesn't saying God is omniscient amount to the same as saying everything is known to God therefore all things are preordained. If preordination or predestination is in play there is no free will, which we know there is, so God may have known that Abraham was faithful but he, Abraham, had the option to chose not to obey. The test was therefore necessary.
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crystal
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| Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:27 am Post subject: |
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| God may know but did Abraham? |
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davelarge
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| Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 1:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Sisyphus wrote: | | If preordination or predestination is in play there is no free will... |
I don't agree that foreknowledge is the same as preordination or predestination. Just because God knows what we will choose doesn't affect our freedom to choose. Perhaps that's a debate for a different thread though!
crystal - I agree that Abraham may well not have known his own faith, and that the demonstration of this faith to Abraham is certainly one of the more plausible reasons for the existence of this story.
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jtheb
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| Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 11:49 am Post subject: |
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My father used to say that on the outside of the door is "whosover will may come" and inside you find your name listed.
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davelarge
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| Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 1:00 pm Post subject: |
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That's exactly what I mean, thanks jtheb!
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Covenanter
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| Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 11:21 am Post subject: |
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Surely the "sacrifice" of Isaac should be seen as typical of the New Covenant sacrifice of the Son of God.
Gen 17:7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
Covenants required a shared sacrifice. God himself ratifies the Covenant. (Gen. 15) Abraham saw this when he told Isaac, "And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering" When God accepts Abraham's intent to sacrifice, he declares: "Gen 22:18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice."
Paul explains this in Gal. 3.
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davelarge
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| Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 7:27 pm Post subject: |
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That's a fascinating idea, Covenanter. Let me think about it for a while and I'll get back to you 8-)
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