James Goodman - But Where is the Lamb?: Imagining the Story of Abraham and Isaac

Copyright 2013 by James Goodman

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Goodman, James E.
But where is the lamb? Imagining the story of Abraham and Isaac / James E. Goodman.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-8052-4314-7
1. Isaac (Biblical patriarch)Sacrifice. 2. Abraham (Biblical patriarch). 3. Bible. O.T. Genesis XXII, 119Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title.
BS1238.S24G66 2013
222.1106dc23 2012048124

www.schockenbooks.com

Jacket design by Pablo Delcn

v3.1

TO MY FATHER AND TO MY MOTHER ,

WHOM I LOVE

And it happened after these things that God tested Abraham. And He said to him, Abraham! and he said, Here I am. And He said, Take, pray, your son, your only one, whom you love, Isaac, and go forth to the land of Moriah and offer him up as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I shall say to you. And Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey and took his two lads with him, and Isaac his son, and he split wood for the offering, and rose and went to the place that God had said to him. On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from afar. And Abraham said to his lads, Sit you here with the donkey and let me and the lad walk ahead and let us worship and return to you. And Abraham took the wood for the offering and put it on Isaac his son and he took in his hand the fire and the cleaver, and the two of them went together. And Isaac said to Abraham his father, Father! and he said, Here I am, my son. And he said, Here is the fire and the wood but where is the sheep for the offering? And Abraham said, God will see to the sheep for the offering, my son. And the two of them went together. And they came to the place that God had said to him, and Abraham built there an altar and laid out the wood and bound Isaac his son and placed him on the altar on top of the wood. And Abraham reached out his hand and took the cleaver to slaughter his son. And the L ORD S messenger called out to him from the heavens and said, Abraham, Abraham! and he said, Here I am. And he said, Do not reach out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him, for now I know that you fear God and you have not held back your son, your only one, from Me. And Abraham raised his eyes and saw and, look, a ram was caught in the thicket by its horns, and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up as a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place YHWH-Yireh, as is said to this day, On the mount of the L ORD there is sight. And the L ORD S messenger called out to Abraham once again from the heavens, and He said, By My own Self I swear, declares the L ORD , that because you have done this thing and have not held back your son, your only one, I will greatly bless you and will greatly multiply your seed, as the stars in the heavens and as the sand on the shore of the sea, and your seed shall take hold of its enemies gate. And all the nations of the earth will be blessed through your seed because you have listened to my voice. And Abraham returned to his lads, and they rose and went together to Beersheba, and Abraham dwelled in Beersheba.

Genesis 22:119

I didnt think hed do it.

I really didnt think he would.

I thought hed say, whoa, hold on, wait a minute. We made a deal, remember, the land, the blessing, the nation, the descendants as numerous as the sands on the shore and the stars in the sky. You said: through Isaac youd make my name great. I have kept my word. Dont you go back on yours.

He might not have put it precisely that way. He tended to say what he had to say more succinctly. But you know what I mean.

I didnt think hed do it, certainly not without asking when, where, how, or why. Why should I sacrifice my son? I readily concede that he answered Gods initial call without a moments hesitation. That was undoubtedly among the reasons that he was so special to him. But I cant help thinking that he came to regret that he hadnt taken some time to consider what he was getting himself into. From then on, almost everything he said to God took the form of a question: a question about Gods promise of greatness, a question about offspring and inheritance, a question about land, a question about the likelihood that a child could be born to a hundred-year-old man and his ninety-year-old wife, a question (in the form of a wish) about Ishmael, and most memorable of all a barrage of questions, pointed questions, no matter how humbly couched, about the innocent and the guilty of Sodom and Gomorrah.

So you can imagine my surprise when God asked Abraham to take Isaac to the land of Moriah and offer him up as a burnt offering, and Abraham didnt say a word. Not one word. One question after twenty-five years of questions is all it would have taken. He and God could have talked, and God could have explained what he was up to.

And remember: This is the guy God chose to show the world his way. To do what was just and right. Was Abraham always sure what Gods way was? Of course not. Was he always sure that Gods way was the right way? Not likely. Did he make mistakes? He did. For instance: he never should have given his wife, Sarah, to another man. Did he always learn from them? Who does? Several years later, he did it again. Did he have days he wished he could do over? Sure. Thats literature. Thats life. Who doesnt, including God? Remember when he promised not to destroy the innocent along with the guilty of Sodom, to forgive the city of sin for the sake of the good? Not long after, Gods angels visited Abrahams nephew, Lot, and the citizenry of Sodom went after them, to a man. God reduced the place to cinder and ash, somehow neglecting to include the citys women and children in his calculation.

Still, on his worst day, I didnt think Abraham would do it, not without saying a word. At the very least I thought hed stall for time, say, hey, wait, wait, give me a few minutes, and Ill get back to you, I simply need to talk it over with the boys mother. Or, I thought, that in the hours between Gods command and bedtime, or bedtime and morning, Sarah would have read Gods command on her husbands face. Anyone who has followed the travail of the two of them since they left Ur for Canaan would know that that would have been the end of the matter right then and there.

But he didnt say a word. Not to God. Not to Sarah. Not to anyone. Instead, he rose up early the next morning, saddled his donkey, called for two servants and Isaac, his son. He split the wood and headed out. God led him on and on, made the journey three days, giving him plenty of time to think about it, to change his mind, to figure a way out. I thought one of his servants might catch on, and perhaps he did too. Abraham stoppedwhen he saw the place from afarand said, you two stay here, with the donkeys. Well be back after we go up and pray.

That left Isaac. Whether or not he knew it, he asked exactly the right question in exactly the right way. But Abraham reached deep, and somehow found a way to answer. And for all the awe that readers have expressed at his composure, the simple truth is that all Abraham had to do was not fall apart. Isaac was just a boy, thrilled to be on a special errand all alone with his father. He was not about to parse his fathers words for hidden meanings.