Title: God's Contradiction
Contents
Abraham is, in many ways, the father of faith. The most dramatic scene in his life of faith is also the scene in which Isaac is offered as his child. A closer look at this command, however, reveals many hidden contradictions.
Genesis 22:1-2 says, “After those things God called Abraham to test him, and said, ‘Abraham,’ he said, ‘Here I am. Offer him there as a burnt offering”.
We must first look at the contradiction of this command itself.
First, this command results in violating God's promises on their own.
Genesis 17:19 says, “No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac, and I will make my covenant with him, and it will be an everlasting covenant with his descendants after him” (Genesis 17:19). If God killed Isaac, how would God fulfill God's promise to give him His promise?
Second, it is the fact that God does not accept human sacrifices.
Does it make sense that God, who said not to murder, accepts human sacrifices? is to do King Josiah, who served God well, forbade the offering of human sacrifices. In 2 Kings 23:10, “The king also defiled Topheth the son of Hinnom in the valley, so that no man could pass his children through the fire to offer them to Moloch.”
Therefore, in Genesis 22, I do not understand why God gave Abraham such a test. Then, why did God put such a test on Abraham?
It makes no sense logically (because God cannot keep his own promises), and why does God require Abraham to do something that does not fit with God's book? This leads us to understand that God did not intend to have a son sacrifice through Abraham. Because when that happens, everything becomes contradictory.
God's intention is to make known His love through the reality of this pain. God is a thousand years as one day and one day as a thousand years. Although the coming of Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, and His crucifixion remain for a long time to come, in the eyes of God, it cannot but be regarded as close as tomorrow. God must be trying to show the pain, the plan of salvation, and the love in advance. It was an incomprehensible command full of contradictions to our human eyes.
Third, God's intentions are well expressed through Abraham's response to Isaac.
Like the secret hidden in the Bible, when Isaac asks, Abraham gives a strange answer. In Genesis 22:7-8, "Isaac said to Abraham his father, "My father." And he said, "Here I am, my son." And Isaac said, "There is fire and wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" Abraham said, "Son “Oh, God himself will provide a lamb for a burnt offering.” And the two went out together.”
But there is something strange. God must accept the sacrifice, so why should He prepare the sacrifice? This is it. Sacrifice is prepared by those who offer sacrifices, have their sins forgiven, and expect grace from God.
Abraham didn't know what to say to Isaac, and he may have just answered vaguely, but God is talking about a truly amazing plan of salvation in his answer. It is God offering his son as a sacrifice. Just as God himself is a sinner, you can see how he prepares a sacrifice and offers it to himself as a substitute for the sins of mankind. It is strange that God Himself prepares the sacrifice. What do you think of this part?
Therefore, this event in Genesis 22 is a great grace that God wants to show the plan of salvation and shows the plan in advance. He shows in advance the pain of giving his one and only begotten son for us.
God's command seems to be full of contradictions, but to make sure that all of this is not contradictory, it is God's plan to send his own only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. From the point of view of the human eye, the contradiction itself, from the point of view of God's providence and plan, it is no longer a contradiction, but rather the fact that it is a love so great that we cannot comprehend it.