The Story of Abraham and Isaac
Having never even stepped on church grounds, besides for a wedding, this is the first time I have heard of the story of Abraham and Isaac, let alone having read it. After reading the passage I must confess that I was quite surprised and confused. My initial reaction was that of many questions. Why does Abraham obey God? What kind of sick test is this? Why should anyone be this scared of God that they would be driven to kill their only son? What would the consequence have been had Abraham said no? With these questions bearing on my mind I moved on to Adams’ “Abraham’s Dilemma.” Adams’ chapter on this situation provided insight on some of my questions while also enlightening me with some very interesting arguments.
Here I will summarize the story of Abraham and Isaac, which appears in Genesis 22. God decides to test Abraham so He commands him to take his only son to a mountain that He tells him about and proceed to burn him as a sacrifice. Abraham without question gathers wood and brings his son to the place God tells him about. Making...
...creation stories occurred before the Sacrifice of Cain and Abel, and this would follow the same standard as the stories of the New Testament below.
In both Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky and Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard the inexplicable and irrational acts of man are explored. In Fear and Trembling Abraham’s actions – in the name of God – are portrayed as a leap into the religious realm of morality, achieving a sudden faith in the absurd. Conversely, in The Underground Man, the protagonist espouses a belief that one must sometimes wish “what is bad for himself, and what is not profitable;” (Dostoevsky 17) believing that not all acts are purely rational, that sometimes man is responding to something more powerful than reason or, in other words, something absurd. While Abraham’s religious realm and the underground man’s “most profitable profit” (ibid.) seem to contradict
Steinbeck uses the biblical story of Cain and Abel in East of Eden to show us that we do not have set fate. Steinbeck uses the Hebrew word “timshel”, which means “thou mayest”, to suggest that man has the ability to choose good or evil. “Timshel” affects the characters in East of Eden such as Cal and Aron and their choice of overcoming good or evil. Steinbeck sees this novel as his most important work, and he uses it as a way to state his personal ideas concerning mankind:“The free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual.”(Steinbeck,132). Steinbeck shows God has given humans free will and their ability to choose good or evil, if they so decide. He portrays the “C” characters to be connected to Cain, such as Charles and Cal and the “A” characters to be connected to Abel, such as Aron and Adam.
... In conclusion, Abraham is shown to be justified; he is not a murderer. In Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard wrote that "the future will show I was right (Kierkegaard, 91). " Well, Abraham was proven right by the result. He does not kill Isaac.
Abraham obeyed God by preparing wood and loading his donkey and took away Isaac and two servants with him. On reaching the place ordered by God, Abraham built an Alter and arranged the wood on it. He tied up his son and placed him on altar, on top of the wood and picked up the knife to kill him. Abraham was stopped by the Lord’s voice from heaven telling him, he was an obedient man who honored God. The angel of God confirmed to him how God would richly bless him and give him many descendants as there are stars in the sky or grains of sand along the seashore.
Repetition is also the concept that the Hebrew Creator-God uses throughout the story of Genesis to educate Abram about God's purpose and His nature. God is aware of the doubtful and cynical nature of Abram. Over time, God uses Abram's own repeated mistakes to build a conceptual understanding of Himself for Abram. This model provides Abram with a relevance for God in Abram's own life. Though the classic view depicts the patriarch Abraham as blindly, obedient, there is significant evidence within the story of Abraham to show that he was not so naturally submissive. The text often depicts Abram as doubtful, indignant, and sarcastic to a fault. Taking this side of the text in context illustrates Abraham as the antagonist in a battle against God. In this struggle with God, Abraham achieves excellence by learning, through repetition of his own errors and the reinstatement of God's promise, that it is in his best interest not to fight against his own personal idea of God, but to recognize, respect, and accept the true will of God.
12: 1-7). God gives Abraham a son in his old age named Isaac in which through him God established his covenant (Gen. 17: 15-19). The sign of this covenant was circumcision of all the males in his family, symbolizing the acceptance of covenant and willingness to obey God. (Gen. 17: 10-11).Through the Abrahamic Covenant, God elects his chosen people and establishes a partnership with them. This shows that God wanted to build a relationship with His people.
The Story of Cain and Abel (Summarized). Generally, when believers in Christianity hear the word "Cain," they immediately think of "brother-slayer," "hell," and all sorts of evil. Who was Cain and what led him to become a "brother-slayer"? In my essay, I shall tell the tragic story of two brothers and how their brotherhood ends in utter destruction.
People who work in the healthcare field can detract lessons from Abraham and Rahab's story's. For Abraham, his story demonstrates that life is about decisions and outcomes. While he was saved his activities had results on later eras to takes after. He made his own forerunner of disciplines to come. In the medical field, deceiving a patient could have unexpected outcomes that the social insurance supplier might not have considered. Additionally, at one point Abraham's wife is taken by the Pharaoh for him—this needs to somehow debilitate Abraham's association with Sarah. The same can be said of a doctor/persistent relationship. Untruths can debilitate this bond and patients ought to have complete trust in their specialists
Cain and Abel are the first two sons of Adam and Eve. Cain is the eldest and Abel is the youngest. Cain is described as the tiller of the ground whereas Abel is the keeper of sheep. Both men know that God requires an offering, but the offering of Cain is quite different from that of Abel. Abel fears God, and because of this he offers the best of his flock to the Lord. He kills the animal and makes a sacrifice of blood. Abel understands that the shedding of innocent blood for the forgiveness of sin is acceptable. He also knows that this action of his is representative of surrendering his heart to God. By contrast, Cain brings what he has grown and gathered from the earth. In a way, a foolish man would think that any effort of his own could satisfy and infinitely holy God, and this is what Cain thinks. The offering of Cain signifies the work of his own hands, but Abel's offering signifies the finished work of Christ.
Abraham had demonstrated his remarkable faith and obedience in leaving Ur. In Genesis 15, God made a covenant with Abraham in relation to his heir and Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Abraham was obedient and God came in for him, saved his son and provided another sacrifice.
God changed Abram’s name to Abraham when making the next covenant. To test Abraham again God demanded Abraham sacrifice his own son. His son, Isaac was offered a reprieve before the sacrifice and in place a lamb was provided by God. It was noted that God blesses people in sometimes unusual ways, by causing hardship to force reliance on Him. The establishment of the Catholic church is a representation of God’s covenant with Abraham.
For that reason, he concludes that the importance of Abraham is neither ethnic nor political, but religious, as the father of faith. Likewise, Magonet views the Abrahamic narratives structurally and theologically to determine contemporary implications for a relationship with Yahweh. Abraham is represented as the first person to try to mould his life so as to fulfil the will of the One God.
Genesis 16:1-2 “Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, “The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.” And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal.” (NLT). Abraham and Sarah were at the land of UR when the Lord spoke to Abraham telling him to leave his home country and walk towards the land that He was going to give to him and his descendants. Abraham having faith packed up all his belongings and started walking without knowing where he was going. One-day God told Abraham that he was going to have a child with Sarah even though they were advanced in years, first he believed it but then started to doubt because many years
And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy[a] will go over there and worship and come again to you.’ 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, ‘My father!’ And he said, ‘Here I am, my son.’ He said, ‘Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?’ 8 Abraham said, ‘God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.’ So they went both of them