bold victory

In his recent article Playing with Knives: God the Dangerous, Doug Jones writes,

…almost always, we see Abraham portrayed in the sacrifice episode as distraught, grief-stricken, and faithless. One commentator says that this was a “heart-rending trial” and another says that “the words `take now thy son, thy only son Isaac’ gripped Abraham’s heart.” Another says that “Abraham anguished” over the loss of his son. I once watched an actor portray an account of Abraham in which the actor wept and wept over the command to kill his son.

and a little bit later

But the text doesn’t give any of these responses. Why do we accept them? We are little unitarian Jobs. Abraham was truly tested; the text says that. But we have no hint of anguish or weeping. Why couldn’t Abraham’s faith be pictured as victorious and bold? He might have gone whistling up the mountain without a hint of anguish, because He knew the character of God. The character of God overflows any void.

And in response to these quotes, and some of my own ramblings, my friend Andrew Peterson said, in part,

I can hardly imagine anything more victorious and bold than Abraham taking those heavy steps up the mountain with his son’s hand in his own, knowing what he was about to do.

And I say, “Amen to that”.