{"id":35532,"date":"2025-04-09T23:19:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T06:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?post_type=portfolio&p=35532"},"modified":"2025-04-09T23:45:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T06:45:27","slug":"2025-moriah","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/gospel-express\/2025-moriah\/","title":{"rendered":"What Kind of God Is This?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dr. Yeshaya Gruber<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Do you remember the Mount Moriah in the story of Abraham and Isaac?<\/p>\n

Ancient readers would have thought of the Temple Mount and its immediate surroundings, including the fiery Valley of Gehinnom where countless children had been murdered over the centuries.<\/p>\n

Abraham\u2019s great test occurs when God asks him to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. What would Abraham have thought?
\nWhat kind of a God would ask for such a thing?<\/p>\n

The Meaning of Mount Moriah \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Mount Moriah<\/a><\/p>\n

When the God YHWH told Abraham to go to Moriah and sacrifice his son, no ancient hearer could have failed to recognize this cultural and historical context of child sacrifice. The fiery Valley of Gehinnom was a place where countless children had been murdered over the centuries. Various gods of the region demanded such sacrifices, including still in their own time (long after Abraham).<\/p>\n

The text of Genesis does not tell us of the silent questions burning in Abraham\u2019s mind through that three-day-long trek! But we are supposed to recognize them. Early hearers of the story would have sensed this tension as the patriarch of their nation made his way on a \u201cpilgrimage\u201d to that very spot where his descendants would present themselves to YHWH three times every year.<\/p>\n

Abraham is winding his way northward to sacrifice his promised heir on a bluff overlooking that bloody valley where Canaanite tribes are accustomed to do the same for their gods. Does he think that YHWH is just the same \u2013 just as bloodthirsty and cruel, just as demanding of child sacrifice? Is that why he goes along with this horror and does not \u201cwithhold his son\u201d? Or is he participating in this act for some other reason?
\nWho Is the Supreme God?<\/p>\n

As so often in the Hebrew Bible, the stage is now set for some kind of \u201ccompetition\u201d or showdown between the God YHWH and some other \u201cgods.\u201d Earlier stories in Genesis have already taken this approach, with the Creation, Flood, and Babel accounts in order to prove the superiority of YHWH over other gods.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the Exodus story is fashioned to reveal how YHWH brought judgment on \u201call the gods of Egypt\u201d . 1 Kings 18 tells the dramatic tale of the prophet Elijah\u2019s contest with the prophets of Baal. So too, the text of the Akedah sets up a contrast between the God YHWH and the other gods of the region. Who will be seen as better, stronger, mightier? Who will emerge as the supreme God?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

God of Love and Compassion<\/strong><\/p>\n

And now comes the shocking part of the story. The greatness and superiority of Israel\u2019s God is shown in the voice from heaven commanding Abraham not to slay his son after all. The gods in the valley down below clamor for the blood of children; the God of heaven, it seems, is not like them after all. This is the most surprising part of the Akedah in its original historical and cultural context \u2013 not that a god demanded the sacrifice of a child, which may have seemed all too \u201cnormal\u201d in that setting, but rather that the God turned out not to desire the sacrifice of a child when it was offered! The gods of the valley delighted in suffering and cruelty and death; the God of Abraham desired instead love, and compassion, and life!<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t know how well Abraham understood YHWH at this point in his life, but he had some experience with this God. The merciful one who had spoken to him and made promises to him was also using his life to show a different way to all humanity \u2013 what we call \u201cmorality,\u201d i.e., what is just and right.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":35533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"portfolio_entries":[29],"class_list":["post-35532","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio_entries-29"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/35532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/35532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35536,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/35532\/revisions\/35536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35532"},{"taxonomy":"portfolio_entries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio_entries?post=35532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}