Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him.
Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him.
And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.
Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
Now Sarah said, “God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.”
And she said, “Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
8 The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.
But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac.[61 (#ulink_bbcb5049-afc1-5ed3-8b7e-585f2284ba54)]
So she said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.”
The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son.
But God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you.
As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.”
So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.
15 When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes.
Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Do not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.
And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.
Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.”
Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.
20 God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow.
He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
22 At that time Abimelech, with Phicol the commander of his army, said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do;
now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity, but as I have dealt loyally with you, you will deal with me and with the land where you have resided as an alien.”
And Abraham said, “I swear it.”
25 When Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech’s servants had seized,
Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this; you did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today.”
So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant.
Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs of the flock.
And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set apart?”
He said, “These seven ewe lambs you shall accept from my hand, in order that you may be a witness for me that I dug this well.”
Therefore that place was called Beer-sheba;[62 (#ulink_3b5b10fe-158c-585c-971b-568380659949)] because there both of them swore an oath.
When they had made a covenant at Beer-sheba, Abimelech, with Phicol the commander of his army, left and returned to the land of the Philistines.
Abraham [63 (#ulink_28c92dd6-be07-5822-8f7c-dd282e17e716)] planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God.[64 (#ulink_dbc143c8-a70f-577c-be9b-3cff99dd93a3)]
And Abraham resided as an alien many days in the land of the Philistines.
22 After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”
So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac; he cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out and went to the place in the distance that God had shown him.
On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far away.
Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the boy and I will go over there; we will worship, and then we will come back to you.”
Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.
Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.
9 When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill [65 (#ulink_5f9f63ca-e5cf-580f-a13b-c4814db081a8)] his son.
But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.
So Abraham called that place “The LORD will provide”;[66 (#ulink_cb2e3b5d-166f-599d-8e40-8612f3110bc3)] as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” [67 (#ulink_06b43e71-bcb4-52f7-899a-363fe55786ae)]
WHEN OBEDIENCE IS TESTED
One right act includes all other righteousness, and that the supreme cancelling of Adam’s fall, the movement “full speed astern” by which we retrace our long journey from Paradise, the untying of the old, hard knot, must be when the creature, with no desire to aid it, stripped naked to the bare willing of obedience, embraces what is contrary to its nature, and does that for which only one motive is possible. Such an act may be described as a “test” of the creature’s return to God: hence our fathers said that troubles were “sent to try us.” A familiar example is Abraham’s “trial” when he was ordered to sacrifice Isaac. With the historicity or the morality of that story I am not now concerned, but with the obvious question, “If God is omniscient He must have known what Abraham would do, without any experiment; why, then, this needless torture?” But as St. Augustine points out, whatever God knew, Abraham at any rate did not know that his obedience could endure such a command until the event taught him: and the obedience which he did not know that he would choose, he cannot be said to have chosen. The reality of Abraham’s obedience was the act itself; and what God knew in knowing that Abraham “would obey” was Abraham’s actual obedience on that mountain top at that moment. To say that God “need not have tried the experiment” is to say that because God knows, the thing known by God need not exist.
—from The Problem of Pain
