The Binding of Isaac
25 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
Genesis 22:1-3 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” 2 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 of which I shall tell you.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.
During my first quarter of taking biblical Hebrew as an undergrad, about seven weeks in or so, the professor had the class dive into BHS, reading from it for the last portion of each class. We began with Genesis 22. Upon reaching the end of the quarter, we knew that questions from the chapter would be on the final exam. The night before the exam, I was reading the passage for maybe the 40th time in the past 3 weeks, probably the 10th time that day alone, and reached the words “Abraham rose early in the morning” in verse 3. A knife to my heart.
