Rosh Hashanah and Genesis 22

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year. On the second day of the celebration they read from Genesis 22. It is the story of when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son. Abrahan takes his son to a mountain, prepares an alter and is about to sacrifice him when God stops him.

The story is often used by non-believers to show that God called for Abraham to sacrifice his son. This misses the point and shows a lack of understanding of what is being explained. Many religions in those days called for sacrificing ones children to the "Gods" and it was a common practice. Abraham was not surprised by God's request because he did not know God well, he assumed it was a God who wanted sacrifices like the ones he was familiar with.

Many commentators on the bible use the story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son to show his faithfulness, that is a mistake. God does not call for blind obedience. God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son; but, I believe what he really wanted was for Abraham to refuse to do so. When he did not, God stopped him. Clearly God did not want Isaac sacrificed to him, as evidenced by the fact that he did stop Abraham.

The story is meant to show Abraham and us that God does not wish us to sacrifice people to him. It is meant to show that the true God does not want us to act as the barbarians did who lived in the world at that time. At least that is my take on the story.