Confusing Stories in the Bible: ABRAHAM and Isaac

Confusing Stories in the Bible

Use the following thoughts and questions to have a spiritual conversation as a family. Don’t emphasize having the right answer, but focus on spending time discussing the Word as a family. 

SCRIPTURE

Genesis 22:1-19 

SESSION SUMMARY

We are starting our new series, Problematic Stories in the Bible. We are going to spend the next couple weeks looking at stories that have been brought up to try to show that God is messed up, abusive, or evil. We will dive into what we don't understand as 21st century westerners and many times understanding eastern Jewish culture makes these stories make way more sense and gives a great awe who God is.

We looked at the story where God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. This story has been used to call God sadistic, torturing Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his son and only stopping him while the knife is in the air. But we get a very different picture if we know the culture. Abraham is very familiar with god’s who demand child sacrifice so this is not weird but we see God showing just how different of a God he is, which much of the Tora (first 5 books) show us. How different God is from the other god’s and how much he wants his people to be different as well.

DISCUSSION QUESTION

  1. Does the Bible confuse you at times? (Share any personal struggles with that with your student)
  2. Why is it important we try to read the Bible from the Jewish/eastern perspective and not just assert our culture on it? 
  3. How does God show how different he is from other God’s?
  4. Do you think it would be as effective for God to just tell Abraham I don't demand Child sacrifice or I provide the sacrifice? How is this experience much more impactful for Abraham? 
  5. How does the Jewish view of test change how we ma view god testing Abraham or ourselves?

 

Thanks for all your prayers for our students and our ministry. Have an amazing week!