What is the most important thing to you? What do you love most? Is it an object, a person, maybe a child?
Could anything convince you to part with that beloved thing/person?
This week we’ll explore a really tough story in the Bible, where God commands one of his favourite people, Abraham, to sacrifice his son Isaac. Does this sound awful? You’re right, there are so many issues with a story like this. Christianity and Judaism have never advocated child sacrifice as something God even remotely wants. Christianity condemns murder, even anger, much less this kind of senseless tragedy. So what’s this story doing here in the “good book”?
As we studied last week, God had a special relationship with Abraham, and had promised him he’d have a son, and millions of descendants after him. It looked to be impossible as Abraham and his wife got too old, but then God finally did it, giving him Isaac. So why would God then command Abraham to sacrifice him?
We’ll explore this challenging story this week.
But in the meantime:
Question: What’s the hardest, biggest sacrifice you’ve ever made? Share that story with someone, and the reasons why. How did you come to terms with it?
- You can [permalink append=”#comments”]Discuss the Challenge[/permalink] online, or by starting a local discussion group!
- Are you meeting just once a week with your discussion group? You can find all of this week’s discussion material in our Weekly Study Guide