The Gifts of the Jews

So one of the many books that I checked out from the Library is The Gifts of the Jews but Thomas Cahill. This book is not a christian book, it’s not a jewish book, it’s a scholarly look at the way that the jews have shaped history. It’s pretty incredible that a wandering tribe of Abraham and his household had such an incredible impact on histroy.

There is one thing in particular that I wanted to talk about. I just finished reading the chapter on Abraham. Cahill took some time to describe the “Mountain Experience” where God told Abraham to Sacrifice Isaac, and Abraham obeyed all the way to raising the blade over the boy. At the last minute the LORD stops Abraham and provides ram.

Cahill acknowledges that this really isn’t the sunday school story that we have made it out to be, this is a story about child sacrifce that should terrify us, but for the grace of God. There were some really interesting observations that I would like to share about this.

1. Abraham’s God is not down with child sacrifice.
the author points out that this story has many different levels of understanding, when weexamin Abraham’s history and the people he came from, we could see that child sacrifice was a common element in their diety worship. This story could be seen as a clear markation in Abraham’s faith in this God, whereby the act of child sacrifice is removed from acceptable worship practices for Abraham and his descendants and all that would follow after the Lord. I’ve never really read the story that way before.

2. Polytheistic appeasement to Monotheistic trust.
This is another transforming moment in the lifeof Abraham, where instead of serving this one god among the many gods, abraham is finally getting that this is the One True God, the one that he can’t just appease, or try to manipulate, no this God is in control and now Abraham has to trust the LORD with everything, his life, his family,his future, it’s all in the LORD’s hands. This change in outlook really sets the tone for all that Abraham and his lineage will stand for, God will provide, you don’t go and try to do your voodoo to get him to do your will. No, you will trust him and do His will and the LORD will provide.

I thought those were twovery cool observations about this story that I just had to share.