After lots of snow last night, I had a wonderful walk this morning, enjoying the woods in snow. This is a swollen stream that runs under our road.
The story of Abraham's willingness to offer his son Isaac in sacrifice to God (Genesis 22:1-19) is next Sunday's first reading. The commentary in The New Interpreter's Study Bible says, "Abraham's obedience is meaningful only if the story takes human sacrifice as a genuine act of worship, as was the case in the ancient Near East and apparently at some point in biblical history." This requires us to appreciate a culture very different from our own. Then Abraham's sacrifice becomes, not a killing that he finds morally offensive, but the giving up of the son whom he loves and whom he is counting on to fulfill God's promise that Abraham will be the "father of many nations."
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