3. Abraham's recognition of it. — How was Abraham able to recognize as Divine a command to sacrifice his son ? We could
» 8. B. Drirer. ' J. J. S. Perowne.
GENESIS XXII. I, 2 191
not 80 regard such a command : an alleged command of God to sacrifice a child could not be accepted as such; and if it were acted upon, the action would be condemned as a violation of conscience by the whole Christian Church ; there had been, it would be said, some hallucination or delusion. The reason is that we live in an age, and under a moral light, in which we could not regard as Divine a command to violate not only our sense of what was morally right, but even our natural ihstinCta-oE-love and affection. It was possible for Abraham so to regard it, because he lived under the mental and moral conditions of an age very different from ours. He lived not only in an age when such sacrifices were common, but also in an age in which the rights of the individual were much less clearly recognized than they are now, when it was still a common thing, for instance, for the family of a criminal to be punished with him, and when also a father's power over his son was far more absolute than it is now. The command would not therefore shock the moral standard to which Abraham was accustomed, as it would shock ours. It would not be out of harmony with what he might suppose could be reasonably demanded by God.
^ The custom of human sacrifice was widely spread in the ancient world, as it is still among savage or half-civilized tribes, the idea lying at the bottom of it being that the surrender of something of the highest value — and so especially of a relative or a child — to the deity, would have extraordinary efficacy in averting his anger, or gaining his help. The custom was thus practised among the Phoenicians and other neighbours of Israel (cf. 2 Kings iii. 27, xviL 31); the Carthaginians, Greek writera tell us, in times of grave national danger or calamity, wouldj, sacrifice by the hundred the children of their noblest families. Under the later kings, especially Ahaz and Manasseh, the custom found its way into Judah, in spite of its being strenuously forbidden by legislators and condemned by prophets. In view of this prevalence of the practice among Israel's neighbours it is quite possible that Jehovah's claim to the first-born in Israel (Ex. xxii. 29, xiii. 12-15, al.) stands in some relation to it ; Jehovah took the first-born, but gave it back to its parents upon payment of a redemption price.^
4. The moral difficulty which we feel would not exist for Abraham. — Living in an age and a country where human sacrifice was
1 S. R. Driver.
192 THE PROVING OF ABRAHAM
common and approved of, held generally to be the highest mark of devotion, most sacred, most acceptable, it could have been no stumbling-block to him. Now, on the other hand, faith would be shown in refusing any such seeming Divine intimation, however vouched for by the senses. We should regard it, and rightly regard it, as only an hallucination. We should and ought to say. My eyes, my ears may deceive me, a dream may seem like reality, bodily disorganization may cheat my working mind, but that God should bid me slay my child is impossible. No miracle even could attest such a command. If I heard such a voice, if I saw such a miracle, I must only say, being in the full possession of my intellect and my faculties, " I am the victim of some strange hallucination. I believe in God's character as revealed by conscience, as declared to me in Holy Scripture, and I must believe in it against any outward seeming evidence, however strong." And to act in accordance with such a belief would be the proof of our faith, a faith in the unseen against the verdict of bodily sense.
1[ Here we may learn the necessity which is laid upon us of obeying under all circumstances the voice of conscience — of following the promptings of that inner sense of duty, which we all have, if we will only heed it, and which will urge us, from time to time, to do this or to do that — not because it is pleasant, or because it is profitable, but simply because it is right. This is, in fact, what makes a man — what makes him essentially different from the brutes that perish — that he has a conscience, a sense of right and wrong, an inward voice which bids him do this and do that, simply because it is right for him to do it. Many brute creatures are very strong and very clever ; but to do what is right and true and good belongs not to brutes, it belongs only to men.^
III.
The Use of the Proving of Abraham's Faith.
i. Its Use to Abraham.
, The command to slay his son was not to Abraham that abrupt, startling, unaccountable command which at first sight it appears. God was leading him, as He leads us all, in the way of His providence. Abraham was living among idolaters ; he had been an