What if Abraham’s Hand Had Slipped?

“When they came to the place that God had shown him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order. He bound his son Isaac, and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham looked up and saw a ram, caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” Genesis 22:9-14

The Binding of Isaac by his father Abraham, known in Hebrew as the Akedah, is one of the best known — and most troubling — stories in the Bible. In it, G-d orders Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac – his only son, on Mount Moriah. Abraham agrees, but then is stopped at the last minute when God sends an angel who tells him to sacrifice a ram instead. This story is traditionally read on the second day of Rosh Hashanah. The shofar or ram’s horn blown on the holiday is a reminder of how Isaac was spared.
How could Abraham have been so sure that G-d had, indeed, commanded him to kill his innocent child? Even if he was convinced that G-d had so commanded him, how could he be expected to sacrifice his own son? Is obedience to G-d’s will so supreme an obligation for you and me that it might override our sense of morality – to kill an innocent? And, what is more paradoxical is the fact that Isaac is the product of a miracle from G-d — giving Isaac to Abraham and Sarah when they were of advanced age and had promised Abraham that, through Isaac, Sarah would be a mother of many nations – and Abraham the father of many nations. (louisjacobs.org, The Problem of the Akedah in Jewish Thought)

But what if the angel said no, but Abraham’s hand slipped, and the knife was plunged into Isaac’s neck? The death would have been in obedience to G-d—but the promise, the covenant between Abraham and G-d would have been negated. Would there have been another promise? Would another son be born to Abraham and Sarah – who were now some ten to fifteen years older? Or, would G-d have found it necessary to switch the promise to Ishmael? After all, Ishmael was the other son, the one born to Hagar, the would-be father of the Ishmaelites. The family tree would just have followed a different branch – and there would not have been Esau, and Jacob, and Israel’s twelve sons – and, of course, what would we do without the wonderful story of Joseph? Just one slip of the hand, one delay in the command to relent, and the people would have been called Ishmaelites, not Israelites.

Pastor Dave