Genesis 22: Abraham and Isaac

Question:

 
Can you offer some insight into this passage where God tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac but when he's just about to, the Lord stops him and more or less says, "... just kidding, don't do it" and then blesses Abraham and all his descendants for following God's instructions.
Obviously having the faith and willingness to lose everything come into play, but such extreme torture from a mean-spirited, callous God and that Old Testament way of thinking ... this one is just crying out for a new-thought interpretation.

Comment:

I'm not going to copy out the entire 22nd chapter of Genesis. The basic story is certainly well known, and has been controversial for thousands of years. Scholars of three religious traditions—Jewish, Christian and Muslim—who all trace their lineage back to Abraham have debated endlessly its implications. The details are far from clear: Isaac is probably not a young boy at this time, but a man in his 30s. In some traditions it is actually Ishmael, Abraham's son by the slave woman Hagar, who is to be sacrificed. But regardless of the details, the basic mystery remains.

  Charles Fillmore, in his book Mysteries of Genesis, suggests that Isaac is a metaphysical representation of “joy,” and the story is of Abraham's mistaken belief that his spiritual commitment to the Lord of his being means that all joy will be taken from his life. "It seemed to Abraham that the law of Spiritual growth demanded the slaying of Isaac, the whole consciousness of joy," Fillmore writes. So that metaphysically it is not the Allness of God but Abraham's limited understanding of that Allness that seems to be demanding the sacrifice of joy. Sometimes we, too, decide—often in a fervor of misguided spiritual energy—that our commitment to God requires that we sacrifice all the joy of life. Perhaps Abraham felt vaguely guilty of the love he felt for the son he had prayed for, felt that this very human love was getting in the way of his relationship to the divine. It is divine Love that stays his hand, making it clear that the only sacrifice needed is a sacrificing of human joys (symbolized by the ram) that can become distractions from our spiritual purpose. Joy as an expression and experience of love is divine in nature and can never be a threat to our spiritual purpose.   Abraham goes through many challenges in the course of his long history, and he grows—as we do—in his ability and willingness to deal with them. Some he handles with a faith in the absolute Love that is God. Some others he handles from fear-based, mortal-mind assumptions about a fearful and demanding God. It would be a mistake to assume that we are to follow his example in all things. (In Egypt, for one example, he said that his wife was his sister and allowed the Pharaoh to try to seduce her. Not an example we should be following in our relationships.) The point is, he learned from his mistakes and grew in his ability to grasp the total Love that is God. So I think perhaps this story is intended, not as an example of perfect faith to be admired and duplicated, but as a warning against the danger of a fanaticism that can make insane choices seem reasonable.   Blessings!

Rev. Ed