There are seven recorded occasions when God appears to Abraham. This is the last of the seven. Early on, God talked to Abraham for the first time and gave him a promise, to inherit the land and have descendants. Sounds good to me. However, in order to get all that, God asked him to leave his land and his family and to journey to another land. Not an easy thing to do, but Abraham does it anyway. Then, there is all this going back and forth about giving him a son, so he is given Ishmael, but then Ishmael is not the son of the promise, so Abraham is made to wait another thirteen years, for him to get Isaac. Soon after that, he is asked to kick his own son Ishmael out of his house, and to leave him to die in the desert in the sight of his own mother, as we have heard last week from Veronica. When I read these stories I cannot but wonder: what is God up to next?!! Okay God, now what??

So, I know what it means to leave your land and people and be on your own in a foreign land, in the pursuit of your vocation. I know what it means to be given a calling, a purpose that you are willing to sacrifice for it. But have you experienced knowing that you are seeing someone for the last time? Can you imagine that being your own flesh? Can you imagine being asked to sacrifice them? And by God?

So what is God up to?

There is a Jewish folk tale that goes like this: Why did God not send an angel to tell Abraham to sacrifice Isaac? Because no angel would take on such a task, instead, they all said to God: “If you want to command death, go do it yourself.”

It’s no secret that this story is no one’s favorite. The Torah and specifically the book of Genesis is full of similar stories that are hard to understand or decipher and yet that have lived in the Jewish tradition for millennia and then in the Christian tradition after it, because there is something in there that was life giving, there is something they learned about God and that was so valuable, they wanted to transmit to coming generations.

So, I reread the text and asked myself: what is life-giving in this text? And here is the start point I am going to base my interpretation on: God, the God we knew in and through Jesus, does not call us to suffer. And God will not test us with tasks that will destroy us or those we love.

Now that that’s out of the way, I have an observation to make. In Semitic cultures, a story is defined by its ending, and many a time, details are a means to an end. Literally.

The passage in hand has the following conclusion: “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.”

We read this passage in two parts today, and that was intentional. The first part ended with verse 8, where Abraham says to Isaac “God will provide” and then this theme is reiterated at the end of the second part, in verse 14, where Abraham calls the mountain itself “The mount of God will provide.”

The Hebrew verb raah رأئ which the translation in hand rendered into “provide,” more literally means to see. It is the same verb is that is used earlier in the book of Genesis, when God created the world and God ra2a (eyes) that it is good.

So God raah the goodness of creation, and then, in the same way, God raah Abraham and Isaac in their tribulation. Don’t worry son, for God will see us, God will look at us.

“God sees.” This is the thesis statement of this story. This is its defining theme.

And this is the defining theme of our story and the good news of the gospel, even when this good news is obscured by unpleasant details.

We are all yearning to hear some good news today regarding the crises in which we find ourselves. Good news of a speedy vaccine. Good news about declines in Coronavirus fatalities and infections. Good news about our economic recovery. Good news about the societal problems we’re facing. And here’s the good news that the story brings: In the midst of Abraham’s biggest crisis, God sees him. And in the midst of our crisis God sees us.

God sees our pain, God sees those who are being compromised, God sees the efforts of those who work for justice, and those who are burnt out trying to be heard.

Okay! God sees us but things are not changing. The numbers are not dropping, the lockdown is not over, the pain is still there, most people are suffering from solitude and families still cannot get together, what kind of good news is that?

Good news isn’t so good when it leaves us unaware and unequipped to deal with what’s at hand. But also this story tells us this morning, that good news isn’t good news if it doesn’t challenge us and urge us to action. Abraham’s good news came after and through his life’s biggest disaster, God saw him in his problem. But it isn’t until he saw God, it isn’t until he let go of what is his own, that it all turned into good news to him.

Friends, God didn’t want Abraham’s son; God wanted Abraham’s loyalty; because God was about to install a covenant, an equitable relationship, a partnership where both parties contribute an equal amount of commitment. And only then, that place of blood and crime turns into a place of mercy, but also of the promise.

And so God seeks a covenant with us too. God sees us, yes! But do we see God? And how can we see God if our attention is focused inward?

We are all yearning to go back to normal. But normal was not normal. The problems we are facing with crimes, with racism, with unjust wages, with lack of affordable housing… the list goes on… none of these was normal. The pandemic has not created those problems but has only magnified them.

So before we jump to accusing God and condemning the demand for sacrifice, let’s take a look at ourselves and examine the common values that demand and justify sacrifice in our societies, and who and what is being sacrificed on the altar of freedom? Under good causes; in the name of God?

Friends, this is not a story of an old man who hears voices and travels to a nearby mountain in order to kill his son there, and who, at the last moment, sees a ram and kills it instead. This is a story of God who sees, but also a God who needs to be seen, for the narrative to be complete.

Our part of the narrative is equally important. God wants our commitment. “On the mount of the Lord, God shall be seen.” That mount of Moriah is nowhere to be found on the map, maybe an intentional attempt by the author to say that the mountain is wherever you and I are; it is our society, our neighborhood.

Friends, God sees. This, is the end statement. May we too, see God.