Genesis 22 - Abraham and Isaac, God is Proved
Abraham and Isaac, God is Proved
God proves himself to be different from all other idols that are claiming to be a god. How do we know God is who he says He is? Because if He wasn’t the one true God, He would have let Abraham kill his son just like all the other “gods” who required child sacrifice.
Malek or Moloch (also Molech, Mollok, Milcom, or Malcam) is the biblical name of a Canaanite god associated with child sacrifice, fire, and war.
Rabbinical tradition depicted Moloch as a bronze statue heated with fire, into which, the victims were thrown. This has been associated with reports by Greco-Roman authors on the child sacrifices in Carthage, as well as, Baal Hammon. Archaeological excavations since the 1920’s have produced concrete evidence for child sacrifice in Carthage.
Now that we better understand who Malek was, let’s get back to Abraham...
Abraham would have known of these other gods who demanded child sacrifice. Therefore, this story in Genesis 22 on Mount Moriah tells us two things:
God is the true God
Abraham’s obedience to God.
How? We might ask.
Well, whether God is the true God or not, Abraham’s obedience is proven because he follows through with the command. Abraham thought he was dealing with our God but he couldn’t be 💯 % certain, he had to have Faith. Deep Faith. My theory is that in the back of his mind, he was wondering if he might be dealing with Malek or another god, which required sacrifice of children. And there was only one way to find out.
Abraham committed to what was asked of him whether the command was coming from Malek or our God. Then we see, God proves who he is by commanding Abraham to stop 🛑. Do not harm your son! Thus, God is proved as the Almighty God because all other gods during this time never, ever, ever told someone to stop killing their child, by blade or by fire. Moreover, Abraham’s faith in God is also proved.
As a result, our God proves himself to be different from all other idols claiming to be a god and Abraham proves his loyalty to our God by committing to the act and stopping the act as he is commanded. Other “god’s” will willingly allow us to sacrifice the lives we hold most dearly.