In spite of the lavish hospitality practiced in the house of Abraham,
it happened once that a poor man, or rather an alleged poor man, was
turned away empty-handed, and this was the immediate reason for the
last of Abraham's temptations, the sacrifice of his favorite son Isaac.
It was the day on which Abraham celebrated the birth of Isaac with a
great banquet, to which all the magnates of the time were bidden with
their wives. Satan, who always appears at a feast in which no poor
people participate, and keeps aloof from those to which poor guests are
invited, turned up at Abraham's banquet in the guise of a beggar asking
alms at the door. He had noticed that Abraham had invited no poor man,
and he knew that his house was the right place for him.
Abraham was occupied with the entertainment of his distinguished
guests, and Sarah was endeavoring to convince their wives, the matrons,
that Isaac was her child in very truth, and not a spurious child. No
one concerned himself about the beggar at the door, who thereupon
accused Abraham before God.[226]
Now, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves
before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.[227] And the Lord said
unto Satan, "From whence comest thou?" and Satan answered the Lord, and
said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down
in it." And the Lord said unto Satan, "What hast thou to say concerning
all the children of the earth?" and Satan answered the Lord, and said:
"I have seen all the children of the earth serving Thee and remembering
Thee, when they require aught from Thee. And when Thou givest them what
they require from Thee, then they forsake Thee, and they remember Thee
no more. Hast Thou seen Abraham, the son of Terah, who at first had no
children, and he served Thee and erected altars to Thee wherever he
came, and he brought offerings upon them, and he proclaimed Thy name
continually to all the children of the earth? And now his son Isaac is
born to him, he has forsaken Thee. He made a great feast for all the
inhabitants of the land, and the Lord he has forgotten. For amidst all
that he has done, he brought Thee no offering, neither burnt offering
nor peace offering, neither one lamb nor goat of all that he had killed
in the day that his son was weaned. Even from the time of his son's
birth till now, being thirty-seven years, he built no altar before
Thee, nor brought up any offering to Thee, for he saw that Thou didst
give what he requested before Thee, and he therefore forsook Thee." And
the Lord said to Satan: "Hast thou considered My servant Abraham? For
there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man
before Me for a burnt offering, and that feareth God and escheweth
evil. As I live, were I to say unto him, Bring up Isaac thy son before
Me, he would not withhold him from Me, much less if I told him to bring
up a burnt offering before Me from his flocks or herds." And Satan
answered the Lord, and said, "Speak now unto Abraham as Thou hast said,
and Thou wilt see whether he will not transgress and cast aside Thy
words this day."[228]
God wished to try Isaac also. Ishmael once boasted to Isaac, saying, "I
was thirteen years old when the Lord spoke to my father to circumcise
us, and I did not transgress His word, which He commanded my father."
And Isaac answered Ishmael, saying, "What dost thou boast to me about
this, about a little bit of thy flesh which thou didst take from thy
body, concerning which the Lord commanded thee? As the Lord liveth, the
God of my father Abraham, if the Lord should say unto my father, Take
now thy son Isaac and bring him up as an offering before Me, I would
not refrain, but I would joyfully accede to it."