him, he said hastily, “Give thanks, not to me the servant, but to the
Master of this house, _who openeth His hand, and filleth all things
living with plenteousness_.”
Then when the traveller asked, “Who, and where is this Master?”
Abraham answered, “He is the God who rules over heaven and earth; He is
Lord of all; He kills and makes alive; He wounds and heals; He forms the
fruit in the mother’s womb, and gives it life; He makes the plants and
trees to grow; He brings man to destruction, and raises him from his
grave again.”
Thus Abraham instructed those whom he relieved. And if a traveller asked
further, how he was to worship the great God, Abraham answered, “Say
only these words, Praised be the Eternal One who reigns over heaven and
earth! Praised be the Lord of the whole world, who filleth all things
living with plenteousness.” And no traveller went on his way without
thanking God.
Thus that guest-house was a great school, in which men were taught the
true religion, and gratitude to the Almighty God.
10. THE OFFERING OF ISAAC.[326]
Abraham loved the son of his old age, and Isaac grew up in the fear of
God, and his good conduct heightened the love Abraham bore him; but the
Patriarch thought in his heart, “I prepare gifts to give of my abundance
to every man that asks of me, and to every passer-by; but to my Lord and
God, the Giver of all good things, have I given nothing!”
There was a day when the sons of God (the angels) stood before the
Eternal One, and amongst them was the accusing angel, Satan or Sammael.
The Lord asked him, “Whence comest thou?”
“From walking to and fro upon the face of the earth,” he replied.
“And what hast thou beheld there of the doings of the sons of men?”
The Accuser answered, “I saw that the sons of earth no longer praise
Thee, and adore Thee; when they have obtained their petition, then they
forget to give Thee thanks. I saw that Abraham, the son of Terah, as
long as he was childless, built altars and proclaimed Thy name to all
the world: now he has been given a son at the age of a hundred, and he
forgets Thee. I went to his door as a beggar, on the day that Isaac was
weaned, and I was turned away without an alms. I have seen him strike
alliance with the King of the Philistines, a nation that knows Thee not,
and to him has he given seven lambs. He has built a large house and he
gives to strangers, but to Thee he gives no sacrifice of value. Ask of
him any sacrifice that is costly, and he will refuse it.”
“What shall I ask?” inquired the Almighty.
“Ask of him now his son, and he will refuse him to Thy face.”
“I will do so, and thou shalt be confounded,” answered the Holy One.
The self-same night God appeared to Abraham, and addressed him gently so
as not to alarm him, and He said to him, “Abraham!”
The patriarch in deep humility answered, “Here am I, Lord; what willest
Thou of Thy servant?”
The Lord answered, “I have come to ask of thee something. I have saved
thee in all dangers; I delivered thee out of the furnace of Babylon; I
rescued thee from the army of Nimrod; I brought thee into this land, and
gave thee men-servants and maid-servants and cattle and sheep and
horses, and I have given thee a son in thine old age, and victory over
all thine enemies, and new temptations await thee, for I must prove
thee, and see if thou art grateful in thy heart, and that thy
righteousness may be manifest unto all, and that thy obedience may be
perfected. Take therefore thy son——”
Abraham answered trembling, “Which son? I have two.”
_The voice of God._—“That son which alone counteth with thee.”
_Abraham._—“Each is the only son of his mother.”
_The voice of God._—“The one you love.”
_Abraham._—“I love both.”
_The voice of God._—“The one you love best.”
_Abraham._—“I love both alike.”
_The voice of God._—“Then I demand Isaac.”
_Abraham._—“And what shall I do with him, O Lord?”
_The voice of God._—“Go to the place that I shall tell thee, where,
unexpectedly, hills shall arise in sight out of the valley bottom. Go to
that place whence once My Light, My Teaching issued, which My eye
watches over untiringly, and where the smoke of incense shall arise to
Me, to the place where prayer is heard and sacrifice shall be offered,
where at the end of time I shall judge the nations, and cast the ungodly
into the pit of Gehinom;—to the land of Moriah that I shall show thee,
there shalt thou take thy son Isaac as a whole burnt offering.”
_Abraham._—“Shall I bring Thee such an offering as this, O Lord? Where
is the priest to prepare the sacrifice?”
_The voice of God._—“I have taken from Shem his priesthood, and thou art
clothed therewith.”
_Abraham._—“But in that country there are many hills; which shall I
ascend?”
_The voice of God._—“A mountain on which shall rest my Glory; there
shall it be told thee further what thou must do.”
Abraham prepared to fulfil the command of God, but he dreaded the
separation between Sarah and her son. If he took Isaac away secretly,
then he feared that, in the excess of her distress, she would do herself
harm. At last he decided on this course; he went to Sarah’s tent, and he
said to her, “My dearest, prepare this day a little banquet, that in our
old days we may rejoice our hearts.”
Sarah answered, “Wherefore this day, my husband? Are you about to lose
anything this day?”
Abraham said, “Think, my wife, Sarah! how good God has been to us;
therefore it behoves us to thank Him all the days of our life.”
Sarah did as Abraham had commanded.
As they sat and ate, Abraham said, “Thou knowest well, dear wife, that I
knew the One true God from the time that I was three years old. Isaac is
older, and it behoves him to know more of the law of God. Therefore I
design to take him with me to Shem and Eber, our ancestors, who live not
far from here, that they may instruct him. Hast thou anything to object
to this, Sarah?”
She answered, “No; do that which is pleasing in thine eyes; only let not
Isaac be away too long, for thou knowest how precious the sight of him
is to me.”
Then Sarah put her arms round her son, and kissed him, and they parted
with many tears; and she exhorted Abraham to have great care of the
youth, that the journey might not be too great for him.
Next morning, very early, Abraham rose, and he saddled the ass himself,
though he had many slaves, for he was eager to be gone, and to go where
the Lord called him. This was the ass, born of the she-ass created by
God on the eve of the sixth day, upon which Moses afterwards rode when
he went to Egypt;[327] it is the ass which spake to Balaam, and it is
the ass of which the prophet Zechariah has spoken, that on it Messiah
shall ride.[328]
This ass was of a hundred colours.[329]
Sarah clothed Isaac in the garment that Abimelech had given her, and
placed a jewel-studded fillet about his head. She provided the
travellers with food for their journey, and accompanied them with her
maids, till Abraham bade them return. Then she clasped Isaac once more
to her breast, and said with tears, “God be gracious to thee, my son;
how know I that I shall see thee again?”
Abraham had two to accompany him, Eliezer and Ishmael; he had cut fig
and palm wood and made a faggot. On the way this discourse took place
between Eliezer and Ishmael.
Ishmael said, “I perceive clearly that my father is about to offer Isaac
as a whole burnt offering; therefore I, his eldest son, will inherit his
possessions.”
But Eliezer said, “That is false: I am his trusty servant! Did not thy
father drive thee away from home? He will leave all to me.”
Whilst they thus spake, there came a voice from heaven, “O ye fools!
neither of you knows the truth.”
Abraham in the meantime walked forward. Then came Satan to him in the
form of an old man bowed upon a staff, and said to him, “Whither goest
thou?”
He answered, “I go to offer up my prayers.”
“Wherefore this knife, and fuel, and fire?” asked Satan.
“I take them in case we have to spend much time on the mountain, that we
may bake bread and slay beasts.”
“Old man, thou deceivest me,” said Satan. “Was I not by when a voice
bade thee slay thy son, thine only son; and now, what art thou about to
do? Thinkest thou that thou shalt have another son, now that thou art a
hundred years old? Art thou then about to cut down with thine own hands
the main pillar of thy tent, the staff on which thou mayest lean in
thine old age? Knowest thou not the proverb, ‘He who destroys his own
goods, how shall he get more?’ That was not the voice of God, it was the
voice of the Tempter, and thou didst listen to it. Dost thou think that
God, who promised to make of thee a great nation, and to bless all
generations through Isaac, would thus persuade thee to make void His own
promises?”
Abraham answered, “No, it was not the Tempter who spake, it was the
voice of God; therefore I will not hearken to thy words, but walk on
still in mine uprightness.”
“But if God were to ask of thee some further sacrifice, wouldst thou
grant it?”
“Of a truth would I,” answered Abraham.
“Thy piety is folly,” said Satan impatiently. “To-morrow God will punish
thee for this murder thou art about to commit, since thou wilt shed the
blood of thine own son.”
But when Satan saw that Abraham was not to be moved from his purpose,
then he took the form of a blooming youth, and joined himself to Isaac,
and asked him the object of his journey.
Isaac replied that he was going to receive instruction in the law of the
Most High.
“Art thou going to receive this instruction living or dead?” asked
Satan, scornfully.
_Isaac._—“Can a man receive instruction after he is dead?”
_Satan._—“O thou son of a mother much to be pitied, knowest thou not
that thy father is leading thee to death?”
_Isaac._—“Nevertheless I shall follow him.”
_Satan._—“Then all the tears and prayers of thy mother, beseeching
Heaven to grant her a son, end in this! All the pains and grief in
childbearing! All the afflictions she laid on Hagar and Ishmael! All the
care she has taken of thy youth! All the love she has expended upon
thee! All these things for nothing!”
_Isaac._—“As my father wills.”
_Satan._—“Then the inheritance passes to Ishmael. How he will glory in
being the first-born, and his mother Hagar will despise Sarah, and maybe
will drive her out!”
_Isaac._—“I obey the command of my father and the will of God, be they
what they may.”
But these words were not without some effect on Isaac. With piteous
voice he urged his father to suspend or delay what he had undertaken.
But Abraham exhorted his son not to listen or give credence to the words
he had heard, for they were the temptations of Satan, to draw him from
the path of obedience and the fear of God.
They went a little further and came to a broad stream. Abraham, Isaac,
and their followers sought to wade it; the water at first reached their
knees, but when they were in the middle, it rose to their necks.
Abraham, who knew well the spot, and that there was neither brook nor
river there by nature, recognized this as a deception of Satan, to
divert them from the right way. He told Isaac that this was his opinion,
and raising his eyes to heaven he prayed: “Thou, O Lord, didst declare
to me Thy will, that I should take Isaac my son and offer him to Thee in
pledge of my obedience. I did not hesitate, I did not refuse, and now
the water overwhelms us and we sink; how then can I perform that which
Thou badest me do?”
The Lord answered, “Fear not, through thee shall My Name be known.”
Then the stream vanished away, and they stood upon dry land.
But now Satan made another attempt to turn Abraham from his purpose. He
drew him aside and said, “The object of thy journey has failed. I caught
a whisper in heaven, and it was this—God will prepare a lamb for the
sacrifice, and not thy son.”
Abraham answered, “Even if thy words be true, it matters not; for this
is the penalty of liars, that when they speak the truth they are not
believed.”
Abraham journeyed on the rest of that day, without seeing his appointed
place. Next day he retraced his steps, but could find no signs of the
place. The Almighty had so ordered it, that men might not say Abraham
was hasty and acted precipitately, but might see that he had leisure and
time for reflection on what he was about to do.
On the morning of the third day,[330] they reached the height of Zophim,
and thence Abraham saw a beautiful mountain-land, and on the top of one
of the mountains was a fiery pillar, which reached from earth to
heaven,—it was the Glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud.
When Abraham asked Isaac if he beheld this sight, he answered that he
did so; but when he asked his other companions, they replied that they
saw nothing save the brown hills and purple valleys. Some say they
answered that one hill was to them like every other hill.
From this, Abraham concluded that God was well pleased with Isaac as a
victim. Then he said to Eliezer and Ishmael:
“Tarry ye here with the ass, for you are not worthy to behold the
Shekinah nearer. But I and the youth will go on, _so many_ only shall
go.”
Now, as he said these words, it suddenly came to his mind that God had
promised him a great people descended from Isaac, _so many_ as the stars
for multitude, and with prophetic voice he said, “If the Lord will, _so
many_ as go on, _so many_ shall return.”
Then Abraham laid the wood of the sacrifice on his son Isaac, and took
the fire and the knife in his hand; and they went on both together,
Abraham joyous, and Isaac without fear or thought.
But after they had gone some way, Isaac turned to his father and said,
“Father, whither are we going alone?”
_Abraham._—“My son, we go to offer a sacrifice.”
_Isaac._—“But art thou a priest to execute this undertaking?”
_Abraham._—“Shem, the High Priest, will prepare the victim.”
A great fear fell upon Isaac when he saw that they had no animal with
them to offer, and he said, “Here are the fire and the wood, but where
is a lamb for the whole offering?”
_Abraham._—“The lamb which is to be offered is foreknown to the
Almighty. He will provide the lamb; and if none other is here, then must
thou be the offering, my son.”
Isaac was silent, for the fear of death came over him. But presently he
recovered himself and said, “If God chooses me, I place my soul in His
hands.”
_Abraham._—“My son! Is there any blemish in thee within? For the
offering must be without blemish of any sort.”
_Isaac._—“My father! There is none. I swear by God and by thy life, that
in my heart there is not the least resistance to the Divine will. My
limbs do not tremble, and there is no quaking at my heart. With gladness
do I say, The Lord be praised, who has chosen me for a whole
sacrifice.”[331]
_Abraham._—“O my son, with many a wish wast thou brought into this
world. Since thou hast been in it, every care has been lavished on thee.
I hoped to have had thee to follow me and make a great nation. But now I
must, myself, offer thee. Wondrous was thy coming into this world, and
wondrous will be thy going out of it![332] Not by sickness, not by war,
but as a sacrifice. I had designed thee to be my comfort and stay in old
age; now God himself must take thy place.”[333]
_Isaac._—“It were unworthy of thee were I to think to withstand the
decree of God, and of thee. Had the decision been thine alone, I would
have obeyed.”
When they reached the top of Moriah, God said to Abraham,—
“This is the place where once Adam, when driven out of Paradise, built
an altar to My name. Here also Cain and Abel offered their sacrifice.
Then came the Flood, and when it was passed away, Noah offered victims
to Me here. When the people were scattered from the tower at Babel, then
this altar was overthrown. Now it is for thee, friend of God, to set it
up again!”
Abraham built the altar, and Isaac brought him the stones. But,
according to some authors, this was not so. Abraham hid his son in a
cave, lest Satan should take advantage of the opportunity, with a stone
or clod of earth, to blemish him.
And when all was ready and the wood laid in order, then Isaac said to
his father, “Bind me hand and foot, lest in the fear of death I start
and thou wound me, and so I be blemished. Fold thy garments together,
and gird thy loins, and bare thine arm, and strike me with the knife and
then burn me to ashes, and lay up my ashes in a coffer, and let this
coffer be preserved as a memorial of me in thy house, before my mother;
and when thou passest by it, bid her remember me. But remind her not of
it near a well, or on the edge of a precipice, lest she cast herself
down in her grief.”[334]
And he continued, “When thou returnest home, how wilt thou console my
mother?”
Abraham answered, “Well I know that He who comforted us before thou
earnest, will comfort us after thou art gone from us.”[335]
Abraham now stood over his son, who was bound with his hands to his
feet, upon the wood laid in order; and the eyes of Abraham rested on the
eyes of his son. But Isaac looked up into heaven, and saw the angel
hosts crowded about God’s throne. Abraham saw not this, and he lifted
the knife; but he trembled and the knife fell from his hand, and he
cried aloud, “O my son! Would that another offering were found instead
of thee! But my help cometh only from the Lord who hath made heaven and
earth!”
Then he gathered up his resolution, and took the knife and held it once
more to strike; and Isaac’s spirit left him, and he swooned away.
But the angels of God, who stood round about His throne, announced to
the Most High all that took place, and they cried and wept, and even the
fiery seraphim exclaimed, “Woe! He slays his son.” And the tears of the
angels fell upon the face of Isaac, and made him ever after sad of
countenance.
Then God said, “Behold, and see how great is the faith of My servant
Abraham, how on earth a man can hallow My great name, and devote his
best and dearest to My service; see that, ye, who at the creation
exclaimed, _What is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of
man, that thou so regardest him?_”
Then He ordered Michael to fly swiftly, and stay the hand of Abraham.
And the archangel, when he came near, cried aloud, “Abraham! Abraham!
what doest thou?”
Abraham looked in the direction of the voice, in doubt, and said, “_Here
am I._”
Then said the angel, “_Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou
anything unto him._”
And Abraham said, “Who art thou?”
Michael told him who he was. Then said Abraham, “The Most High appeared
to me in a vision, and bade me take my son as a whole offering to the
place which He should say, and I may take no command from a servant of
God, against that which God Himself hath laid upon me.”
Then heaven opened, and he saw the glory of God, and God said to him,
“_Touch not the lad to do him harm, for now I know that thou fearest
God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me._”
And Abraham said, “How is this, O Lord! that Thou changest Thy purpose,
and sayest one day, Do this, and the next, Do it not?”
And the Lord answered, and said, “I said not unto thee, Slay the lad as
a burnt offering, but I said, Take thy son to the place that I shall
tell thee, as a whole burnt offering. This hast thou done; thou hast
fulfilled My command, I exact no more of thee. I change not My purpose,
but I did suffer thee to misunderstand the purport of My command, and to
think that I exacted more of thee; and this I did to prove thee. And
now, _by Myself have I sworn; for because thou hast done this thing, and
hast not withheld thy son, thine only son; that in blessing I will bless
thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the
heavens, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall
possess the gate of his enemies_.”
Then Isaac revived, and Abraham cut his cords, and he stood up and said,
“Praised be the Eternal One, who quickeneth those that be dead.”
And Abraham turned to the Shekinah and said, “Lord! how shall I depart
hence without having offered to Thee a sacrifice?” The Lord answered,
“Lift thine eyes, and thou shalt see a beast for sacrifice behind thee.”
In the thicket of the wood was that ram which God created at dusk on the
sixth day, that it might serve this purpose. An angel had brought it out
of Paradise, where it had lived since its creation, and had fed under
the shadow of the Tree of Life, and had drunk of the River that there
flows. And when the ram was brought into this earth, all the earth was
filled with the fragrance from its fleece, on which hung the odours of
the flowers on which it had lain in Paradise.
But by Satan’s fraud, the animal was frightened and strayed away, and
Abraham tracked it by its foot-prints. Then Satan decoyed the beast
behind some bushes and entangled its horns in the thicket; and Abraham
would have passed by, and not seen it, but the ram caught him by his
cloak. So Abraham slew it, and offered it in sacrifice, and sprinkled
with its blood the altar he had made.
Now the Last Trumpets that shall sound, the one to call the just, the
other the unjust, are made of the horns of this wondrous ram.
11. THE DEATH OF SARAH.
Sarah,—who, as we have seen, accompanied Abraham and Isaac part of the
way to Moriah,—on her return to the tent, found an old man awaiting her.
It was Satan.
He greeted her with profound respect, and asked after her husband and
son.
She answered that they had gone forth on a journey.
“Whither have they gone?” asked Satan.
“My lord has gone to visit the school of Shem and Eber, our grandsires,
there to leave my son Isaac to be instructed in the law of God.”
“Alas! alas!” exclaimed the Apostate Angel; “thou art greatly deceived.”
Sarah was alarmed; and she asked wherefore he spake thus.
“Know then,” said Satan, “that Abraham has gone forth with Isaac to
sacrifice him, upon a mountain, to the Most High.”
When she heard this, Sarah laid her head on the bosom of a slave, and
fainted. When she came to herself she hurried with her maidens to the
school of Shem and Eber, and inquired after her husband and son, but
they had neither seen nor heard anything of them. So Sarah was convinced
that what had been told her was true, and there was no spirit left in
her.
Now when Satan knew that Abraham was bringing back his son, and that God
had accepted the will for the deed, he was moved with envy and spite,
and he could not rest to think of the joy that this would cause; so he
went hastily to Sarah, and she was weeping in her tent, and sorely cast
down and broken in spirit. Then he said suddenly to her, “Thy son liveth
and is returning. God hath spared him!”
And she rose up and uttered a cry, and fell, and was dead; for the joy
had killed her.
Abraham and Isaac in the meantime had returned from Moriah, and they
sought Sarah at Beer-sheba, but she was not there; therefore they went
to Hebron, and there they found her corpse. Isaac fell weeping upon the
face of his mother, and he cried, “Mother, mother! why hast thou
forsaken me? why hast thou gone away?”
Abraham wept aloud, and all the dwellers in Hebron wept and lamented
over Sarah, and ceased from their labours, that they might mourn with
Abraham and Isaac. Sarah’s age was one hundred and seven-and-twenty
years, and she was as fair to look upon when she died as in the bloom of
her youth.
And as Abraham was bowed over the body of his wife, he heard the laugh
of the Angel of Death, and his words, “Wherefore weepest thou? Thou
bearest the blame of her death. Hadst thou not taken her son from her,
she would have been alive now.”
Abraham sought a place where to bury her; and he went to the Hittites
and asked them to suffer him to buy for his possession a parcel of land,
where he might bury one dead body. But they said, “Nay, we will give
thee land;” but he would not. So they said, “Choose now a place where
thou wouldst have thy sepulchre, and we will entreat the owner for
thee.”
Then Abraham said, “I desire the double cave of Ephron the son of Zohar.
_If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me,
and entreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, that he may give me the
cave of Machpelah, which he hath; for as much money as is worth he shall
give it me, for a possession of a burying-place amongst you._”
And this was the reason why Abraham desired that cave. When he had gone
after the calf, to slay it for the three angels that came to him before
the destruction of Sodom, the calf had fled from him, and he had pursued
it into this cave; and on entering it, he found that it was roomy, and
in the inner recesses he saw the bodies of Adam and Eve laid out with
burning tapers around them, and the air was fragrant with incense.