For February 14, 2016
A-Poem-a-Day
Until Resurrection Sunday
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| Image credit: malkhut.com |
LOVE AND THE AKEDAH
The Binding
of Isaac – Genesis 22
"Take
your son
your
only son
whom
you love…"
Twenty-two
chapters into Scripture
and
it's the first time love is mentioned
as
God tells Abraham,
"Sacrifice
Isaac
as
a burnt offering"
What
swirls
through
the mind
of
this old patriarch
(who
after a hundred years
fathers
the son
of
God's promise…
the
son he loves
and
proudly watches grow)
What
swirls as he swings
the
sharp axe, splitting wood
It
was three days journey
from
Beersheba to Moriah—
Leaving
his servants behind
Abraham
hands Isaac
the
bundled wood
and
carries fire and knife
up
the mount
himself
"Avi"
(my
father)
"where
is the lamb?"
"God
will provide the lamb
my
son"
Abraham
erects an altar of stone
arranges
the wood and binds the lad
(whose
faith and obedience
must
be at least as great as his own)
Unflinching
before the God
he
has finally come to trust
the
aged patriarch
(known
to lie
to
save his own skin
known
to try to pull off
God's
covenant himself
when
it seemed God was slow
in
keeping His promise)
this
same patriarch…
raises
the glinting blade
above
his son, his only son
whom
he loves…
Split-second
to
knife-fall
the
angel of the Lord calls
"Abraham!
Abraham!
Do
not lay a hand on the boy…"
The
old man
who
proves he would
withhold
nothing from his God—
drops
the bloodless blade
unbinds
and embraces Isaac
O
boundless relief
Effusive
praise
and
there, tangled
in
a thicket, struggles
the
substitute sacrifice
…a ram
Two
millennia later
God's
Son
His
only Son
Whom
He loves
carries
wood
of
a crossbeam
up
the very same mountain
No
angel of the Lord
arrives
last moment
to
halt the hammerfall
No
ram appears
in
a thicket
For
God so loves
the
world
He
provides…
His Son
His only Son…The Sacrificial Lamb
Maude Carolan
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