The Dread of Isaac
Fear and Piety in the Patriarch's Life
Many things have been written about the Sacrifice of Isaac, what is known in Hebrew as the “Akedah, ” that is, the “Binding.”
The Bible does not directly tell us the exact thoughts of either Isaac or his father Abraham as they prepared for and progressed through their journey to Mount Moriah. Even if we were told them, As the Scriptures say:
For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him?1
τίς γὰρ οἶδεν ἀνθρώπων τὰ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου εἰ μὴ τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τὸ ἐν αὐτῷ;
However, there remains ample context from which to understand Isaac’s life and how the Binding affected him so dramatically. This should come as no surprise, of course. It takes no great deal of imagination, nor aberrance from the pure text of the Bible, in order to understand that Isaac’s life was marked by fear and piety.
Simply dealing with the words of Scripture, and allowing the figures therein to be thought of as human beings, opens many potential ways of clarifying and vivifying the reading while remaining faithful to its meaning. For example, the following Rabbinic commentary:
And he said, “Father,” and so forth: But Isaac had not yet said anything to him, but rather just called him, "Father," and was quiet. This was because Isaac felt that it was his father's will to sacrifice him as a burnt-offering.”2
ויאמר אבי וגו'. ולא אמר לו יצחק עדיין כלום, אלא קראו אבי ושתק, לפי שהרגיש יצחק שרצון אביו להעלותו לעולה
It is deduced from the lack of dialogue between Abraham and Isaac, and from the spacing between Isaac’s words when he does speak, that he became and remained fearful for some time on their journey. We are also not given any of the words Isaac may have said during or afterwards.
Immediately following the Binding, we read that Sarah dies and Abraham goes to mourn and weep for her. We do not know if Sarah dies while Abraham and Isaac are away, though this seems to be implied in the text3 and is maintained by the Jewish interpretive tradition.4 This would mean that Isaac spent his journey to Mount Moriah in the fear of being sacrificed by his own father, not knowing all the while that his mother would pass away before he would return.
What must Isaac’s experience have been at that time? The overwhelming relief of Angel of the Lord’s voice calling to Abraham and stopping his blade-wielding hand; the rustling and bleating of the ram caught in the thicket; the descent from the altar alive and whole; and the blood dripping from the ram slaughtered in his place—all these things culminating in his life regained, as it were, from the dead. What we now refer to as trauma may have been as tremendous as Isaac’s awe.
In Genesis chapter 31 God Himself is twice referred to as “the Fear of Isaac.” As Jacob grows incensed with his uncle Laban, who has cheated and deceived him, he explains to his wives Rachel and Leah his circumstance: "You know that I have served your father with all my strength, yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times. But God did not permit him to harm me.”
Though Jacob was angered with Laban, he says God did not permit him to harm Laban. After Jacob leaves Laban’s house with his wives, children, and belongings, Laban pursues and catches up to him. In their ensuing heated exchange, Jacob uses this Name of God which does not appear anywhere else in Scripture the same way. In verse 42 he says:
If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed.
לוּלֵי אֱלֹהֵי אָבִי אֱלֹהֵי אַבְרָהָם וּפַחַד יִצְחָק הָיָה לִי כִּי עַתָּה רֵיקָם שִׁלַּחְתָּנִי
When Jacob and Laban come to an agreement and swear to each other that they will honor one another in their absence, the Scripture—no longer quoting Jacob—uses this name once more. In verses 53 and 54 one reads:
So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac, and Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and called his kinsmen to eat bread.
וַיִּשָּׁבַע יַעֲקֹב בְּפַחַד אָבִיו יִצְחָק׃ וַיִּזְבַּח יַעֲקֹב זֶבַח בָּהָר וַיִּקְרָא לְאֶחָיו לֶאֱכׇל־לָחֶם וַיֹּאכְלוּ לֶחֶם
Isaac’s life was so characterized godly fear that his own son referred to God as the One Whom his father fears. It must have been no secret, though it remained immensely personal to Isaac.
Perhaps Jacob heard his father tell him of the time he spent with the Lord in quiet, praying and meditating in the fields and among the trees.5 It could be that Genesis 27:33 was not the only time when Isaac “trembled very violently.”
In Genesis 24:63, some years after the Binding, when Abraham was the advanced in years, we read:
And Isaac went out to meditate in the field toward evening.
וַיֵּצֵא יִצְחָק לָשׂוּחַ בַּשָּׂדֶה לִפְנוֹת עָרֶב
Isaac is now an older man. By this time Abraham is advanced in years and is sending his servants to find a wife for Isaac. Years prior, when God is covenanting with Abraham and his children, we read that Abraham also faced the terror of God. The Scriptures say:6
As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.
וַיְהִי הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ לָבוֹא וְתַרְדֵּמָה נָפְלָה עַל־אַבְרָם וְהִנֵּה אֵימָה חֲשֵׁכָה גְדֹלָה נֹפֶלֶת עָלָיו׃
Jacob swearing by the Fear of his father Isaac means that he has been blessed with the intimate, personal relationship with God that his fathers also had. The Bible returns back to this theme explicitly in the book of Deuteronomy. In one of Moses’ final speeches, the Ha’Azinu poem, which means simply “Give Ear,” he refers to the period of Israel’s rebellion against God in the wilderness. Moses uses a very specific description of the idols after whom the Israelites of that wicked generation pursued. In Deuteronomy 32:17 he recalls:
They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded.
יִזְבְּחוּ לַשֵּׁדִים לֹא אֱלֹהַ אֱלֹהִים לֹא יְדָעוּם חֲדָשִׁים מִקָּרֹב בָּאוּ לֹא שְׂעָרוּם אֲבֹתֵיכֶם׃
One of the main defects of these demons, these foreign gods and idols, and the pronounced lack that characterizes their relationship to those who worship them—it is that they do not cause anyone to tremble the way the living God does.
Therefore one of the crucial aspects of keeping the inheritance of the faith of Abraham, and the piety of Isaac, is to fear God. As Christ says to the unbelieving Pharisees: “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did.”7 However, they did not know Him and therefore did not fear Him as they should have.
One must ask God to give him His grace and Spirit to maintain the faith of our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who rejoiced in the Lord with great joy8 and trembled before Him.
One should “fear God and keep His commandments”9 and rejoice in God’s perfect love which “casts out all fear.”10 And after this course, growing daily into His likeness, God will bring us to the perfection of love without fear.
Similarly, Christ gives us His words so that we may have peace,11 teaching us to know His love for us. And at the same time He instructs us concerning God: “Yes, I tell you, fear Him!”12 All these commands, painting for us so vibrant a portrait of faith in so many colors, do not lead the believer into confusion or contradiction, by no means. Much to the contrary, they usher him upon the path of manifold blessings, since both peace and fear are made beautiful in their time.13
Directing the dread of our hearts to God, insisting that He be feared above all, one trusts that He will honor this fear as the seed of the beautiful harvest that will be reaped a thousandfold in Christ, on that day when fear of any kind will no longer be.
1 Corinthians 2:11
Kli Yakar on Genesis 22:7
Genesis 23:2 says that Abraham went to mourn for Sarah, clearly meaning that he had to come from somewhere else first. The flow of the text obviously suggests that he came from Mount Moriah.
For example, Rashi and Midrash Rabba and Tanhuma say that, immediately following the Binding, the Devil went to Sarah and told her that Abraham attempted to sacrifice Isaac, upon hearing which she let out three loud shrieks in horror and died.
Genesis 24:63; the word used in this verse for “meditate” or “pray” is explained by the Rabbinic commentator Ibn Ezra as meaning “to walk among the trees” (Ibn Ezra on Genesis 24:63:1). By way of compliment, Psalm 102:1 employs the term for pouring out one’s please before the Lord. This semantic duality is similar, in my opinion, to the word ayin-tzade meaning both “tree/wood” and “to give counsel” or “to plan.”
Genesis 15:12
John 8:39
John 8:56
Ecclesiastes 12:13
1 John 4:18
John 16:33
Luke 12:5
Ecclesiastes 3:11