Have you ever heard the voice of God? If you don’t think you’ve ever heard the voice of God, would you be able to recognize it if it came to you?  

In the Bible, there are certain figures who seem to hear the voice of God with ease. Abraham is one such figure. The very first time Abraham hears the voice of God is when God tells him to leave his homeland in Chaldea (southern Iraq) and move to the land of the Canaanites, which God promises will be the land of his descendents. Then, as an elderly man, he hears the voice of God tell him that his elderly wife Sarah, who had never given birth, would at last bear a son. If you’re familiar with the story, Sarah does indeed give birth in old age to a son, who is named Isaac.  

And then we arrive at today’s first reading from the book of Genesis, which is one of the most puzzling and controversial episodes in all of Scripture. Once again, Abraham hears the voice of God. This time God is telling him to sacrifice his son Isaac—his and Sarah’s only child. Has Abraham heard God correctly? Why would God tell Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, when God had already promised that through Isaac Abraham’s descendents would inherit the land of the Canaanites? Was God breaking this promise? Even more troubling: Why would God tell Abraham to practice child sacrifice? This was a ritual present in certain ancient civilizations who were neighbors to Israel. But nowhere in Scripture is child sacrifice portrayed in any positive light.  

Do we know that Abraham heard the voice of God clearly? Was it really God who was instructing him to kill his son? The narrative of Genesis is written in such a way that the voice of God is direct, audible, and unmistakable. Genesis is concerned to present God as real and active, and to do that, God’s voice is expressed as clear address. I have never encountered God in this way. What is your experience with the voice of God? I’m going to venture a bold hypothesis: very few, if any, of us have heard the voice of God like Genesis describes it. The voice of God—if we can even call it a voice—is far more mysterious than direct address, and it requires ongoing discernment. Even when we think we have a strong sense of what God would have us do, we may still have doubts and misgivings that linger. I think that was Abraham’s experience as well.  

Abraham had doubts about whether he should really sacrifice his son Isaac. Some scholars have pointed out that the mountains of Moriah, where Abraham goes to perform the sacrifice, is actually an 8-hour trek on foot from where he was living. But Genesis tells us he took three days to get there. I think that’s because Abraham was trying to delay the inevitable, perhaps contemplating a way out of commiting such an atrocious act. On Day 3, as he gets close to the sacrificial site, Abraham tells his travelling companions, “You wait here; Isaac and I are going over to that mountain to worship, and then we will return to you.” We will return. Did Abraham not want to reveal what was about to happen? Or did he think that he could find a way out of sacrificing his son? Either way, Abraham’s reluctance is palpable. As he and Isaac proceed to the mountain, Isaac pops the million dollar question: “We’re carrying everything to offer a sacrifice, but where’s the lamb?” It was customary in sacrificial practice to slaughter the animal first, separate it into parts, and then to offer the sacrifice. If Abraham were following protocol, he would’ve killed Issac and dismembered him beforehand. But instead he delayed things, showing a reluctance to follow through on what he believed God was telling him to do. When he and Isaac finally arrive at the site, Abraham somehow finds a way to tie up Isaac and lay him on the altar that they had just constructed.  

For all his doubts and hesitance, Abraham is persistent and even gets to the point where he raises his knife to kill Isaac. He was convinced that he had heard the voice of God, even though it made no sense. Why would God renege on the promise that Abraham and Sarah would have a son who would be the first in line of a multitude of descendents? Just as Abraham is about to plunge his knife into the defenseless Isaac, an angel of God suddenly commands him to stop. This isn’t the same voice Abraham heard earlier. This is an angelic voice, and it freezes Abraham on the spot. The voice commands him not to harm Isaac. The anguished doubts and misgivings that Abraham had all along are verified. Then Abraham sees a ram trapped in a nearby bush by its horns. He slaughters the lamb and sacrifices it right there on the altar. We can confidently assume that Isaac was left traumatized by this whole incident.  

What is the lesson of this story? Some have suggested that this story is a polemic against the ancient practice of child sacrifice. I think there’s truth to that. If there’s ever a story in Scripture that speaks against child sacrifice, it would be this story. But I’d like to suggest that, in our day, there’s a more fundamental lesson: trust your doubts. Each of us wakes up every day, striving to exist in the depths of the world by doing the right thing. Sometimes that boils down to common sense decision-making. But often we are faced with issues and crises that require us to seek divine guidance—through practices like prayer, meditation, and conversations involving spiritual direction. What we’re really seeking is the voice of God. Maybe not the way Genesis describes the voice of God, but we’re seeking clarity and confidence that what we’re doing is the right thing.  

There will be times—maybe this has already been your experience—where you think that you’ve arrived at clarity, that you are doing God’s will. And yet misgivings linger. Deep within you is a doubt that calls into question the direction of your life because perhaps it doesn’t square with what it means to be a Jesus follower. Maybe that doubt is so agonizing that you need to supress it and keep persevering, even though the direction that you believe God has called you to take seems off the mark. The lesson of today is trust your doubts. When you are on a path that seems to conflict with what it means to be a genuine follower of Jesus—even though you feel that God is leading you along your current path—that is when those deep-seated doubts may be awakening you to a recognition that you might not be on the right path, that you might not be doing the right thing, that God might actually be leading you elsewhere, to a more authentic way of following Jesus.  

There may be times when the path you are on—the path that you believe God has made straight—is headed toward destruction. Just like Abraham who went all the way to the mountain with Isaac and was oh-so-close to slaughtering his son, until the voice of the angel stopped him cold in his tracks and confirmed that his nagging doubts all along were valid.  

So, my word to you from today’s story of Abraham and Isaac is trust your doubts. In trusting our doubts, we may be saved from the irreversible pain of doing the wrong thing.