Theme: Faith through Sacrifice gives way to vision at the mountain-top
As a little boy, when I first heard the passage read in the first reading, the first question that was raised in my mind was whether God could tempt one to sin since Abraham would have sinned if he had sacrificed Isaac. I later grew up to understand this passage better bearing in mind the distinction between temptation and test. The Hebrew word “nacah” is rendered in English as “to test or tempt”. Its Greek equivalent “peirasmos” also means “to test or tempt”. The words “test and tempt” though similar are not exactly the same, the former is positive while the latter is negative. For this reason, exegetes recommend we look into the context to differentiate between the two meanings, bearing in mind that God only tests while Satan tempts. The goal of God’s tests is for us to prove our faith but the devil tempts to destroy our faith. St. James stresses this distinction when he says “consider it a great joy when tests of many kinds come upon you, for you well know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance… (1 v.2-3) and “… God does not tempt anyone to sin” (1 v.13).
In Genesis 12, God tested Abraham to leave his father’s land for an unknown land. Abraham through his obedience demonstrated that he loved God more than his father’s land. In the first
reading as we saw today, God tested Abraham again to see how convinced and strong his faith was by
