Two Abrahams

Abraham. The Mesopotamian man who heard a voice in his head one day and became the Patriarch of three religions. I was thinking about him this morning and was struck by the two completely different persons he is painted to be.

When God told Abraham He wanted to strike down Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness, Abraham asked him to spare it if there were 50 good people there. When God told him there weren't 50 good people there, Abraham asked him to spare it for the sake of 10 good people there.

Let me make sure the weight of this has sunk in. Abraham questioned the Lord and Creator of the Universe, the all-powerful, all-knowing Jehovah. Twice. Because he wanted to save the lives of good people, he haggled with the Almighty. Not only that, but the Almighty seemed to take him seriously, not only responding to his requests, but eventually saving Lot and his family. This seems to be a truly heroic side of Abraham.

Later, God asked Abraham to take his only son Isaac up to the mountain, tie him up, and slit his throat as a sacrifice. Without a word of protest, Abraham took his son up the mountain, tied him up, and would have sacrificed him without a peep if an angel of the Lord had not intervened. The same Abraham who questioned God over the destruction of a city full of guilty men said nothing when asked to kill his innocent son with his own hands. Kierkegaard called this a tremendous act of the "teleological suspension of the ethical," of putting God before reason. Abraham, in his estimation, was a true "Knight of Faith", a hero in different terms.

Both of these pictures paint Abraham as a man of significant courage, yet they are completely opposite of each other. Why would Abraham question God over a somewhat rational (though perhaps over-the-top) action, and yet say nothing in the face of seeming absurdity (and a far greater personal cost)? Will the real Abraham please stand up? I suspect there are different layers of textual tradition here that are put forth as one voice. But if these stories truly come from the same author, and Abraham is supposed to be an exemplar for a person devoted to God, when should one question and when should one obey?