Is the Christian God Cruel (Genesis Part 12)
Time Stamps
00:00:00 - Welcome from Anna and Jenny
00:03:00 - Talk: Is the Christian God Cruel? with Sharon Edmundson
00:27:00 - The Significance of Sacrifice on Mount Moriah
00:31:00 - Conversation Street: Surrendering to God
00:36:00 - Why Does God Test Us?
00:42:00 - Living Counter-Culturally as Christians Today
Abraham, Isaac, and the God Who Provides
"Is the Christian God cruel?"
It's a question that makes many of us uncomfortable – whether we've been following Jesus for decades or are just curious about Christianity. And there's perhaps no Bible story that prompts this question more than God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.
This week, Sharon Edmundson tackled this challenging narrative head-on, revealing how a story that initially sounds horrifying actually demonstrates God's profound goodness and sets the stage for the entire gospel message.
Understanding the Cultural Context
When we read that God asked Abraham to sacrifice his "only son whom you love," our modern minds recoil in horror. But Sharon highlighted something crucial – in Abraham's culture, child sacrifice was commonplace. People regularly sacrificed their children to appease various gods.
What makes this story remarkable isn't that God asked for sacrifice (which was culturally familiar), but what happened next.
As Abraham raised the knife, God intervened: "Do not lay a hand on the boy." Unlike the false gods of surrounding cultures, the true God doesn't want child sacrifice. He provided an alternative – a ram caught in the thicket.
“One of the things that God taught Abraham through this was that He is not like the other gods that people worshiped...other gods required child sacrifice, but the God of Abraham here did test child sacrifice.”
This story wasn't about God's cruelty – it was about God showing how different He is from false gods. It set the pattern for His people to reject the harmful practices around them.
A Foreshadowing of Something Greater
Perhaps the most profound aspect of this story is how it points forward to Jesus. Sharon noted that the location where this event took place – Mount Moriah – would later become the site of Solomon's temple, where sacrifices for sin were offered for centuries.
And ultimately, in the "same area, but this time, just slightly outside the city walls was where Jesus then came and died as the ultimate sacrifice."
The parallels are striking: Isaac carried the wood for his own sacrifice up the mountain, just as Jesus would later carry His cross. But while Isaac was spared, Jesus wasn't.
“Unlike Isaac who was spared, Jesus died. Unlike Abraham who kept his son, God gave his son. This is like a stunning reversal at the heart of the gospel.”
Conversation Street
When God Asks Us to Let Go
During Conversation Street, the discussion shifted to our own experiences of surrender. Sharon shared about having to let go of a relationship that seemed good: "I just had this really strong sense inside of God saying, 'If you continue with this relationship, actually this is not my plan for you.'" Though painful, this surrender was about trusting God's greater plan.
Anna reflected on similar experiences with surrendering job opportunities and relationships: "Often at the time it can be like, 'God, why are you asking me to let go of this thing that seems good?' but actually it's because he has a different plan or a better plan or a better match for you a bit further down the road."
Why Does God Test Us?
One of the questions that emerged was why God tests our faith at all.
Tests reveal what's inside us, don't they? Like putting pressure on a tube of toothpaste, whatever's inside comes out. Testing isn't about God discovering what's in our hearts – He already knows – but about revealing our hearts to ourselves.
“It’s not like pass or fail. It’s almost like having driving lessons as opposed to doing your driving test. It’s part of learning how to do that walk with God.”
Living Counter-Culturally
The conversation turned to how Christians are called to live counter-culturally, just as Abraham was called to reject the practice of child sacrifice that was normal in his day.
Jenny shared about parenting in a materialistic culture: "Your value is not in the brand of clothing that you are wearing or the brand of shoes or the games console...it's in something that's much deeper and much more significant."
Sharon described how her family has lived in community, always having people living with them and having an open-door policy that's distinctly different from our individualistic society. She noted that when God calls us to something, He also provides the grace to do it: "I can't say that this is a hardship...sometimes when God asks us to do things, they're quite difficult. I think this one actually, we just really enjoy it."
The God Who Makes a Way
The Abraham and Isaac story fundamentally changes how we view God. Far from being cruel, God reveals Himself as the one who provides an alternative to the cruelty of false gods. He's the God who makes a way when there seems to be no way.
And ultimately, as Sharon pointed out, "what God prevented Abraham from doing, He himself did for us" through Jesus.
This isn't a story about a God who takes – it's about a God who gives. It's not about child sacrifice – it's about God's sacrifice. And it's not about cruelty – it's about love.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son..."
We are no longer defined by our past, our failures, or even our successes. We are defined by our covenant relationship with Christ, bound to Him in a union that even death cannot break.
RECENT EPISODES
RECENT LIVESTREAMS
More From The Genesis Series
At Crowd Church, we are committed to creating a space for you to explore the Christian faith, regardless of where you are on your faith journey.
What happens at Crowd Church?
Every week we livestream our online church service and release a new story on What’s The Story Podcast. We have weekly online community groups that meet up and all of that good stuff. You can find out more about everything that goes on at Crowd by browsing through this site, and you can reach out to us via our contact page.
Come and Join In!
Are you interested in joining in with what is happening here at Crowd? We would love to meet you!
Come and join our in-person service in Liverpool.
Join in with the Church Livestream
Subscribe to Crowd Church Podcast & What’s the Story Podcast
Follow us on Instagram
Subscribe to the YouTube Channel
New to church? If so - check out the New Here link.
Any questions? Please connect with us via our Contact Page, or via WhatsApp: +44 7984 530 429