Book Review: When I Lay My Isaac Down
October 22nd, 2005 byWhen I lay my Isaac down
Author: Carol Kent
Hardcover: 195 pages
Publisher: Navpress Publishing Group (June, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN: 1576834743
I wasn’t going to read this book, but my wife told me it was great. She was right. The author is the mother of a successful young man — married, Naval Academy graduate, Christian — who finds that this perfect son is a murderer. Her son shot his wife’s ex-husband three times in the back, is convicted of first degree murder, and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
There is a little exploration of how and why the crime happened, but it is tangential to the book. The book is about the collapse of this woman’s world and her spiritual journey in coming to terms with it. The theme is that of Christian surrender. Many Christian texts make vague promises that things will somehow turn out OK if you put your trust in God. This book points out that things may not turn out well at all. Bad things happen, and there’s no way to sugar coat it. The test of a Christian, then is whether or not one can surrender to God and trust in His will even though it means the ruin of your life.
Hence the reference to Isaac. It hearkens to the story of Abraham taking his son Isaac up Mount Moriah to sacrifice him. The author notes the cost this meant to Abraham — to kill his son at the behest of God. Of course, as most know, God stayed Abraham’s hand and provided a ram in a thicket as a substitute. But sometimes there isn’t a ram in the bushes, and sometimes there is no avoiding that cost. It is a true test of faith to choose to follow a God that allows the destruction of your life.
Many people do not. There are those who believe in God and hate Him for his cruelty. I recently read an interesting article on Holocaust Apologetics that quotes theologian Jakob Jocz as saying “Auschwitz casts a black pall upon the civilized world. Not only… man’s humanity.. but God himself stands accused. Jews are asking incessantly: Where was God when our brothers and sisters were dragged to the gas ovens? …Faith in the God of Israel … is .. a challenge, but after Auschwitz it is an agonizing venture for every thinking Jew.” Elie Weisel, who survived the death camps, notes that the traditional Jewish relationship with God allows protest against God, with examples from Abraham, Moses, Aaron, Job, David, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk, but these “must come from within the covenant context, not from without. Specifically [Weisel stated], ‘The Jew… may rise against God, provided that he remains within God.’ ” (1) The Christian, in contrast, is obligated to believe not merely in the existence of God, but reject any idea of impassability to believe in His goodness.
The same is true on an individual basis. Like Job, it’s through no fault of their own, just a matter of seeming capricious cruelty on the part of the Almighty. Your life is destroyed because of a celestial bar bet. A mature Christian will accept that destruction and surrender gladly to the seeming malevolence of God. We know that life is one small part of our eternal relationship with God, and thus the loss we suffer is small in that larger sense, and we trust the greater plan of God, even if it requires sacrifice on our part.
This book discusses why.
I am not sure I am that strong of a Christian. But the author was, and this book provides an amazing account of how she arrived at a position that allowed her to retain her faith in the love of God even in the face of stunning tragedy.
(1) Barry R. Leventhal, “Undoing the Death of God: Holocaust Aplogetics” Christianity Research Journal 28(4):12-21,2005
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October 23rd, 2005 at 3:00 am
trust in His will even though it means the ruin of your life
I would agree that the point of worshipping God is never just to improve one’s own life, even though there are many churches that ultimately pass this message. But to accept His ruination of it is where they lost me. Forgive me, but I never got the point of believing in a God whose overall plan would include making my Earthly life, or anyone’s life, miserable. I accept that life is miserable for many people. I accept that the most fervent faith will not prevent anyone burning to death in a car crash. I no longer accept therefore that such a faith serves any purpose anywhere.
It’s clear that the author of this book has an understanding that far transcends mine, and that you have an inkling that I do not as well. Well, that’s one way (the nicer way) to put it. Following the Holocaust, I’m not sure I understand how anyone who had survived it could keep any faith; except of course there are those who could only come to terms with their survival through faith.
I guess I’m struggling over the fact that the praise delivered by survivors is so much more clamorous than the curses delivered by the dead. I acknowledge there would be no struggle if I believed there truly was a greater plan.
October 23rd, 2005 at 2:00 pm
There are, of course, all sorts of ways of looking at it. The early Gnostics believed that the God of the Jews was fundamentally evil and that Jesus was sent to show us the way to get out of the thumb of Jehovah; the pain and death of the material world was the work of an evil God. I know a fair number of folk who view God essentially as the builder of an ant farm, who looks in periodically to make sure that there is enough sugar water around, but otherwise we are on our own. There are others who look at him like a general officer who sends troops into harms way knowing that there will be casualties and wishing it were not so, but also knowing that they are necessary for victory.
My own view is related to the answer God gave Job — that we simply cannot comprehend it. The analogy I use is that of a small child who has not yet achieved the ability for abstract thought. If you ask that child which is worth more, a dime or a nickel, he will say the nickel because it is bigger. The very ability to conceive of abstract worth has not been wired into the kid’s brain, and he is physically unable to comprehend it. In a year or so, it will be second nature, but as of now the neural connections just aren’t there. I see the same thing. I think that God’s purpose is not something we can comprehend, not just because of knowledge we do not have, but because we are no more wired to even *think* about it than we are to visualize a four dimensional object. We simply do not have the wiring.
And that is the purpose of faith. It is a choice, pure and simple. If there were objective evidence we could rationally evaluate, then there would be no need of faith.
October 24th, 2005 at 12:42 pm
Thanks for the review. I went on-line and checked it out. I think it will be
of interest to my book club.
October 24th, 2005 at 1:47 pm
Norma. THanks for the comment. I have added your blog to my roll. As an aside, it’s very difficult for me to comment on your blog. I’ve tried twice, and both times I never made it through the login process.
October 27th, 2005 at 3:59 pm
I think once you log in to blogger, you’re good for life, but it does look
like you’re trying to start a blog by the time you finish.