This is the Baymaw Podcast with Marty Solomon. I'm his co-host Brent Billings. Today we dive into some of the midrush surrounding the story of the binding of Isaac. What really happened to Isaac on that mountain? And what does this have to do with Isaac's blindness?

Oh yes. I can remember learning what we're going to share today. I learned it in a discussion group. And I remember the first time I encountered this. I just learning the midrush surrounding this story. I just started full on weeping when I started just reading and considering the implications.

It was so good. It's probably one of my favorite lessons that I have learned just kind of like on my own. Like I have an amazing set of experiences and lessons from Ray and our time in Egypt or Israel and Turkey.

I've got all kinds of fantastic things and those are special. Those are something that are in a different category. But then there are like lessons that you learn. You learn from books. You learn from study. And this is just one of those things that just just jumped up and smacked me out of nowhere in a place that was totally unexpected and just absolutely loved it. So this this little lesson comes with a tad bit of backstory.

So we did session one Brent back in 2016. We've got an episode. What was the episode number that we talked about the binding of Isaac? What are we dealing with here? That would have been episode 11. Here I am.

We talked about the chiasm in that story. Just wonderful. Favorite conversation. Form and has some incredible teaching on it over a LF beta. Might as well plug that again in the in the show notes in the links there. Brent will link episode 11 link.

So we were at one of this was back in 2016. We had just started the podcast. I was still doing discussions Brent. This is before I moved before kind of my new role and job as president of impact took me in a different direction. I had to stop this was way back at the beginning.

This discussion group in Pullman Washington with Washington state students. I was there. We were digging into this story. I just had a great crew of students on a massive number of them, but just a really cool.

I don't believe she would have called herself a follower of Jesus a believer. But she was the daughter of a rabbi. I can't remember if he was a messianic rabbi or not.

But he if I remember right he was over and he was he was based over in Israel and and that whole region. He might have came before he was at but really intimidating to have her in my discussion group because I was always like aware that she knew a lot of little tidbits or at least she had access to.

Like she was almost I feel like maybe just leaning into and learning more and more about her Jewish faith. And Bayma was kind of allowing her and giving her a beautiful excuse to do that. And I loved that.

But knowing she had this rabbi as a father. Boy, I tell you anytime that she was in the middle of class and texting on her phone. Talk about making you nervous. I was always like who you texted.

He texted your dad. So probably drove her nuts, but really always like anyway, we're in this we're in this class. In this discussion group. We're talking about.

I think we were one episode past episode 11. I think we might have been talking about episode 12 and somebody in the group, not her, but somebody else raises their hand or maybe they didn't, but they asked the question. They said, Marty, I'm back on the last passage and I want to know why why why is Isaac not come down the mountain with Abraham.

And I was like, what? And they're like, why doesn't Isaac come down the mountain with Abraham? I'm like, what are you talking about? Like, of course he comes down the mountain like, hey, no, no, no, you've taught me to look at the text and to notice like the details and is very like straight forward.

Isaac doesn't come down the mountain with Abraham. And I was like, what in that sounded like so, so good, so juicy, so biblical that I was just like, I dove in there and sure enough. Brent, go ahead and read us.

Genesis 22 and give us that verse 19. So this is, you know, at the end of the end of that whole story, then Abraham returned to his servants and they set off together for Bia Shava and Abraham stayed in Bia Shava.

Very particular, who are the characters in that paragraph, Brent, Abraham and his servants, Abraham and his servants and not a mention of who?

No, Isaac anywhere, no, Isaac anywhere. And just to review, like the story is very clear all the way up to this point, Isaac's very prevalent. Can you read us? Let's do versus three through eight early the next morning, Abraham got up and loaded his donkey.

He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac, when he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering. He set out for the place God had told him about.

The third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac and he himself carried the fire and the knife.

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