Trauma and the akeidah: a study of isaac
- Lee Boger
- Aug 13
- 20 min read
So often it seems that the presence of trauma, real or perceived, is the beginning of the end to a Christian’s faith. Some use their trauma as a shield, a warning to ward off feelings they are unwilling to experience again. Others hide their trauma, only sharing it with a few and silently navigating their challenges while sitting in church. Still others post their trauma on social media wielding it as a sword toward potential adversaries. Can someone be faithful even through significant trauma? If so, what would that look like? Enter Isaac, the subject of our interest today.
It has become more difficult to separate real trauma and normal, everyday suffering that comes from our daily interactions with people. These interactions are sometimes hurtful and bring painful consequences, but can be addressed through vulnerable, healthy conversations and humility. What used to be “usual human experience” has now been elevated to “trauma” and can include anything that someone feels was hurtful. This elevation can sometimes lead to a victim mindset by removing any personal responsibility for the feelings and can also lead to harmful judgments without having crucial conversations to clarify someone’s intent, motivation, or perspective.
Trauma can occur anywhere and at any time. Examples include: exposure to a catastrophic weather event where you are injured or a loved one dies; a terrorist attack or violent crime where you just happen to be there; or enduring a physical/violent assault such as a home invasion or rape. Sometimes it can be predicted or at least the probability increases with an unstable or dangerous environment, which may or may not be of our own choosing. Examples include: a child being raised where they are exposed to drugs, violence, and a chaotic lifestyle; military deployment into dangerous war zones or other combat operations; or choosing a career in law enforcement.
The last place we would expect to find trauma is within our own physical family. None of our family environments were perfect and some had circumstances beyond our control such as an alcoholic parent, a missing parent, or unsafe extended family members. Each of us can probably list the weaknesses and shortcomings in the way we were raised, which of course, we vow to never repeat or at least alter the way we raise our own family.
Trauma can occur not only within our own physical family, but sometimes we can experience it within our local community of believers or our “spiritual” family or church. Trauma from our own spiritual journey may be known by a more recent phrase, “church trauma”. Unpacking and finding healing from our trauma, whether from physical or spiritual families, can feel like a lifetime endeavor.
One of the most traumatic stories in the entire Old Testament is when God directed Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering on a mountain as recorded in Genesis 22. Jewish scholars and rabbis call this story “The Binding” or “The Akeidah”. This story is read during the New Year Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah as a reminder of hope as Isaac’s life is spared. This story stirs up so many emotions, questions, and judgments about God, Abraham and Isaac. This article will only consider the effect on Isaac.
The story as described in Genesis 22 contains a chiasm, which is like a mirrored structure where the beginning and end of a section echo each other, and the middle section holds the key message. I have changed the original spacing to emphasize this structure:
“Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife.
As the two of them went on together,
Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, ‘Father?’ ‘Yes, my son?’ Abraham replied. ‘The fire and wood are here,’ Isaac said, ‘but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ Abraham answered, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’
And the two of them went on together.
When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.” (Genesis 22:6-9)
You can see the outer layer that is similar (put wood on Isaac… laid Isaac on altar, on the wood), the next layer that is repeated (the two of them went on together), then the central theme or main message of the Akeidah, their brief conversation, which is the only recorded conversation between them in the entire Old Testament. Maybe the central theme of this story is more than just Abraham answering a simple question from his son.
The phrase “Yes, my son” contains the Hebrew word hinnê, which means “behold, see” or as Marty Solomon explained, “I’m not going anywhere”[1]. Abraham uses the same word with his response “Here I am” when God calls him with this test (Gen 22:1) and when the angel calls to him later (Gen 22:11). Has Isaac figured out that he may be the sacrifice? Opinions vary about Isaac’s age from 20-37 years old, but just about everyone agrees that he was not a child during the Akeidah.
We don’t know how Abraham’s answer affected Isaac, but “the two of them went on together.” Isaac didn’t run away and the text doesn’t indicate that he argued with his dad or had any physical altercation. There was a mutual understanding of commitment, loyalty, and trust that effectively says “I’m not sure how God will resolve this situation, but we’ll do it together.” Abraham’s journey with God had built this trust foundation that culminates at this moment.
What affect, if any, did all this have on Isaac? Did it traumatize him? After the angel interrupts Abraham and they finish the sacrifice with the ram God provided instead of Isaac, the text says, “Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.” (Gen 22:19) Where’s Isaac? The text doesn’t say whether he is with Abraham or not. When the Bible is silent like this, we have to be careful about what we speculate or conclude. I want to share some observations and my conclusions, then let you decide as the reader what may have happened to Isaac and how it affected him and his relationship with God.
The trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk observes what deeply traumatized people experience:
“They experience a mixture of numbness, withdrawal, confusion, shock, and speechless terror… When the traumatic event is the result of an attack by a family member on whom victims also depend for economic and other forms of security, victims are prone to respond to assaults with increased dependence and with a paralysis in their decision making processes.”[2]
The numbness, withdrawal, confusion, and shock seem to be in Isaac’s life right after the sacrifice experience. Isaac is not with his father Abraham or his mother Sarah. As mentioned earlier about the chiasm, the fact that only Abraham is mentioned as returning to his servants makes me think Isaac wasn’t with him. When the source of the trauma is a trusted caregiver, it can shatter that trust and leave the victim feeling isolated.
In the very next chapter, Genesis 23, Sarah dies in Hebron and Abraham returns from Beersheba, mourns for her and buries her, but the text doesn’t record Isaac being there. When Abraham dies in Genesis 25, both his sons Isaac and Ishmael show up to bury him. If Isaac wasn’t there, why wouldn’t he attend his own mother’s funeral? Since that trip to the mountain, did Isaac or Abraham see Sarah again? Did Sarah know what was going to happen on the mountain and chose to leave? Isaac is 37 years old when Sarah dies.
The increased dependence and decision-making paralysis also seems to be there. Abraham initiates finding a wife for Isaac in Genesis 24 and Isaac seems very passive in this wife-selecting process, but that could have been more acceptable in that culture. When Rebekah approaches the area, the text says, “Now Isaac had come from Beer Lahai Roi, for he was living in the Negev” (Gen 24:62). Beer Lahai Roi is the same place Hagar went when she was running away from Sarah in Genesis 16. When Sarah sent them away again in Genesis 21, Hagar and Ishmael wandered in the Desert of Beersheba, and then lived in the Desert of Paran, which is in the same area as Beer Lahai Roi and about 70 miles south of Hebron.
Another consideration is how Isaac may have looked when Rebekah saw him. As she approaches the area, Isaac “went out to the field one evening to meditate” (Gen 24:63). The Hebrew word is śûaḥ, which means to meditate, muse, commune, speak, or complain and is only used once in the Bible. Was he praying, talking to himself or just thinking about the day? Is this something he did regularly?
“Rebekah also looked up and saw Isaac. She got down (nāp̄al) from her camel and asked the servant, ‘Who is that man in the field coming to meet us?’” (Gen 24:64-65)
The Hebrew word nāp̄al is used to describe her getting off her camel. It literally means to “fall, fall down or cast down”. Dr. Murray J. Kohn was Rabbi of Beth Israel Congregation in Vineland, New Jersey until 2018 and was also an associate Professor at Stockton State College in Pomona, New Jersey. In his 1991 paper entitled, “The Trauma of Isaac”, he describes her reaction as follows:
“Perhaps the text meant to convey, that upon seeing Isaac, her intended husband, in such a distraught state, she fainted, therefore the text reads correctly: וַתִּפֹּל מֵעַל הַגָּמָל׃ and she fell off the camel.”[3]
After marrying Rebekah, they seemed to have returned to the Beer Lahai Roi area because after Abraham dies, the text says, “After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who then lived near Beer Lahai Roi.” (Gen 25:11). If Isaac was drawn to the Beer Lahai Roi area after the mountain experience and after he married Rebekah, then maybe he had a closer relationship with his older half-brother Ishmael then we think. One example is when Isaac’s son Esau realized that his Hittite wives were not pleasing to Isaac, so he married one of Ismael’s daughters (Gen 28:9). The families knew each other.
Sometimes we get the impression that Isaac’s relationship with Ishmael was hostile or more than just typical sibling rivalry. In Genesis 21:3, we learn that Isaac’s name means “he laughs” or the Hebrew word yiṣḥāq. With a clear double meaning, Sarah uses a different Hebrew word and says, “God has brought me laughter (ṣāḥaq), and everyone who hears about this will laugh (ṣāḥaq) with me.” (Gen 21:6). Later in the same chapter, it says, “But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking (ṣāḥaq)” (Gen 21:9), which prompted her to insist that Abraham “get rid of them.”
The Hebrew word (ṣāḥaq) means to laugh or to play with implications of merriment, scorn, or mockery depending on the context. It’s translated mocking in Gen 21:9, which may or may not be the context. Isaac has been weaned, so he’s probably 2-3 years old. It’s possible that a 15-16 year old teenager would “mock” his three year old half-brother, but they could have also simply been playing and laughing together. Considering Sarah’s history of conflict with Hagar, maybe the irritating thing about their interaction could have been that Sarah didn’t like it, rather than Ishmael making fun of Isaac. This interaction may have been a fun, positive memory for Isaac.
It’s easy to understand that Rebekah could provide comfort for Isaac as he was mourning his mother’s death, but the actual text gives a slightly different meaning because the normal Hebrew word for death, māveṯ, is not in the text.
“Isaac brought her into the tent of his mother Sarah, and he married Rebekah. So she became his wife, and he loved her; and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.” (Gen 24:67)
Every translation, however, includes the word death because it makes sense. In other words, a more accurate translation would be “Isaac was comforted after his mother”. Maybe he saw his mother in Rebekah and was looking more for a mother figure in his life, rather than a wife. Maybe Rebekah replaced his mother Sarah, providing emotional security and reconciliation, so he was comforted. Obviously, Sarah’s tent was important to Isaac and his grieving process because he made the effort to keep it.
Stephen Spector, Professor Emeritus at Stony Brook University New York, made an interesting observation about Isaac’s neediness in his article, “Abraham and Isaac: Human Frailty and Trauma in Genesis”. He states that Isaac is “the only character in Genesis who needed to be comforted for the death of his mother.”[4] Since Isaac is 40 years old (Gen 25:20) when he marries Rebekah, he’s been grieving for three years.
Isaac and Rebekah were childless for twenty years. Whether it was throughout this period of infertility or only near the end, “Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant” (Gen 25:21). Rebekah also turns to the Lord in prayer when she wondered why the twins were “jostling within her.” The Lord answered her prayer as well with a prophecy:
“The Lord said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.’” (Genesis 25:23)
Along with the increased dependence on other people and decision-making paralysis, traumatized victims can also have trouble with interpersonal conflicts as van der Kolk explains:
“They often continue to dissociate in the face of threat, suffer from profound feelings of helplessness and have difficulty planning effective action.”[5]
With that type of prophecy regarding your twin sons, would you want to discuss it during a family meal? The Scriptures don’t say whether Isaac and Rebekah discussed the prophecy among themselves or with the twins. It would not be an easy thing to do. Based on the timeline I created from the book of Genesis[6], Abraham dies when the twins are fifteen years old, so there were a few years where they could have prayed about how to discuss the prophecy, talk to Abraham about it, or even discuss it with the Lord, but there’s no record that Isaac ever talked about it.
As the boys grew up, Isaac favored Esau and his hunting abilities, while Rebekah favored Jacob. As a parent, Isaac seems to avoid training his sons in spiritual matters. There’s no record of him talking with Esau about his birthright, which Esau sells to Jacob for food (Gen 25:29-34). Esau just didn’t think the future value of a birthright was worth considering if he could get a hot meal for it right now. Again, Isaac seems to be passive about these things, which may have resulted from his trauma.
Isaac’s estranged relationship with his father Abraham shows up in two additional ways – (1) Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac (Gen 25:5), whereas he left nothing to his first born son Ishmael. Maybe Abraham was trying to compensate for the trauma he caused Isaac. That sacrifice on Mt Moriah affected Abraham too. There’s no record that he ever built another altar; (2) Neither Isaac nor Abraham initiates reconciliation so that Abraham could bless Isaac before he died as Isaac and Jacob did for their sons. In Abraham’s case, God took it upon himself, “After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who then lived near Beer Lahai Roi.” (Gen 25:11).
The first time the Lord appears to Isaac is probably sometime after Abraham died:
The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land where I tell you to live. Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.” So Isaac stayed in Gerar. (Genesis 26:2-6)
Isaac obeyed the Lord and did not go down to Egypt. If Isaac has all these trauma effects and deep emotional needs, there’s a part of him that still has faith in God and trusts him, even though this same God asked his father to sacrifice him on Mt Moriah. His faith and trust helps him obey a vision, but when his fears overwhelm him, he lies about Rebekah being his sister (Gen 26:7). But what about the twins? They are between the ages of 15-40 years old and we don’t hear any lies about them. Maybe Isaac didn’t have to answer questions about them because they are older.
Note: The reason I placed this lying incident after Abraham has died and not during the twenty years of infertility is because shortly after this incident, Esau is forty years old and marrying Hittite women. The Hittites lived just west of Hebron and north of Beersheba. Even though no lie is mentioned about Isaac’s sons, it just seems to fit the story better.
Isaac allowed his lie to be hidden for a long time until the Lord exposed it one night:
“When Isaac had been there a long time, Abimelek king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing (ṣāḥaq) his wife Rebekah.” (Gen 26:8)
Normally, we think of the word caressing as part of their intimacy, but it’s the same Hebrew word to laugh or to play. Maybe Isaac was tickling Rebekah or they were laughing together in such a way that the king thought “she can’t be his sister.” Once his sin of lying is exposed, Isaac confesses and is vulnerable about his fear of being killed. Isaac seems to be a fun-loving guy, but who just has trouble getting close emotionally or dealing with situations that are difficult.
As the Lord blesses Isaac and his wealth grows, so does the conflict with both the Philistines and the herders of Gerar over the wells Isaac was digging to support his family and livestock. Instead of discussing and negotiating as his father Abraham had done, Isaac avoided the conflict several times and just moved to dig another well someplace else (Gen 26:14-22).
Another potential conflict arises when Esau marries two Hittite women, which “… were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah.” (Gen 26:35) Instead of discussing the situation with Esau, Isaac is again passive and avoids the emotional challenge. When Isaac sends Jacob away to find a wife from Rebekah’s family line with the directive, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman”, Esau finally realizes how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac. In an attempt to gain his father’s approval, Esau marries one of Ishmael’s daughters (Gen 28:6-9). Isaac’s disengagement and lack of spiritual training affects his son Esau, who may have been open to some spiritual direction.
As Isaac moved his family around the area and went up to Beersheba, the Lord appeared to him a second time:
“That night the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.’ Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord.” (Genesis 26:24-25)
This appearance reiterated the blessings again, but this time the Lord spoke more personally to Isaac. He encouraged him not to be afraid because “I am with you”. How would you process that if you were Isaac? He could have thought, “Well, you didn’t protect me from experiencing my dad’s attempt to kill me. Yes, you did stop him, but why would you put me through that?” On the other hand, Isaac had seen the blessings in material possessions and wealth. He’d seen answered prayers with the twins being born, so it must have been a confusing moment. The encouraging part to me is that he kept working through it and didn’t ignore it when God appeared to him at Beersheba. He builds an altar! How hard would it be for Isaac to do that?
Within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) develops and publishes Treatment Improvement Protocols or TIPs to provide best practice guidelines for the prevention and treatment of substance use and mental disorders. TIP 57 is entitled “Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services” and Chapter 3 “Understanding the Impact of Trauma”[7] offers some interesting insights, which Stephen Spector summarizes in his article:
“People who have suffered trauma often avoid stimuli associated with the event later. Trauma victims also can develop problems with emotional regulation and cognition, especially when dealing with stressful situations, and their responses may be intensely irritable. They also may develop illnesses and fear dying early or abruptly. And being traumatized once makes it more likely that the person will be traumatized again later.”[8]
Note that “people who have suffered trauma often avoid stimuli associated with the event later.” Isaac’s father Abraham built four altars, so Isaac knew this is part of worshiping God, but if Isaac suffered trauma from the last altar his father built, how did Isaac manage to respond to the Lord’s encouragement? And why would he build an altar? The Lord didn’t ask him to do that. It would have required determination and resolve to build it for the one who just reassured him “I am with you”.
Maybe Isaac was grateful for the ways the Lord has worked in his life and he simply wanted to show it. It’s the first and only recorded time that he built an altar and the first time he calls on the name of the Lord. In spite of the traumatic events he has experienced, his faith is still there and he’s actively trying to manage and overcome it.
As Isaac grew older, several of the other elements from TIP 57 seem to emerge right before Jacob leaves to find a wife. Isaac can’t see very well and says to his son Esau:
“I am now an old man and don’t know the day of my death. Now then, get your equipment—your quiver and bow—and go out to the open country to hunt some wild game for me. Prepare me the kind of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give you my blessing before I die.” (Genesis 27:2-4)
From the timeline outlined in the Appendix, Isaac is about 136 years old at this time and will live for another 44 years. Of course, none of us know when we will die, but Isaac may be experiencing what TIP 57 Chapter 3 highlights “They also may fear dying early or abruptly”.
As you read the rest of Genesis 27, you’ll see Rebekah’s scheme to convince Jacob to deceive Isaac so that Jacob can receive the blessing, which may have seemed right to Rebekah because it would bring to fruition the Lord’s prophecy “the older will serve the younger”. As the disguised Jacob approached his father, Isaac wasn’t sure, so he asked Jacob to come close enough to touch him. When his voice didn’t sound like Esau, he asked him directly, “Are you really my son Esau?” After Jacob lied to him and he had eaten, Isaac brought him close again and smelled the clothes of Esau, so he blessed him.
After the ruse was successful, Esau came back to Isaac with his own meal and desire to be blessed. When Isaac realized that he had been deceived, the text says, “Isaac trembled violently” (Gen 27:33). Other translations describe his reaction as “began to tremble uncontrollably” (NLT) or “trembled very exceedingly” (KJV). Maybe Isaac is being re-traumatized and if we consider his cognition struggles with believing Jacob and his emotional response when he realized he had been deceived, TIP 57 Chapter 3 seems accurate again, “Trauma victims also can develop problems with emotional regulation and cognition, especially when dealing with stressful situations, and their responses may be intensely irritable.”
Esau is also affected by this deception. He wept loudly and with a bitter cry, then vows to kill his brother Jacob after Isaac dies. Rebekah quickly reacts to Esau’s angry threat and convinces Isaac to send Jacob to Paddan Aram to find a wife from Rebekah’s family line. What’s fascinating to me is how Isaac speaks to Jacob:
So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him: “Do not marry a Canaanite woman. Go at once to Paddan Aram, to the house of your mother’s father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples. May he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham, so that you may take possession of the land where you now reside as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.” (Gen 28:1-4)
How in the world did Isaac not speak to Jacob about the recent deception that made him “tremble violently”? He doesn’t ask Jacob about his motive or the emotional impact on his life and Esau’s life. Maybe Isaac couldn’t talk about all that because he had never learned how. He responded with the same unhealthy pattern he had learned from the Akeidah – to withdraw, internalize those feelings and strong emotions, and not be open with anyone. You never see Isaac share his heart with his wife, his sons, or even God.
He is honest with his sons sometimes and with King Abimelek, but we don’t see him do that with Rebekah or the Lord when he appeared to him. Even with the Lord, he did pray when Rebekah was infertile. However, he didn’t have one word in response to the Lord’s first appearance, but he did “call on the name of the Lord” after the second appearance. Maybe that was a prayer, or just building an altar and sacrificing an animal. Isaac’s worship may have looked different than Abraham’s worship, but we just don’t have any more information.
He blesses Jacob a second time and remembers God’s promises, but he refers to those promises as belonging to Abraham, not himself. He keeps a spiritual focus by speaking of the promises given to Abraham and he seems to believe them based on what God is able to do. He doesn’t speak about his own journey with God as Jacob did at the end of his life, but his faith is genuine based on what he knows and what God said to him in those two appearances, as expressed by the Hebrew writer, “By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future” (Heb 11:20).
What can we conclude from these observations about Isaac? He had some emotional instability as seen with his struggle in mourning his mother’s death, not being able to handle conflict or embracing situations that challenged him emotionally. Was he traumatized by the Akeidah? Probably, or at least his symptoms and responses seem to align with several trauma-based characteristics. In today’s modern culture, Isaac’s trauma could be considered “church trauma” considering the Akeidah was part of his family’s worship of God.
As already discussed, Isaac had a very difficult time processing his church trauma with healthy vulnerability and transparency. Even though that was hard for him with Rebekah and God, he seemed to be able to be honest with King Abimelek and with his son Esau. Ever known certain people that were honest and loyal, but only seem to have that level of trust with a select few? Isaac may have been like that.
Even if Isaac had trauma involving God, there seems to be a respect for his word and a willingness to “believe” the good things that God would say to him personally. Isaac obeyed the Lord’s command to not go to Egypt without discussion or question. That’s impressive and a teaching moment for anyone working through church trauma. It’s possible to believe, respect, and obey God’s word while working through past hurts and misunderstandings to find healing.
With the second appearance, the Lord’s personal words to Isaac moved him. When Isaac heard “Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you”, he seems to have really believed it. Maybe the material blessings over the years, the grace shown through King Abimelek, and being able to bond with his son Esau gave Isaac a grateful heart. So grateful, that he pushed through the uncomfortable feelings and doubts to actually build an altar to the same God who initiated his sacrifice on an altar. That says a lot about Isaac’s faith and again is helpful to guide those struggling with church trauma.
What does Satan want when we experience church trauma? Two things: (1) To withdraw, isolate and not talk to any spiritual mentor about what we really feel. If we do open up, the temptation is to only speak with those who feel the same way, which although comforting, probably won’t help us find healing and a spiritual perspective; and (2) To not trust the Bible and ignore what it says about us or God’s promises to us. Isaac did withdraw, isolate, and not be vulnerable, but he still listened to God’s word and believed what it said about him. While it’s unhealthy to isolate and not be vulnerable for a long time, believing God’s word is a great example for anyone trying to process their own church trauma.
When you look at the end of Isaac’s life, do you think he found healing? There’s some level of healing to be able to build an altar and call on the name of the Lord. If the Appendix timeline is close to being accurate, Isaac spent the last twenty years of his life around Jacob, who summarized Isaac’s life with these words to Jacob’s son, Joseph, “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully…” (Gen 48:15)
Completely healed? Maybe not. Faithful? Absolutely.
Lee Boger, Indianapolis IN
Lee became a disciple in 1982 at Rise Church Indianapolis, where he also served on the board and as an elder from 2015-2024. He worked in the engineering field for over 40 years in aerospace, automotive and heavy industrial industries. Since 2009, Lee also has a consulting business called Boger & Associates, LLC, where he works with defense lawyers as an expert witness in the area of crash safety litigation. He recently retired in 2023 and is enjoying writing, running and grandparenting. He’s an author of two books entitled “But What About the Children?” (2002) and “But What About Your Anger?” (2012). This article is part of a chapter in his next book entitled “The Lord My Therapist”. You can reach Lee at lee.c.boger@comcast.net
Appendix – Patriarch’s Timeline
The following timeline is based on Scriptures that list a specific age for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob or Joseph. These ages are highlighted in gray and the corresponding Scripture is shown in the far right column. All other ages are calculated based on these reference points. The purpose was to understand approximately when Isaac died, which seems to be right around the time that Joseph was appointed by Pharaoh to be second in command in Egypt.
[2] Bessel van der Kolk, “Posttraumatic stress disorder and the nature of trauma”, Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, Vol 2, No. 1, 2000, 8
[3] M. J. Kohn, “The Trauma of Isaac,” Jewish Bible Quarterly, Vol 20.2 (Winter 1991/1992), 101
[4] Jewish Bible Quarterly, Vol. 50, No. 4, 2022, 215
[5] van der Kolk, 9
[6] See Appendix for a detailed timeline of Abraham-Isaac-Jacob-Joseph with Scripture references
[8] Spector, 216
